The Great Philadelphia Comic Con 2019!

I had the pleasure of attending The Great Philadelphia Comic Con, which isn't quite in Philly, but it still great, last weekend. 

I scoured the show floor to find as much Muppet and Henson related items as possible. 

Along with a few Muppet POP!s, here's what I found:

One dealer had a lithograph print of The Great Muppet Caper poster:

As well as  many Brian Fraud prints:

There weren't many Muppet toys, but there was this Sam Eagle/Sam Arrow Palisades action figure:

Our friends at Alternate Dimension Toys had a fresh case of Kidrobot's Fraggle Rock mystery figures:

This being a comic con, there were a few Henson related comics, mainly newer issues of Achaia's Labyrinth and Dark Crystal titles.

Hower, BJ Wanlund spotted this graded copy of Muppet Babies #10 that's apparently such a rarity in this condition that the seller was asking $300 for it!

There were also a few Muppet celebrity guests at the show!

Muppet Show guest Alice Cooper was at the show signing autographs and taking photos with fans. 

Though he's no stranger to working with puppets, it was certainly odd to see Alice and Bear featured so closely together on the photo schedule:

Friends of blog Noel MacNeal and Jim Martin were on hand to talk about their time working with Jim Henson and the Muppets. 

Noel brought a smaller scale puppet replica of Bear:

Who even FaceTimed with a young fan who couldn't make it to the show:

Mike Lopez of Increditainment, Noel, Bear, and Bear

Jim is making the rounds at cons to help raise funds to restore The Great Space Coaster.

He has a few Great Space Coaster postcards and patches:

As well as a selection of his cast and crew jackets for sale:

Including this wonderful Sesame Street 25th anniversary jacket:

Our friend Joe sat down with Jim to talk about his efforts to save The Great Space Coaster:

For details on how you can help, follow the official Great Space Coaster Facebook page and website.  

Throughout the weeknd, Noel and Jim also participated in activities for kids and hosted a late Friday afternoon panel,

which quickly evolved into having pretty much everyone in the audience come up on stage to share their experiences and stories about their love for puppetry and The Muppets.

You can watch the madness unfold below thanks to our friends at Increditainment who brought Noel and Jim to the show. You may even spot a familiar face!

Thanks again to Like Lopes and Michael Grassia at Increditainment and The Great Philadelphia Comic Con!

Great Philadelphia Comic Con Round Up!

The Great Philadelphia Comic Con roared into the Philly suburbs this weekend bringing Henson performers Caroll Spinney, Hugh Spight, and Steve Whitmire with it.

You may not be familiar with Hugh, but he was inside the Mystic UrAmaj the Cook, as well as one of the Landstriders.

I had a great conversation with Hugh were he informed me that soon after closing the landstrider costume something happened and smoke started to fill the costume. Thankfully they were able to contain the issue, get the smoke out, and continue filming, but he said it was a very harrowing incident that he wasn't sure at the time he would escape from. 

Below is Hugh sticking his head out from his Mystic, and the full cast and crew of The Dark Crystal.

The always wonderful Caroll Spinney was there as well as part of a farewell tour. He's having a hard time health wise these days. I'm glad he's made plans to let fan's get to meet him one last time, but it's easy to see why this is his final round of cons. If you're able to do so, be sure to get to one of his stops.

Speaking of Caroll, this Saturday the Henson Studios is hosting a celebration of Carol's career as part of fundraiser for The Center for Puppetry Arts. 

The con was severely lacking Muppet merch, though there were a few items to be found it you looked closely enough.

Of course at cons like this there's cosplay. The best, by far though, was this amazing Sprocket puppet made by a fan named Stephanie. The detail and shear massiveness of it was amazing. 

 

A comic con wouldn't be much be with out comic artists and the talented Jay Fosgitt was there to fill the Henson comic niche.

Finally, Steve Whitmire not only had a booth at the show, but was the star of a panel as well. 

While I was not at the con the day of his panel, William L. Bozarth was nice enough to record the whole thing.

The con even included Steve and Hugh, but not Caroll for some reason, in a deck of con guest cards. 

Here's hoping The Great Philadelphia Comic Con gets more great Henson performers next year!