From College to Kaiju: KCAI Admissions Counselor Nick Sparger Brings Ultraman Energy to G-FEST
07.24.2025
KCAI admissions counselor Nick Sparger (’23 Filmmaking & Asian Studies) combined his lifelong love of kaiju (a term for giant monsters) with his art school training to build an award-winning Ultraman costume for G-FEST while inspiring the next generation of monster makers along the way.
Creative Fabrication
With less than a month until his deadline, Nick Sparger (’23 Filmmaking & Asian Studies) stepped into Beals Studio at the Kansas City Art Institute to 3D print a mask. Using the facility’s vacuum-form machine, he shaped the plastic eyes, then added paint, internal lighting, and tiny drilled holes to allow limited vision. He continued refining the piece with tools like a Dremel, an X-Acto blade, and a heat gun.
Then, almost exactly 60 years after the debut of the iconic Japanese superhero, Sparger walked onto the stage of G-FEST, the Godzilla Festival, in Chicago as the 'Giant of Light,' Ultraman. He would walk away with the "Judge's Choice Award" in the highly attended costume parade, but not before performing while wearing his hand-made red and silver suit.
“You only have like 30 seconds. So I run out there, I do the transformation pose. There’s a thing Ultraman does called the Spacium Beam, where he crosses his arms in front of him. It was just one of all the little moves that people recognize and love to recreate,” Sparger said.
“And then, of course, I flew off the stage with the Ultraman hands above me. They loved that,” he said.
The moment stood out during the G-FEST weekend packed with celebrations of kaiju and other giant monsters, especially Godzilla. Choosing highlights is no small feat, considering Sparger has attended the annual event for the past 14 years and recently stepped into a role as the leader of the convention’s sculpting workshop.
“I think that kind of leads me to the main idea of why I enjoy being an admissions counselor here at an art school: the chance to empower other artists to discover who they are and how they can use their skills. It’s not just some side thing to be looked down upon. This can be a lifelong passion. That’s what I want students to see in their work, whether it’s at a convention, portfolio day, or anywhere, that what they’re doing truly matters,” Sparger said.
Soft Sculpey, Sharp Skills
Recreating film scenes on a smaller scale is what first drew Sparger to the G-FEST diorama classes when he was just 11 years old. Over the past several years, he has created a small curriculum for his sculpture lessons, leading to a session called Monster Mayhem developed for KCAI’s Pre-College ArtLab.
The experience gave him the confidence to lead hands-on demonstrations at the convention.
“I think it's a way to allow kids to just kind of express themselves without being told necessarily what to do,” Sparger said. “You know, you build an armature, then you put the medium onto it, and you learn how to do textures and all these different things.”
According to Sparger, the Godzilla fan base includes many creative people because the series uses nearly every aspect of art from costume making and miniature building to filmmaking and painting. Fans come from all different backgrounds and perspectives.
“And I think that’s the beauty of it, throwing in a little bit about KCAI during my presentation…” Sparger said, “...just to kind of show people that there is a place for them to really explore this craft as like their main line of work.”
Image from KCAI Pre-College ArtLab
For the convention classes, Sparger uses Super Sculpey. It’s a “forgiving medium,” as he describes it. It stays soft and workable for years, only hardening once it's baked. He picked it up after watching Hiroshi Sagae, a master sculptor from Japan, at previous conventions. Sparger met Sagae only a handful of times before he passed away in 2019.
“He had a huge influence on me as an artist. He impacted a lot of people, and I try to carry that same spirit forward in my own work,” Sparger said. In 2022, Sparger paid tribute to Sagae at the festival by giving a eulogy during closing ceremonies. He honors Sagae’s legacy through the way he teaches his workshops.
“There's a lot of young people at the sessions because sculpting is a nice, easy way for them to kind of recreate what they see in the movies without having to make big costumes. It's like you're making a smaller version of the world. So it's very approachable,” Sparger said.
Fandom bonding
During his presentations, Sparger was approached by G-FEST attendee Shea Lee, whom he had incidentally recruited for KCAI while serving as her admissions counselor.
Preparing to attend KCAI in the fall as a first-time student, she wrote in an email, “Just being around so many people who are also huge kaiju fans creates such an uplifting atmosphere. You can really feel it.” One of Lee’s favorite creative exercises is illustrating kaiju by drawing, designing, and refining their forms through stylized simplicity, even including a few pieces in her KCAI application portfolio. “And it’s fun when your admissions counselor is also obsessed with your niche interest.”
Artwork: Shea Lee ( ’29 First Year Foundation)
Suit-Up Spirit
As a television show, Ultraman is playful, inviting audiences to reconnect with their inner child. Since its debut in 1966, the series has cultivated an intergenerational fan base centered around a character often referred to as "Japan’s Superman." Sparger regularly has the show playing in the background during his Pre-College ArtLab work sessions at KCAI, creating an atmosphere of nostalgia and inspiration.
“I’ve been talking to people older than me who grew up with Ultraman who are maybe in their 60s now. And they loved the show more than a lot of others because not only is Ultraman fighting aliens or other giant monsters trying to destroy Earth, there's always something emotionally complex about the monster,” Sparger said.
For example, one monster might have a bomb attached to it, turning the conflict into a question of how to safely diffuse the situation. In another case, the monster could be a former astronaut that Ultraman met in an earlier episode, making the encounter all the more complicated.
Sparger felt the human connection to these storylines while walking through the hallways of the convention. “People are stopping me every four steps saying, ‘Ultraman! Can I have a photo?’ And I get into the pose, we do the photo. Grown adults are coming up to me saying, ‘I love you, Ultraman.’”
“I’ll hug them and say, ‘I love you too.’”
Feeling more comfortable in costume than in street clothes is probably no surprise for Sparger, a self-proclaimed high school theater kid who (out of necessity) often cast himself in his own film projects while at KCAI. That comfort has carried over in a big way into his professional life.
“It’s the same as being an admissions counselor and kind of falling into whatever I have to be for that specific moment. If we’re talking about student artwork I want to give them the feedback they need to feel empowered to continue creating things. And that’s how I think about life in general. I enjoy kind of slipping into these roles that allow me to kind of explore something new in relationship to being human,” Sparger said.
Legend encounter
Even Sparger couldn’t escape being starstruck when he met actor Bin Furuya at G-FEST. In a rare turn of events, it was the original Ultraman actor who invited him for a photo, while most fans, of course, had to do the opposite.
“Remember, the show came out in 1966. Bin Furuya is in his 80s now, but he’s up and moving and everything but you never know when the last time you get to meet somebody is. And I think his character is someone I’ve always looked up to because he just represents good and protecting Earth and its people,” Sparger said.
“So I really wanted to honor that by constructing an Ultraman costume. And I did it with tools and skills I’ve gained at KCAI.”