While this began as a closet cosplay – meaning I already had the majority of the components in my current wardrobe – this costume has taken a life of its own.

I have always loved Adam Hughes’ work, especially his unforgettable Catwoman #51 cover. I made the decision to try and recreate the cover because I already had the catsuit and whip for my Sydney Savage (DangerGirl) costume. In this particular image, Selena Kyle isn’t wearing her cowl or goggles, another reason I chose to recreate this particular image. I had a hard time tracking down those two items so I decided to skip past them altogether. I had a black wig that worked well enough for the look, and glued some black nails to the outside of black gloves to imitate claws. Lastly I picked up a giant fake diamond ring (indented for bachelorette parties) as a prop to play around with.

This was the first time I got to work together with my now favorite photographer Scott Miron, and he was equally stoked to work on the project. He created the background himself, and I made the prison board out of a spray painted clipboard, 3D letters and contact paper made to look like metal.

We had a fantastic makeup artist named Sarah Lynn Morrison, who got the look perfect – including the placement of the fake tears. We sprayed some water in my hair to make it look like I had just been dragged off the street and we were set to go!

We started with a few shots to warm up. Beginning with a red background we played with the whip and I tried to channel my inner feline. When it was time to get “the shot” we pinned up the background and positioned it so that I would be the exact same height as in the image. It took a good half hour or so to get the perfect shot, checking and rechecking the camera to see what minor adjustments we needed to make. The hardest part for me was not wiping my face, as the fake tears tickled like hell while running down my face. Eventually we nailed the shot and moved on to something a bit more fun.

We ended the shoot by trying out our own variants of the cover. One of them I mocked the camera by holding up broken cuffs. Another I used my whip to grab the hand of my captor in an attempt to escape. One of the best is me growling at the camera, which turned out cool but super creepy at the same time.

Scott added his own initials to the image in an Adam Hughes fashion, and it was finished! Hands down, this remains my favorite cosplay image to this day. The reaction to it was overwhelming. It was selected as a Model Mayhem image of the day, has received over 400 comments on the photographer’s portfolio, and even attracted the attention of Adam Hughes himself.

When Adam Hughes created a MySpace page, several friends of mine brought it to my attention. I messaged him right away to try and show him the photo. His response blew me away. Evidently more than one person had already sent the image to him, and he congratulated me on doing a good job. I met up with him at SDCC in 2008, and got him to sign a print. That was a fantastic moment and it now hangs in my office.

Anyway, less talk and more photos! Enjoy!