Palm City Mom Rocks Supercon

Photo by Tara Nieuwesteeg

There were people dressed up like characters from videogames, horror movies, animes, and all sorts of other things. They came from as far away Europe to worship at the altar of all things videogame, meet B-movie legend Bruce Campbell, and compete in this year's cosplay contest. And the biggest winner at this year's Supercon was a mother from Palm City.

See a slideshow of some of the costumes here.

Darcy Reaver started building her Yoshi costume more than a year ago. She stitched together the bright green, white, and orange fur to match the videogame dinosaur perfectly. Then she soldered the adorable head by hand.

But when convention time came around, Reaver was too sick to attend. This year, however, she felt fantastic (a bit warm perhaps) as she won the Best in Show award, which comes with $400 cash, a $100 gift certificate to Tate's Comics in Lauderhill (they sponsored the contest), and a lifetime pass to Florida Supercon.

"I've been sewing since I was 5 years old," Reaver told me at the event. By day, she's a dental hygienist, but on nights and weekends, she's a better-than-Hollywood seamstress. "I've just always loved building costumes."

Reaver's son, a student at FSU, attended dressed as Captain Morgan (from someone who's spent a good deal of time staring at rum bottles, I can tell you the likeness was uncanny), and her daughter played Princess Zelda in the live-action Smash Bros. Super Show.

The show was absolutely the highlight of the conference. An hourlong musical full of classic (and some relatively obscure) Nintendo characters, the show was -- shall we say -- adult-themed. The running joke of the night was that Princess Peach had fucked just about every male in the Nintendo universe ("C'mon, we all know Peach is a whore!" shouted Luigi not long after flicking off a picture of Sonic the Hedgehog).

There were jokes for videogame fans of all ages and even a surprise appearance by Little Mac, from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out fame (calling all children of the early '80s). In the end, Mario didn't marry Peach, Snake from Metal Gear Solid dressed up like Link from Zelda, a flamboyant Yoshi (not Reavers) hooked up with Master Hand, the bad guys were banished, and everybody danced. A lot.