John D. Spaw, a.k.a Mnamna Cosplay, has been wearing costumes since he was a kid. He’s gone from playing superhero with a towel around his neck to more complete costumes. He took cosplay more seriously beginning in 2013 when his wife helped him make a Deadpool ensemble. He’s been hooked since, and one of his most recent projects is this spot on Samurai Jack.
Spaw’s inspiration came from the recently released episodes of Samurai Jack. The goal with the costume was to make it look like Jack stepped out of the cartoon. Spaw told Nerdist, “That meant staying with a simple small palette of flat colors and no weathering . There is a hand made black cotton robe as the under-suit and the armor itself is 5mm foam. The face, hair, and bandolier were made from 2mm foam, with some simple mesh framing underneath. Everything was hand painted, to try to make it feel more natural. The only piece that I took a little liberty with was the belt buckle.”
Overall, Spaw spent about 30 hours over a two month period crafting his Samurai Jack costume. He had experience making armor, but he said building the foam hair and making sure Jack was recognizable were his biggest challenges. I’d say he nailed it.
Travel down to the gallery to see pictures of the finished costume as well as the work in progress images. If you want to check out more of Spaw’s work–and you should–visit Mnamna Cosplay on Facebook. Head to Imgur to see an album of build photos for Jack.
Do you cosplay or take photographs of cosplayers? Then I want to see your work so we can talk about highlighting your creations in a future Cosplay Friday gallery. If you’re a photographer, maybe we could focus on your images from a single convention. If you’re interested, please get in touch with me at alratcliffe@yahoo.com and send photos you’d like me to feature–the more high-res the photos, the better. Be sure to provide credits for the cosplayers or photographers for each image because giving credit is good manners–bonus points if you include links to relevant Facebook pages or websites. Though I wish I knew all the nerdy franchises, I don’t, so please let me know who or what is being cosplayed.
Images: Courtesy of Mnamna Cosplay
