Blue Milk Special

Some of our readers might have a few questions about the 501st Legion who recently honored us as Friends of the Legion. If you’re a fan of Star Wars, chances are you are already familiar with the 501st Legion, some of you may already be members! We thought we should invite one of the members around to say hi to our own family of webcomic readers. We have some casual and some dedicated fans that have never delved into costuming as a hobby (yet!), and so Leanne and I thought it would be a great time to ask a few questions about how one goes about joining up and participating.

The 501st Legion is a global non-profit fan organization of “film realistic” cosplayers who donate their time to appearing at charity and goodwill events throughout their local communities. They take costuming seriously, and they have their own industry of tailors, seamstresses and prop makers spending some serious time and money on making movie quality replicas of the villains from the Star Wars films.

Ray Rogers is the Commanding Officer of one of the regional chapters, known as a “Garrison”. His branch of the 501st Legion covers our local Maryland and Washington DC area and goes by the name “The Old Line Garrison” after the State’s nickname. Ray took a moment out of his battle with the pesky Rebellion to talk to Blue Milk Special.

Inside 501st Legion – Part 1

Q. How goes the battle?

A. The battle goes well! The Old Line Garrison does not retreat, does not surrender! We have had a very eventful and action-packed 2013 thus far and we are still taking the battle to the enemy!

Q. What sorts of events does the 501st Legion appear at, and what are some of your most memorable?

A. We appear at a wide variety of events, anything from small community events like presenting trophies at Cub Scout awards ceremonies and elementary school science-fairs or advertising bake sales in a community center, up to high-profile appearances such as securing the VIP Suite at the Baltimore Grand Prix, guarding Star Wars film actors at Wizard World Comic-Con, and being on-stage at ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic concerts.

Q. What does a Commanding Officer do exactly?

A. The Commanding Officer (CO) of a Garrison or Squad of the 501st Legion is ultimately the person responsible for keeping his or her own Garrison focused, motivated and involved with their community, whether it be our actual communities where we live and work or the wider community of amazing costumers the world-over. The CO does his or her utmost to lead their Garrison by example, and is always on the lookout for new opportunities to raise the unit’s visibility and get the word out about the 501st Legion and our mission. The CO also does the work of putting together the unit’s Command Staff and working with them as a team leader to make sure that all the pieces fall together and that the unit is always moving forward. Oh, and force-choking. The CO does a lot of force-choking.

Q. How does a Garrison interact with the wider command structure of the 501st?

A. Every Garrison of the 501st has two representatives appointed to the 501st Legion Council, our primary governing body. The first representative is the CO, who has the honor of appointing any other one member to the Council as the ‘Second Seat’. Old Line Garrison’s current Second Seat is Allen ‘Shep’ Shepherd, our current Executive Officer (XO), and one hell of a guy. As a part of that Council, we are able to represent the concerns and votes of our Garrison in the decision-making processes of the Legion, including changes to our charter and policy-making discussions. We are also able to present the ideas and proposals of our Garrison members to the whole Legion.

Q. How did you get involved in the 501st Legion?

A. I have always been really into charity work and community service, and while I’ve always found it to be very rewarding, I started looking for a way to do it with a really fun and unique angle. I had heard of the 501st Legion simply by being a fan of Star Wars, but it wasn’t until I found that my co-worker’s husband was a member of Old Line Garrison that I started to learn of their commitment to charity work. I got hooked pretty quick.

Q. What drew you to the Imperial TIE Pilot?

A. Several things, but mostly because they’re bad-asses. I mean, flying around in a cheap, mass-produced star-fighter with no shields and no atmosphere in the cabin? That takes guts. The costume is also well-suited to chubby dudes like me, too, being mostly soft-parts that don’t require stuffing myself into armor made for a skinny dude. All black, very stylish, very slimming, lol.

Q. What was the approval process like, in both your experience and feedback from others you know who have gone through the process?

A. Approval of your costume can be a beast, but so long as you’ve taken your time, done your research, worked with other members to get everything right, it should be a pretty painless process. Old Line Garrison is lucky enough to have a lot of great veteran members, some of whom have been around since its inception, that are highly-valued for their costume/prop fabrication skills and knowledge of the costume standards and source material. People only really run into obstacles with approval when they just slap something together without getting feedback throughout the build process.

Q. The Old Line Garrison inducted Blue Milk Special creators Leanne and myself into the organization as Friends of the Legion. Although we hadn’t thought of joining you guys in uniform, you started us both thinking. Any suggestion on easy uniforms for beginners?

A. The ‘easy-in’ costume for the 501st Legion seems to be the Imperial Crewman. This costume is a great starting point, because it is comprised of mainly just a black jumpsuit, jackboots, belt, hat and gloves. The great part about that costume, however, is that it is the base for several other costumes, including the TIE Fighter Pilot, Death Star Gunner, and Biker Scout. This is how I entered the Legion, as an ‘IC’.

To be continued in Part 2 on Monday…

Check out the 501st Legion website.
If you’re in Maryland or DC, check out the Old Line Garrison website or Facebook page.

In order to draw up Big Gizz, Leanne needed to find reference but made the mistake of typing the name into a Google search. Let’s just say that Google assumed she meant something else. The other guy is called Spiker, if anyone cares. 🙂 Just as a refresher for those unfamiliar with Shadows of the Empire, Jix (this guy) was sent by Vader to ensure Luke Skywalker was not killed by his enemies. He earns Big Gizz’s trust by outracing him on a Swoop Bike race (like a Speeder bike, man!). Big Gizz’s information from Jabba seems to contradict Jix’s direct orders. Ooh… mystery!

As for Big Gizz’s trusting attitude, Jix’s conversation might as well have gone something like this: “Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but I’m going to join you, the writing’s hazy.”