Amber Love interview (part 3)
Here’s the last bit of my e-mail interview with costumer Amber Love, the energetic fan, creative mind and voluptuous body behind the Web site amberunmasked.com. Here, the New Jersey fan talks about attending comic book conventions, being a “booth babe” and what comic books she’s been following. Enjoy!
CCC: To what events do you typically attend?
Love: “I’m only attending comic book conventions now. I used to work a lot of car shows too but most appearances are unpaid so I can’t justify traveling and making the effort of being in a costume all day without some kind of compensation anymore. I do not do children’s parties. I will do charity events whenever it’s something I can get to reasonably.”
CCC: And how many (events) do you attend per year?
Love: “The number of events changes each year based on my financial situation. There are certain conventions I never want to miss and several that I’ve never been to and would love to visit. This year I attended the CGS Supershow, the Summit City Con, Baltimore Comic Con, one of the Steel City Comic Cons, the Wild Pig Comics spring and fall sales, and Superhero Weekend featuring Wonder Woman Day. My goal is to hit Emerald City, San Diego, Mid-Ohio, Wonder Con, Megacon, and Heroes at some point in my life. Maybe by then I’ll be a creator and not just a fan.”
CCC: I’ve heard the term “booth babe,” referring to young women who are dressed in scantily clad costumes for various booths at comic book conventions. This, on the surface, is a derogatory term. What are your thoughts? What’s your take? Have you done that type of thing?
Love: “Most of the booth babes are paid professional models (who) don’t have a clue about the products they are hocking and they’re generally nice enough to say hello to, but I wouldn’t want to hang out with them; back stage they’re pretty mean not only to each other, but how they talk about the fans they are hired to see.
“There are several costumers, including myself, (wh0) are more traditional spokesmodels; we actually choose which booths we want to work at because we love the products or services. I’ll work for artists, writers or non-profits. I model for art schools who need figure models too. I’ve also allowed artists that I know have access to exclusive galleries on my site AmberUnmasked so that they can use my pictures for reference.
“I get a lot of happiness from modeling especially because I’m not a perfect size 0 and I’m middle-aged. Working for artists makes me feel so great about myself. I can’t even describe it. It’s surreal. Trained artists look at the world and the bodies in it with a different set of eyes than the average person who has millions of photoshopped, nipped/tucked celebrity images shoved down his throat.
CCC: In general, what kind of comic books, characters and such do you follow and why?
Love: “Recently I’ve made a huge change in my comic pull list. I was getting regular monthly superhero books with a few alternative ones thrown in the mix; this year I’ve decided to migrate to trades as much as possible and also cut most of my mainstream books out to explore the independents.
“I have a short pull list now: TINY TITANS, THE LONE RANGER, GREEN HORNET YEAR ONE, WONDER WOMAN (at least temporarily to give it another chance), LOVE AND CAPES, S.H.I.E.L.D., SWEETS and CAPTAIN SWING AND THE ELECTRICAL PIRATES OF CINDERY ISLAND. Soon we’ll get another volume of ATHENA VOLTAIRE too. Online I follow Subculture and sometimes I get to catch up on PVP, DORK TOWER and GRONK. There’s a new Web comic THE NEPTONIAN by Kyle Latino which just started and reminds me of STRANGE ADVENTURES.
“I call TINY TITANS my joy because it’s the one book I hate to go without seeing; I love books that are smart and simplistic at the same time. TINY TITANS and LOVE AND CAPES both have those qualities of telling good stories that bring a lot of smiles to my face but they aren’t just gag strips. I love THE LONE RANGER and GREEN HORNET YEAR ONE for their adventure and pulp styles. I’m sad to see THE LONE RANGER coming to an end. I recently enjoyed the first two volumes of BONE. One of my favorite books, probably the favorite, is I KILL GIANTS. Today I just started THE ALCOHOLIC which I didn’t want to put down.”
Well, that’s wrap on my three-part interview with Amber Love. I hope you enjoyed it.
If you missed the previous installments, go here for part 1, in which Amber talks about the challenges and fulfilling parts of costuming, how she handles people’s sometimes very tactless response to how she looks and her favorite three characters she dresses as. Click here for the second part, where Amber talks about making her costumes, “cosplay,” the cosplay community and meeting FANTASTIC FOUR artist Joe Sinnott.
