Digital Hippos Spotlight: Person of the Week - Linda Le 'Vampy'

At DH, we look for interesting people that have impacted certain communities relating to video games, film and music. If they can draw a bunch of fans and admirers, we'll do what it takes to have 'em featured.

So, who do we have for this edition of PoW? Well at the recent SDCC (San Diego Comic-Con), I came across a few cosplayers that led me to taking endless photos of them throughout the 4 days. Some of the ones that stuck out were a Morrigan, a Juri and a White Phoenix. Turns out they were the same person. No joke, she's one amazing cosplayer. The gal has a talent for coming up with intricate cosplays that are gorgeous, beautiful, sexy and downright awesome. She's also gorgeous, beautiful, sexy and downright awesome even without any cosplay. Her name is Linda Le aka Vampy, and when she's not busy designing props to wear for the next photoshoot or convention, she headbangs to the most metal of music and talks about the sheer greatness that is Earthbound. Truly a geek in every sense of the word, and that's a good thing of course. She has been featured on Otacool Magazine and YouBentMyWookie.com as her popularity continues to grow. Looks like the line of suitors is a long one.

Check out the questions she answered along with a gallery of her latest photos and try not to fall in love.

So let's start with some easy stuff, shall we?

What is your favorite:

Game - Earthbound / Mother 2 in Japan

Film - Whole Series: Lone Wolf and Cub

Song - Hard one but the first thing that came to mind: Slayer: Reign in Blood

Francis: I'll come up with a few things for you to choose between and no, you can't have both!

Nathan Explosion or Eddie Riggs?

Vampy: Nathan Explosion!

Street Fighter or Darkstalkers?

Vampy: Street Fighter for sure, but I got love for my lil night prowlers. Just gotta give it up to Street Fighter, the empire is never gonna go anywhere!

Cosplaying at a huge geeky event or walking down a runway/red carpet wearing the hottest designer clothes?

Vampy: Cosplaying of course, I'd probably fall down halfway the runway in those outfits.

Francis: Are you a Twihard?  If so, Jacob or Edward?  You can definitely say neither...

Vampy: I honestly never watched even 1 min of the movie, so I wouldn't know. Isn't Jacob the character that has a toy with no shirt on? So not down with collecting those.

Francis: How did this SDCC 2010 go for you?  Anything that stuck out?

Vampy: 2010's SDCC was an awesome experience for me since I got to meet many amazing people. Tons of cosplayers, just to name a few famous cosplayers: Yaya Han, Alodia, and Jan Illenberger. Working with the most amazing people at Kotobukiya and giving out toys, Capcom producers, Ono San and Niitsuma San, also hanging out with the guys of Udon Entertainment is always awesome. That all stuck out and made me very humbled by the whole experience. Everyone contributed to my happy SDCC ^__^

Francis: All us geeks have experienced it at one time or another, so what's the greatest geek moment you've ever had?

Vampy: I totally geeked out when some dude at fanime was holding a Mr. Saturn on top of his head, I screamed OMG where did you get that? And then we started going off on how the game changed our life. It was like one of those conversations that you don't know where you are and everything else doesn't matter and you get trapped into your conversation. And earthbound was it. Then we left after like 5 min not even asking for each others name, like we didn't care. Just spurted our similar feelings about earthbound. Just for that, I recently made a blog post about it on my site. I adore that game!

Francis: You've done a lot of cosplays, do you have any personal favorite(s) among them?

Vampy: Yes I do, I really liked cosplaying Rei Ayanami. She's pretty stellar and I love love love mecha, and also of course Morrigan. If I could dress up like her everyday, if it didn't give me such a wedgie I'd be all about it ! XD

Francis: What is best in life? *and megapoints if you know where that line is from*

Vampy: Duuuude as a kid growing up in the 80's I'd slap myself if I didn't know that one. CONAN THE BARBARIAN! My dad and I watched that and I remember my dad always saying, "thats AHHH-nold" Haha thanks for bringing that one up, memories :)

Eric: Describe your involvement in the cosplay community

Vampy: Well being able to go to cons (conventions) and really getting to know everyone its just amazing as it is. Usually it's at these places where people can just be themselves and talk to everyone who they admire and even for myself I'm a huge fan of everyone around me, so inspiring. I just enjoy being amongst such creative people thus, I get to set up events and get everyone together to just geek out with one another. I should be planning another one soon! ^__^

Eric: What makes you passionate about cosplay?

Vampy: There's a whole realm of things to talk about but the things that really stand out is that being a fan girl of such anime/manga/ shows and being able to reproduce a look and a feel of the character is just awesome on its own. Also it makes me let loose on my ideas, and sometimes making something out of nothing is the thing that makes cosplaying fun too.

Eric: What has been your most ambitious project?

Vampy: To date I have to say Morrigan's cosplay. Getting the whole thing to come together was definitely a process. Like every cosplay careful planning doesn't always mean perfect execution. There were many times where I wanted to quit, but I wanted to do her character justice so bad I just went for it.

Dylan: What was the strangest cosplay you've ever seen?

Vampy: There isn't too many that makes me think as strange, but I am a fan girl of all the cross play that men and women do. Especially men because I gotta say, wearing thongs and stuff like that is strange enough but I still find it pretty awesome. They got the guts!

(Francis: Look up Man Faye on Google for the best example. CAUTION: Cannot unsee once you see it and maybe NSFW)

Vampy: Well most recently my outfit which was the White Phoenix had a tear on the bottom, and it was almost time for me to do the Kotobukiya Marvel trivia and instead of going back I just used the sash and covered my derrière the whole time. So I think most of the people there thought I really needed to go to the restroom. haha

Dillinger: If Heaven exists, describe yours

Vampy: Oh thats easy, ice cream all day and 2 million flavors!

Dillinger: If Hell exists, describe yours

Vampy: Being stuck in moonside in the game Earthbound. That level pisses me off. Everything in that level is backwards, and the people are rude, and even the enemies are just horrible. One character after you defeat him, he blasts into flames and you get hurt even after you win, and you could get your HP down to zero and POOF dead! BLAHHHH!

Dillinger: If the world is going to implode tomorrow, what are you doing tonight?

Vampy: The usual, probably trying on really long uncut wigs and blasting some iron maiden while head banging before I cut them. thats always fun :D Then I die I guess.

Francis: Anything else you'd like to say about yourself?
Vampy: I like shiny things

And as this spotlight draws to a close, do you have anything to say to all the geeks/otaku out there?

Vampy: YOU ALL RULE!

Thanks to the wonderful Linda Le for taking the time to answer our questions. If you want to know more about her, check out her site: http://www.vampybit.me.