Back in 2008 when I looked around Amazon for cosplay books, they were for the most part from Asia. I didn't really see any books focused on American cosplayers which is one of the reasons that lead me to actually creating the book Cosplay in America.
Since the emergence of print-on-demand books, there's been a host of photography books focused on cosplay. Blurb is one of the more well-know POD (print-on-demand) sites and if you search by the term cosplay, you'll get 5 pages worth of books.
I personally have no problem promoting other cosplay books. They're not my competition, in fact, they bring in other viewpoints of this culture of cosplay. The more people can see the differences and stories of the many facets of cosplay, the better it is for people to understand about this culture.
After the jump are a selection of books I know are in the works.
Breaking All the Rules: Cosplay and the Art of Self-Expression
Ger Tysk
One of the reasons I'm writing my book is to delve deeper into the personal histories, thoughts, fears, and aspirations of cosplayers. It's not just a photobook, but more of a (pseudo) sociological cross-section of cosplayers from around the country talking about cosplay in their own words. I don't want it to be just a photobook. I love photography and the visual aspect of cosplay, but there's so much more to cosplay than the visual. I'm out to explore that hidden side.
Ger Tysk plans on traveling to 14 cons to photograph and interview cosplayers. Right now she's raising money on IndieGogo for this project.
Official Site
1000 Incredible Cosplay and Costume Ideas
Joey Marsocci, Allison DeBlasio & Yaya Han
Comic book, Sci-Fi, and Anime conventions have been around since the 1930's. With those conventions come the ultimate fans, those who Cosplay. Joey Marsocci and Allison DeBlasio of Dr. Grymm Laboratories, authors of the immensely popular 1000 Steampunk Creations (Quarry Books, 2011) with the addition of Yaya Han, are putting out a call to artists to submit their most amazing cosplay photographs for compilation into exciting upcoming book.The book is currently accepting submissions from cosplay to steampunk to original costumes. Check out their page for complete info. Deadline is August 31st.
Official Site
NW Cosplay
Dea Starr
The 2nd book is now in the works, which I will be using MagCloud so that it can have 70-100pages! It will also have tutorials, convention lists, articles, photography and other cosplay related stuff. We hope that it will be ready by Sakura Con 2013. Then we will be selling it every convention we go to, which is about 4-6 cons a year. This time I do not have to funds to print the book and so I’ve turned to Indiegogo to get some help. Your contribution goes towards printing the book which will also help keep my costs down for the resale and I need funds to be able to sell the book at a convention.Facebook
