EXCLUSIVE: Cosplayer Supreme Ivy Doomkitty Speaks

Ivy Doomkitty and yours truly.

While attending Motor City Comic Con weekend before last, I had the distinct privilege of meeting and interviewing an accomplished and talented cosplayer in Ivy Doomkitty. In her short time in the field, she has accumulated quite the fan base as many have taken a shine to not only her costumes that are accurate to their respective source material, but also her unique reinterpretations.

To be quite honest, this had to be one of my favorite interviews I’ve ever conducted. It quickly changed from formal in nature to more conversational and I hope my transcription captures that quality. I enjoy talking to people who share a deep love of comics and, believe me, she knows her stuff.

Below you can read what she had to say about getting into the field, which cosplays you can look forward to seeing in the future, and much more. Hopefully Ivy can make it to a Detroit con again in the future. The Land of Little Caesars Pizza welcomes all.

DCN: How did you get started in cosplay and when?

Ivy Doomkitty: I’ve been going to cons for about eleven years and when I went to my very first comic book convention in LA, I saw cosplay and I absolutely loved the idea of dressing up as your favorite characters. For me, I grew up playing video games, watching ’90s cartoons [like] Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you know, all that good stuff; X-Men. I wanted to do it, but I was afraid of cosplaying then because I didn’t want to get made fun of because of my body type. I thought it was the norm to be of a certain physique and I was a lot bigger than that, so I didn’t want to deal with being picked on or made fun of because I dealt with that throughout my childhood.

It’ll be four years this July that I said, “You know what? I’m gonna go ahead and make my own costume and I’m gonna walk the con floor.” That was at San Diego Comic Con 2012 as a Star Trek Red Shirt. And it was an amazing experience; it was very positive. There were a lot of people that loved Star Trek. It was one of those things that you get hooked on and go crazy and then the next costume and the next one and the next one.

DCN: Are there any cosplays in particular that you’re most proud of?

Credit: SGH PhotoArt

ID: Definitely my Dr. Doom, because it’s a mashup of my name, Ivy Doomkitty, with Dr. Doom. So what I did was I added little kitty cat ears on the top of the hood and my gauntlets have claws on them for a cat-type thing. I really love that character a lot, gravitated towards him a lot, so it’s definitely one of my favorites along with Magneto that I just did, which I will probably be debuting in a few weeks.

DCN: What is on your cosplay bucket list?

ID: Bucket list? Apocalypse is on that list. Hopefully by San Diego Comic Con I’ll be able to get that one done. Also, Darkseid is definitely on my list.

DCN: I love Darkseid.

ID: Yeah. He’s one of the coolest villains that Superman had, you know?

DCN: Yeah.

ID: Really, really sweet dude. And I’ve always wanted to do Lex Luthor in the Lexo suit. But it’s one of those things where I don’t wanna shave my head, I don’t wanna wear a skull cap. How can I get away with it so you’re like, “That’s Lex”?

DCN: A Gene Hackman wig.

ID: (Laughs) Oh, Lord! (Continues laughing.)

DCN: Lex historically has long red hair when he’s not bald. It’s a juxtaposition. You could get a red wig.

ID: This is true. ‘Cause the Lexo suit would be pretty damn awesome. We could do this. We could make this work.

DCN: What have been some of your favorite comic book story arcs over the years?

Credit: Eurobeat Kasumi Photography

ID: Well, one of the current books that I’ve enjoyed reading is Beauty. I forget the writer, but it’s an Image title and it’s a fantastic book. Without giving too much away, what if being beautiful was the product of an STD? It’s a really good book, it makes you think.

DCN: I think I’ve been to some nightclubs like that.

ID: (Laughs) It makes you think about society and what society values and things like that. It’s a great book. Huck is a really great book.

What else have I read? This is going way back, but I loved when DC did 52. It counted up then it counted down.

DCN: Yeah, they did 52 then Countdown to Final Crisis.

ID: Then the Black Lantern book.

DCN: Blackest Night.

ID: At that moment in time when I was reading a lot, I was picking up every single arc that you could possibly get. My pull list was about 50-something books a week. And so, you’re looking at DC, Marvel, Image, and all the other independent writers – even down to frickin’ Metal Men.

DCN: Sounds like that put you on a mac and cheese diet.

ID: It was a Ramen. (Laughs) Definitely was a Ramen. But it was great and that was before I started cosplaying. Anything I could read I was taking in, but now, when I get a chance I’ll pick up a few. I needed to catch up on The Court of Owls. I just started opening that one up. It’s been pretty good.