The employees of Mesa's Gotham City Comics and Coffee have welcomed all sorts of colorful and costumed characters into their midst since opening earlier this year, including steampunks, zombies, and anime cosplayers.
After this weekend, however, you can add muck-covered buxom buccaneers and roller girls to this list, as will host an evening of Pirate Mud Wrestling tomorrow night.
The down and dirty affair is being put on by the Arizona Corsair Network, a local costume enthusiast group with a serious yen for pirates, and will feature wenches, fairies, and roller derby participants grappling in an inflatable kiddie pool filled with goopy mud.
Chelsea Alongi, an events coordinator and barista at Gotham City, says that costumed females experiencing a muddy good time is just par for the course at the comic book shop.
"We've gotten all sorts of weird characters inside the store," she says. "There isn't normally a connection between pirates and comic books, but we figured it would be really cool to have a bunch of wenches wrestling in mud behind our store for charity."
Previously held the past two years in a backyard of an Arizona Corsair member, the third edition of Pirate Mud Wrestling will also offer live music from local band Thunder Stump, photo-ops with the competitors, refreshments, and more.
Pirate costuming is encouraged, but only stuff that you don't mind getting dirty, as there will definitely be plenty of mud and much getting thrown around.
The 18-and-over event will feature members of the Arizona Roller Derby and Arizona Rollergirls, and will raise money for both the Phoenix Children's Hospital and the Corsair's upcoming celebration of International Talk Like a Pirate Day in September at Westgate City Center.
The Arizona Corsairs' Pirate Mud Wrestling takes place from 6 to 10 p.m. on Saturday at Gotham City Comics and Coffee, 46 West Main Street in Mesa. Admission is $8 in advance, $10 at the door. Click here for tickets and more info.
