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Fantasy Basel

Q.U.I.C.H.E.

The city was unusually colourful during three days in the month of May. Sailor Moon was cycling by when crossing the bridge, The Witcher waiting at a street corner for his friends, Hogwarts uniforms bobbing up and down the pavement. These characters spanned across the city like a web that densified in increased proximity to the Messe Basel buildings, climaxing in its inside. Fantasy Basel had arrived and I was in the middle of it.

Glances, erotic tension, and a new one-minute crush around every corner. My gosh, if only Art Basel felt as queer as a fan convention.

This year was my first time attending the Swiss comic con. I had mainly missed out before because the Messe is an absolute hell of sensory overload. But here I was, earplugs in my bag, dressed in a half-assed Aragorn cosplay, waiting in line to get in with my 3-day pass, because if I was going, I wanted to see it all.
I did not have the time or budget to invest in a proper cosplay, but showing up in regular clothes felt like blasphemy to me. So, I went with my mediaeval wear and poured shocking amounts of baby oil into my hair to get that greasy I've-been-hunting-orcs-and-living-in-the-forest-for-months look.

When me and my friend reached the entrance, we were told that we had to split up since my friend had a single-day pass and we were not allowed to enter through the same hall. Finding each other again in this multi-story labyrinth was no small feat, but we succeeded eventually. We made our way to the top floor, finding the panel room, as we were excited to listen to the talk “Cosplay Make-up: Blurring Gender Lines with Simple Techniques” by Nao Cosplay. However, when we were there, we realised that we might have been gender-bending for too long for this to feel educational, so off we went into the jungle of booths by authors and artists, cosplay villages, sword fighting demonstrations, and pull-up competitions. Somewhere at the end, we found vegan churros.

What mainly stood out, however, was the crowd.
Being at Fantasy Basel really was just a continuous state of gay panic. When my eyes fell upon the first queer couple cosplay of Aziraphale and Crowley from the TV show Good Omens, I felt assured to be in the right place and secretly thought: “when is it going to be me?” These two characters have been with me over the last half year, I’ve rewatched the show a good three times and my TikTok-For you page is filled with cosplays and reinterpretations of the two, often by queer or lesbian couples. David Tennant’s performance of Crowley gives me severe gender envy and I’d love to slither into the skin of this character. But while my connection to this show feels intimate, there is no one in my close circle with the same burning obsession. If, however, you, dear reader, share this fixation and want to be the Aziraphale to my Crowley next year: I have dyed my hair red in the meantime. Just saying.

But maybe my time had already come simply through being at this convention. When locking eyes with people during those days — people walking past, people hosting their booths, people sitting on the stairs eating their food — I saw curiosity in those eyes: what is the thing that brought you here? What is your cosplay? What is the show you go back to again and again and again? Who is your comfort character? What are you mindlessly obsessed with? No need to prove and pride your coolness, as is the case during other times in the year in these exact same premises. Whenever I saw someone dressed up as a character from a show that I liked, I got this warm feeling in my chest: oh, someone loves the same thing that I love! And I couldn’t help but exchange a smile.

JMS