What’s in a Muppet?!

I know tickets are like gold dust, but if anyone ever asks if you want to go to the New York Comic Con, say yes. Don’t think about it, just say yes.

The event at New York’s Javits Center earlier this month was awesome. That’s the only word for it. To go all that way and set up a table as an indie British writer was intimidating to say the least. As it was, the whole weekend of NYCC was amazing. We were made to feel welcome by everyone involved, the atmosphere over all four days was awe inspiring and Manhattan’s attitude to the comic con in its midst was so cool.

We met some brilliant people – including a Muppet (!), Bruce Connelly aka Barkley from Sesame Street, who had some amazing stories to tell – and thank you so much to everyone who called by for a chat, to give some new books a chance and to chill out for a few moments in the small press area, a tiny oasis of relative calm in the mega-busy, really well organised awesome chaos of the event.

I think the one aspect that made it stand out was that everyone wanted to be there and everyone wanted it to be awesome so it was. The set-up staff at the venue were great. We had great neighbours in our aisle and it was lovely to see Gary Erskine, our neighbor from the first SciFi Scarbs, all the way out there. Going to and from the event out in the streets of Manhattan was fun (walking from our hotel, The New Yorker – which was great, took us past Nero Wolfe’s house! How cool is that?). All weekend, the queues for tickets just to join the queues for the show-exclusive Funco bobbleheads were so bizarre but everyone waited patiently. The cosplay was amazing and the big sign that proclaimed the NYCC philosophy for everyone to “be nice, be cool, and be kind to each other” was respected throughout.

Every minute of NYCC was great. It was an incredible event and I feel very privileged to have been a part of it. Thank you to everyone who helped me get there and thank you to everyone there who made the whole week so awesome.

More pics at www.facebook.com/cghattonauthor