Los Angeles Comic Con 2023
Neopets first announced they were attending Los Angeles Comic Con (LACC) on November 3rd through their November monthly email. Unlike other conventions they attended in 2023, TNT did not otherwise announce their attendance publicly on social media or the New Features page.

The excerpt of the November monthly email announcing Neopets's attendance at LACC 2023
LA Comic Con 2023 took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center on December 1st through 3rd, 2023.
Neopets Booth
The Neopets booth featured a massive backdrop banner celebrating the upcoming 25th anniversary of Neopets.com. TNTers were tentatively referring to this pet colouring as "Celebration" as a name that references the 25th anniversary but would not become dated; could we be seeing a new colour soon? In addition to selling Neopets merch, it served as a hub to learn more about Neopets.com, Island Builders, Faerie's Hope, and World of Neopia.

A close-up of the booth backdrop. Open this image in a new tab to zoom in for extra detail!


The booth setup at the start on Friday

The booth setup on Sunday
Merch for Sale
A number of merch items were available for purchase at the booth.
A collection of phone grips was available for $5 each. This was the same set available at gamescom Asia 2023. These are different than the Hong Kong pop-up phone grips, which featured celebration-coloured Neopets.


A close-up of the Blue Shoyru Phone Grip
The Island Kadoatie, Plushie Snowbunny, Rainbow Slorg, and Royal Meepit key clip plushies from the Neopets Shop were also available for $10 each.
A 25th Anniversary Sticker Sheet, exclusive to LACC, was available for $5.
The so-called "NeoHoods" with moveable ears were available for $35 each.

Two different limited edition art prints by TNT Fae, left over from San Diego Comic-Con 2023, were also available for $10 each (a bit cheaper than at SDCC!).
Freebies
A Neopian Times brochure was available, containing information about the various Neopets games.


Open these images in a separate tab to zoom in for better detail!
A special 25th Anniversary Holographic Sticker was available for free by checking in to the Neopets booth on the LACC app.
A Neopets 2024 calendar was available for free for following any official Neopets social media page.
Andrews McMeel Panel
Andrews McMeel Publishing, the publisher of Neopets: The Official Cookbook and upcoming Neopets graphic novels, hosted a panel titled "Let's Talk Kidlit!" at 3:00pm on Saturday. Although the panel was not run by Neopets nor strictly about Neopets, it was moderated by cookbook co-author Erinn Pascal and featured TNT Aesop as one of the speakers.
A brochure at the panel included a single page dedicated to Andrews McMeel's Neopets publications, and in particular the upcoming graphic novels. The QR code links to the publisher's page for Neopets: The Omelette Faerie. This brochure is also the first time the title and plot of the second graphic novel, Neopets: The Discarded Magical Blue Grundo of Prosperity, was publicly revealed.
More about TDMBGPOP »
Guide to TDMBGPOP »
TNT Aesop gave a brief introduction of himself at the start of the panel:
I'm [Aesop]. I'm a writer too. I've published a young adult fantasy novel about 10 years ago now, and after working on a few other projects I ended up as creative director of Neopets.
I actually started as an intern at Neopets almost four years ago now. I was a content intern, just helping out with news, spotlights, the Neopian Times—a huge part of my life honestly, I still read it to this day. That's how I got my start. I was lucky enough and fortunate enough to have the opportunity to continue moving up and move more towards narrative, which is telling the stories as opposed to just kind of promoting them in the news and stuff like that. I think the work just ended up shining, and I really felt like kind of where I belonged almost at a certain point. I think there's something to be said about getting up from just having a chance to get out there and get a little of your work out there and seeing how people respond to it too. And getting a sense of like, kind of like you were saying earlier Terrance [Crawford], you want to write something that you want to read yourself, that you really enjoy. And I think seeing that illuminated through other faces and other people in the Neoboards or on Facebook and all these groups, chatting about the things and stories to be told, seeing all the fan art, it can be really, really inspiring. I think it just makes you want to just reach higher up in that hierarchy.
Later in the panel, Aesop and Erinn discussed a bit about the two graphic novels, the first of which (Neopets: The Omelette Faerie) is expected to release August 2024.
Erinn: So, the cookbook was a little bit less of a narrative experience, because it was kind of like "here's how to cook" and "here's a description" and also like "haha borovan." The graphic novels have been completely different to work on. You have been absolutely helping to shepherd that. Is there anything that you kind of want to talk about there, and how it's been working on that kind of narrative?
Aesop: Yeah, definitely, especially since we're talking about licensing stuff already. Yeah, I think it's first of all so much fun because I get to get like a sneak peek and like look at things. I get so excited just reading through it, just as a fan myself already, so I think that's the first thing I just love about is getting that sneak peek and a chance to look behind the scenes and see what's going on. But I will say, it's interesting from a narrative point of view too because we have a live service game, and there's other games too happening in the background. So although one of the most important things is double checking my goal[?], making sure everything is aligned in terms of narrative, it makes sense, it holds up to the past stuff we've had before. It also means that I need to keep in mind the future projects that we have planned too. A plot that's coming out next year, we have quite a few other projects on our docket right now, some with narrative elements. Those that have narrative elements, we need to make sure they weave in very well with what we're doing right now. For instance, one of the graphic novel ideas we had, one of the character journeys was tied very closely to a character journey we had already been planning on site.
Erinn: I wanted it so badly.
Aesop: I like that we were on the same wavelength! We already had the same thought even at different times. It's interesting how you have to kind of do a little bit of proactive thinking there, really think ahead, think about how are we gonna line up all these different character journeys happening. How we make sure that it's not going to be repetitive, like we're telling the same story twice. They're unique, they're different, they're bringing something new to the table. They're building on that same box that's already been there. How can we continue to augment and uplift[?] this brand? So it's a little challenging sometimes, especially cause you guys have such great ideas. And like I said, I don't wanna have to pull them back if it's too close to stuff on site. But I think having that balance is really important too.
Erinn: Absolutely. So we have the first graphic novel that's coming out in August 2024. But I can announce there will be an early release at San Diego Comic Con this year. It will be the same graphic novel, just earlier. And then there's the second graphic novel. Do you wanna talk about that?
Aesop: I think so?
Erinn: I did write it in here, people have already gotten a spoiler.
Aesop: As long as it's aware it's out there, yeah!
Erinn: Cause this is an exclusive LA Comic Con reveal.
Aesop: That's right, alright, you heard it here first. Yeah, no, we have another one coming out. The first one was already really exciting about the Omelette Faerie. The second one is about an often forgotten Neopian: the discarded...the Magical Discarded Grundo of Prosperity.
Erinn: Discarded Magical. And I only know that because the amount of times I have edited this and gotten it wrong. TDMGPOP. Duh!
Aesop: So yeah, that one has been going really well. You guys really put a lot of heart into that one. I really think a lot of people will really appreciate that one. Just as like...I don't want to get too much into it and give too much of the stories away.
Erinn: It made me cry. I didn't write it. We have an author Rebecca Mix, who's the New York Times bestseller of The Ones We Burn. She wrote it. It made me cry.
Aesop: It was really powerful. I had some tears welling up, I'll be honest.
Erinn: It's kind of Barbie [the movie] in a weird way.
Aesop: That's a good way to put it.
Erinn: Like kind of Barbie, but also like plushie, I'm kind of getting emotional, like I might cry here. But yeah, exclusive reveal, working in a different sandbox.
This page was written by Kenny, Ummy, and Perry and last updated on July 21, 2024.