Meb Keflezighi won the New York City Marathon on Sunday. He is the first American to win the title since 1982! But around 42,000 runners took part in the marathon, some wearing elaborate costumes. Buzzfeed collected photographs of the most outrageous marathon costumes for your viewing pleasure. Link

(image credit: Flickr user monicamüller)

Still haven’t got your Halloween costume yet? If you’re willing to put a lot of work into the effort, consider this gory, historical and somehow, still beautiful headless Marie Antoinette costume.

Link Via Craftzine Image Via Make Magazine

This little girl’s Colonel Sanders Halloween costume is too precious. Her mom not only made  the entire outfit, but she also made the wig out of wool yarn and the effect is pretty priceless.

Link Via Craftzine

If you think those professionally created dog costumes are mean to force pets to wear, then you really ought to see the options people turn to when they don’t just buy the pre-made costumes. I guess this is why Star Trek fans shouldn’t get drunk.

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InventorSpot has posted their yearly list of top pet costumes for Halloween. As always, the selection fails to disappoint, like the little Football Star Costume shown. The whole list is great.

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These steampunk Ghostbusters costumes are really inventive and visually interesting. Definately click on the link and take a look at all the pics because the old-styled ghosts accompanying them are also super cool.

Well then, let me introduce you to The League of S.T.E.A.M. (Supernatural Troublesome Ectoplasmic Apparitional Management) — otherwise known as Steampunk Ghostbusters, who, according to their webpage, are “taking the 1984 back to 1884.”

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The Stereo-typical Geek

These are the kids that smell like they haven’t bathed in a week and still get giddy over the concept of seeing a girl “IRL.” While revolting to everyone around them, they still think they’re total studs and try to chat up the illustrious booth girls somehow hoping their Jedi mind tricks will actually help convince the girl they are cool. Even if you don’t see many of these geeks, you most certainly will smell them, as this sign helps demonstrate.

The Twilight Fans

These are the newest breed at the convention and their presence actually worried organizers. There was even talk of organizing things so the panels and booths these tweens were expected to visit would be super far away from the things the geeks were expected to be interested in. Fortunately, these fans actually blended in just fine and were largely the same as the Harry Potter fans that have become a fixture at the convention. While it’s impossible to say how long these fans will stay in the scene, it will most certainly not be a problem having the around.

The Booth Babe

These are professional hotties who actually have no interest in anything geekish, particularly comic books, video games and even shows like “Heroes” or “Chuck.” While they would normally never be willing to be seen with the average people visiting these conventions, they’re happy to chat with them and pose for photos as long as there is a nice check of at least $200 a day in it for them. In more recent years, the standard booth babes have been reduced, thanks in part to Suicide Girls, who tend to have far more of an interest in these type of activities. In fact Suicide Girls even had a pre-Comic Con collection of Cosplay shots just to emphasize the girls’ natural geekiness.

The Cross-Over Costumer

Like Star Wars and Sherlock Holmes? Why not be Jedi Sherlock? What about cooking and Star Wars? Chef Darth Vader of course. One of the most famous crossover fans is Elvis Storm Trooper (to the left), who not only has his own website, but also travels to as many conventions as possible every year. Of course, he always makes it to the San Diego Comic Con every year.

The Star Wars Fans

Comic Con has always been a huge supporter of Star Wars, and not only because it’s a scifi classic. You see, George Lucas actually gave a preview of the movie to fans in 1977 before the movie was released and before the convention was even a big deal. The cult following was inevitable.
Of course, modern day Star Wars fans at the convention tend to be extreme. There are fans who make up their own characters as part of their own fan fiction and there are people dressed as characters who were only shown for a matter of seconds in the film.

The Trekkies

Image Via Stately English Manor

Despite the stereotypes of comic conventions loaded with Klingons, the Trekkies were actually a dying breed for the last ten or so years. But not this year. Since the newest movies are always a major inspiration for costumes (last year The Dark Knight was huge), Star Trek fans were everywhere this year. Interestingly, it was easy to spot the old-school Trekkies, who had only put their gear on the shelf for a few years, and the new-school Trekkies.

The Guy Way Too Into His Character

These guys can be more than a little scary. While a lot of people get into character and enjoy acting their roles, there always seems to be at least a few costumed villains that seem to be living out their character’s lives. Unfortunately, there’s no psychological test given to people dressed up as villains prior to entry.

So far no one’s been severely injured, but it’s only a matter of time.

The Weirdo Hippie Guy

This guy’s a rare breed, but there always seems to be at least one of them at the Convention. They all seem to have taken a few too many acid hits. No one, particularly these guys themselves, actually understands why they are so interested in showing up at the convention every year, but the overall accepting attitude of the attendees makes it a welcome place for these “unique” individuals.

The Steampunks

Steampunk inventions and costumes have been featured many times on Neatorama, but the number of posts is nowhere near the number of steampunks at Comic Con. These guys have always been at the convention, but this last year they’ve really stepped up their numbers. If you’re interested in learning more about the steampunks at Comic Con this year, there is a great article over at KPBS.

The Lolitas

I have to admit, these are some of my favorite Comic Con fans because I just can’t get enough of the outfits. Just like the steampunks, lolitas have always been around at Comic Con, but their numbers really shot up this year. While many people associate the lolitas with gothic culture, the ones at the convention are more of the Japanophile sort and frequently flock to Giant Robot and other Japanese toy booths to see the newest and hottest imports from their country of choice.

There’s always a lot of cross-over costumes at Comic Con and for some reason, they tend to mostly involve Star Wars. These guys were seventies Darth and Boba Fett. I missed out on the opportunity of getting a picture of another one along these lines, the storm troopper with a gold, disco-ball tiled helmet.

Here’s another great Star Wars cross-over costume. While Chef Vader is good, it wouldn’t have been half as good without the addition of Jar Jar’s head on a platter.

For some reason, it always seems even cooler when the costumed character is an older person. Here’s a perfect example, and yet another Star Wars cross-over costume, this time a Jedi Holmes.

Of course, Boba Fett wanted me to remind you that there are plenty of classic Star Wars costumes as well.

Contrary to popular belief, there are actually a whole lot of very hot women at comic con. These evil cheerleaders are only the tip of the iceberg.

Here’s further proof that there are some major hotties at the con. This tailed pirate may not make sense, but I didn’t hear too many complaints.

This couple is here every year dressed in Alice In Wonderland gear. Next year though, there will undoubtedly be an increase in these costumes due to the upcoming Tim Burton film.

This young girl designed and created this fantastic dress, which had already won her a masquerading award at an anime convention.

These gentlemen showed up to represent one of the greatest things that ever came out of Mad Magazine, Spy Vs. Spy.

There were a whole lot of Watchmen costumes this year, as it was one of the most recent and popular comic book movies before the convention. I think this Rorschach was one of the best at the event.

If you don’t recognize this guy, you won’t be alone. He’s dressed up to help promote his booth. A lot of people do this to get attention for their small-press comics. Another popular approach is hiring a “booth babe.”

Speaking of using costumes and babes to get attention for a booth, here’s one combining the two. What a cute costume, what a sexy girl…you can bet they had a lot of traffic at their booth.

Here’s a more classic booth babe. While she’s still in costume, it isn’t anything nearly as off-the-wall as the cutie above. Still, I’d say she got her message across.

Couple’s costumes are always popular at the convention. Here’s a great pair of X Men, for example.

Ghostbusters always have a big presence at the convention, partially because once you make a huge proton pack, you aren’t going to scrap it in the following years.

This costume is actually a major rarity. While there are many Disney costumes every year, there’s rarely a woman dressed up as anything besides Alice or a Disney princess. I’m a big fan of the fairies in Sleeping Beauty, so this getup was one of my favorites.

If you’re a big fan of the male Disney characters, you’d likely enjoy this Jack Sparrow, who not only looked the part, but played it well. You may have a problem with his drinking Full Throttle while in costume, but just try and convince me that a real Jack Sparrow wouldn’t be downing this stuff like crazy if he had it.

Cobra Commander is always a hip choice, but he may be overdone next year after the new GI Joe movie comes out. Personally, I always am reminded of the Cobra Commander for president campaigns when I see these guys.

Lastly, not all women dressed up at Comic Con have to dress sexy and here’s a perfect example of a cute and sweet Harlequin costume. They’re another popular one every year.

Lastly, as promised, here are a few links for other Comic Con galleries:

For a few great costume galleries, here’s one on Geeks Are Sexy and my other pics this year.and for 2008, here’s one by Rue The Day and one on the Official Star Wars Blog. There’s even a few great Flickr sets of 2008 and 2007 costumes.

As far as merch goes, here’s a great post on things available there at Boing Boing Gadgets, one for the giant Stitch vinyl toys on display, and one for general stuff seen at the con. And one for things last year.

Lastly, if you just want to see some more cute girls at Comic Con, there’s one for that too.

Whether you consider it a form of animal cruelty or just a little harmless fun, it’s hard to deny that cats look pretty cute in costumes. The gallery on Now That’s Nifty has a few fantastic feline frocks for your viewing pleasure. Click and enjoy.

Link

This kid’s costume at the Ohayocon is fantastic. It actually works too!

Link Via BoingBoing Gadgets

Like its name said, DogsInOutfits.com is a website about dogs wearing things nature didn’t intend them to wear. This one looks like a greyhound wearing some sort of a psychedelic pajama. One look at its face should tell you that it’s planning on how to kill its owner in her sleep for such a public humiliation.

Somebody call PETA, stat! Link – via Rue the Day

Need an inspiration for a costume this Halloween? All you need is Bob Dylan! Here are some costume ideas from the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s songs:

Gallery at Seattle Weekly by Brian J. Barr, illustrated by Michael Dougan – Thanks Chris Kornelis!