Upper School history teacher Dr. Mark Rabuck is an avid cosplaying fan and has cosplayed at Germantown Academy. Cosplaying is a family activity of his as sometimes his daughter and him dress up and cosplay together.
Dr. Rabuck has been cosplaying for a long time. Cosplaying, slang for costume and play, is the practice of dressing up as a character from a preexisting work of fiction.
“I always thought that cosplayers were kind of weird when I was growing up, like they were the ones that were really into it, but honestly I didn’t really know much about it,” Dr. Rabuck said. What I knew came from shows like the Big Bang series, clickbait articles. I thought it was a weird, cringe thing. What changed my mind was my former student getting up in a House Meeting and giving her senior speech about why she loved cosplay and it was things I had never considered.”
The student sometimes needed someone to help her with her costume, so as result, Dr. Rabuck learned how to make jewelry and leather working, which made him think that this is the coolest student ever because she knows what it is to like to try and figure out how to learn something.
Dr. Rabuck loves cons, which are events where cosplaying is a major or minor component of the affair because people can be themselves without the fear of being judged.
“It is one of the places where you can be yourself without any fear of judgment. A convention is probably the only environment where you can go up to a total stranger and compliment them and it’s not weird. People just accept what you do. It’s a friendly and supportive environment.” Rabuck said.
At Germantown Academy, Rabuck runs a club called Leland Society and in the spring, kids in Leland Society created a con for teens. In the spring of 2021, Lealand Society was created by students who were interested in cosplay, anime, dungeons and dragons and other stuff that are not mentioned much at Germantown Academy.
“We hit upon the idea of having a con, but targeted towards local teenagers, and that is the origin story of WissahickCon,” Dr. Rabuck said.
At WissahickCon, 100 to 150 students from the area come out every year and about half of them cosplay.
Dr. Rabuck has been cosplaying for a very long time now, but not to fear, because Dr. Rabuck will not be stopping coplaying anytime soon.
“Most cosplayers are between the age of 18 and 32, so cosplayers that are older are pretty rare, so I joke that we all know each other but a lot of the community looks to the older cosplayers to say, ‘Man I can be the nerd I want to be for the rest of my life’,” Dr. Rabuck said. “We are kind of a positive support system for them, and I just love the vibe at these events, I plan to keep on doing it for life.”
At GA, the next time students and faculty can plan to see Dr. Rabuck cosplay will be at WissahickCon 2025, so save the date.
“I’m definitely going to be wearing a cosplay at Wissahickon, May 4th, but if GA gives me half an excuse to dress up, I’ll do it.” Dr. Rabuck said.
Based on his zest, it does not look like Dr Rabuck will stop cosplaying anytime soon.