Spider-Man Cosplay #24! Featuring Spider-Girl! (Kelly McDaniel)

Editors Note: Zach here, filling in for ChiTown because his computer died, so please excuse any issues that I might’ve missed!

You’ve seen her on our Podcast, from the Spider-Cosplay episodes to Spider-Satellites, to main reviews of Gog… damn it…. the one, the only, KAYDAY herself, KELLY!

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Thanks for doing this interview!  So glad to have you with us. So where do you hail from?

Thank you! I’m excited to do this!  I grew up in Macon, GA and I currently reside in Atlanta, GA

Let’s get started, what do you like about Spider-Man so much?

I think I just always rooted for Peter Parker. Like he’s the quintessential boy next door who just happens to be extraordinary once you get to know him. You want him to win. It also is something familiar, since I grew up with him in cartoons on Fox Kids and the old reruns of Spider-Man and Friends;  and I was 11 when the Same Rami movie came out. Spider-Man has always been there to save the day when you need him.

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Any favorite artists or writers?  Are you recent to the comics or do you travel back to the Stan Lee days?

My Dad used to go into comic shops to talk baseball cards and old Batman comics of his youth, and so my brother and I have picked up random comics of all areas. We really gravitated to the $0.25 bin which in the 90s/early 00s it was filled with a lot of 80s comics, so I pretty much met Spider-Man through Stern/DeFalco/Owsley but we pretty much read everything we could get our hands on and convince our Dad to buy us. Thanks to Marvel Unlimited I’ve been able to read Spider-man’s story from the beginning and I love the Conway/Romita run but I also just love that 70s time point in Marvel.

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Your Cosplay!  So you dressed up as Spider-Girl.  What made you decide to do that?

It was a promise to myself. I grew up with the character since seeing and convincing my Dad to buy a new comic off the new comic wall. I read the comic as it came out, so that was 1998 – 2010. It ended when I was a freshman in college. It was around the same time I was starting to get into Cosplay so it was always on my list to do. But she’s also the scariest one to do because of how much May means to me. I just want to do her justice, you know? So one day I just said “this is the cosplay we are doing this year and you are going to do this no matter what” — and I did. And now I want to do more. Keep on improving it! I also want to finish an Earth X Venom and April/Mayhem sometime this year.

Do you know anything about Spider-Girl?  Do you feel any kind of connection to her?

I’ve always loved Spider-Girl since the moment I saw Spider-Girl up on the new comics wall. She looked like Spider-man, which I loved, and it was a girl, which I am and identify as. It was pretty simple to make me a fan.
But the special thing was May looked like me. Like she REALLY looked like me.
She was brunette when a lot of leading ladies in comics at that time were blonde or ginger, she was into sports which I was into softball and gymnastics coming out of my love of the Power Rangers.
I just wanted to be her growing up. It was like having a big sister.
None of my friends read comics, so it was just kind of my thing. I held her close to the vest.
The comics were an escape for me when things got hard; bullying or moving or anything. It was just a series, a character that was always there. I quite literally grew up with this character since I was 7 when the comic started and was 19 when “Spider-Girl: The End!” was printed.

 

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How do you feel Mayday should be personality-wise?

Hoo-boy! I apologize for this ramble ahead of time. — She’s your average girl, for the most part, I think that is why she’s so easy to connect to. I mean she likes more rock music, she’s sporty. She’s really smart in science if I recall correctly. She tries to be friends with everyone, and keep the peace. She never wanted to stand out but wanted to do her best.
One of my favorite things about Mayday is just how open she is to not judge people and that she tries to give others a chance to fix their mistakes, and the support to be better.
At first, this trait is a bit of naivety with some of her villains, but it also becomes her strength.
People make mistakes, they make bad choices but that doesn’t mean they deserve to be written off.
Things are not so black and white all the time and if people want to change and can be given some show of confidence, then why not allow them to try?
She teaches people kindness and compassion in a way that isn’t weak. She’s not a pushover or a martyr.
She’s this kind of a powerhouse when she needs to be but just really wants to do good in the world.
She’s serious about what the suit means, and what she needs to be. What she wants to be. With May the suit isn’t defined by tragedy, it’s defined by hope.

Where you introduced to Spider-Man in comics or more in media (TV, Movies, fan films)

I don’t remember! I think probably the cartoons from the late 60s? I remember seeing the first episode of that cartoon with the origin story before owning the 1980’s wedding issue we found at a yard sale and that was 1994-95. My Parents are kids of the late 60s/early 70s so I’m sure they found some VHS and had nostalgia time with my brother and I. I make jokes I’m named after a Charlie’s Angel all the time because we grew up learning about all those 60s/70s era superheroes and action shows. Spider-man was just always around.

Is there any merchandise you hold dear to you that represents your love for the character besides your Cosplay?

I used to own two of the ToyBiz Spider-Girl dolls. The Famous Covers one from 1999-2000. One was unboxed and one is still in the box. The unboxed Spider-Girl is now with my nephew. He loves to play with her with my old Tobey McGuire Spider-Man. They argue with Ironman a lot.  But whenever I visit him he’ll get her out so we can play. She’s my favorite even if I don’t own her anymore technically. I also own a library book with 3 Spider-Girl comics printed in it! If something has Mayday on it, I buy it. I have a whole IKEA bookshelf dedicated to her now. All my comics. All the digests. The library books, Party City birthday tiaras, really old expired lip gloss, a hot wheel;  etc. Ect. I own it all.

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What was that like designing the costume and did the costume present any hurdles to you when making it?

I think the biggest hurdle is wanting to look your best in it. The costume is not forgiving. I think I lost 30lbs in my workouts to get “SpideyFit”. I had been pretty sick with an autoimmune disorder and had gone through some less than ideal luck the year before I made the promise to myself I’d finally do MayDay right.

So getting healthy and back at a happy size for myself was definitely the hardest thing.
In today’s world, it’s a lot easier to make a suit. Textile printing is a godsend! I bought my pattern from Spiderbite Designs. She was very nice in editing the suit the way I needed it to be so everything would hit on my body the way it needed to when printed. I had it printed by ZentaiZone and they were great about listening to me about how I needed the suit to cut so it would match what the legendary Ron Frenz had drawn. I also wanted it to go on as comic accurate as possible, so my suit is in like 6 or 7 different pieces and ZentaiZone was very kind to honor that request from me and answering my near-daily emails about my fears and questions.

One thing I did see when looking is that May’s lenses are unique.
No one makes them in mass. So I was going to design them and had 3D molded them to print and make a mold from resin, but I had issues with time since my web-shooter idea was a bigger beast and I had gotten sick due to my autoimmune disorder.
I found a great collaborator in the Armory Cosplay Props who understood my vision and made them for me. To me, that’s one of the things that just make my costume so amazing.
I’m forever thankful for his help and his willingness for a custom commission.

I made the web-shooters 100% myself. Previously my only 3D modeling work had been with a Fallout 4 rocket launcher, but I had help with that. So when I modeled the web-shooters it took me a year, I originally wanted to make one a working phone like the web shooter phone Normie made her in the comics but that went out of my price range fast so that got scrapped in the end.

I printed on a Lulzbot mini in ABS, I sanded, painted, repainted like 6 different times to get the right iridescent metallic shine I wanted and tried to get them to connect with magnets. The closures were not the best so I will work on that with new ones. I want to eventually make that web shooter phone!
But I’m so proud of just how great they look. I based them off of the early Ollie ones, and from the What If issue I think my v2 will be more from Amazing if I don’t figure out my phone idea.

I also did the TASM shoe sole idea with a pair of knockoff Adidas from eBay for my Spider-boots and put in all the memory foam sole and arch support when I was building them. They are my favorite cosplay shoes off all time! I want to remake them since the shoe glue did explode all over the boot but they are so comfortable! Especially on my bum knees from a basketball injury I sustained in high school.

 

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You suited up for the first time and ready to walk on out of the floor as Spider-Girl. What was that like and how did that feel?

I thought I was going to cry when I saw myself or completely feel like I didn’t look like her and feel weird, but once I put on the suit, wig and makeup on I was just so happy I danced to NSync in my hotel room for like 30 minutes in it! I have a ton of selfies of just being so happy with how I looked. I barely took it off. I wore to volunteer at the big DragonCon Marvel shoot! It just made me happy, and it was so comfy! I have a basketball injury from high school and by the end of con I generally have to wear a knee brace but I just wore those boots all weekend and it was amazing!

Sometimes a costume you cosplay as defines you because you represent it so much. Has anyone ever called you “Mayday” or “Spidey” while out of costume?

Sometimes, most people who don’t remember my name like to call me Spidey in the DragonCon cosplay groups but it’s rare. Generally what I get is when people want to start cosplaying a Spiderverse character they are told to come to me because I’m like a vast knowledge pool to help out.

I love helping so much! I will pull out comic pages directly from Marvel Unlimited and send the whole page as a screenshot when needed, I help people find solutions for costume issues within their price range and, I just like being helpful. So that’s generally how I’m defined by my Spider-Girl costume in my community.

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Sometimes a costume you cosplay as defines you because you represent it so much. Has anyone ever called you “Mayday” or “Spidey” while out of costume?

I’m most known for cosplaying Rose Tyler from Doctor Who. I’ve had actors from the show even comment on how well I cosplay the character. I’m also known for my Misato from Evangelion, I once had some German 501st members upset I didn’t wear pants for my Sexy Hoth Luke —  and I like to run around as Mary Jane from time to time.

You don’t have to say Spider-Girl, but which costume is your favorite to dress up as?

Oh, It’s definitely Mayday. Not even a doubt in my mind about it! I’m so glad I finally made myself work on this costume.

The suit is like a part of me now. But not like an alien symbiote or anything. Maybe.

Seeing the other cosplays you have done, is Spider-Girl the most enjoyable?

Spider-Girl is meaningful to me. It’s a way to honor that person my inner child wanted to grow up to be.
I had a little girl just come up to me and go wide-eyed and went “Spider-man can be a girl too??” and that just made my day. I’m so glad I had my mask on because I was crying. I was able to give her a copy of What If 105 and maybe I made a new fan out of her! I hope so!
I also had a woman come up to me and just confess how she owned the What If issue and it inspired her to draw every day. She told me she had worn her issue to tatters from using it to draw with and so I gave her a reprint of What If 105 and she hugged me and cried and I cried and it was a whole thing.

Learning how much Mayday can mean to so many people, as long as I had kind of read her alone growing up makes this costume worth every penny, blood, sweat, and tears that it took to make it happen. Mayday means so much to me and being able to connect to others on that level is everything.

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Let’s have some fun, let’s say there is a Peter Parker in real life.  Which means there is a Spider-Man. You see him on the TV and in the Newspapers and you know his secret!  How would you handle that? Would you be a friend, enemy, partner, ally, or love interest?

I wouldn’t be an enemy, and I can’t say I’d be a love interest because I love Mary Jane too much…I’d help him for sure. My Dad is a retired investigator so I grew up around my dad being called away to crime scenes and stuff like that. ( Something I think I also related to Mayday to since Peter was a CSI in the comics, so I understood that life). Even if vigilantism isn’t entirely legal if it’s the right thing to do to help people, I would make sure he could do that as safely as possible.

Let’s have some MORE fun.  Let’s say YOU have Spider-Powers.  How would you go about that?

You know as much as I’d say I’d help people, which I would — totally– I would also probably use it for monetary gain. Let’s be honest about this.

Maybe not in wrestling like Peter first thought to do but I’d totally try to become YouTube famous with it. For sure. But then I’d use the money my family and to help others though. I wouldn’t want anyone to struggle if I could help it!

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Have you ever heard or visited the Crawlspace (this site)?

Of course! The site’s been around for over 20 years, right? Anytime I’ve searched for Spider-man related stuff the crawlspace always comes up! I also listen to the podcast while I’m at work. UPDATE:  She’s an ADMIN to this site now.

If so, besides the Spider-Man Cosplay, are there certain other articles you’ve read on this site?

Yes! I generally like seeing what gets chosen as the Panel of the day and I use Crawlspace for my Spidey news.

Have you joined our Discord Page or Message Boards?  What’s your handle?

You know I’m not, I might have been on the message boards forever ago but I can’t remember my handle. I might join in on discord though. I’ll be KMcDaniel28 probably. I assume MakeMineMayday is taken by someone.

Do you listen to the Spider-Man Crawlspace Podcast?  Have a favorite episode?

Almost weekly, but on Stitcher than iTunes. My favorite episode of all time has to be the Sal Buscema tribute show from 2009.

Where can people find you online if they wanted to?

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The best place to find me would be Instagram. My handle is KMcDaniel28. I’m also the moderator of the Marvel Cosplayers and Costumes of DragonCon and Spiderverse at DragonCon so you can always find me in those Facebook Groups!