		<div class="wpcnt">
			<div class="wpa">
				<span class="wpa-about">Advertisements</span>
				<div class="u top_amp">
							<amp-ad width="300" height="265"
		 type="pubmine"
		 data-siteid="111265417"
		 data-section="2">
		</amp-ad>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div><p>Health officials in Dubai wordlessly watched as an infrared camera filmed all visitors to the Middle East Film &; Comic Con – including a few scythe-wielding Grim Reapers.</p>
<p>Welcome to Comic Con in the times of the new coronavirus.</p>
<p><!--Ads1--></p>
<p>The Middle East Film &; Comic Con began Thursday night in a city of skyscrapers and nightclubs suddenly subdued by the outbreak of coronavirus across the region.</p>
<figure id="attachment_151168" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-151168" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-151168" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/C05E69CE-1234-47EC-A333-6A5FDBF8A523.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="392" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-151168" class="wp-caption-text">A cosplayer dressed as a creation from Star Wars at the Middle East Comic Con in Dubai</figcaption></figure>
<p>The wider United Arab Emirates has at least 28 confirmed cases of the virus, a small number compared with the 3,750 cases region wide, but concern is growing.</p>
<p>Nationwide, schools and universities will be shut down for four weeks beginning on Sunday.</p>
<p>The few frequent passengers trickling out of Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel and the home of long-haul carrier Emirates, say it is emptier than they have ever seen it.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a host of big events including Dubai’s annual boat show and art exhibition have been put on hold.</p>
<p><!--Ads2--></p>
<p>But not Comic Con.</p>
<p>As actor John Rhys-Davies – the Egyptian character Sallah from the Indiana Jones franchise – exhorted a crowd to become filmmakers themselves, the halls at the Dubai World Trade Centre slowly filled.</p>
<figure id="attachment_151169" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-151169" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-151169" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/8F2C6B18-EAF7-4322-9959-86D7C6747D8A.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="401" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-151169" class="wp-caption-text">Two Emiratis watch a dance-off (Jon Ga</figcaption></figure>
<p>For the uninitiated, anyone can go to a Comic Con in street clothes. But many choose to cosplay, or “costume play”, as a favourite character from a film, television show, video game or comic book.</p>
<p>An initial surprise came from an Emirati in the traditional kandora robes, ghuttra headscarf and lifelike mask of Nemesis from the Resident Evil video game series. He played a guitar for happy Instagramers.</p>
<p>Hand sanitiser stations stood at the ready nearby.</p>
<p>For the Nintendo-famed plumbers Mario and Luigi – 24-year-old Bibi Zumot of Jordan and 21-year-old Mohamed Rashed of Egypt – they acknowledged that the coronavirus did come up in their minds as they attended.</p>
<p>And if it had not, “my mum, my friends’ mum, everyone’s mum” had reminded them beforehand, Rashed said.</p>
<p>Luckily, the two plumbers wear large gloves. Rashed substituted two sets of latex gloves, which he snapped to show journalists.</p>
<p>“The gloves still work with the Luigi thing,” said Rashed, who went as a voodoo doll to his first Comic Con.</p>
<p><!--Ads3--></p>
<figure id="attachment_151170" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-151170" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-151170" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/56B3961C-EBF6-470E-9105-AAFEAC54BFDD.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="401" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-151170" class="wp-caption-text">A cosplayer wearing the long, black nose of a plague doctor poses with a woman in a face mask</figcaption></figure>
<p>Both Rashed and Zumot praised the organisers for having thermal scanners, hand sanitiser and medical staff on hand for the event. However, Zumot offered a bit more of a fatalistic view.</p>
<p>“If corona gets me, it’s going to get me!” he bellowed in his red overalls.</p>
<p>Others took more of a cautious view, wearing off-character surgical masks or in-character protection like bandit masks covering the lower half of their faces.</p>
<p>Most seemed unconcerned by the Grim Reapers moving through the crowd to the beat of pop music.</p>
<p>One cosplayer, who only gestured to a journalist when questioned, wore the long-nose black beak of a plague doctor. It did not stop a woman in a mask from taking a selfie with him.</p>
<figure id="attachment_151171" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-151171" style="width: 600px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-151171" src="https://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/5BD0AEAE-B458-4697-8FFE-ED2C386CA3C3.jpeg" alt="" width="600" height="401" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-151171" class="wp-caption-text">An Emirati dressed as Nemesis from the Resident Evil video game series</figcaption></figure>
<p><!--Ads4--></p>
<p>Stands sold pop-culture paintings infused with an Emirati vibe. A Batman next to a Dubai police officer getting out of a sports car. The DeLorean from Back to the Future in front of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, with the caption Back to Dubai.</p>
<p>Other stands tested the germaphobe. A giant mockup of Thor’s hammer, supposedly unliftable except for the worthy, found itself lifted and touched all over by every person wanting a photograph.</p>
<p>Deeper inside, those costumed took part in sessions of a dance contest to win prizes. They watched monitors for the moves, egged on by a master of ceremonies who may have exaggerated his qualifications.</p>
<p>“There’s no corona anywhere in this building! I checked!” he shouted.</p>
<p>As a new contest began, three Emiratis dressed in shark onesies threw themselves on to the stage as the SOS, or Squad of Sharks.</p>
<p>As the first chords of the 1997 hit Backstreet’s Back belted out, 18-year-old squad member Hamad al-Shamsi of Abu Dhabi reached inside his onesie for hand sanitiser.</p>
<p>“Better safe than sorry,” he said.</p>
<p><!--Ads5--></p>
			<div style="padding-bottom:15px;" class="wordads-tag" data-slot-type="belowpost">
				<div id="atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed19b7323e6">
					<script type="text/javascript">
						window.getAdSnippetCallback = function () {
							if ( false === ( window.isWatlV1 ?? false ) ) {
								// Use Aditude scripts.
								window.tudeMappings = window.tudeMappings || [];
								window.tudeMappings.push( {
									divId: 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed19b7323e6',
									format: 'belowpost',
								} );
							}
						}

						if ( document.readyState === 'loading' ) {
							document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', window.getAdSnippetCallback );
						} else {
							window.getAdSnippetCallback();
						}
					</script>
				</div>
			</div>
Discover more from London Glossy Post
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
