This weekend, we saw Catwoman waiting in line for the restroom, The Little Mermaid's Ariel sitting on the ground while eating a slice of pizza and the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus admiring the cloaks of a few Hogwarts students. Though this seems like something out of a dream, it was all too real as cosplay was alive and well at New York Comic Con 2014.

For the unitiated, "cosplay" stands for "costume play," and those who partake in "costume play" are called "cosplayers." Cosplayers are basically fans who dress up like their favorite characters from the far corners of geekdom and pop culture, from movies to TV shows to comic books to anime.

Conventions like Comic Con, which ran from Thursday, Oct. 9 to Sunday, Oct. 12 at the Javits Center in Manhattan, are like the Super Bowl for cosplayers, where they can finally show off their best and most elaborate outfits, many of which they create themselves, in front of thousands of people. We couldn't go anywhere at Comic Con without seeing someone in Spandex or with intricate face paint on. The costumes are so detailed that they really did bring these fictional characters to life. There was even a cosplay competition on Saturday, Oct. 11 at Comic Con.

From cartoons to comic books, sci-fi to fantasy, group costumes to singular sensations, cosplay ran the gamut at Comic Con this weekend. Take a look at the best cosplay from the four-day event, and try to wrap your head around how these costumes were created.