Costumers With A Cause

With cosplay as popular as it as, and Halloween fast approaching, I thought it was a good time to catch-up with one of our favorite Blue Beetles...the always cool, Rusty Winns! 

As you'll see below, there's more to Rusty than just Blue Beetle and cosplay at conventions...to a lot of kids, he's a real, honest to goodness hero!

(with George Perez, a combined effort of Heroes Alliance and Costumers With A Cause)

(Superman - Harrison Wayne, Nightcrawler - Rusty Winns, Spider-Man - TJ McDonald)

Kord Industries - When we spoke last year you mentioned your charity work with "Costumers With A Cause". Can you tell us how you got started with that? How long have you been doing it? Rusty Winns - Great question. The charity events are my favorite part of costuming. I was introduced to Costumers With A Cause by two of my best friends. Meg Murrderher and Jay Tallsquall. The first charity event I attended was an event called 1225. It was amazing. It was an opportunity for terminal children to meet Santa and their favorite Superhero. I was addicted from that day on.  

 

(Spider-Man - Rusty Winns, Breast Cancer Awareness/Pink Ribbon Events)

KI - Do the kids recognize the Ted Kord Blue Beetle, or do they expect the more recent Jaime Reyes incarnation? RW - I wish I could say they recognized Ted. Unless they have a Dad or Mom that is a Comic nerd, I just look like a Blue guy in spandex. Being that I am a Ted fan first and foremost I have not made a Jaime costume. I have a Spider-man costume that I tend to wear for Charity events. The kids always recognize and love to see the web-head.

 

(Spider-Man - Rusty Winns, at Nathaniel's Hope, an Orlando charity for special needs children)

KI - Which characters do or have you appeared as? RW - I tend to appear mostly as Spider-man. I have also used Green Lantern, NightCrawler and I even did Batman once. It did not turn out great as I tend to smile and have fun in costume. I was the smileiest Batman in history!

 

(Green Lantern - Rusty Winns at Seminole Cancer Walk, Aquaman - Rick Stanford, Thor - Ryan Frye, Superman - Jay Tallsquall, smiley Batman - Rusty Winns, Green Lantern - Robert Tissot at Charity Games)

KI - Any moments or experiences with this work that really stand out? RW - Each and every time I get a chance to brighten the spirit of a child, who is battling a rough situation, it lifts my heart. To see their faces when a beloved character from the comics or movies visits them is unexplainable. It is better than gold. I am so excited that you and your readers are interested in hearing more than just about a guy that dresses in a costume for ComicCons. The real joy is in charity and I encourage anyone that is interested in participating in a charity group to get in contact with Costumers with a Cause or the new group I am working with in North Carolina -Heroes Initiative. If you are a Star wars costumer, then I highly recommend the Rebel alliance or 501st

(Lightning Lad - Rusty Winns, Cosmic Boy - Jay Tallsquall, Superboy - Nick McFly)

Thanks Rusty!

So, what do you think Beetlemaniacs? Seems pretty heroic to me! At this point, I've only dressed up for Halloween (and once as Disney's Mad Hatter for a kids party)...but this has got me thinking, about cosplay...and about charity! 

What the Kooey Kooey Kooey?

Back in 1989 we were introduced to the South Pacific island of Kooey Kooey Kooey in the pages of  Justice League International. The location appeared several times, and became the setting for Blue Beetle and Booster Gold's island casino, Club JLI.

Well, now our friends Rusty Winns (Beetle), Jay Tallsquall (Booster), and Echo RedBird (Gypsy) take us back...to Kooey Kooey Kooey!

(Photo By Stacy Hokett)

Awesome pic guys! Thanks for letting me share!

MegaCon 2014 Day 2

Wow! Today was busy! Crazy busy! Heard a few other dealers refer to it as "San Diego busy"

Good for business, but kept me from seeing as much of the show as I would have liked, and catching up with friends...though I did manage to get some pics...and then had dinner with friends including artist Thom Zahler, columnist Bob Ingersol and the man behind my favorite show, the Baltimore ComicCon, Marc Nathan...sadly though after a great meal, and dessert at Ghirardelli's, there was no time for our annual mini-golf game.

There's always next year I suppose...

On to the pics!

(TV's Arrow and Black Canary)

(my friends Laura as Alice, and Lauren as the White Rabbit)

(Me, as the Mad Hatter, Alice and White Rabbit...you'd think we planned this or something, lol)

(Shelbie Savage and Sessmaru)

(Dueling Freezes!)

(Monty Python and the Holy Grail...another first for me!)

(Anna and Elsa from "Frozen", I only got this one duo, but this was a very popular cosplay this year!)

(Loves me some Hunter S. Thompson...too bad the poor bastard was stuck in bat country!)

(Paul McGann 8th Doctor cosplay, yet another first)

(Yours truly with the always cool Rusty Winns!)

What the Kaji Cosplay?!

Way back in March, not long after I started this blog, I attended MegaCon in Florida. While there I caught a pic of this Blue and Gold duo!

Flash forward to a few days ago and I get a message through the Kord Industries Facebook page from Rusty Winns, the Blue Beetle cosplayer in my pic! (Booster is his friend Jay Tallsquall) He was kind enough to share several other Blue Beetle cosplay pics with us...

I was curious, so I asked Rusty, what got him into cosplay? 

Rusty: My workout buddy was a member of 300DC a group that costumes as the Spartans from 300. He asked me if I would like to join him at Dragon Con. From then on I was hooked. I am also a member of Costumers with a Cause. it is a group of us that use our costumes to brighten sick kids days. 

That's awesome! A real hero! We'll have to talk again soon about that charity work! The next question has to be...why Blue Beetle?

Rusty: I have always been a DC fan. I read them growing up. When Crisis came out in the 80s they introduced Blue Beetle. I was hooked. I mean whats not to love?  A wise cracking, light hearted Batman.  As soon as his solo book was launched I rushed to the comic store to get it. I have been reading anything that contains Ted ever since. 

Check out Rusty on Facebook

Click here to check out Costumers With A Cause 

And "like" his Ted Kord-Blue Beetle page too!

(Rusty and Jay with the great George Perez!)

(with Echo Redbird as Gypsy)

(and with Caroline Kilgore as Barbra Gorgon/Oracle)