I'm just going to delight in the news that today's backer numbers were the highest out of any day in the campaign so far (more than 500 if I'm reading the kicktraq stats right), that the kickstarter hit 5000+ backers this weekend, and that it just passed the $800,000 threshold. With a day to go, I'm eager to be astonished once more :--)
Phoenician
Gus: "I always forget you're there." Hooty: "I forget I'm here toooooo."
posted @ Sun, Feb 11, 2024 11:47:32 pm EST from 72.216.220.229

Cheers for this info, very helpful!!
Bathroom Renovations Adelaide - [paulfias at hotmail dot com]
Paulfias
posted @ Sun, Feb 11, 2024 9:15:46 pm EST from 125.168.110.82

Cheers for this info, very helpful!!
paul - [paulfias at hotmail dot com]
Paulfias
posted @ Sun, Feb 11, 2024 9:14:39 pm EST from 125.168.110.82

Craig > Aaaah, now, that's the kind of detail I'd probably have picked up if I hadn't stopped the "Voices" podcast right about the time it was beginning to talk about both issues. Fear of spoilers and all, you see. Thanks for the pointers.
morrand - [morrand276 at gmail dot com]
posted @ Sun, Feb 11, 2024 8:31:43 pm EST from 99.74.15.252

Morrand > [SPOILER] I also didn't immediately make the assumption that Wyvern was the dragon's name when reading the issue. But on the Voices from the Eyrie podcast, the participants took for granted that Wyvern was its name, and Greg never corrected them, so I assume they're right. And then I remembered that one of the solicitations also refers to "Wyvern the dragon." [/SPOILER]
Craig
posted @ Sun, Feb 11, 2024 2:00:24 pm EST from 24.46.161.3

Finally got my copy of "Dark Ages" #5, so I guess I get to put in my first impressions, um, last:

[SPOILER]
The very first page is hilarious: just two foremen trying to spur on their crew, and then there's the little side conversation in the inset. I really like the paralleling of Malcolm and Mentor here, and then it plays right into the title spread's theme. Things are going well for everyone, it seems.

And then we have the kids screwing around, as they will, attended by someone it took me too much time to recognize. Funny how your mind sort of fills in things like a missing hand, but it is good to see Lefty in a fairly cheerful mood. Also good to see him instantly protecting Brother Valdez against the chaos that follows.

And so we get into the meat of this story, with Alesand flying along. Side note: the way she's flying along seems mechanically improbable to my cold technical heart, and it does make me wonder... Well, anyway, we get to a cave that is not at all ominous, to a gate that is not at all ominous, etc. And a minor reveal that Lexington can read even at this young age, and evidently why he's learned how.

The ghostcage looks familiar to me somehow, but I've got a bit of reviewing to do before I can be sure of that.

And, at long last, we have dragon. Finally, and even sleeping on a pile of gold. [/SPOILER]

Breaking momentarily to confirm to Todd that it was really not a spoiler at all, not after issue #3, all those false promises from all those promo blurbs, and a couple of cover variants for #4. More like an overdue appearance. Anyway:

[SPOILER] Brief pause to check in with everyone else. It took me a second look to notice there's someone peeking in from the back in three of the four panels (more parallels with the main action?).

There is nothing ominous in what Demona is learning to read, I am sure.

Lovely dragon (kudos to Drew Moss). Too bad it's a bit of a bigot. And so we get the main action of the trio-plus defending their allies the best they can, which as it turns out is not that well (other than the more immediate problem of getting Alesand away safely) as the dragon immediately heads off to handle what it no doubt sees as the bigger problem, setting up for issue #6.

Very interesting relationship set up between the dragon and the gargoyles. I'm curious to see if it gets developed further in the next issue at all. Not optimistic, as it looks like a lot more action than exposition is coming, but curious.
[/SPOILER]

Craig: I don't quite see that [SPOILER] the dragon is *named* Wyvern, or at least nothing unequivocal saying that. It seems just as likely that the hill was called Wyvern's Hill in antiquity, and the (unnamed) dragon took the hill's name as the name of its resident clan. I don't say this is more likely than anything else, only that, at best, there's enough loose in the story to allow for it. "On my land! On Wyvern's Hill!" suggests I'm wrong about that.

At any rate, it's clear that the gargoyles generally see a great deal more personal significance in names than the humans do. Their personal identity is much broader than just the tag that a human name is, and so you get comments about names being limiting, and so on. For all that I know, the clan could have rejected names in the aftermath of Wyvern (should that be the dragon's name) as a way of rejecting it, and asserting that they were much more than just its cousins, followers, guardians, or what have you. Maybe we'll learn more about this, maybe not, but the whole name thing seems to have a lot of depth behind it and to give a good entry point to gargoyle culture in any case. [/SPOILER]

I am hitting my limit of annoyance that "Gargoyles" #11 is *still* not in my hands after several weeks of promises from my now-former dealer. Not that it matters much, except if it puts this write-up into context somehow--I don't expect it, but then I didn't expect the remark about a "verity" to get paralleled between "Manhattan" and "Dark Ages" either--and except that I got to blow off steam about it somewhere. Kind of like a [SPOILER] kettle. [/SPOILER]

(Well, what word did you think it was going to be?)
morrand - [morrand276 at gmail dot com]
posted @ Sun, Feb 11, 2024 11:46:10 am EST from 99.74.15.252

Sorry about the spoiler tag; I forgot the slash for the second bracket. (At least by now, everyone here most likely knows, even if they hadn't read that issue of "Dark Ages", that that character would be introduced, especially since he'd been foreshadowed at the end of "Dark Ages" #3, so it probably wasn't that big a spoiler.)
Todd Jensen
posted @ Sat, Feb 10, 2024 7:28:01 pm EST from 174.72.60.154

Oh, and as "Voices From the Eyrie" pointed out at Twitter/X, today begins the Year of the Dragon, [SPOILER] just after a living dragon shows up in "Gargoyles". [SPOILER] Talk about great timing.
Todd Jensen
posted @ Sat, Feb 10, 2024 7:11:10 pm EST from 174.72.60.154

CRAIG - I'd noticed that part as well, and have been wondering whether [SPOILER] Monsieur LeMaire would be appearing in "Gargoyle Quest" as well. We know that he's part of the organization that's behind the Redemption Squad, alongside the Director; of course, having the Redemption Squad show up as well - except in a cameo - might make the stage too crowded. We'll have to see. [/SPOILER]
Todd Jensen
posted @ Sat, Feb 10, 2024 7:04:43 pm EST from 174.72.60.154

A few scattered thoughts:

Dark Ages #5 [SPOILER]
A few people have commented on the oddness of the dragon being named Wyvern when he is not a wyvern. But I don't think I've seen anyone mention how intriguing it is that the dragon even has a name at all! There's been some discussion the past few months (especially after the Katana-narrated issue "Mayday") about the various gargoyle clans' potential approaches to names, and whether the Wyvern clan may be the outlier in terms of rejecting names entirely. But it's interesting to me that the Wyvern clan's "founder" and their "cousin" has a name, and what's more, he passed that name on to the clan itself as well as the land they call home. This seems to mean that naming is not such a foreign concept to them as we thought, or at least it wasn't at some point in their distant history.

And keeping with my habit of noticing nerdy indicia, I see that the "special thanks" credits that appear on the digital edition of Dark Ages #5 are missing from the print edition, oddly.
[/SPOILER]

I also see in the interview with Greg that ScreenRant published yesterday that he teased the return of a character...

[SPOILER]
Monsieur Le Maire.
[/SPOILER]

I wonder if we'll see that character in Gargoyles: Quest.
Craig
posted @ Sat, Feb 10, 2024 1:36:41 pm EST from 24.46.162.156

Less that 3 days to go and we're only a little shy of 700,000!

I'm hoping we get just a little bit more if for no other reason than to show how much the series still has an impact today.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dynamiteent/30th-anniversary-disney-gargoyles-collections-are-here
Matthew
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!
posted @ Sat, Feb 10, 2024 1:56:17 am EST from 64.85.245.77

Craig> Great question. Never thought about it and I don't recall seeing it addressed anywhere in all these years. Now I'm curious too!
Matt
"And, thus, given no choice, we waited..." - Alesand, "The Reach"
posted @ Fri, Feb 9, 2024 10:36:38 am EST from 204.184.178.1

A bit of a random question, but...has Greg ever disclosed who created the GARGOYLES font/logo? I happened to be admiring a poster I have, and the thought occurred to me. It's so distinctive and unique, and has been such a huge part of the franchise since the show debuted.
Craig
posted @ Thu, Feb 8, 2024 5:49:26 pm EST from 24.46.161.89

A new "Disney Television Animation" YouTube piece:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9OsBsRneO0
Todd Jensen
posted @ Thu, Feb 8, 2024 8:21:17 am EST from 174.72.60.154

THAT'S GREAT THANKS FOR SHARING THIS WITH US
commercial fencing Ipswich - [bse28687 at nezid dot com]
posted @ Thu, Feb 8, 2024 3:35:42 am EST from 114.108.250.148

With 5 days to go, the Kickstarter has crossed the $600,000 mark and is closing in on 4000 individual backers!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dynamiteent/30th-anniversary-disney-gargoyles-collections-are-here
Masterdramon - [kmc12009 at mymail dot pomona dot edu]
"If you run you gain one, but if you move forward you gain two." - Suletta Mercury
posted @ Wed, Feb 7, 2024 10:29:14 pm EST from 76.173.137.179

MATTHEW - Thanks. Expect the other ten verses on the first Monday of each month.

("The Garden Poem" actually does feature a lot in "Poetry Around the Year"-type books, especially those focused on nature and the cycle of the seasons. I remember seeing it in a children's poetry book when I was very young - though I didn't learn that the author was Samuel Taylor Coleridge's daughter until recently.)
Todd Jensen
posted @ Mon, Feb 5, 2024 7:43:10 pm EST from 174.72.60.154

Oh that's excellent news. I was curious about potential stretch goals.

I'm looking forward to reading more of that poem, Todd. That's not one I'm familiar with.
Matthew
Ain't nothing crazy 'bout me but my brain!
posted @ Mon, Feb 5, 2024 7:40:24 pm EST from 64.85.245.77

Third. (Trying on avatars, sorry if I'm duplicating anyone.)

Kickstarter backers, please check your email for a "Special Thank You Surprise Announcement."
morrand - [morrand276 at gmail dot com]
posted @ Mon, Feb 5, 2024 5:36:38 pm EST from 99.74.15.252

As a teacher, I'm hoping more that February brings the ice and snow. I need school cancelled!

Second!
Matt
"And, thus, given no choice, we waited..." - Alesand, "The Reach"
posted @ Mon, Feb 5, 2024 1:44:47 pm EST from 204.184.178.1

February brings the rain
Thaws the frozen lake again.

"The Garden Year", Sara Coleridge
Todd Jensen
posted @ Mon, Feb 5, 2024 7:36:16 am EST from 174.72.60.154