The Characters That Inspired Me, Part 1

October 17th, 2022

On hard days, people will remind you to think of the good memories, and my pockets are full of those.

A lot of those memories revolve around Halloween. My mom loved to see what characters inspired me, and it inspired her own creativity every year when I inevitably asked her to craft me a new costume.

I was looking through a digital stack of photos, and I thought I’d do a series of posts this week about some of my favorite characters and homemade costumes, and how they inspire me to this day.

First up: Nightcrawler, of the X-Men.

There’s a reason why the X-Men are such enduringly popular characters: mutants are “other.” This makes them relatable to anyone who has ever felt not normal or excluded; anybody who has been feared or hated.

For a variety of rational and irrational reasons, I have felt like this my entire life. I’ve also learned that I’m not alone in feeling that way. The X-Men (among other pop culture teams) showed me that no matter who you are, there is a group of people out there who will love and accept you as their own, because you are one of them; this is clearly an influence on my own Weirdos series.

Mutants are not normal, excluded, feared and hated.

And look at this blue freak. He is all of the above.

But the thing about Nightcrawler is that he is the opposite of his appearance: he is friendly, and kind, and spiritual, and so thoughtful. He is a friend to all, even the aforementioned folks who fear and hate him.

He is the guy who tries to remain positive when the world is burning or trying to burn him down.

His current arc in the comics reflects all of this, and also has him questioning the whole idea of believing in anything at all. It has been an absolute joy to watch this character grow alongside me, and deal with the same thoughts and feelings I deal with today.

My mom brought it in both the costume and make-up department here. She always did.

There is no way you would know that I wasn’t actually a teleporting German demon if I didn’t open my fifth-grade mouth.