DragonCon 2025 Wrap Up

 Or what I did at DragonCon 

Tuesday August 26, 2025

The beginning of the drive down to Atlanta. 

First stop picking up Caroline and Thinn in Brooklyn. One-and-a-half-hour delay getting to them. One due to an accident and the other due to road work.

Picked them up and loaded their luggage into the car. Still could see out of the back.

Now when I first picked out the path, I added some time but avoided Washington DC. It reset when I pushed the go button, and we drove right by DC adding another hour to or trip. I stopped somewhere in South Carolina which made it about five hours to our hotel in Atlanta.

Wednesday August 27, 2025

We got up early knowing we were against a ticking clock of how many spaces were left at the hotel.

Not as many construction delays. People seemed to be paying more attention to the speed and the signs.

We arrived about one in the afternoon and got our luggage for the hotel out of the car and left the stuff for our table in the car.

Settled in and got lunch.

Dinner was with my parents. My mother made her magnificent lasagna and a Cesar salad. It was nice to see them in person. We spent time with them which was lovely. 

Back to the hotel with a stop at CVS on the way.

Sleeping was not a problem. 

Thursday August 28, 2025

Sean’s Birthday

I declared the night before that it was a “sleep in until you wake up day”.

I woke up about eight. Went about my morning ritual then got breakfast for the group.

Next was getting badges. Didn’t take as long as I thought it would. Along the way I said hello to lots of friends who I have known since before I moved to New York.

Now having the badges, I went to the loading docks for the Comic Pop Art area because they were missing an important sticker. I got that sticker for all three badges along with the loading in sticker which barely fit on my badge between my handicap sticker and my panel sticker.

I drove us to what I though was the right garage, but it was the wrong garage. So, we had to haul our goods further than we wanted to. Load in was swift and we set up quickly. I know which is the right garage for next year if we have a table. We have lupper (Lunch/supper) in the late afternoon.

The reason why is because I had a panel at seven thirty in the puppetry track. It was a well-run introduction to all the panels we would be presenting over the weekend. I got to see a lot of people that have become friends over the years in the puppetry track. Got a lot of warm hugs and sympathy for Peter’s passing. It felt like family.

Best part of the day? Getting to hug my brother on his birthday.

Friday August 29, 2025

This was a rather full panel day for me.

I started at ten o’clock in the American Media room for the “Muppet Mayhem: Which Muppet Wins when Muppet Fights Muppet?” This is a fun free for all where the audience picks 16 Muppets to put into brackets to fight each other and then we discuss who would win. We had Beaker vs. Bunsen. Beaker won due to all the pent-up rage towards Honeydew. My favorite was Anderson Cooper vs. Sam the Eagle. Sam won for some screwy reason. The winner was a Yip-yip that was in the room. The Yip-Yip’s advantage is that it had Mjolnir covered in carpet tape. I’m bringing Sherlock Hemlock to the next round if I am invited.

Next panel was in the Sci-Fi track entitled “Muppets Sci-Fi: Favorite series recast”. You could only have one human and cast the rest with Muppets. Mine was Sherlock Holmes. Keep Holmes human say Hiddleston or David Thewlis then Rolf is Watson, Gonzo is Lestrade, Uncle Deadly is Moriarity, and so on.

The next panel was in DragonCon families, a track I didn’t know existed, but it needs to exist, entitled” Theater life for kids”. We talked about auditioning, weird props we have dealt with, disasters on stage and how to keep going, and several other topics. The panel was very positive and uplifting. We didn’t say it wasn’t hard, but we did encourage the kids to give it a try. I told my Yale story where I was the audition secretary. What the people auditioning didn’t know is how they treated me played into their score to getting into the Drama School. 

I went to see Caroline and Thinn at the table to find out we sold several copies of “The Complete Howling Mad” along with a blank puppet body.

Walking back to the Hilton something strange started happening with my body where I was listing to the left and bending towards that side. Had a hard time breathing. When I got to the front of the Hyatt I was in bad shape. They sat me down and checked me for stroke. They got me some water and let me sit there until I felt normal again. I made it to the Hilton but it was one of the hardest walks I had done. 

I went to the Marriot to a panel on the most amazing car I have ever seen. It was the Studebaker from the Muppet Movie. Inside were great recreations of Fozzie and Kermit built by my friend Cher. I loved being able to be so close to the car. All I could think was “Ah a bear in his natural habitat, a Studebaker.” It is an amazing reconstruction of the original car. The company that rebuilt it was Razor Fly Studios and they did a fine job. It was interesting to hear about the problems along the way to get it back to a running car with a killer paint job. The car will now be on view at the Studebaker Museum.

The final activity of my day was the Friday Night Workmanship Contest. This year was harder than last year to judge. Best in show was easy. The minute she walked in we knew she would be hard to beat. It was a Neverending Story costume. She had a Falcor twisting around her along with one of the wolves. The base of the costume told the story in pictures. Her costume was the princess’ but augmented. It was a thing of beauty. There were a lot of wonderful costumes but in the end we judged them and gave them the winners.

Afterwards I went to my brother’s room and relaxed with friends. Vin managed to get me to stop leaning. He recommended some things to do to stop it. 

Saturday August 30, 2025

The Parade gave me some time to get myself together the next morning.

First panel is one I suggested and am the moderator of entitled “So you want to build a puppet?” It is where people come with their questions and problems they are having with puppets they are working on. We had some really good questions, and the panel had good answers for them. I love that panel so much.

Next was back to the Hilton and “Meet the Winners of the Friday Night Costuming Contest”. Where the winners showed off how they created those magnificent costumes. The audience asked intelligent questions, and it was a good discourse.

I went back to our table and sold some books and almost sold some puppets.

It was weird, I didn’t do any real walk arounds with my puppets. I usually I have a puppet on my arm consistently. This year I walked around with a head for a while. I just wasn’t feeling it. It kind of scares me.

Walking back to the Hilton something strange started happening with my body where I was listing to the left and bending towards that side. Had a hard time breathing. When I got to the front of the Hyatt I was in bad shape. They sat me down and checked me for stroke. They got me some water and let me sit there until I felt normal again. I made it to the Hilton but it was one of the hardest walks I had done. The reason I was there was to help my friend Freddy by being his body for a life cast demo. 

Therefor I got plastered before going to Peter’s memorial.

Peter’s memorial hosted by the Comics Track was lovely. We told stories of Peter and what he meant to us. The audience got to participate as well. Paul Jenkins was the moderator. On the panel was Nayr, Colleen Dorran, Garret Wang, Keith De Candido, Kevin J. Anderson, and me. It was nice hearing other professionals talk about Peter. 

After that I had sometime so I went back to the table to let Caroline and Thinn wander the dealer’s hall of which I saw the floor I was on and half of another floor. I just didn’t have the time.

We went to dinner, and I went to my last panel entitled “Giant Walkabouts and Body Puppets” where we talked about giant walkabouts and body puppets. We did end up on some tangents but managed to get back on topic pretty quick. 

I ran back, okay walked quickly, to my hotel room to get ready for Sean’s party. I was dressing up as Barnabas Collins for Sean’s Addams family party. I wore a sticker that said, “Hello I am Cousin Barnabas”. Thinn did my make-up and Caroline my hair. I put on what I had of the costume. I was missing the boot covers and the swallow tailcoat. It was good enough to fool people who knew me. The cane and ring helped a lot.

It was a late night talking to friends. I had a lot of fun.

Sunday August 31, 2026

I gave myself permission to sleep in since I had only one panel for the day.

I got up at nine and got breakfast for the girls before walking over to the table. We ate breakfast and sorted out the day. I took Thinn around to talk to artists about her art and how she could promote it. She got excellent advice from each. I walked the floor with Caroline and bought her a few things. I picked up a Dr. Strange commission from Mike Kunkel which is totally darling.

My panel was entitled “Puppetry and Evil”. Most puppeteers in media are the bad guys. We discussed why. It was a lively discussion. We talked about evil puppets and puppeteers and good puppets and puppeteers. I was able to give a plug for my short story “The Hand Job” from the anthology Side of Good/Side of Evil.

The girls knew I was exhausted, and they encouraged me to take a nap. I did and it did help. By the time I woke up they had already gotten dinner, so I went out to dinner with my friend Joann at an Irish pub I like. We had a good meal and good conversation.

Monday September 1^st 2025

I had one panel entitled “The Last Thing You Want to See At DragonCon: Peter David Memorial”.

This was a tribute that Peter use to close out the Trek Track every year. It was entitled “The Last Thing You Want to See At DragonCon: Peter David.” 

It was Keith DeCandido and me along with the audience. It was a love feast. We were there to support each other. I sold all the copies of “The Complete Howling Mad” I brought with me. 

After that I wandered a bit until it was time to pack up and leave. We did so efficiently and got everything back to the room.

We took the stock with us when we went to get the car and put that in leaving us only our suitcases and bags.

Then it was time for my birthday dinner with my parents. We had a spinach salad, bake potato, broccoli, filet mignon, and cake. It was very yummy. We had good conversation and a lot of fun.

We got back and finished packing our bags. We went to bed at a reasonable hour.

September 2, 2025

We drove back home. The GPS took us a back route that avoided Washington DC entirely. I got the kids back to their apartment about eleven twenty and I got home about twelve twenty-three.

I am so grateful for DragonCon and all the people who make it happen.