The Lyceum itself was a little "under construction", but a lot of it seemed cosmetic, where the building is fully functional, it just looks a little ghetto. Nothing wrong if you don't mind cement floors in the bathroom, and press board floors under your table. The lighting was also pretty bad. It has a good location though, and it's close to a few good restaurants and bars. They didn't have heat in the upper level where the panels were being held, so while on the Graphic NYC panel I was mostly freezing. If this con was held any earlier, we would have been baking in the basement like we did at MoCCA (the circulation wasn't that great, and sometimes the floor felt a little stuffy), and any later and we would have froze on our panels- so the timing was just right for this convention too.
The signings that the con set up were also a little weird, they were held either behind the panel area, or in a small loft space above the convention floor. It didn't seem like anybody cared to get anything signed, or even knew that they were going on.
As far as table space goes, I didn't think I would be attending but at the last minute decided to bring a few books and put them on a friend's table- they had 8' and 6' tables, for reasonable prices I think but personally I didn't sell much (granted, I didn't have much to sell) but our table was in the back, under the before-mentioned loft space, so it was pretty dark. We didn't get that much traffic either, or a way to get in or out of the table- we had to go under it, or climb over the side. Which is fun I guess, but let's face it- we're all a little too old to be climbing under tables.
(Photo taken by the always dapper Josh Bernstein.) Anyway- all in all this con was a success! It was pretty ambitious for a first con, but it ran smoothly and the people who put it together definitely had a vision for it. I had fun just walking around, and I'd definitely go back again, although I'm not sure I'd get a table. The Lyceum is a good space, even if it's in need of a facelift, it was in a great location. It had a feeling like MoCCA did when it had just started- small, intimate, and a lot of familiar faces.
It was great seeing everyone again!
Wednesday I'm off to Japan and then Thailand again- will blog more about that tomorrow. In the meantime Comic Attack is on hold while I travel- will pick back up again when I get back in December! :D
