RADIO PLAY: The History

I posted this in the comment room, but Todd suggested I repost it here...

RADIO PLAYS...

Sometimes I just don't have anything Gargoyles for us to do. And I'm not sure if just doing old episodes is all that interesting. And the other things have been fun... at least it seemed that way to me.

Here's a history of the works of the GATHERING PLAYERS...

1998 - RAIN OF THE GHOSTS (an unproduced pilot I wrote)
1999 - THE ROSWELL CONSPIRACIES (a rejected pilot I wrote)
2000 - ROUGHNECKS: THE STARSHIP TROOPERS CHRONICLES (the last arc of the series, which I story edited, half of which was unproduced. Written by me, Jon Weisman Lydia Marano, Cary Bates and Michael Reaves.)
2001 - GARGOYLES: "Hunter's Moon, Part Three" (Note: this was the first time that we actually did something gargoyles related for the radio play. This included scenes that were cut for time from the original. Written by Michael Reaves.)
2002 - TEAM ATLANTIS: "The Last" (Unproduced episode featuring Demona and Fiona Canmore, written by me)
2003 - GARGOYLES: "The Reckoning" (Performed in honor of Gary Sperling, who co-wrote the script with Lydia.)
2004 - GARGOYLES: "The Journey" (my uncut version of the script)
2005 - DOC SHAKESPEARE (An unproduced pilot written by myself and Sam Bernstein)
2006 - GARGOYLES: "The Mirror" (written by Lydia Marano and Brynne Chandler Reaves)
2007 - GARGOYLES: "Clan Building, Chapters III, IV & V: Invitation Only, Masque & Bash" - (from the comic, premeiring chapter V before it was published. Written by me...)
2008 - Geez, I should probably figure this out soon...

Anyway, you can see that traditionally, we've only done something gargish about half the time. For me it's fun to get to see my unproduced work performed, and it does give the fans a little insight into the biz. In any case, I've never heard any complaints from the folks who attended.
Greg Weisman
OFF TO CHICAGO... ON A WING AND A PRAYER...

Radio Play on YouTube

Thanks to Patrick Toman, the Gathering 2007 Radio Play has been uploaded to YouTube. Because YouTube has a new rule that permits videos to be no more than 10 minutes long, Patrick had to split the 42 minutes of footage into five segments in order to also include titles and credits. Here are the links:

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j63pDlPaKnQ
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRkv56AC-F4
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s58H_Tdi09E
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6PUx6GsdFA
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkurc-TW99o

RADIO PLAY CAST LIST

Well, I'm a little bummed out today. Went to Golden Apple after work to pick up a copy of issue #5 of the comic, but it was sold out. Damn you, Blaise!! Just kidding. I'm bummed because I've learned that Golden Apple -- my own local comic book store -- only ordered three copies of the book. Way to support your local writers, huh? It's very unclear to me whether they plan to order any more copies. But I know I'm not the only one who went in asking for it and came away disappointed.

But... sigh... that's not why I'm here.

As promised, now that the book is out, the staff of the Gathering 2007 has permission to put the Radio Play on YouTube. Don't know when that will happen, but in the meantime, here's the cast list:

Sarah Browne - Airalana
Alex Xanatos - Bridgette/Igiebay & Samuel Davis
D.J. - Kerry Boyd
Jason Canmore - Emambu
Bronx - Bridgette (Igiebay)
Terry Chung - Rebekah
Burbank - Tris Coffin
Hollywood - Amber Garrity
Malibu - King Cobra-582/Ed
Fox - Karine
John Castaway - Emambu
Susan Greene - Elenna Wolfen/Jennifer Branton
Brendan Quarters - David Brown
Anton Sevarius - A Fan, David
Billy Greene - Tiffany Taber
Ian Roebling - Revel
Margot Yale - Ashlee/Norcumi
Maggie the Cat - Rachel (Grey Wolf)
Jeffrey Robbins - Jonathan Francis
Amanda Chung - Cati Brantan
Jay Sato - Shawna Garrity (Nashoba)
Matt Bluestone - Rob "Jurgan" Dukes
Broadway - Greg Bishansky
Morgan Morgan - Chip (Gryphin Wyrm 7)
Delilah - Sarah McEvoy
Quincy Hemings - Mike Canavan
Owen Burnett - Mandi Ohlin
Shari - Abbie
Lexington - Jae
Hudson - Tris Coffin
Al - Alex "Carter" Checnkov
Talon - Anthony Zucconi (Archangel)
Brooklyn - Seth Jackson
Martin Hacker - Eric "Gorebash" Tribou
Angela - Jennifer Anderson
David Xanatos - Roberto Rivera
Goliath - John Clemens
Elisa Maza - Phoenix-Talon
Thailog - Emambu

with Greg Weisman narrating...

and Thom Adcox as Brentwood

[Note that the names of the cast reflect how they filled out their audition forms.]

Big cast, huh?

Gathering 2007 - Insta-Journal, Part Ten

TUESDAY, JUNE 26th, 2007

Got up. Packed. Handed a box over to Nikki, because I had more stuff than would fit in my duffle and briefcase. Worked on Spidey some more in the lobby 'til my 'puter ran out o' juice. Kathy and I went to the Red Rooster for lunch - great berry pancakes. Then she drove me to the Knoxville Airport. She got a bit turned around along the way, but not at a true Bishansky-level. HOWEVER, United Airlines definitely topped Bishansky. Arrived at the airport at about 2:30pm for a 5:30pm flight to Chicago, with a connection to L.A. -- but the flight was cancelled around 4:45pm. Was then placed on a 7:30pm flight to Chicago, with a new connection. That flight was delayed until 9:30pm, and at 9pm was cancelled also. The soonest I could get to L.A., I was told was by taking a morning flight to Denver, and a connection from there that would put me into LAX at about 1:30pm on Wednesday. This was... problematic, as I had a 10:30am Spider-Man Episode #4 voice recording. But what choice did I have? And what was I to do until morning? We were the LAST flight of the day cancelled, but far from the ONLY flight cancelled. By the time we knew we weren't getting out every hotel room in the vicinity was booked -- or nearly. I walked to the Hilton, where a nice lady told me they were booked, but called a Country Inn Suites nearby that had one room left. They picked me up. I got a room with a HUGE jacuzzi smack dab in the middle of the room. I didn't feel like jacuzzing much, but I did get to PAY the premium associated with having the thing. It was also their only Smoking Room, so it was quite... stinky. But it was a room. I found out later that some of my fellow passengers didn't get a room at all. I ordered Dominos, watched a little t.v. and went to sleep.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27th, 2007
Got up. Checked out. Got a ride to the airport. Got on a plane to Denver. Got McDonalds. Ran into Crispin Freeman of all people in the Denver Airport. He was on my flight to L.A. The odds of this -- given all I had gone through the day before strike me as astronomical. Flew to L.A. The car drove me home, and I pretty much dumped my stuff and headed to the recording session. Stayed there until 6pm and went home. Beat the rest of my family home. It's VERY good to be home. I'm home.

To everyone -- I had a terrific time! I hope all of you did too. My thanks go out to Nikki and her always cheerful staff and to all of you, old friends and new, who attended and made things so great. I'll admit, that given ALL the work I had to do this trip (not just during the Gathering part), I was a bit more stressed than I usually am. I know I got cranky here and there. So I appreciate everyone's patience! But once again, thanks!

Gathering 2007 - Insta-Journal, Part Nine

MONDAY, JUNE 23rd, 2007

When I woke up around 9am, my arm was killing me from Air Hockey. I am SO old and decrepit (more on this in a second). At 10am, Thom, Karine and I had a signing during the auction. I also purchased some G2008 t-shirts for Beth, Erin & Benny. Then I had a phone meeting about the music for Spider-Man. Then Closing Ceremonies, which is always bittersweet. The plan was to head out to Dollywood, but it started to rain during Closing, so instead 20 of us went to play Laser Tag. Despite my sore shoulder, I played more air hockey, beating ALL comers. I was like some kind of air hockey god! Of course, Flanker wasn't there, so he might still have been able to beat me. I so need a rematch. My shoulder even felt better AFTER playing. Then Laser Tag, which was fun. But almost immediately after that, I was sore as hell. I got a root beer at Wallmart, and then 18 of us went to dinner at Corky's. I sat with Kathy, Seth, Sammy and Greg, and we had great barbecue and split two cobblers, including an AMAZING berry cobbler. We walked back to the hotel, and it was back to work for me - despite the fact that by this time my legs, back, shoulder, you name it, were stiff as hell and killing me. Oh, well, no rest for the weary or the wicked or both. I finished editing the seventh Spider-Man outline and turned that in at about 3am. Watched some t.v. until 4am, and went to sleep.

TO BE CONCUDED...

Gathering 2007 - Insta-Journal, Part Eight

SUNDAY, JUNE 23rd, 2007

Despite going to bed at 4am, I woke up for no good reason at 5:30am. Stayed in bed for 45 minutes, hoping I'd get back to sleep. No go. So I got up and worked. Checked my e-mail, did an Insta-Journal and worked on the outline for Spider-Man episode #7. Jamie Thomason, Gargoyles & Spider-Man voice director, called, and we reviewed the recording script for Spidey ep. #4. Then at noon I went to my first panel of the day: Gargoyles Physiology & Culture with Lynati and Jade. It was truly a fascinating panel for me. I love hearing and talking about this stuff. At 2pm, Karine and I had the Gargoyles & Bad Guy Comic Book panel. Since, I'm reluctant to reveal too much beyond issue #5 (since everyone at the Gathering saw #5 the night before), the panel turned into a fan marketing seminar. But I guess that's okay. At 3:30, I met with Ted, a Cartoon Network writer to discuss a project we're working on together. Then at 5pm came the Banquet. I sat with Karine, Samuel, Thom and Nikki. The food was very good. I really liked the Apple Pie. We had one more Q&A, led by Abbie, mostly, who is VERY enthusiastic and fun. After that, Thom and I played Air Hockey. People began to gather, and I beat all comers (Thom twice, Ed, Yami Raven) -- except Flanker, who beat me twice. Our last game, I was winning at one point 6-2 and I just lost all energy, like someone flipped a switch. I only needed one more goal, and he still beat me 7-6. Next came the Masquerade. The big winner -- best in show -- was Aaron as Hal the Gargoyle Halloween King. AMAZING costume. There was some dancing and singing and lip synching. After that, Mike and Tracy helped Thom, Susan and I record a You Tube promo for G2008. I went back down to the Masq, but I was pretty tired. Stopped by Jennifer, Gore & Karine's room and then went to bed. Slept for SEVEN hours, which for me is just great!

Gathering 2007 - Insta-Journal, Part Seven

SATURDAY, JUNE 23rd, 2007

We held our second set of auditions at 10am. A good turnout, which was lucky, as we had 40 (that's right 40) speaking parts to hand out. We wound up with 37 auditions and -- over lunch at a pancake house -- cast all of them, with a few people doubling up. One of our 36 didn't show up to rehearsal, so we (myself, Thom Adcox and Jennifer Anderson) wound up with a cast of 36 (or 38, if you count me and the two Alex Xanatoses -- more on that later).

At 2pm, I had my mug-a-guest with a small group of fans, which was a lot of fun.

And then at 4pm, we held our rehearsal. The large cast was very intimidating... that many people means that much can go wrong, but wow, what a great group. They all did terrific even in the first (and only) read through. Gave just a few notes -- mostly about projecting to the back of the room -- and then we took a short break before the performance at 5:30pm.

The Radio Play was Chapters 3, 4 & FIVE of Clan-Building. That's right. If you attended the Gathering this year, you got a sneak peak at how the story turns out in Chapter Five. I've sworn everyone (cast & audience) to secrecy until AFTER the book comes out in July. And to reiterate, if someone DOES leak info about issue 5 before then, it will effect what I'll be willing to tease in future radio plays. The good news is that everyone seemed to have a great time, and seemed to really like and feel satisfied by the story. Got some big laughs too. The cast was too huge for me to have it memorized, and I'm down in the lobby -- the only place I can get a signal -- so I don't have it with me, so in a future posting, I'll list the cast. Promise.

A group of us went to dinner across the street. Me, Karine & Samuel, Jennifer, Patrick, Sammy, Seth, Rebekah, Gore, Susan, Tony & Andrea. I had trout. Then while everyone else went off to get tatoos (which they didn't get -- I'm told because there wasn't time), I went back to the lobby to get some Spider-Work done.

Soon enough it was 10pm and time for the Blue Mug-A-Guest. Procedings began on the raunchy side... and were intermittently raunchy throughout, but it wasn't non-stop sleeze. It was pretty funny though. The mug broke up around 1:15am. A few of us stayed in the room until after 2 I think, but I was literally falling asleep in my chair, so Jen sent me to bed. But by that time, I had a headache. Didn't fall asleep until 4am. Woke up at 5:30am. Stayed in bed until 6:30am. Then gave up and got up.

MORE TO COME...

Gathering 2007 - Insta-Journal, Part Six

FRIDAY, JUNE 22nd, 2007

The first real day of the Gathering -- and I spent a TON of it working on Spider-Man, which is more than a little frustrating. The whole morning was Spideyesque. Got my G2007 t-shirt, and toured the art room. Attended a bit of Thom's voice actor panel at 1:30pm, before I had to break off for another Spidey-related business call. Went to lunch with Jennifer, Patrick, Thom, Rebekah, Tony, Andrea and a couple of others. Finally at 3pm we held the first auditions for the Radio Play. Then at 5pm, Opening Ceremonies. A welcome to fans and guests. The Fan Guest of Honor Award went to Karine Charlebois, for years of dedicated (never-miss) Gathering attendance, con-chairing Montreal's Gathering (pregnant no-less) and being such an amazing fan artist that she is now a pro, pencilling Gargoyles #5 and the Bad Guys Mini-series. Susan Leonard, co-conchair of G2008 in Chicago spoke, and sent regrets from her well-but-recently hospitalized co-conchair Ellen Stolfa. Then I got up and did my schpiel, including the old promo's and pitches (for Gargoyles, New Olympians & Dark Ages) and a couple of animatics: Bad Guys and "The Last". Vashkoda has done an amazing job at continuing to put this "episode" together. Then it was mini-golf with Mike and Tracy and Susan. I got the top score on my team, but Sarah the Great on the other team, beat me handily. Then Dinner at Huck Finn's Catfish. I had fried chicken. Good stuff. Back to the hotel to try and get some work done, but the hotel connection, which only works in the lobby kept shutting down. Then Jennifer, Seth, Sammy, Tony, Andrea and myself talked on the balcony overlooking the pool. Then I went back to my room. Should have Spidey'd it up then too, but I was too beat. So I watched some tv and then went to sleep.

MORE TO COME...

Gathering 2007 - Insta-Journal, Part Five

THURSDAY, JUNE 21st, 2007

Travel day. Beth and I got up early, packed, checked out and finally had a breakfast at our bed and breakfast. (Eggs Benedict.) Then we drove to Boston, where Beth dropped me off at Logan Airport before heading back to Nantucket to join the kids and her folks. I bought a Dunkin Donut at the airport, reviewed the outline for the 11th episode of Spidey, listened to audio for the second and third episodes, began the Kandell book and flew to Washington Dulles, where I ate a bag of my Cape Cod chips. Got on the plane to Knoxville, and slept uncomfortably through most of the flight. Landed in Knoxville, where I was picked up by Kathy Pogge, who drove me to Pigeon Forge. Got to the Grand Hotel and into my room. NO INTERNET SIGNAL in the room. Crap. (I'm currently down in the lobby typing this.) Had to spend a lot of time on the phone long distance to Spidey folk, which held up the staff dinner. (Apologies.) Finally, I made it downstairs, and fifteen of us... (me, Kathy, Jennifer, Nikki, Karine, Thom, Samuel, Susan, Patrick, Tony, Andrea, Jenn, Lynati and... and... ugh, forgetting, sorry) went across the street to the Japanese (bennihana-esque) restaurant. Great food. Sushi, steak, shrimp, lobster, veggies, salad, soup.) Fun. Yep, the Gathering has *un*officially started! Back to the hotel. I'd love to just hang out, but I have so much work still to do this week.

MORE TO COME...

Gathering 2007 - Insta-Journal, Part FourQ. .

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20th, 2007

Went to bed late after finishing an edit on the sixth outline of the Spectacular Spider-Man -- and then woke up early again for no good reason. Beth and I drove to Hyannis to tour the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory. On the way, I finally got that haircut I've been desperately needing. Today it rained, the first lousy weather day since we arrived in New England. The weather's been universally great. After the Potato Chip factory, we went to a mall so that I could buy a book. Bought a couple mysteries, the latest Cece Caruso by our friend Susan Kandell, and what I think is the first Michael Connelly Hieronymous Bosch mystery, which I've heard is great. We had lunch, and then went to see Knocked Up. Then back to Eastham. Relaxed for a bit, then went out to dinner at the Marconi Beach Bar-B-Q. Some good pulled pork.

More to come...

Gathering 2007 - Insta-Journal, Part Three

TUESDAY, JUNE 19th, 2007
Beth and I slept through the "Breakfast part of "Bed & Breakfast". Got up at a leisurely pace and went to Dunkin Donuts instead. Then we drove down to Provincetown. We parked and walked up the hill to the Provincetown Museum and to the Pilgrim Monument, which we climbed. Then we walked back into town, had really bad pizza, and walked around Commercial Street, which is aptly named. Drove back to the room, and I worked a bit. Then we went out to dinner -- good food at the Wellfleet Restaurant & Bookstore (though I was disappointed to find the bookstore part closed), clam chowder, steamed mussles. We went to see Ocean's 13 and then Ben & Jerry'd our evening away.

More to come...

Gathering 2007 - Insta-Journal, Part Two

MONDAY, JUNE 17th, 2007
Worked on episode six of Spidey, then went to bed about 2am (which is good for me). But I WOKE up for some reason at 6am. Had bacon and eggs for breakfast. And read the outline for episode ten of Spidey. (I've been working up a storm. Joe Dedicated, that's me.) Later, Beth and I went for a walk and met my father-in-law and my kids at a bike store, where bikes were rented for the kids. Erin, Benny, Beth and I had pizza and smoothies for lunch, then we returned to the house.

Beth and I picked up our luggage, and -- after saying goodbye to my kids and mother-in-law -- my father-in-law dropped us off at the ferry to Hyanis for a few days of husband/wife time. We took the ferry to the Cape, rented our car and drove to Eastham, where we checked into a lovely room at the Penny House Inn. We napped a bit, and then went out to dinner at the Lobster Pool, where we had excellent and cheap lobsters. Then Ben & Jerry's. Then mini-golf. Then we saw the movie Waitress, which I enjoyed. (Beth, not so much.) Then back to the room...

More later...

Gathering 2007 - Insta-Journal

As always, I'm hoping that all of you who attend the Gathering this coming week in Pigeon Forge, TN, will post Gathering Journals (of any length) here at ASK GREG. This is useful, as it provides one location for me to refer various PTB types when they want to learn more about the Gathering. The more journals we get here, the more FAN PRESENCE we seem to have. One of these days, I'd like to see 100% journalling, but then again one of these days I'd like to see a Gathering attended by thousands of people...

Anyway, can't ask you to do what I'm not willing to do myself. ASK GREG will open for submissions the day before the Gathering and stay open at minimum through the end of July. But in the meantime, I'll be posting about my own trip...

FRIDAY, JUNE 15th, 2007
Got up early, because I had a VERY busy day ahead of me. First off, a "The Spectacular Spider-Man" voice recording. We had to quickly finish off Spidey's lines for our second episode (which had largely recorded the week before), because we had an editing session that afternoon. When that was done, we had to record nearly all of our third episode with most of our cast. We started out by getting the actors who only had a few lines each (less than ten) out of the way. Then we brought in the rest of the cast for the bulk of the episode. We had done a couple of the actors the day before, and nevertheless we still nearly ran out of time. ARRGGHH. We just made it in under the wire. But I'm hoping that starting with our fourth episode (after I get back) things'll be less crazy, and we'll start recording one complete episode at one session and NOT run out of time.

After the recording, Supervising Director and Producer Vic Cook -- a former Gathering attendee -- and I crossed the street for our edit session. Terry, our editor, had quickly cut in the lines we had recorded that morning, and we completed our natural pause edit with him, often tightening and overlapping lines to make the dialogue play both more naturally -- thus NATURAL pause -- and punchier.

All this took much longer than I had hoped. I was really hoping to get a haircut on Friday, but didn't get the chance. I might try to get one on Cape Cod, but if not, I may be looking pretty scruffy at the Gathering.

I also got a bit of scheduling news on the project that meant that I basically will have to work through my entire vacation. It's a bit of a bummer, as only a day before I was told I didn't have to. But that's life, when you're the"boss" on a show that has a lot of bosses over the "boss". I'm thrilled to have the gig, but it can definitely be exhausting sometimes.

Went home. Checked e-mail as quickly as I could, as I had been at the recording studio all day and not at the office. Packed. Had a grilled cheese sandwich. Raced to Larchmont Village to deposit my paycheck and throw some bills in a mailbox. Raced home. Got in the car with Beth, Erin and Benny and headed for the airport.

We arrived in plenty of time, which is a relief. We all had carry-on baggage only, so that saved us a step too. The kids and I got smoothies, and we waited.

Red-Eye to Boston. Slept some -- through Wild Hogs apparently. Read the revised writer's outline to the seventh episode of Spider-Man. Watched what seemed to be a heavily edited version of "Shooter" and a very funny "The Office" episode. Landed in Boston.

SATURDAY, JUNE 16th, 2007
Ate breakfast at Johnny Rockets. Boarded our flight to Nantucket. Read the revised writer's outline to the eight episode of Spider-Man. Landed in Nantucket. Beth's father picked us up at the airport and drove us to my in-laws' home. Unpacked. Went for a little walk with Beth, the kids and Beth's mom. Had lunch. And took a six hour nap. Got up for dinner. Skirt steak, salad, corn, homemade Banana ice cream (made by my father-in-law and the kids while I slept). Then went to work, checking e-mail again... and editing the Record Draft for the fourth episode of Spidey. Was going to start editing the outline to the sixth episode, but I was sleepy, so I went to bed at midnight, which is stunning for me --- even if you DON'T take into account that by L.A. standards it was really only 9pm. Since I've routinely been going to bed over the last few weeks between 4 and 6 am, this was amazing.

SUNDAY, JUNE 17th, 2007
Woke up early -- also amazing for me -- had a bit of breakfast. Read the outline for the ninth episode of Spidey. So far all these outlines have been in pretty darn good shape, which is always nice. Benny and I went for a walk into town. Came back, and I napped for about an hour. Got up for a Father's day brunch, with Beth, the kids and my in-laws. Had a wonderful Lobster Salad and Lobster Bisque. (Can you tell I'm in New England?) Came back to the house and opened father's day cards. Also called my own dad to wish him a happy father's day. He and my mom had only just returned from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. I'm jealous, but there's no time this year. Hope to take the kids next year. Took ANOTHER nap. I think weeks of averaging three hours of sleep a night, plus all the walking and the fresh air -- the weather is gorgeous -- are wiping me out. But this is a good time to sleep.

We got up for a 4pm concert -- a choral performance by the Nantucket Choir. It was lovely. I was familiar with quite a few of the songs, as my son's choir sang them... at Carnegie Hall last month. From there, Beth and the kids and I went to dinner at the Brotherhood of Thieves. Burger and Clam Chowder. Then Ice Cream at the Juice Bar: one scoop of Crantucket with hot fudge. We walked some more and then went home.

More to come...

GATHERING 2006 - Con Journal - Friday

GATHERING 2006 - Con Journal

My usual caveats... I meet so many people at the Gathering that I can't possibly remember all the names. I apologise. I try, believe me. Please, do not be offended if you've slipped my mind.

Friday, June 23nd
7:30am - Woke up, giving me about 2.5 hours sleep for the night (after a number of bad night's sleeps earlier that week).

9am - I think I shocked the staff by arriving more or less on time to the staff breakfast. (Traditionally, I sleep through it.) I had potatos, Fresh OJ (which I love), french toast and bacon. But, man, I was tasting that breakfast for hours.

I do want to take time to praise the amazing staff of this year's con. Sort of an all-star team of past con chairs and staffers... or as Jen liked to call them, the Dream Team. I'll try to list them all here...

Jennifer L. Anderson - Con Chair
Patrick Toman - Vice Con Chair

Greg Bishansky - Assistant to promotions
Karine Charlebois - Volunteer Coordinator
Seth Jackson - Promotional Coordinator
Cindy Kinnard - Art Show & Masquerade Coordinator
Kythera - Official Lackey
Laurean Leigh - Program & Website Coordinator
Stephanie Lostimolo - Graphics Designer
Christine Morgan - Anthology, Contest & Fan Panel Coordinator
Tim Morgan - Dealer's Room & Auction Coordinator
Scott Sakai - A/V Coordinator
Carol Wagner - Guest Coordinator

And Rob, M.I.A. for the con itself, but otherwise a year-long staffer who kept us on "TOPIC" at our on-line meetings.

Plus a number of great volunteers, people who just pitched in. I felt that this was one of the smoothest run cons I'd ever been to.

APPLAUSE FOR THEM ALL!!!!

After breakfast, I helped carry stuff down to registration.

10am - Went to the Art Room to put Erin & Benny's art panel up. Browsed the other art that was there...

Finally got my first look at "Gargoyles #1: Nightwatch" the new comic. Dan Vado of SLG, who, with Joe Nakamura, was setting up his table in the dealers' room gave me a copy. It was great to finally have it in my hand. Real. Solid. I was thrilled. I realize it isn't perfect, and I know the hardcore fans are probably impatient to get to issue #3, when we enter into a new arc of stories, but I'm still ridiculously proud of the thing. I think David Hedgecock's work is passionate and dramatic, and getting better all the time. I love how Will Terrell's work enhances David's. And the cover by Greg Guler and Steph Lostimolo is just stunning. Thanks to all of them and to Dan and Joe and Jen de Guzman (our editor) and Marty Lund of creaturecomics.com. I do hope all the fans buy a copy or two, but more than that I'd love it if they SPREAD THE WORD about the comic. Don't assume that people know the thing is out there (same with the DVDs and the Gathering too for that matter).

I'm not just talking about word of mouth, though that's great. But I'd love to see each hard core fan take responsibility for finding a way to reach a thousand people. (And I'm only half-kidding.) No, not all of those people will be buying our product, but that's the numbers we need to reach in order to get the numbers we need. Go to conventions. Go on the net to places we haven't thought of. Check out complimentary fandoms and let them know. Nearly everyone I meet at the con has a story about wearing a garg t-shirt or something and having someone say, "Hey, I really liked that show." But they don't know about the comic, DVD or conventions. Those are the people we need to reach. And sure, it would be great if Disney spent some advertising dollars, but it's really not going to happen. So if as fans, you want to see more comics and another DVD release, SPREAD THE WORD.

Specifically, at this con, I heard a LOT of anecdotal stories about the comic already being sold out at individual comic book stores. Which is great, of course. BUT.... The two questions I always wonder about are (1) how many copies were ordered in the first place and (2) now that it's sold out are they ordering more? A lot of stores low-ball their orders (because they've been burned before) and when they sell out, they feel pleased that they guessed right about how many copies to order. They don't necessarily think to order more once they sell out, and if the comic isn't on the shelf, then most people won't know to buy it. So talking to retailers is another VERY helpful tack.

But enough of the sales pitch... back to the ramble...

I spent some time talking to Dand and Joe of SLG, but Si needed a ride to Kinkos to print out some missing Mug-A-Guest sign up sheets. So we hopped in the P.T. Cruiser and took off. When we got back, I popped into a few panels, making a cameo at the Con Virgin Panel and then catching the tail end of Thom & Crispin's Voice Acting Workshop, which was very cool and hi-tech.

3pm - Next up were our first round of Auditions. It was me, Jennifer Anderson and Thom Adcox (i.e. the usual suspects), though a bored Michael Reaves sat in and observed for a while. We had some amazing people this year, but unfortunately one of the smallest casts to cast that we've had in a while, made the smaller because we had Thom, Keith David and Crispin Freeman already slotted for three of the fifteen roles.

5pm - Opening Ceremonies. Always fun. Very good energy in the room this year. Which was necessary, because the thing -- to me at least -- seemed kinda endless. Not that I'm complaining. We did have a lot of new people, for whom everything I have to show is new -- and I gave everyone else the chance to bolt when my turn came. But most stuck around. I guess it's tradition. And I do feel like I had more energy than in the last couple of years. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Mai Li (I hope I'm spelling that right) got the Fan Guest of Honor Award, which she thoroughly deserves. Mai was conchair of the very first Gathering in Manhattan in 1997. Not just the conchair, really but the only staff member too. She basically all but did it all herself. (Burned her out so bad, we haven't been able to get her back to a Gathering again until this year.) Without Mai, there'd be no Gathering. And I wouldn't be a part of this fandom. I have always credited Chris Rogers, Eric "Gorebash" Tribou and Mai Li as the three people who introduced me to the fans. We've been feeding off each other ever since. ;)

Nikki "Y2Hecate" Owens got up to pimp G2007 in Pigeon Forge, Tenessee. Nikki, the new conchair, is already way ahead of the game. They've got a date (JUNE 22-25) and a low cost/high quality hotel. So let me do a little pimping too here. Register NOW!!! The cost is pretty darn cheap in these early months, and the more money that comes in early the better the con will be. Walk-ins are great. I'm not knocking them, but walk-ins don't pay for guests and activities, because that's money that the con can't count on. Small money sooner is worth more than Large money later. Just a fact. Of course, to be intentionally repetitive the main thing you can do is SPREAD THE WORD!!!!!!

Anyway, the staff was introduced, and then we watched a bunch of music videos. They were all pretty cool. Of course, since everyone's working independently, they have no way of knowing that they're all going to duplicate a bunch of footage. But I still enjoyed seeing them. An ironic "Can you feel the love" featuring Demona and Macbeth pounding on each other was a highlight. The "Beauty and the Beast" one for Elisa and Goliath was like shooting fish in a barrel, but I was a sucker for it. And Jen's video "Wake Me Up" I think it was called, which opened Opening Ceremonies was VERY cool and eventually one first place in the Music Video contest.

Then it was my turn. I talked about the comic, G2007 and the DVDs. At this time, Buena Vista Home Entertainment has not scheduled Gargoyles Season Two, Volume Two for release. The short and simple truth is that Volume 1 did not sell enough copies. The ONLY remedy is to find a way to sell more. As always, I'd love it if the fans bought copies, but I'd NEVER ask anyone to spend money they don't have or need for things like food/shelter/education/etc. Frankly, as I've said many times, if every single hardcore fan bought ten copies our sales would still be mediocre. What I need from the hardcore fan is for each and everyone to find creative ways to SPREAD THE WORD!!! (Sense a theme, yet?) We did a more effective job of this on the Season One set. Now Season Two costs more, I know. But that only means we need to reach out to even MORE people, to compensate for those who bought Season One, but can't afford S2V1. Only a percentage of those who know about the DVD will buy it. But the more people who know, the greater the chance that we'll reach the sales threshold that Disney feels we need to convince them to release S2V2. Now... a lot of people have asked why Disney isn't promoting the DVD. But ultimately the answer doesn't matter too much. They aren't. That's not money they're prepared to spend. So we need to do it. We need to SPREAD THE WORD!!!

Next up, I showed all the old standards. The original pitch, the promo, the preview, the New Olympians and Dark Ages pitches, the Bad Guys Leica Reel and finally "The Last" -- a never-produced episode of Team Atlantis featuring Marina Sirtis as Demona, Cree Summer as Kida, Frank Welker as Obie and Sheena Easton as Fiona Canmore. The fans have taken the original voice tape and the tiny bit of storyboarding that was completed and are trying to make the episode themselves. We have a little more picture every year. If you're interested in helping out, contact Vashkoda in the Station Eight Gargoyles Comment Room.

Opening Ceremonies finally came to a close, and I went to dinner with Wendy Pini, Michael Reaves, Brynne Chandler, Crispin, Izobel, Thom, Jamie, Lexy, Marty and Kiffin. Unfortunately, the restaurant couldn't seat us all together, and Marty, Lexy and Kiffin were semi-abandoned at another table. (Sorry, guys, really.) The Japanese food was good (California Roll, Miso Soup, salad, rice, shrimp and vegetable tempura, beef teriaki). More importantly, I got a chance to talk to Wendy Pini. Wendy, the creator of Elfquest, as it turns out, is a big Gargoyles fan. And I've been a fan of hers for longer than either of us cared to admit. She was extremely charming, and we really hit it off. Yeah, yeah, mutual admiration society. <YAWN> I know. But it does raise an interesting point. Gargoyles. Elfquest. If you like one, you might like the other. (After all, I like both and so does Wendy.) And yet before Wendy contacted the constaff a few days before the con, it never occured to any of us to try to win Elfquest fans over to Gargoyles or vice versa. So what other FANDOMS are there out there that we're not reaching out to. I don't know. But I need all of you to start thinking about it and SPREAD THE WORD!!!

When we got back to the hotel, a few of us headed up to the con suite to hang. (Thom stopped off at his room and promised to meet us up there.) But when we got to the consuite, they were on the verge of closing down. So everyone else booked, and I waited in the suite for Thom (who never showed up). Still, I got to have a real nice talk with Mai, Karine, Patrick and one other person, whose name is just escaping me at the moment. (Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!)

Midnight... Karine headed to her room, and Patrick was ready to crash, so I left for my room.

1am - fortunately, I was actually tired. And turned off the lights, and pretty much went right to sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Tune in tomorrow for my further adventures in Valencia... and to find out how many more times Greg can write "SPREAD THE WORD" into his ramblings...

(AND POST THOSE CONJOURNALS!!!)