A Station Eight Fan Web Site

Gargoyles

The Phoenix Gate

Ask Greg Archives

COMEBACKS 2007-07 (Jul)

Archive Index


: « First : « 50 : Displaying #73 - #107 of 107 records. : Last » :


Posts Per Page: 1 : 10 : 25 : 50 : 100 : All :


Bookmark Link

JULY 8

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

July 8th...

1996
Goliath, Angela, Elisa and Bronx depart Avalon. While aboard the skiff and en route to their next destination, Goliath collapses. In what seems to him like hours, but actually lasts mere seconds, Goliath sees a nightmarish vision of the year 2036 generated by Puck in order to trick Goliath into turning over the Phoenix Gate. Goliath tosses the Gate into the time-stream to prevent Puck - or anyone else - from getting it.


Bookmark Link

Vid the Kid writes...

Gathering 2k7 Log

Wednesday, June 20
We got up early today, after getting too tired last right to do much serious packing. Still, somehow we managed to finish by 9AM-ish, and after having breakfast' we departed closer to 10.
South of Cincinnati, we stopped for a quick lunch at Skyline Chili. When we parked, a Puddle of coolant formed on the pavement under the car. After determining the leak isn't fatal, we continued. We bought some extra coolant as a precaution. Then, coming down off the Mountain near Jellico, traffic came to a complete stop or the freeway. Like in the Skyline parking lot, the car was on a downhill slope. Like at Skyline, a leak formed. But this time, it was more Serious. After consulting with my dad via cell phone, and improvising a method to remove a hot radiator Cap, I added the coolant i had bought and continued our Journey with a loose radiator cap, to prevent pressure from building up and forcing coolant out of the system. At the next exiti I refueled and bought sone More coolant. We Made it the rest of the way to the hotel without incident.
I've been through Pigeon Forge before, but not as a driver. Now I know why my dad always preferred to stay in Townsend. This place is like Las Vegas, but with a hokey southern flavor.
Ed and I checked into the Grand, watched some TV, and checked out the pool and jaccuzzi. Then I consulted a map and located two things: a Pizza Hut and a grocery where they're not trying to fleece tourists. We had to go back up to Sevierville for that second one. On the plus side, I found a back road to take us there instead of the congested Parkway. Except -that back road is being replaced with a six-lane divided artery. I guess they're expecting a lot of expansion east of the Parkway. It's rot busy yet, though.
Back to the hotel room for shower, TV, and journaling. I'm starting to get too tired to write so my Pochet PC can translate correctly on the first try. But I'm staying up (It's now 01:27) because a new Myth Busters is on. Oh yeah, and My left fore-arn is sunburned fron the drive. Ed's right forearm is similarly burned. That's it for today.

Thursday, June 21
I'm getting behind here. It's Friday afternoon as I write this.Yesterday I drove Ed around to all the Smoky Mountains locations I used to visit with My family as a kid. Look Rock, Cade's Cove. Newfound Gap, anong others. (BTW, on the way to the park, I noticed a Kroger store here in Pigeon Forge.) At first Ed was a little freaked about the heights. I promised him that Look Rock was the most heightsy thing we would do all week. And he didn't panic. By the time we got to Newfound Gap, he was used to all the mountain driving. I bet when we're on that mountain near Jellico on the way home, he'll have no problem at all. So we come back to the hotel, and watched Seinfeld while waiting for our roommate, A Fan, to show up. He arrived, and shortly after, so did Greg and Thom. I don't remember anything after that... Just kidding. Ed stuck around the lobby to hob-nob or something while I helped A Fan settle in. He needed some network cable, and I needed sorie earwax-removal stuff. So we went to Wal- Mart on the south side of Sevierville. And we forgot to tell Ed we were going. But he didn't seem too upset when we got back. Oh yeah. I chose a nice back-roads way back to the hotel from the store, except the road was curvier than it looked on the Map. I expect better of you, Seeger Map Company. A fan ordered pizza and I watched tv or something. I don't remember exactly what. I was tired, and went to sleep around 11:30 .

Friday, June 22
It's Saturday, and here I am writing down Friday's stuff. I slept in, journaled for Thursday. And headed to the Voice acting panel. It was hard to hear, though, because my ears were still plugged and the stuff I had bought the previous night didn't work at all. After the panel I went back to the room for Lunch. And then the con suite for a few hours until Opening Ceremonies. That was Cool. We got some good news about the comic, and some news which could potentially become good news in the future, about a Movie. Also during the ceremonies. I remembered the word search puzzles I'd made, so before the music video screenings,I went to the room to get the puzzles and took them to the con suite. I also requested that Greg and Thom get copies. I'm in the con suite now, though, and I don't see the puzzles. Anyway, next was the music videos. Too much emo, in my opinion, when they were done. Everyone just stayed seated, watching the G2007 promo loop, hypnotized. Ed and I went to the jaccuzi for awhile. Then headed to 2A and just hung out watching someone draw a naked garg and a happy little tree. Then we went back to the room and finished off the night with a couple episodes of futurama. And I got too tired to journal the days events.

Saturday, June 23
First thing in the morning, I headed to registration to sign up for the Greg mug- a. Guest which was later in the day. Unfortunately, the signup sheets for both mug-a-guest sessions had been put out friday and filled up quickly. So Ed signed us up as "alternates" for the mug-a-guest- with Thom.
Then Ed, A Fan, and I hung out in the con suite for several hours. Well. A few hours anyway. We set up my crappy, crappy DVD player there and put on, of course, Gargoyles. The suite was pretty full by the time ''The Mirror" came up. Which is good, because that's the one everyone wants to see. When Ed headed to radio play rehearsals, he took my camera for some reason. I had to get it back fm him before the show so I could take pictures of him and the other performers. The radio play. Bythe way, was Chapters 3,4,5 of Clan- Building. Yes. That's Issue 5 before it's out. And it just keeps getting better. Greg won't really let me say more.
Mystery Gargoyles theater 3OOO... That was fun. But without being able to hear the dialog well (stipid ears) -it was difficuit lo make snappy comebacks. Next was the blue mug, which of course was fun. Unlike last year, Thom took off his pants. Yay. And Greg explained Elisa's line of thought with Goliath not fitting into the expectations she had for her life. That really resonated with Me, reminding me of that morning in 2002 when I realized my life probably wouldn't be like I had Imagined. I guess realizing you're in love with a member of another species is somewhat similar to realizing you're in love with a member of the same sex. Somewhat.
The blue mug ended a little after 1 am, and everyone went to bed.

Sunday, June 24
Sunday norning, I actually woke up before A fan and Ed. We watched TV and Ed and I headed to the mug_a-guest with Thom, since some seats had opened up. We talked Mostly about show business and living in L.A., since a couple others in attendance were also from that area. After that was the Gargoyles/ Bad Guys comic panel. A lot of people had questions which Greg refused to answer. Of course. But there was some good information about the comic structure, and we got to see some nifty (over art.
After that. I went to the con suite to loaf. The con suite is good for that. When it was time for the banquet, A fan had his usual anti -banquet. He and I and this other guy went to T.G.I. Fridays where a couple other con-goers were already eating. I made a meal of overpriced fried mozarella and a grape slushie, which some what seemed to defeat the purpose of shunning an overpriced banquet.
Bach to the roon, ard more TV. At 8, The Masquerade began. Some good costumes, some awards, dancing, and a free T-shirt. And I got bored. I'm not really into dancing. So I went back to the room again and basically watched Adult Swim until going to sleep.

Monday, June 25
Now I'm getting really behind. It's Tuesday night and I'm just now getting to writing about Monday. Monday morning, I slept in and took a nice long shower, while Ed went to the dealer's room to spend his last cash at the aucton. Then came the dosing ceremonies with Announcements about next year, and then awards for art and music videos. Except Most of the award recipients had left already. Even A Fan, our roommate and one of three people (Greg Included) to have come to all 11 Gatherings, had departed.
So after that, everyone discussed what to do next. It was raining on and off, so Dollywood didn't sound too great. Instead, we walked down Parkway to an arcade for laser tag. The 20 of us were divided into two groups. Ed and I, as well as Greg, were in the second group. A bunch of us took turns playing Greg at air hockey. Not having much practice, I enjoyed losing to Greg. When our turn for laser tag came, I had fun. It was a free-forall. I didn't do particularly well score -wise, (7th in a field of about 13) but my accuracy was the highest, with about 2 of every 7 shots hitting something.
After that, we :dscussed ice cream. The Baskin Robbins was quite a distance, so we decided to walk that way, Building up an appetite for dinner, which we had at a Porky's. By the time that was done, nobody wanted ice cream anymore except for ne, Ed, and a guy named Halloween king. He had diiven there, so we didn't have to walk all the way back to the hotel.
Filled out the rest of the evening with TV and the jacuzzi. Spotted Greg one last time walking past the jacuzzi. Then bed. Basically.

Tuesday, June 26
Today turned into another Smokies sight- seeing day. First we hit Clingman's Dome, which turned out to be much busier than I'd expected. I haven't been there before, and the broken clouds at the same level as the mountain top Made for an eerie situation. Maybe Xanatos should have moved Castle Wyvern there. Much more scenic than Manhattan. ***Last-minute edit: This was intended as a joke. Although I highly doubt it would be used, since it goes against established canon, I hereby release any rights to the concept. So Greg or any fanfic author can use concept, regardless of whether or not they thought of it first, with no opposition from me, legal or otherwise.***
Next stop was Fontana Dam, which turned out to be a much longer drive than I'd expected. I've been there once, but my dad drove then. I usually study a map better before driving somewhere new, but today I didn't mind the extra mileage on the North Carolina highways. Coming around the west end of the park, there was some really thick fog on the little Tennessee river. That was cool.
Bach at the botel, we microwaved a pizza. More TV. More jacuzzi. More TV. Some people tried to come into our room, apparently having been told that they had it for the night. And then I got caught up with my con log.

Wednesday, June 27
So we woke up this morning -- when we got a wake-up call at 7am which we hadn't asked for -- went back to sleep, and woke up again around 10. Ed showered, and I started organizing our stuff which had been spread around the room in our 7-night stay at the Grand. We loaded everything into the car, made a final check of the room, and then checked out -- a half hour after the nominal check-out time -- and we made our way back to Columbus. Instead of the scenic route through Cumberland Gap which I'd been considering, we decided to stick to the Interstates, in case of more car trouble. Somewhere in the middle of Kentucky, I got pulled over for speeding when I thought the construction zone had ended; after explaining the simple mistake, I got off with a warning. We hit Cincinnati in rush hour. The radio traffic reports there are very timely and accurate; we hit the traffic jam exactly where they said we would. In Columbus, you could get stuck in traffic and not hear about it on the radio for a half hour; or you could hear about a really bad accident and drive past the described location minutes later and see absolutely nothing. Anyway, about 3 minutes from home, the "low coolant" light came on. No big deal. It's been refilled already. Still, I gotta get that radiator fixed. Total trip stats: 1,100.8 miles driven, 41.5 gallons of fuel consumed; that's 26.5 miles per gallon.
Oh yeah, and I'm having Ed proofread this to fix the worst lexicographical errors. Not typograhical, but lexicographical; because nearly all of it was written by hand and my writing interpreted as text by my pocket PC. Today's stuff was typed directly, though. And I'll post it to Ask Greg shortly.

Greg responds...

Always interesting to hear about the same events from different perspectives...

Response recorded on July 06, 2007

Bookmark Link

Mara Cordova writes...

So normally I am pretty bad about posting my con journal. I'll write a hyper-intensive lead up describing the trip up to the hotel the night before the con and then... nadda. In past years either most of my convention experience was such that I cold not post it publically, or I simply was too exhausted to remember any of it (2003 comes to mind) or any variety of things. But not this year, no. This year, I took notes in the car as I rattled my day off to my mate Aaron. (One of the nice parts of not spending the entire con attached at the hip is the being able to talk anecdote without having him go "I know, I was there- remember?"

FRIDAY: Got up around nine and had a very long shower before going to Karine's panel. I'm still quite impressed at how she can juggle work, friends, and baby concurrently- during. a. panel. After that I hung out with Hudson, Dancer, and Ash in their room, we watched car chases on t.v. Much fun. Eventually it was time for Opening Ceremonies, and enjoyed seeing the dvd version of the pitch because it is slightly different from Greg's version. (I'm still not quite sure which I like better, if one could make distinctions over such things.) The Last is getting intense and I *really* need to get off my butt and do the scens I called dibs on. I know how to draw Mole, and lord knows I know how to draw Demona, but watching the current version really helped cement in my mind what I'll be doing. SO hopefully there'll be mor for next year. After Opening Ceremonies, there was dinner. I think I had pizza but I don't remember. I hung out with Cat, Rika, Dave, and Cheri for a long bit, my notes tell me. Eventually I went to bed around four am.

SATURDAY: I had a panel with Nikki which was an othercon open discussion dealie. I'm really glad that Othercon is still going strong. I sat at Artist's Alley after that, and after seeing the artshow decided that there was not enough adult art work. So, I drew some. The reason I didn't have any for sale was because I didn't think it'd be nice to charge for stuff when I so obviously came to the convention unprepared. I hung out with Jade, Silver and Jordan. I looked at the dealer's stuff and met Ethan's girlfriend who was the one who made the gargoyle crochet dolls. Much awesomeness. Let's see... spent a lot of time with Erik and his girlfriend Steph... eventually there was the awesomecake that was Radio Play. It was engaging, revealing *singsong* and I'm not telling!(Wow, Mozilla Firefox is awesome, I had an error and had to reboot my computer but I didn't lose all of this text. Geez.)After Radio Play, I spent more time in Kathy's room with Kathy, JEB, Steph, Erik and Lynati. Then some MST3K and Blue Mug. Thom is absolutely adorable, and I felt some odd amount of pride when Aaron was the butt of his joke. (Har de har har.) I also was happy that it *seems* like we got a small reveal because of I picture I was doodling during that mug, but, yet again, not telling. You shoulda come to this con, come to nest year's con. There must have been more, since I went to bed again, around four am, but it's not in my notes.

SUNDAY: More time spent in Artist's alley, and the other othercon art panel. Silver and Jordan also came up to the board and it's just great to get all of these other perspectives since a good percentage of the fandom are artists. I helped Cheri, Cat, Dave, and Rika guard the artshow during the Banquet and also camped Greg's sketchbook. I didn't win it at auction, but it was fun to look at the randomness that is another person's headspace when their bored. Seriously. Me, Aaron and Lynati dressed up for Masquerade... I hadn't planned to originally, but since Lyn was going as "slutty" and Aaron was going as a pimp, I had to throw something together. So I was cheap slutty and Lyn was classy slutty. Good times. The dance was fun, especially lipsynching to RENT with Jen and Lyn respectively. Then I went out for a smoke, talked with KingCobra, Doppleganger, Leo and Sadistic Cow.. and came back to... The Twilight Zone. The dance was empty and there was an intense game of UNO going on in the other room. So I went upstairs to face THE LEAK. (Bah bah!) We moved boxes and tables and a big job became quick and easy because SO MANY PEOPLE HELPED. Like, yaye. Then I sat down between Alan and GregX. Alan gave me the best foot massage I think I have ever had, and we talked for many a hour it felt like until it was time to go to bed.

MONDAY: Was primarily time for goodbyes. I got and gave a lot of hugs, and I also did more of the volunteer thing by writing out the labels for the artshow awards. Then I had dinner with Aaron, Lynati, Quindar and Norcumi- which was kinda bittersweet since Lyn was leaving with them to Pennsylvania. After we came back to hang out in the con suite. I'm a light-weight and took a nap after about an hour. Then we (Aaron and I) spent more time in the consuite. The group came back after dinner and Aaron played Guitar Hero and I talked fic with Rika, Nikki, Dave, and Patrick. The waiter from the restaurant they went to dinner came to the hotel to hang out, and he was a really nice sweet guy. He taught us slight of hand tricks and during a smoke break me, Cat, and Jenbob's boi who's name I am blanking on even though he is the defininitve best, took a short night swim. Eventually, again, bedtime.

TUESDAY: I packed, hung out until people got ready to leave. More goodbyes, and hugs. We packed the car and said goodbye to Greg in the lobby while he was writing out one of his con journal entries. We helped move Hudson and crew to another motel since he had needed work on his car done. Then we got on and went home.

Thank you to everyone I got to spend time with and talk to during this con. I had a marvelous time, and it's wonderful to see how everyone is growin' up in a way over the years. And maybe not a little bit of that is because of a show we all watched as pre-teens and teenagers?

See you all in Chicago.

Greg responds...

I'll be there! Loved the Blue Mug pic, by the way.

Response recorded on July 06, 2007

Bookmark Link

KingCobra_582 writes...

The Gathering 2007, Part 2

SATURDAY, JUNE 23RD, 2007

What a slow morning.

Hung around 3A, (A.K.A. The Dealer's Room) and bought a G2008 T-shirt. David and I considered registering for the next con (which, at the point that I typing this up, we have decided we will. No reason not to, after all.) but that we would have to do it online, at our own home, due to lack of cash (at the time, I'd only had enough for one of us to attend and not the other) funds.

I went down to 2A to check on the Radio Play Cast List. No one there, and, more importantly, no list. Yet. I decided the judges were probably going over it at lunch, and that I would see it soon enough. So I hopped the elevator down to the 1st Floor, strolling to the Con Suite to watch DVDs (A Fan had asked David and I if we would temporarily loan them our DVD player, to which we agreed. We had also brought our copy of Gargoyles Season 2, Volume 1 over. I had also brought over a Aqua Teen Hunger Force DVD over, but quickly figured out that no one, not even myself ATM, would most likely be interested in THAT.) and had a good time.

The Radio Play. How fun.

Like I'd said already, I was confident that I'd get Brooklyn. I didn't. I got Malibu, to my astonishment. But, hey, I'm not overly picky. I was happy to get what I did. I played the clone role with gusto, IMO. Rehearsal came before the actual play, and I was proud of myself during both. The script was the storyline for comic issues #3-5. If anyone wants to know what happens in #5... sorry buddy. #5 isn't out in stores yet, and Greg Weisman asked us to keep quiet about it, a plea I intend to follow. Anyone asks me about issues 3 or 4, that's fine. Those issues are already out. But I'm keeping my mouth shut on what happens in #5.

Thom played Brentwood instead of Lex. Life is just full of surprises.

Whoever (Jay, maybe?) played Goliath sounded more Broadway to my ears, but that could just be me.

MGT3K. Another beloved panel of mine. The choice episodes for this year were, in this order, 'Lighthouse In The Sea Of Time', 'Outfoxed', 'The Price', and, as a bonus, 'The Mirror'. It was still slightly difficult spitting out riffs, though I was more warmed up this year. I guess I don't have much of a sense of humor.

Blue Mug-A-Guest was enjoyable. Started out 'Blue' enough, to my satisfaction. But that quickly changed, to my dissappointment. Some of Thom's work was discussed, (I should watch for that coming Scooby-Doo DTV) as were the recasting choices for both Fox and David Xanatos. In an attempt to get things back on the 'Blue' track, I asked Thom how much time he thinks Lex spends on certain Internet activities, (everyone reacted just the way I wanted, with cheering and laughter) to which he said 'Several hours a night', and, then I asked, in regards to the MacBeth/Demona spell, if MacBeth ever had PMS as well. More laughter, more cheers, and even an 'OMG' was in there somewhere. :P Unfortunately, it still didn't stay as raunchy as I'd hoped.

David and I retired to our room at 1:30 am. He fell asleep almost instantly while I stayed awake awhile to watch some anime.

SUNDAY, JUNE 24TH, 2007

We went to the Thom Adcox Mug-A-Guest first. More movie talk. No problem there. In fact, movies are my favorite subject of conversation. I expressed interest in someday getting into the acting business, and Thom said that moving to a big city, like L.A. or New York, would be a good step. He expressed some annoyance over A-list actors (people like Jennifer Aniston or Drew Barrymore or Mike Myers) stealing vocal work from the lesser-knowns. He gave us all demo CDs that had some of his radio/TV commercial samples, (which I heard in the car later. Fun to listen to.) before we all went as a group to a nearby tattoo shop. It seems everyone was settled on a Phoenix Gate tattoo. Having wanted a tattoo, any tattoo, for awhile now, I'd hoped to join in. But I didn't have enough cash on me (dammit) and David (insert grumbling here), who would've had to charge it, said I should wait until my next birthday (my 25th in the fall) and see if I still want it then. I had wanted to just do something on the spur of the moment and not have to think about it first (for once), plus I don't like the feeling of being left out, but I sighed and unhappily agreed. I can wait if I have to. I made a comment, (during which I found he was 47.) about Thom being one great big tattoo by the time he turns 50. Having no panels ATM, I killed the time by looking for possible tattoo images for use in the future, which I did not find.

I even went back later to re-check the images on a whim. Found some possibilities this time. I definitely know what I want now.

Played 2 games Air Hockey with Jeb. Kicked his ass with a final score of 7-1 both times. :D

Air Hockey is one of my favorite games, BTW. Has been since childhood.

The Banquet (my first) was delicious. My friends Shawn and Louie were supposed to attend the con with us, but had to bail out (summer classes), and Louie had already bought a Banquet ticket, so I ended up with it instead. The menu was top notch. I had Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, (yum) Chicken with Rice, 3 cups of sweetened Tea (and I don't even DRINK Tea!), a dinner roll, and a piece of chcolate cake for desert. There were a lot of questions for Greg, Thom, and... what was her name? Damn, it slips my mind... Anyway. Abby asked a LOT of hyper Puck-themed questions. No prizes for guessing who she likes. Wow.

I played more Air Hockey, this time against Greg, Thom, and what's-his-name (He would later show up as Matt Bluestone at the Masquerade). I beat what's-his-name fairly easily, but, with me endlessly cursing like a sailer during and after the matches, Greg and Thom both smacked me down. Hard.

Speaking of the Masquerade, it was great. Lots of pictures. I knew right off that Halloweenking (as the Gargoyle) would win 1st prize, which he did. Tried to get a goofy picture (think bunny ears for the camera) with Thom, but he wanted to mingle, so I shrugged it off. Participated in the A-hole song (performed by Dennis Leary, in case you didn't know), which I didn't know all the lyrics of. I had to fake it, which I like to think I did okay at.

A few minutes later, I noticed there was some action next door, and, curious, went to check it out. It was a bunch of people (including Thom) playing "Uno". I said before that I like games, but I hadn't played that since I was seven, and, besides, it looked like there were enough players. So I was content to sit and watch instead.

Eventually, Jade Griffin came by and we looked through some of the photos she'd taken, including some of the ladies' room (I guess it'd flooded or something.). I quickly got tired of that, though, and left, running into Karl. I'd played a game of Air Hockey against him earlier and offered a rematch, but he declined.

I went to my room and fell asleep. Forgive me if I sound British here, but the term 'completely knackered' seems to be the most appropriate here.

To Be Concluded.

Greg responds...

That's the point of the Gathering... to have fun until your knackered. I think that's our slogan.

Response recorded on July 06, 2007

Bookmark Link

KingCobra_582 writes...

Gathering 2007, Part 1

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20TH, 2007

Vid The Kid and I left home at 9:30 am. The journey itself was hell, with traffic jams, and the occasional coollant change, once the damn car decided to start leaking. Getting there was a real b***h, but eventually we made it. Took longer than it was supposed to, though.

A Fan called to let us know that he would be arriving on the following day. VTK and I went on a grocery run to last us for the week that we'd be there.

That's all that happened today, aside from our sunburned (David's left and my right) arms.

THURSDAY, JUNE 21ST, 2007

I woke up and went to the lobby for breakfast, whilst letting David sleep, though I wasn't overly hungry and ended up having a simple cup of orange juice. With pulp, apparently. I woke David up a little while later and we watched the 1st 'Final Destination' on DVD, then had some actual breakfast (cause I was hungry at that point), and left to spend the day driving around the Smoky Mountains National Park, which was one of the most parts of the week (besides the con, of course). 1st stop was a beautifully scenic overlook which, even with my (dwindling) fear of heights, didn't bother me much. Heh. Go figure. We went to Look Rock next. After a half-mile hike through the woods, we finally reached a view tower. Ascending to the top (or as close as we could get to it), we were both blown away by the view. David promised me that it would be the most 'heightsi-est' thing we'd do. I was both happy and dissappointed about that. I was uncertain to go on the tower, but I didn't want to dissappoint David so I followed him anyway. Glad I did. I could see for miles up there. If you want to see pictures, they should be on my website (http://www.geocities.com/kingcobra49036) soon.

We also took a self-portrait of ourselves at the SMNP sign, before driving to Cades Cove. We saw, at a camping site, a rock formation where David and his 2 brothers (I guess they'dve already been to Tennessee before) used to play when they were kids. Then it was off to a scenic loop (God, the state is beautiful), then, chronologically, the John Oliver cabin, a 180-year old Baptist Church, (which was a bit odd for me, because I've never considered particularly religious.) old-fashioned of course, with a cemetary, and an old 1800's styled mill. I've never seen a water wheel before. At this point, I was started to get bored of all the driving around and the scenary, but David wanted to go back to the camping area for lunch, and then visit Newfound Gap, so we did.

Finally got back to the hotel afterwards, just in time to run into some of the guests. Greg Bishansky, Greg Weisman, Thom Adcox, Jennifer Anderson, and others. I was happy. It was great seeing them again. Thom asked how I'd been, to which I'd answered honestly and truthfully.

ME: S**t.

TA: (grins) S**t?

And we both laughed.

A Fan also showed up and promptly checked in. Obviously, he was our roommate this year.

Took my 1st picture of this year's con, which was of a random attending girl. No reason, purely on a whim. My camera fingers were itching. I went down to the Jacuzzi. God, I love Jacuzzis. After a few minutes of basking in heated-watery bliss, I'd noticed Thom talking to a group nearby, and, after some debating, decided I was too curious to miss out on it, so I got out of the water and joined in. Thom's definitely an interesting talker, that's for sure. Soon, they all headed out to go eat somewhere, with no one inviting me to come. I admit it was a bit depressing, but I wasn't dressed for it anyway, so it made sense. I can live with that. I returned to my room instead, watching a DVD with David and A Fan before going to bed.

Sleep is always good.

FRIDAY, JUNE 22ND, 2007

Enough of the pre-con stuff. THIS was the day of the con, which is the subject of this journal and the purpose for my vacation, so today the convention stuff finally starts.

Woke up, and showered. Daily routine. Nothing unusual there. I paced the hotel, seeking the best view of the mountains. Nice view. I noticed a newspaper article about the con (from Pigeon Forge's local newspaper, the Star Journal) on the con suite door and went down to a nearby gas station to buy a copy. Maybe I'll cut out the article and stick it in a scrapbook or something.

Helped a couple members of the con staff move some comics up to Room 3A too, mainly out of boredom.

More pics at registration, including one or two of Thom. Chatted with him about the 'almost' Lex tattoo that I'd nearly gotten last fall. Found out his birthday. The Voice Acting Panel, which he hosted, was really fun. I'd missed last year's VA Workshop, (My only regret from G2006) so I vowed to go to the panel this year to make up for it. As always, hearing Thom talk was a treat, and I was certainly captivated. He told that 'Snap' story again, and other voice-acting stuff, as well. He's also apparently co-writing a series that he seemed interested in pitching to Adult Swim. I'll have to keep an eye out for it. David and I volunteered to make him a website (since it seems a lot of other VAs have them anyway, and he doesn't), and Thom seemed excited about it. We decided to discuss the details of it later on. Thom even gave us his number so we could run the info by him before building it. And who knew that Thom loved horror movies?!

Radio Play Auditions came next, and they were fun. I went in to read for Brooklyn (my favorite character), and I was a little nervous, at first, but when the judges asked me to re-read the last 3 lines, I decided 'to hell with it', swallowed my fear, and gave them the best Brooklyn I could. They seemed impressed. Greg complimented me for my ability to follow directions, which was pleasent. He asked me if I wanted to go by 'Ed', or 'KingCobra', or what. I told him anything was fine. I left feeling confident that I'd landed the part of Brooklyn, (which I found out later I didn't, but more on that later), but I decided to keep an open mind until I actually saw the cast list the following day.

Although now I feel I have to ask. What was with Thom wearing those pink bunny ears??

Opening Ceremonies. Just as great as usual, but, then, this is only my 2nd con, so what do I know? Other then that I enjoyed it, I mean? News about the 1st issue of 'Bad Guys' which I already knew about to begin with. Music Videos were still as enjoyable as last year's, with Greg B.'s 'I Stand Alone' (by Green Day) ringing in #1 on my list. I also loved 'The Awakening' and 'How Could This Happen'. I should look for them on YouTube or someplace later, b/c I want to see them again.

Afterwards, it was off to the RPG Gaming thing to do nothing but watch...

Once we were bored of that, David and I decided to return to our room for DVDs, but I decided (why, I swear to god that I do not know) to take a different route. While I was on my detour, I ran into a group of people talking to Thom. Surprise, surprise. I stayed to listen to Thom talk, then we headed off. Walked together a little bit, engaged in conversation (about his future site, and movies, and other things. Thom asking me how the Jacuzzi water was.) until we got to his room. I said good-night and kept on going down the same direction to my own room, where I crashed for the night with my DVDs.

To Be Continued.

Greg responds...

I did miss out on the scenic aspect this time out. Maybe some other time...

Response recorded on July 06, 2007

Bookmark Link

Robbie Bishop writes...

Hey me again, I was woundering if anyone knows if Max Steel will ever come on TV again???

Greg responds...

Someone might. Not me though.

Response recorded on July 06, 2007

Bookmark Link

JULY 6

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

July 6th...

1996
Oberon defeats Angela, Gabriel and Goliath and returns them to his Palace. But Tom and Katharine use the iron bell to bring Oberon to his knees. An agreement is reached that will allow Tom, Katharine and the Avalon Clan of Gargoyles to remain on the island as Oberon's Honor Guard. Oberon promises to never use his magicks directly against any member of Goliath's clan. Titania and Oberon renew their vows of marriage, and Oberon initiates the Gathering of the Third Race.


Bookmark Link

Charisma82 writes...

Sunday, June 24, 2007: Day Three of Gathering of the Gargoyles

Here's the 3rd day of my non-Gathering weekend. Okay… Let me remember… I woke up around 8:40am to get ready for church. I wasn't feeling good, and after being up for about 10 minutes, I decided to lie down for a while and hope that I would get better. I ended up getting to church late because of this. My mom stayed behind with me and she drove us there (It's about 10 minutes away from where I live) because when I'm sick I hate driving. I started feeling better during church services. After church ended, there was a potluck going on and I stayed with my sister (Kay) for it while my parents took one of the cars back home. I ended up sitting at a table with Kay, Fizz, D.C., Peaches (whom I have spoken of before), Sprite, CameraBoy, Cliff, and a new person whose name escapes me at the moment. Everyone was there except Morgana who was up at her family's cabin for the weekend. We all had a fun time talking about different stuff, but mostly about camp. We are all going up to a camp up in the mountains, about 10 miles from Yosemite, this next week. Everyone goes up once a year and has a great time. I haven't been in about 2 or 3 years, so I'm excited. We talked about past pranks pulled on all the cabins and all the stupid stuff people do up there.

After we were done with lunch, Kay and I took her car back home where we sat around and watched TV or did stuff on the computer. I worked on Word of the Day (a sort of contest thing that I help with) and sent it out to everyone who participates in it. Around 4:00pm we started packing up stuff for our trip to Disneyland. We left near 5:00pm. As usual, I took the middle seat and Kay took the very back seat in our Suburban while my dad drove and my mom watched movies on her DVD player in the passenger's seat. I quickly set up my seat so I could lie down and then I fell asleep.

It usually takes about 3 hours to get to Disneyland from where we live, which was how long it took this time. It was dark by the time we got to the hotel. We ended up staying in a hotel we'd never stayed in before called the Radisson. Dad went in while we waited for what seemed like forever in the car. I didn't mind so much because the hotel was playing Disney music outside and I was listening to that. I rolled down my window to hear the music better and after I did, some lady sat down on a bench not 3 feet away from my window, and started smoking. I might not have been so mad about it if she hadn't noticed my window open, but she was staring at our car which was right in front of her. Okay, if you're going to smoke, don't do it next to an open window, just out of courtesy. My dad came out of the hotel and motioned for me to come in too. I asked what was going on and he said that because we had two rooms (one for my parents and one for Kay and I) I had to sign some papers. So I waited by the counter for forever while they typed a lot of stuff and had my dad sign papers, and then they said that they didn't need me after all. They had a lot of pictures in their lobby of different Disney movies, which was cool to see. After that, we went back to the car, parked it, grabbed all our luggage/pillows/blankets/electronics, found the elevator, went up to the 3rd floor (my mom hates elevators and she's never happy when we aren't on the 1st floor), found our rooms, and finally emptied our arms full of stuff. Kay and I like to get drinks and snacks from the machines when we visit motels/hotels, so we grabbed the ice bucket, got some cash from my mom, and headed out looking for the vending machines. We found a drink machine next to the ice machine, which didn't have a great selection on it. It cost Kay $2.00 for a drink. We hopped on the elevator and took it to the 1st floor, looking for snacks, and found a mini store. I bought a lemonade (for less than $2.00, so I got the better deal) and some ice cream, and Kay bought something to snack on too (I don't remember what). We were lucky 'cause they were about to close the store.

When we got back to our room, we ate our snacks while we flipped through the channels on the TV. There weren't many channels and ended up on the Disney channel (coincidence?) where some Hillary Duff movie was on. Believe me, nothing else was on. After that ended, Kay tried to go to sleep while I surfed around for another movie. I found a movie that had just started with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Lopez in it. I didn't catch the name of the movie, but it was about Jennifer's character going into the minds of people who are in comas, trying to get them to tell her stuff. Vince's character is a police officer that captures a serial killer who goes into a coma. Jennifer has to go into his mind to find out where a woman is whom he captured. It was interesting. And what was funny is that the boy who plays the serial killer in his mind was also the boy in the Hillary Duff movie that had been on earlier. I need to look up the name of that movie 'cause it'll bug me if I don't know the name of it. After the movie ended, I listened to some Fallout Boy and then went to sleep around 1:30am.

So that was Sunday. I'll get to Monday and Tuesday as soon as I can. Lots of Disneyland stuff going on those days…

Thank you for your time and all that you do.

-Charisma82

Greg responds...

Well, if you can't make the Gathering, I guess Disneyland is an appropriate alternative.

Response recorded on July 05, 2007

Bookmark Link

Spacebabie writes...

Gathering 2nd half

Sunday June 24
After sleeping in we had breakfast at the Red Rooster again. This time I had waffles, and I am like Buffy when it comes to breakfast foods. I had the waffles with peaches and caramel drizzled on top, ah sweet buttery rich caramel, and to drink I had my preciousssss coffee.

After breakfast we went to the creative positioning panel where Mara and Nikki drew some fun and unique poses, while we suggested some poses. A few others, including Silver came up to also add draw in a few positions.

After the panel it was time for the Bad Guys panel. Greg W answered all the questions he was allowed to and we got to see a promotional poster…sweet. Karine said she loved drawing the characters and was really enjoying Yama.

We hung out in the dealer's room while they prepped for the banquet. GregX ducked out and we thought he went to shower and change suits, nope he went to go and join the Order or the Phoenix Gate.

For the second time in a row I dressed up for the banquet in my new red dress and red shoes. I am not a fan of dresses, so I rarely shop for them, but after seeing Revel's reaction to a character in the Britcom Coupling in a red dress I knew I had to get a red one, and after getting pretty I stood in front of the full length mirror and noticed that I had indeed lost some weight since last year.

The banquet was another good one. We had a choice of water or presweetened tea to drink. I like iced tea, but it was a bit too sweet and I needed to water it down a bit, a lot of us watered down our tea. I made certain I had three courses. I had a little salad, and had plenty of veggies in the form of carrots and broccoli, some beef, and a roll for my carbs, and a slice of cake for dessert. There were a lot of questions after word.

There were a lot of great costumes. Hal's stone gargoyle was stellar and I loved Chyna Rose's gargoyle costume, great work with the horns. Flanker was Matt Bluestone and his performance earned him the Thom Adcox award.

We did some dancing after, and maybe it was the sugar from both the tea and the cake, but I was feeling rather energetic and I pulled Revel onto the floor and busted a groove, got jiggy with it, worked it. We had a conga line for David Bowie's Dance Magic Dance, and we nearly crossed the stream.

Dancing ended when we had an emergency, the ceiling in the dealers room started to form leaks and we all rescued the art and the comics.

Monday June 25
Breakfast at the Rooster again. This time chocolate éclair pancakes and coffee.

After breakfast we joined up with Flanker who organized a group to go to a shooting range. This was the first time I have ever held a gun, and I am a daughter of a retired army captain.

I fired off about three rounds and I wasn't too shabby. My first shot was right through the neck of the paper target, there were a few in the head, several in the chest, and he won't be having children.

After we returned we packed up our stuff, gave Gregx the key, hugged and said our farewell and then began the drive back to Nashville. We stopped by Wendy's on the way and we both had nuggets and fries and I tried the new frosty float…yummy.

We were a little worried when we went to check in since a lot of people who were flying in to Houston for their transfer flight had theirs canceled, but since we were taking an express ours was fine. We ran into Winterwolf at check in and since his flight was also delayed we chatted some more in the terminal until we boarded.

Good thing we stopped by Wendy's on the way, cause all we got to munch on was a Gorram thing of peanuts. I read during the flight, but even though I was trying to focus on the flight we heard IT, and by that we mean this bimbo was behind us chatting about going to culinary school, and how her daddy was paying for an expensive trip to Paris and she had that valley girl voice combined with Karen Walker's voice from Will and Grace.

Revel's mom picked us up and we stopped by Jack in the Box for dinner, I had a sirloin burger meal with Swiss cheese and grilled onions, returned home, unpacked checked e-mail, and went to bed.

Greg responds...

Spacie, you and I have so much in common. Our ConJournals are really about the food!

Response recorded on July 05, 2007

Bookmark Link

Spacebabie writes...

Con Journal...first half

Friday: June 22

We both had everything prepared the night before, because we had to get up at 4:30 in the morning. We got dressed packed up everything and went to Revel's mother's place where we left Hyena and she drove us to the airport…basically to save cash by not parking at the airport.

Lines were long at the airport, it was early in the morning and the lines were still long, line to check the bag and the line for the scan, made longer since there was only one scanner, but then they opened up a second one. Weeee. Took the monorail to Terminal B… and boarded the express jet.

Flight did not seem long at all. I dozed through most of it, except for take off, landing in Nashville and when they gave out muffins and beverages, ah precious coffee, come to mama.

On the way to the rental car the strap to my laptop case broke. Jack turned out to be fine. Yeah, different laptop, got it a few months prior since Pippin's backlight went out. I named it after the monkey.

Not long after we got on the road we got a real breakfast at McDonalds where I had another yogurt parfait, and an orange juice. I dozed again until we were a few miles outside of Knoxville. Revel decided to try to take a shortcut, but that took us through downtown Knoxville and through a lot of stops.

After we left the city and suburbs and ended up in the sticks we were getting confused, about where we were going. After several minutes of confusion we came through and into Pigeon Forge, after that it was downhill from there. Saw a lot of go-carts, mini golf courses, pancake houses…and a Wonderworks? (The upside down building) Holy cow, somebody cloned International Drive (Street where the 2000 motel was located), and placed it in Tennessee. We Called GregX for final directions and we called him again when we reached the parking lot.

The first person we run into once again is Greg Weisman, and then we came across GregX and were introduced to the elevators and the stairs. After we got a parking pass and were able to put our stuff into the room Revel and I got our con packets and Revel set up his art and we got caught up with our friends until Revel and Emambu went to the try out for the radio show.

I needed actual cash and Mandi showed me where the nearest ATM was, after I came across some paper I returned to the dealers and bought a Serenity shirt, and then I plopped down and did some drawing until they returned. I pointed out the Serenity shirts to Revel and he bought one.

After a group formed, Hudson took us outside where he could smoke and told us a story. We stayed out until Opening ceremonies.

At opening ceremonies we came across the small problem involving the large screen. Greg W decided to do away with the chairs and we sat down on the floor. Nikki welcomed us to the 2007 Gathering, introduced the staff and handed the focus to Jen who gave the fan of the year award to Karine. The focus went over to Susan Leonard who was speaking for Ellen for the 2008 Gathering in Chicago.

Then Greg W took the spotlight. He explained the sales of the DVD's, comics, mentioned Bad Guys and Pendragon. He asked for the Newbies and to see how many Gatherings people have attended. Poor Aaron had lost count of how many he had attended. Greg explained the history of the series, starting with the original comedy pitch and brought in the goodies, the pitches for Gargoyles, for the spin offs, and The Last. Greg W also broke the podium.

After opening ceremonies a group of us went to find food. GregX, Revel, Winterwolf, Legacy, Fan, Gside and I went to Huck Finn; a restaurant that advertised all you can eat catfish. It also had a store similar to Cracker-barrel. They served drinks in mason jars and every table got complimentary vittals; hush puppies, pickles, onions, and beans. I had the grilled trout.

After dinner we returned to the hotel room where we chatted until we were ready to sleep.

Saturday June 23
We woke up and after a shower we sought out breakfast and went to the Red Rooster Pancake house. Oh sweet lord what they did with pancakes, I had the berrylicious pancakes, so many berries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries on top of a triple stack with whip cream on top and coffee to drink. I am a zombie without my coffee in the morning.

I came back in time for the figure drawing panel and watched as the models sit and stand in positions while we sketched them.

After the panel I was thirsty, real thirsty. Revel and I went to a soda machine and I tried a vault for the first time, one of those cool bottles lasted for a while. We hung out in the dealers room and I got to meet Silver's fiancé, Jordan…and Holy sweet frip, can the dude draw! He was doing amazing shading details to big warrior brute, not sure if it was an orc, or a troll, or an ogre.

I went to the World Building panel, being that is a writing panel for fantasy and sci-fi writers. There were a lot of details, such as creating different alien races and how they would communicate, read, eat, etc. How their society would be set up, family units, politics, and religion. We also covered the different ways to use magic for fantasy.

Then came the othercon art discussion: Hooray pron, and Hooray Mara showing us how to draw naughty bits, making men and women realistic and how that would transfer over to gargoyles and the Fae, and while the discussion was going on, I was drawing something innocent…yes I solemnly swear I was drawing characters with their clothes still on.

Then it was time for the Radio Play, and just like in 2004 it was a pretty large cast. It was a performance of issues 3, 4 and 5 of the Gargoyles comic. Yeah that is right issue 5 and yes I know what happens, and you have to wait for it to come out in July. All I can say is that Emambu was amazing.

After the play it was time to eat. Another group of us trekked across busy traffic for pizza at Papa Johns. Revel and I split a pepperoni and olive pizza and I claimed the jalapeno. After pizza we played round of mini golf, and there were times when we the golf ball left the green and bounced on the sidewalk.

We had an hour to kill after the game and hung out in our room until it was time for Blue Mug, and it was pretty blue, lots of nice dirty questions, to keep us mulled over. The Blue Mug lasted until about 1:30 when Thom left, and when Thom leaves then everybody leaves.

Greg responds...

Yeah, there's pretty much no party without the Adcox.

Response recorded on July 05, 2007

Bookmark Link

Anonymous writes...

Have you ever seen, or are you a fan of Stargate SG1? If you have and/or are, what did you think of their use of the Arthur legend in the shows last two seasons?

Greg responds...

I do watch SG1 -- but in syndication on broadcast, not on SciFi channel, so I'm a year behind. I've got no real opinion of how they've used Arthur stuff in the season I've seen. Not enough info for me to get where they're going with it. Ask me again in a year.

Response recorded on July 05, 2007

Bookmark Link

Steel Wing writes...

I know the subject of this is getting old, but I was thinking. True, it would cost Disney a pretty penny to place ads on T.V for the Gargoyles DVDs, but wouldn't a cheaper and greater solution be to place ads in video game magazines and possibly other publications as well (namely Disney's own monthly mag)? It would help bring about season 2 volume 2, I believe. It's just something to think about.

Greg responds...

I'm sorry -- and WHO pays for these ads?

Response recorded on July 05, 2007

Bookmark Link

VKahri writes...

..well.. this being my first convention, I'm now posting my first con journal. I hope I'm doing this right..
First of all it was just a little too ironic and serendipitous that the convention happened to be in the same general location as my WestGate resorts vacation package.. I had been offered this package about two years prior and kept not knowing exactly when I wanted to use it.. The location was chosen but the dates had not been. When I found out about the Gathering being in Pigeon Forge I then knew what dates I'd want to use.
...Although... I really didn't like WestGate at all... blah.. I still had a pretty good time overall.

Thursday June 21.
It took us only 5 hours to drive in from Cincinnati.. I was going on no sleep because I was up all night the night before with severe nausea ~ My vice and my Kryptonite since my gal bladder came out. We checked in at 4, did a little shopping and crashed around 9 or 10pm.

Friday June 22nd.
So this was it..Denny's for breakfast at 10. Then we found the hotel which was about a 15 minute drive [5 if there wasn't any traffic...] from WestGate and got checked in. Then spent a good while just browsing over the dealer's tables and artwork. Very nice. Made me wish I had followed through and posted some art of my own. The opening ceremonies weren't quite what I expected but it was nice. My poor foot fell asleep because we were all on the floor in order to see the TV. I can't figure out how to sit Indian style without that happening. Then my friend had mini golf with Kirin who was sadly unable to attend due to being a mother and all. But mini golf was kinda cool... I actually got to play with them even though I was not signed up because Kirin did not make it.
Greg and Tom's group were finished before us, and I was a little surprised they waited till we got done as well. I didn't actually realise the scores were going to be tallied up for later. I lost. hehe.. our whole group did pretty bad.

Then we walked to Hukk Fin's Catfish Grill.. I had no idea we were doing that afterward I would have saved my appetite.. I wasn't thrilled about the location because I'm not a big sea food fan.. but they had fried shrimp and my personal favorite.. Fried Pickles!! YUM!
AND I got to sit near Greg and Susan so that was totally awesome. It was just cool as hell to be able to hang out with him! watching the show when it first came out was the most important part of my day when I was younger and now over ten years later I got to meet the man responsible. or at least mostly responsible.
And Tom Adcox is such a funny guy to be around. Such a wonderful personality, and very entertaining. He found a funny visor hat in the gift shop in the restaurant and walked over to our end of the table with it. I didn't catch all of what he said but it was some funny stuff. One of those Polaroid moments and my camera never came out of it's bag. It's so cool his voice really does sound like that! I wish I could have hung out with him a little more, maybe for the mug-a-guest but that was happening at the same time as the physiology panel which I surely did not want to miss.

Anywho.. as we walked back to the hotel there were alot of sports cars in a parking lot near the street. I noticed a dodge stealth and drooled.. then.. I noticed a second.. a third..at least 6 total. No one really noticed as I ran to my bud to exclaim all excitedly that there were at least 6 dodge stealth's sitting within 5 feet of each other. They went into the hotel. we got in my car and went back to our cabin and crashed.

Saturday June 23'rd.
Today we got up around 10 or 11 and went to Red Rooster for MORE pancakes. Afterwards we headed to the hotel and again went upstairs to the dealer's room and art show. There was more artwork to see this time. Then it was time for Mug-a-Guest with Greg. That was interesting but there were alot of questions I either didn't ask or forgot to ask. I missed out on the Radio play casting and rehearsals and the Radio play itself which was a huge bummer.. I didn't even know what it was otherwise I would have tried to be there for that. We left for a few hours and visited Cades Cove which was about an hour away.. it was a waist of time and gas. It wasn't what we expected though it was kinda pretty.
We came back in time for the Blue Mug deal which was certainly interesting if not entertaining. Then my stupid stomach started flaring up again so we didn't get to stay for the whole thing. We needed to get to sleep anyway.

Sunday June 24th.
Today started with a mandatory 90 minute spiel and tour at the WestGate which I was not interested in but if I didn't go I'd be hit with a $100 charge for every night I was there. When they showed me the 1 bedrooms that timeshare owners got I was thoroughly pissed. So much nicer than the crap hole we got at the top of the hill.. And it caused us to miss out on the open story reading.
so.. we got to the hotel in time for the physiology panel and hung around for the Bad Guy's panel after that. Then there was some time to kill before the banquet. Greg was downstairs talking to a fellow in the lobby. I sat down on the couch across from them hoping for a chance to share some thoughts and ideas I had as well as other questions I had either forgotten to ask or was too self conscious to ask. But it seemed to be a bit of an important discussion between him and the other guy so I just sat back and half listened half meditated on things. There's always next year lol.
Then it was time for the banquet. I was impressed the food was good. The mashed potatoes were the best! When we arrived most of the tables were taken. My friend and I sat down at one that was all empty near the front of the room. Some cool people sat with us, including Lynati. I was happy to meet her finally I'v seen some of her things on deviantart. Luck was on our side in a way, they decided to do a table at a time for the buffet and our table was first to go following Greg, Tom and the staff. I'm still kind of surprised that one of the front tables was empty.. I'd have thought most people would want to be up close to where Greg was so they could hear better. I guess most of them figured being closer to the buffet would grant them a better spot in line HAHAHA!

I left the banquet Q&A a little early to get my camera's battery charger and Nik's Laptop. Nik would be my friend but I'm tired of saying 'my friend' all of the time. Got back in time for the Masquerade wishing like mad I had been able to make the costume I thought about making...well maybe next year. There were some great costumes, got some pictures. They handed out awards for the best costumes in different categories then played music for the ball. At this point I was getting very detached from it all and started to feel some anxiety and depression setting in. I took Nik's laptop back to the car and returned not sure what I would do next.. A trip to the bathroom to get away from the crowd for a bit seemed like a good plan. Nik wasn't having any trouble hanging out with all the new people anyway.
So I went and found someones phone in there. Kirin happened to be in there as well but she sat down on the bench to give Samuel a little meal of his own before exiting so a conversation began between us. I had finished washing my hands and she asked if this was my first convention. The lost phone was gonna be stuck on the sink before returning to it's owner for a while lol.
And what a blessing it turned out to be.. It just seemed ironic that the timing happened the way it did, I wasn't in the best shape when I entered the bathroom. I felt much better when I left. We talked about artwork, her artwork, her plans, what she was doing and had been doing and will be doing.. I talked about some of my art blocks and troubles and belly aching and she shared some advice and thoughts on the matter. And Samuel was so well behaved through it all just suckling away. Then Niki/Y2Hecate entered asking about a phone and my hand went up before she could completely get the words out. So the phone found it's owner lol. Then we left and I met back up with Nik and we caught up on things and returned to our little crappy cabin for another nights sleep.

Monday June 25th.
This was our check out day for WestGate and I was happy to leave. I dropped Nik off at the hotel while I went down the street to check in at Shular Inn for one night. I unloaded some stuff, fixed my hair, stopped at Walgreens for some sweet vitamin water and a zebra cake then met up with Nik at the convention in time for the closing ceremonies. I had this idea to write down the websites on my con shirt with a sharpie.. I could only remember the Gathering site so I put that one on the front near the bottom. I don't know if Greg noticed it or not.
After the Closing announcements, they decided on doing Lazertag since Dollywood was rained out. I got Greg to sign the back of my shirt which was cool. I'm still kicking myself for having forgotten my DVD's. I even picked them up while packing then put them down because all the episodes are on Nik's laptop so I didn't think I'd need them. I'm such a dumba**!
Then we went to lazertag.. I was hoping to be in Greg's group but he got sucked into another game of air hockey. I wanted to ask him to play but I heard him complaining about his shoulder so I figured it would be an instant no, or just a bad idea anyway.. then later he started playing with someone else and I felt silly for having passed up the idea. It was time for our team to play anyway though.
Bot what a grungy nasty sweaty moldy old locker room smell that was back there.
.. we eventually started playing and I wasn't doing so grate at first. Then I found one of the sniper points and started to really have a blast. I so enjoy catching people off guard and being able to duck down where they can't get me too easily. It was loads of fun and as it turned out I was first place. ...some might call that cheating but.. what can I say.. I like being the sniper type.. close range combat was never my style when it came to lazertag. *shrug*..
After that they all decided to go walk down the street ..for ice cream I thought.. We decided to say our goodbyes and Greg gave us both a hug which surprised me but it was really cool. Very nice man!!!
We drove around for at least 45 minutes looking for a place to eat.. we saw the group walking lol.. We settled on Ruby Tuesdays and I got more shrimp and no cocktail sauce! They decided to stop carrying it.. what a crock. As we left to return to the entertainment and gift shops we again saw the group walking this time back to the hotel. It was just kinda funny. We did some go carts and some browsing and we did this mining thing which was really cool. Then we went to the hotel and crashed.

Tuesday June 26'th. We were late checking out but we had a great time.. we were even later getting on the road we wanted to go horse back riding but we got rained out. We ate at Denny's again and did some last minute shopping. I got a nice cool new katana and some great shirts for my parents who thoroughly enjoyed them. We got on the road finally around 5 and made it home by around 9:30.
We reminisced about the convention on the way back and I asked Nik if anyone asked him about me or said anything about me. he asked me what I meant and I said about my 'intense expression'.. Yes I do get pestered about this sort of thing all the time so I tend to ask him about it when around new people. The responses tend to amuse or interest me.

Apparently Greg had mentioned it so I was wishing I could have been a fly on the wall for that one. ..and apparently when people say I look intense.. they mean I look mad or mean.. but that's also no surprise to me as I get it all the time. *shrugs*
There is a reason for it..there are several. I am aware of them.. But that's a rant for another time.

I enjoyed the Gathering and look forward to next year.. now if someone could just please invent a miracle potion beyond the strength and effectiveness of Pepto and Emetrol so I could enjoy an evening sans-stomach upsets.. I'd be ever so grateful ;)-

http://www.VKahri.Deviantart.Com

Greg responds...

I don't remember mentioning your expression to Nik, but then the Gathering weekends or always something of a blur to me...

I'm glad you had fun though. Hope to see you in Chicago next year.

Response recorded on July 05, 2007

Bookmark Link

Audra writes...

My review on comic #4. To put it simply, it was really great, and I am really looking forward to #5.

I wonder why Robbins thought it was weird that Hudson said he was wearing a mask. He could of very well been, I mean Robbins can't really tell if he is or not. I really wonder if Robbins has any idea who, or really what Hudson really is…

I never even gave Lexington's cyborg costume a second thought, and I read that so many fans thought of the Future Tense Lexington by that costume. I just thought Lex looked kind of cute in that panel.

Hehe, Elisa as Jasmine. She makes a pretty nice Jasmine… I do wonder if there was more thought into her costume then we realize. (Since Jasmine was the princess that really didn't want to be a princess anymore, the princess who wanted a normal life)

Poor Brooklyn… I feel so sorry for him… If I was a female gargoyle, I wouldn't miss my chance to be with him! =P He's my favorite character and I think he's attractive, hehe. I can't wait to see what his costume will be.

And poor Maggie, I hope she will be ok! There is so much to look forward in #5. And I worry about Goliath… I just can't wait for #5!

I hope you always post here in the latest response of "Ask Greg" when the new comic comes out. (The date) I believe you have for all the comics except #2. But it would help me out a lot since I depend on this site to let me know when the next comic is available. Also you seem kind of sad that no one really writes in for the "Etched in Stone" section, but I think it's because people are so used to writing in here to "Ask Greg" plus it's just easier to write online then send a letter through the mail. I don't think it's much of a problem if you can just use some of the comments posted here on "Ask Greg." (Like you have before)

Greg responds...

I've decided -- belatedly -- that ASK GREG is the place to write to in order to be included in Etched in Stone. And as soon as I have an exact date for #5, I will announce it here.

Response recorded on July 05, 2007

Bookmark Link

Cyoti writes...

Is there any chance of you writing the Aquaman Sword of Atlantis book?

Greg responds...

I doubt it. Not that I'd turn it down, but it seems they've already got a great writer on that book.

Response recorded on July 05, 2007

Bookmark Link

Idgiebay writes...

Here's part one of five from my con journal. Unfortunately, this part doesn't contain anything about the con itself since it takes place the day before, but I thought I'd post it anyway. After all, if the con wasn't happening, none of this would have happened, either!

WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY - June 20th-21st

Our trip actually began late Wednesday night, as it was cheaper than flying out on Thursday. Nothing all that significant happened, other than me being absolutely terrified of the plane, but once I was on it an in the air, everything was fine.

We arrived in Chicago, IL at about 5:37 Thursday morning in concourse C. Our next flight was in concourse F. Oh my god, I cannot tell you how far we walked--concourse F was, literally, on the other side of the airport. They had a shuttle that would take you there, so we walked all the way down to the shuttle station (which was in the opposite direction of concourse F) only to find that it was closed for the day, so we trekked to our destination on foot. The airport was beautiful, but I was too frustrated and exhausted to enjoy it. They had an old army plane on display (I don't recall what war it was from, unfortunately) and a huge, life-size model of a brachiosaurus skeleton.

After we finally got to the gate and had a few moments to recoup, we then boarded the tiniest plane we had ever been on thus far. It was a little Embraer RJ145. The seating layout went accordingly: one seat by the window on the left, then the aisle, and then two more seats on the right. That was it. I'm not sure what the maximum capacity of the plane was, but it couldn't have been much. It wasn't even a full flight, so I was seated by myself on the left while Tif got the two seats on the right all to herself. The flight was smooth and about an hour and a half later, we arrived at McGhee Tyson airport in Knoxville, TN.

We went to collect our luggage. Tif's came out fairly soon, but I had to wait.

And wait.

And wait, until I finally accepted the fact that my luggage would not be coming down. Apparently, it was still in Chicago, so I gave the United Express clerk the address to the Grand Resort hotel and he said the next flight from Chicago would be at 1:30 and my luggage SHOULD be on that one. Thank you, United. This was the first of a few stupid things you did and I will never fly your airline again, but more on that later.

Tif got our rental car that she was legally supposed to be driving since I'm not 25 yet, so shhh... It was a little, red Chevy Cobalt that had a broken seat, which was really annoying. I wanted to bring the back forward, but the lever on the side did nothing. I spent most of my driving time leaning forward slightly. It wasn't good for my neck.

There was a little mishap on the way to the hotel since the directions we had told us to make a left when we actually should have made a right, but my awesome sense of direction got us going the right way!

By the way, that awesome sense of direction? It must have randomly developed without me noticing, because I used to describe myself as directionally challenged. Seriously. North, south, east, and west meant nothing to me, but somehow, I always know which way I'm going lately. It's neat!

Okay, sorry. Boring little tanget over.

I don't know what time we got to the hotel, because by that time, I was practically sleeping with my eyes open. A very unpleasant woman who didn't know how to smile checked us in, over-charged us a couple of nights, and even charged us for an EXTRA night. More on that later, though. We didn't realize she had booked us an extra day until Friday and we weren't going to do anything about the over-charging until we talked to a few more con-goers. The room rate was supposed to be $59.77 per night, but we were charged $69.77 for Saturday and Sunday. We had asked the lady why we were charged more and she told us weekend nights were always extra, even with the discounted group rate. Whatever.

So we got to the room and were ready to pass out, but we knew we had to eat first. There was a restaurant next to the hotel called Red Rooster's Pancake House, one pancake house out of about 30 on the same street. I kid you not. Pigeon Forge loves their pancakes, mini golf, and tattoo parlors.

I had a (VERY YUMMY) breakfast burrito, Tif had a veggie omelet, and with full bellies, we meandered back to the hotel room and died.

I was awoken by my cell phone ringing. A man named Pete wanted to know what type of location I was at so he could drop off my luggage and said he'd be there in about an hour. Passed out, woke up again because Tif's mom had arrived at the hotel and Tif needed to help her check in (her mom and Allen stayed one night in Pigeon Forge before moving on to Gatlinburg the next day), fell back to sleep and was woken up a final time by the hotel staff letting me know my luggage had arrived. I waited around for Tif, but she hadn't yet returned, so I putted around the hotel room a bit. The bathroom was hideous. Light orange walls and a blue shower, what the hell.

After Tif got back, we retrieved my luggage and were awake enough to appreciate the beautiful view we had from the hotel balcony. We were right over a gorgeous, little creek that had all sorts of wild life, like Muscovy ducks, mallards, geese, cardinals, and squirrels. Some Canadian Geese even dropped by!

We visited with Tif's mom for a bit then got ready for... *dun dun dun* THE GHOST WALK OF GATLINBURG.

It didn't take long to drive into Gatlinburg. We got there at about 8pm. We had initially planned on eating first, but my feet were killing me, so my first Large Purchase of the trip was a new pair of shoes. They're cute, I think. Brown... they sort of look business-like, but the soles have a good grip, which is what I felt I needed since we were going to be walking so much. The man who ran the store even gave me a pair of socks, since the ones I had were too thin and causing the shoes to slip off my ankle. After that, we decided we wouldn't have enough time for dinner and would eat after the tour, so we wandered around the Village Shops for a while. I bought a magnet that has the Berry coat of arms on it from a shop that specializes in Celtic merchandise. We grabbed a couple smoothies from a coffee shop and then headed up to the cemetery for our tour at 9pm.

It was a LOT of fun. Our tour guide was an excellent storyteller. It's hard to describe the way he was dressed, so instead of trying, here's a pic: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v177/idgiebay/Misc/DSC00533.jpg

To start off, he had us go into the cemetery and take pictures. Hopefully, Tif will be posting some of those soon and I'll actually be posting some footage I took, but that probably won't be for a few days. I have work tomorrow, after all, and I first need to finalize all of my discs.

The tour consisted of our guide telling us real stories of murders and accidental deaths and then following up with tales of hauntings in the locations they took place. Everywhere we stopped, he gave us a chance to take photos and, hopefully, catch some "paranormal activity" on film. It would take a while to type up all of the stories he told us... Maybe I'll type them up later or maybe Tif will, but the footage I'll be uploading should contain the majority of them. Though, they may be choppy. I wasn't continuously filming the whole time he was talking.

Let's see, what else... The tour ended at about 10:15 or 10:20 and, by that time, Tif and I were starving. Oh lord, that was an adventure on it's own.

Gatlinburg, despite being a tourist town, apparently SHUTS DOWN between 10 and 10:30. We literally walked the streets for half an hour, trying to find some place to eat, but everything, even the HARD ROCK CAFE, for goodness sake, was CLOSED. By this point, I was getting very frustrated. My knees were hurting (I still have no idea why--I could hardly walk for a couple days, and then the pain suddenly went away), my feet were becoming blistered from the new shoes, I was still tired, and my stomach was trying to eat itself. Eventually, we got that hint that we weren't going to find anything, so we drove back to Pigeon Forge and stopped at the first restaurant we found, which--surprisingly--WASN'T a pancake house. It was Shoney's, of which there are three on the main Pigeon Forge road.

The service there was all right... We ended up with a trainee waitress who didn't understand English very well. I think she may have been German or French, I'm not sure. She was a sweetie, but it was difficult to communicate what I wanted. I had ordered chicken tenders with onion rings and had ended up with questionable-looking charbroiled chicken. Even though I didn't like it, I didn't send it back, though I probably should have. I didn't want her to get in trouble or anything.

So finally, we went back to the hotel. I can't remember now if we stopped by Tif's mom's room again or not. I was so tired. I do know that we looked at the pictures Tif took and watched my footage. I think we passed out shortly after that.

TO BE CONTINUED IN:
Friday: The Real Fun Begins

Greg responds...

Sounds like the fun has already begun...

Response recorded on July 05, 2007

Bookmark Link

Gorebash writes...

11th Annual Gathering of the Gargoyles
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
June 22-25, 2007

Thursday, June 22

I decided to drive down to the con. Why not? Left at 5 AM with my trust GPS/satellite navigation system guiding me all the way. The trip would be 92miles and take about 16 hours. It was long. There were lots of 18-wheelers. Lots. But the trip itself was uneventful. I got in around 9 PM. I ran into Karine in the lobby who helped me get my key. I'd be rooming with her and Jen this year. Karine then took off for the staff dinner while I got settled in. Talked to Hudson, Greg B, Dancer, Jeb, and a few others. Jen, Karine, and her 4 month old son Samuel showed up at the room and we hung out. Greg stopped by at one point to see if the wireless internet connection was any better in our room from his. Nope. He took off for the lobby to get some work done.

Friday, June 23

Grabbed breakfast with Jen, Karine and Sam at the hotel's buffet. Biscuits and gravy. For breakfast? I just don't know. I went for the more traditional pancakes and eggs. Karine had an art tips panel so I followed along. Perspective and reference. I'd read Karine's article on perspective, but it was nice to see it demonstrated live. After the panel I hung out at the registration table, checked out the dealer tables and the art show. One dealer was selling these knitted/crochet gargoyle dolls that were easily the hit of the show. A couple pages from issue #5 (without dialogue) were on display, with a sneak peek at Brooklyn's costume. Very cool. And very not what you'd think the costume would be given the theme seen in earlier issues. Seth and Sammy showed up and we talked for a bit.

The radio play auditions started up and I was right there. A group of us stood in the stairwell outside the audition room trying to guess what the play would be this year. It'd be a large cast with 40 parts, each paired to make it a minimum of 20 actors needed for the play. The bottom of the audition sheet lists out 2 or 3 letter abbreviations for each part making it possible to pick up on the characters that appear in the play. I spotted both the clones and Xanatos were in this one and figured it had to be an adaptation of the current story arc (issues 3,4 and 5). The audition itself was very cool. I picked Angela to read for because she's the only dialogue I've yet to read from for the auditions. I then demonstrated my perfect Scottish accent to great applause and praise from all. My heart wasn't in the dog bark this year. I'd love to know how the hell Frank Welker makes the sounds he can.

Opening ceremonies were what we've come to expect. It's still just as much fun as it was in 1997. Greg mentioned that he's got a new contact at Buena Vista Home Entertainment and is starting to talk with him about releasing volume 2 of the DVD. Here's hoping. The Team Atlantis episode "The Last" was shown with a ton of new updates. It looks very cool. Vashkoda has done a great job putting that together.

A bunch of us went out for dinner at this place across the street that specialized in catfish. Drinks were served in mason jars and we had beans and hush puppies while we figured out what to eat. I grabbed a steak. Someone ordered aligator tail and that went around the table. Tasted a bit like tunafish. A man was going around playing songs on his guitar. Jen knew EVERY SINGLE ONE. After we walked the strip for a bit and headed back.

Saturday, June 24

Breakfast again. Karine had another panel on going from fan to pro (she's the artist on issue #5 and the Bad Guys mini series). One things got started the panel went pretty strong. Lots of people showed up. The radio play cast was announced and I was on it.

At the play rehearsals it was announced the play was an adaptation of issues 3, 4 and 5 of the comic. We'd all get to see what happens in issue 5 before the rest of the world. Sweet! 37 people were cast making up what must be the largest radio play cast we've ever had. I was cast as Martin Hacker. Mike, sitting next to me, was cast as Quincy (the waiter with the Illuminati ring). As my lines were from issue 3 and his were from issue 4 on we were paired to share a script.

The play was a hit. The whole cast did an amazing job. Lots of really good performances. I can't wait to see it up on YouTube. The story was full of big revelations and an ending that I loved, but really hated, but really loved, because I knew it could only mean a ton of problems and complications for the Manhattan clan in issues to come. This one issue every two months deal is just torture.

A group of us (Jen, Seth, Sammy, Karine, Rebecca, Tony, Andrea, and myself) walked the strip looking for a tattoo artist. There'd been rumors of a plan for a bunch of us to get ink. I'd been looking for an excuse to get ink and tagged along. Once actually in the shop I started feeling a bit nervous about the whole idea. We eventually decided to wait since there wouldn't have been enough time to ink us all. Jen wouldn't leave without having something done to her body and despite my offers she chose to get her nose pierced.

We had dinner at another restaurant across the street. It had a Boston theme and dealed mostly in seafood. I had steak. Again. It wasn't the greatest prime rib I've had, but it was food and I was hungry.

The blue mug was blue. Raunchy, but not all the time. Thom Adcox dropped his pants. Again. Then again. By 2am we were all really tired and headed back.

Sunday, June 25

Those who were looking to get inked the previous day met up for breakfast. We all figured we could skip the opening panels (although we had to be back for the Bad Guys panel at 2 PM) so, after breakfast, we went back across the street to the tattoo shop we'd visited. This time there was no turning back. The tattoo artist, Phil, would give us a group deal. The tattoo would be of the phoenix gate, about 2.5-3 square inches in size and in color for the low low price of $100. The clever businessman that he is, Phil had us pay up front. No more chickening out now, we'd paid, it was going to happen. Jen went first getting it on her lower back. Andrea followed suit. Then Seth on his upper left arm. Now I was in the hot seat. I got mine on the upper right arm. It's my first tattoo. Does it hurt? Hell yes. Someone describe it, and it makes perfect sense to me, that it feels like someone cutting through your skin with a razor blade. Despite this, not a single scream, nor tear, was shed. In fact nobody who went screamed or teared up. Thom Adcox showed up with a few others. After mine was done we left Tony, Thom and company to get theirs while we headed off to the Bad Guys panel.

The Bad Guys panel was more about how to promote the show than anything. Greg's got an out for his stories now and he's reluctant to reveal new details. Jen showed her ink to Greg and Greg shared his opinion on Jen's mental state. After the panel we headed back to the tattoo shop. We'd forgotten the tip, oops. We also had Greg and Thom sign a copy of the season 2, volume 1 DVD and gave it to him. Tony had gotten his on his upper right arm. Crimson Obsession has gotten one on her lower back, and Thom Adcox was in the chair getting his on his calf when we walked in. Greg B came over with us and stuck around to get one on his upper right arm as well.

We left and got read for the banquet. This year's banquet was a buffet style affair. The food was really, really good. And I was, unexpectedly, introduced to sweet tea. I think the ratio of sweet to tea was about 95 to 1. After the banquet we hung out for a bit while preparations were made for the masquerade.

This year's masquerade was heavy on original characters and light on canon characters. I'm thinking I need to get back in the game. Hal's costume as a stone gargoyle was awesome. Easily best in show. Thing broke down into dancing and partying after that. I left after a little bit to check in on home and make sure everything was okay. I sat down in the lobby because it was the only (mostly) reliable place to get the wireless internet. At some point Hudson and a few others come rushing through. The rain that night was heavy and apparently the roof was starting to leak.. right over the comic book dealer's table. We headed up and started rearranging furniture and moving comic boxes to try and keep them dry. It seemed at every spot we thought dry enough to put the books we'd find a small leak in the ceiling. Eventually we just stacked tables and stuck the boxes under the tables. The following day I found out the books came through the night dry and fine.

Headed back to the room where everyone had piled in to hang out. Introduced Greg to *things* on YouTube. Had some booze. Eventually fell asleep.

Monday, June 26

Packed up. We were all leaving today. Had breakfast once more. After breakfast a bunch of us headed to the live auction. Lots of cool stuff up for auction. I managed to grab a large, metalic looking poster of Coldstone holding Goliath over his head. You've seen a smaller version of this on the cover of the "Brothers Betrayed" VHS tape. Greg and Thom signed it to continue my tradition of having at least 1 signed souvenir from each con I've attended. As the auction was winding down Jen, Karine and I decided it was time to go. We said our goodbyes and went back to the room to get our stuff.

Thom, Karine, Jen and Patrick piled into a car for the drive back to the airport. I said my last goodbyes to them then got in my own car and headed home. 17 hours. 926 miles. And I got lost in downtown Newark because of the late night construction they're doing on the highways. The way down to the con I went I-287, over the Tappan Zee bridge and around New York City. I went through the city on my way home. Paid nearly 1000% more in tolls (not overstating that!) and nearly got lost again in the Bronx, but I finally got home around 3 AM.

Lasting memories: Ink, boobs, Samuel giggling, first rule: don't talk about ...., and THE MAJOR REVELATIONS OF ISSUE FIVE THAT I AM SWORN TO NOT TALK ABOUT. Although I'm dying here. I need to talk!

I had a great time.

Greg responds...

Dude -- The name "Quincy" does NOT appear until issue #5. <sigh>

Response recorded on July 05, 2007

Bookmark Link

JULY 5

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

July 5th...

1996
Goliath, Angela and Gabriel attempt to confront Oberon, but he is too powerful for them, and they are forced to flee. Meanwhile - working off clues provided by Titania - Tom, Elisa, Katharine and Ophelia begin forging an iron bell to use against Oberon.


Bookmark Link

JULY 4

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

July 4th...

1996
The travelers return to Avalon. Minutes later, Lord Oberon, Queen Titania and the Weird Sisters return to their mystic home. Oberon orders the humans and gargoyles off the island, but Titania convinces him to give the mortals a chance. She reduces his power, and he proceeds to hunt Goliath, Gabriel and Angela across the island.


Bookmark Link

Molly writes...

Did Lexington ever want to have children? (Biological children, not adopted since you have implied/said he hasn't realized he's gay yet.)

Does Lexington prefer to single or is he craving to have some kind of sexual/intimate relationship like the others? Some people out there prefer staying single because relationships have a tendency to get really messy or they're just busy and they're happy being single. It can show either maturity or just plain bitterness/hurt.

What kind of relationship avenue does he prefer: intellectual, emotional, or physical? Everyone's different about that so I thought I'd ask.

Greg responds...

1. Lex probably wants kids some day, but he's a gargoyle and biological offspring are of little significance relative to clan offspring. You're thinking like a human.

2. I think Lex is in no hurry, but, yes, he wants an intimate relationship eventually.

3. All of the above.

Response recorded on July 03, 2007

Bookmark Link

Antiyonder writes...

Given that you've read and wrote some comics, just thought I'd ask:

1. Do you still hold onto some of the older comics you've collected?

2. If no, then do you still have copies of the comics you've wrote and/or edited?

Greg responds...

1. Yes.

2. Yes, most of them.

Response recorded on July 03, 2007

Bookmark Link

Alex Da Man writes...

Are you really sure you want to eventually turn Lexington gay? It's estimated that 72% homosexuals have an STD of some kind. Check out these statistics from the CDC.gov site (Center for Disease Control):

*Note: everything listed here is cited!!*

72% of homosexuals had HIV in 2005
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/msm/resources/factsheets/msm.htm

over 40% of all STD cases occurred amongst homosexuals in 2002
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/msm/nastad_ncsd.htm

infection of HIV co-infections with syphilis has ranged from 20%-70%
http://www.cdc.gov/std/syphilis/STDFact-MSM&Syphilis.htm#common

STD positive cases for homosexuals who participated in getting tested
Gonorrhea: 1-21%
Syphilis: 11%
Chlamydia: 6%
http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats/msm.htm

CDC estimates 64% of MSM comprised of cases for P&S Syphilis cases in 2004:
http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats04/trends2004.htm

MSM (homosexual men) are at incresed risk for multiple STDs:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/hepatitis/msm/dear_colleague.htm

Gonorrhea increased in MSM (men who have sex with men) to 23% in 2004:
http://www.cdc.gov/std/stats04/gonorrhea.htm

Rates of STDs in MSM for 2005, slides 73-80:
www.cdc.gov/std/stats/slides/SurvReportSlides2005.ppt

Many STDs go undiagnosed because many of the diseases lack symptoms. There are more than 25 diseases that prevail and cost the health industry millions of dollars to treat. Symptoms are more noticeable in women than they are in men many times and women carry a heavier burden under then when infected. Some STDs are on the rise while others are coming to be under control and are either viral (viruses- most are incurable) or bacterial (which can be cured with antibiotics):
http://www.cdc.gov/std/Trends2000/Trends2000.pdf

Thousands of cases go undiagnosed until it is usually too late and serious side effects occur. Here's to healthier beings, humans and gargoyles alike!!

Alex

Greg responds...

I do NOT necessarily credit these statistics, but in any case, they're immaterial. What the HELL does citing these have to do with anything?

Response recorded on July 03, 2007

Bookmark Link

danny writes...

how will i die

Greg responds...

All things are true.

Response recorded on July 03, 2007

Bookmark Link

Anonymous writes...

WHAT IS A BIGGEST GARGOYLE

Greg responds...

Which, maybe?

Response recorded on July 03, 2007

Bookmark Link

VLAD writes...

WHAT IS A SCARIEST GARGOYLE

Greg responds...

What isn't?

Response recorded on July 03, 2007

Bookmark Link

Rob writes...

I wanted to ask you some questions about dealing with Disney, and making a comic that was based in one of their shows, as I am considering going to them? But I have absolutely no experience in doing such deals, or with making comics... etc. And I live in the UK, so obviously I can't just go to their offices.

I have written a story set in one of Disney's classic shows. The show is 'Talespin', which of course has been cancelled for years, but I wanted to know if it were possible for Disney to make a comic out of it again, if they came upon a really good idea? (I know they did once, but it didn't last)

The story I've written is about 110 pages long, set in 4 chapters, and I like to think has some quite good storylines.

I wanted to know who I should contact, to submit the idea... their address, email, website URL or such? And should they agree, then what comes next?

Do I send them my whole story, and if I do then should I make copies, or do I take them first to a lawyer or someone to get copyrights? (Just in case someone tries to steal my ideas (paranoid I know, but you can never be too careful nowadays)).

Assuming everything goes well, and they agree, then what happens? Do they hire all the artists themselves, and/or get more experienced writers to trim my story down to their liking? Do I have any say in the matter? I mean, living in the UK would no doubt be a problem to work with them, since they're based in the US.

If you could answer any of these questions, I'd be most grateful. Or if you could give me the contact details of someone who could help me, or have details sent to me, I'd be even more stoked?

Thanks! (Oh, and loved the 4th Gargoyles comic issue btw!)

Storyseeker.1@btopenworld.com

Greg responds...

Rob...

Nothing is impossible, and far be it from me to tell you not to go for it, but the scenario you're describing is pretty darn close to a pipe dream.

So let's take it point for point...

It is possible for Disney to make a Talespin comic again -- in theory. But in point of fact, Disney is NOT publishing any comics to my knowledge. Keep in mind that Disney is NOT publishing Gargoyles. SLG has licensed the property (and three others) from Disney and is publishing the book. I feel like I vaguely recall that Disney has other licenses with other companies. There's also Disney Adventures Digest, which used to publish the occasional comic book story. Don't know if they still do. Actually don't know if they still publish that digest at all. So would Disney start publishing Talespin again if they LOVED your idea. I really, really doubt it. Either Talespin comics are part of their business strategy or they're not. Either a financial argument can be made to add Talespin comics to their business strategy or it cannot. Their assumption would be that IF they decided to make the comic, they could find PROS, experienced PROS, to turn out high quality product. That's the LEAST of their worries. It is unlikely that no matter how brilliant your storyline might be that the storyline itself would convince them to do this.

I don't know whom you should contact. But if this is important to you, then do your homework. RESEARCH who you should contact. Find other Disney books and contact the people making them. If you're not serious enough to do your homework, than you'll never get through the hassle of what is BOUND to follow -- even assuming you luck into or are fed the correct contact info.

I might start by sending a plot synopsis. Something more digestible than an 110 page document. I would absolutely make copies. I mean what if it gets lost in the mail? But a lawyer for purposes of "protecting" your idea seems like an unnecessary expense. You can send the document to yourself in a sealed envelope by the U.K. equivalent of certified mail, i.e. with the date marked on it. Then simply do NOT open that envelope, until or unless you find yourself in a court of law in front of witnesses needing to prove that you wrote what you said you wrote when you said you wrote it. But frankly, even THAT precaution is unnecessary. I used to worry about people stealing my ideas too. I got over it. The bigger danger is that someone INDEPENDENTLY has a very similar idea and gets it out into the public before you. Then you are effectively blocked. And let's face it... this isn't an original property we're talking about. This is Talespin. There is EVERY reason to think that someone else could independently come up with a similar idea, because you and that someone else are both working off the same source material. Source material, which I should remind you, you don't and can NEVER own.

As to what happens if they agree... well, we're TRULY into blue sky territory now. I mean, WHO bought it? Who's doing it? I'm assuming you have no plan to pay the extraordinarily large licensing fee to do this yourself. The publisher, I guess, would find an artist. But are you saying that you yourself think that you need a PRO to clean up your writing? Again, do your homework. If you can't present this in a presentable professional form, what chance do you have? How much say you have... would depend on all of the above factors. (Living in the U.K. I would think would hardly matter at all. Not these days, not with computers, not if they've already bought your idea.)

I have to say I would NOT focus my energies on a property I didn't own. I know that must sound hypocritical given how much time and energy I've spent on Gargoyles, but I really do think it's a different situation. Which doesn't mean I'VE been smart either. But at least I'm the creator with some cache vis-a-vis the property, a fan following and a real investment (mental and emotional at least) in it.

Response recorded on July 03, 2007

Bookmark Link

Caswin writes...

I realize that Puck's "Future Tense" world wasn't perfectly-created. Some details aren't going to make sense. Yet - looking through the image archives, right here on Station 8 - I have to wonder about that sword Xanatos used in his final battle with Hudson. It looks more like a genuine conscious addition than anything else. Is there a story (within a story, I suppose) behind that?

Greg responds...

I'm not answering that question at this time.

Response recorded on July 03, 2007

Bookmark Link

GARGOYLES FOREVER!!!!!!!!!! writes...

if you had the chanc would you turn the comics it to the a new eppsoid of the searies

Greg responds...

Sure.

Response recorded on July 03, 2007

Bookmark Link

??????????? writes...

do you think that brookly would be conserde the gargoyles sexsymbol?

Greg responds...

Aren't all the gargoyles sexy?

Response recorded on July 03, 2007

Bookmark Link

JULY 3

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

July 3rd...

1996
Oberon and the Weird Sisters locate Anastasia Renard, the mortal identity of Titania, Queen of the Third Race. Oberon proposes that he and Titania renew their marriage vows on the eve of the Gathering. She promises to consider it.


Bookmark Link

TiniTinyTony writes...

*** BJ's and Jess's Weekend Wedding Bonanza sans The Gathering 2007 ***

- Friday, June 22, 2007

I went to sleep early the night before so that I could meet up with all the groomsmen and the groom at 9am to go clay pigeon shooting. I was supposed to meet my friend Dan at his house in Danville and follow him to the shooting range. Well he was very late getting ready and by the time we reached the range, they were done shooting. I was pretty pissed, but I didn't let it get me down. We still had golf to do later that day, and I didn't want to go into that sport angry, especially at the low level of experience that I am in the first place.

So we all went to BJ's house, and then took two cars to get something to eat at KFC/Taco Bell, grabbed some golf balls at Wal-Mart, and then proceeded to the golf course called Turbot Hills. We had a 1:15 tee time. It was only $19 to play and it was a pretty nice course. I had borrowed an old set of golf clubs from BJ's dad, Bill, a few days before so I didn't have to spend $4 to rent a set. We got three carts, two guys per cart, drank beers and played scrimmage style where everyone plays from where the best ball was hit to. I only lost 3 balls that day which I thought was pretty good. I got a few good shots over all throughout the day, but the best part was just hanging with friends, drinking beers, and driving the golf cart.

Once we were done with 9 holes, we headed back to BJ's house to get ready for the wedding rehearsal at 5:30pm. It was going well until BJ lost it. It took him about 10 minutes to calm down and regain composure and we proceeded to practice. I assured him that it was normal to get emotional and not to worry about it.

Once we got that out of the way, we were treated to dinner. It was a good time and everyone was enjoying my antics. We then proceeded to this dive bar to have a few drinks and then headed home around 10:30pm to get plenty of sleep for the big day tomorrow.

*** BJ's and Jess's Weekend Wedding Bonanza sans The Gathering 2007 ***

- Saturday, June 23, 2007

BJ wanted all the groomsmen to meet at his house at 9am to hang out and watch movies. I got up at 7am and arrived at his place around 9:15am. I was the first one there. We proceeded to Sheetz and got some breakfast biscuits or Shbizcuits or something bizarre like that. We went back to BJ's and hung out. We didn't end up watching movies, but we ended up cruising the internet for a bit and then played bocce outside once the other groomsmen showed up. Before long it was time to head to the church and get dressed in our tuxes.

It was 1pm and we left for the church where we had put our tuxes the night before so it was convenient for Saturday. Once we got dressed, it was Adam "Wags" Wagner and mine job to light the candles on the altar. We did a great job of course, and then we proceeded with the other groomsmen, to escort the other ladies into the church to their seats. That was probably the most fun part, for me, for no apparent reason. Once it was 3:00pm, it was time to begin. All of us lined up in front of the church with the priest, and the bridesmaids entered while music played. Then Jess came in with a huge smile on her face, as her dad brought her up to the altar. After only 20 minutes it was over, and BJ and Jess were now husband and wife.

We waited outside and blew bubbles at them. I miss the old days when you could throw rice. That was always fun. After that it was time to take pictures back inside the church. We did this for 40 minutes until the limos came at 4pm.

The limos took us to the reception where more pictures were taken. I believe it wasn't until 7pm until we finally entered the reception and sat down to eat. The picture taking seemed to take longer than usual, and I'm sure the guests were upset, but I wasn't complaining, but made jokes and had a great time.

The best man and the father of the bride gave their speeches; we toasted, and began to eat some really delicious food - steaks cooked right on this huge grill in front of us. There was plenty of wine to drink for the reception was at the Spyglass Winery, and there was a half keg of Yeugling Lager, a local favorite in Pennsylvania. Not a lot of people were on the dance floor, but I was out there having a good time. I didn't bring a date, so I danced with Jess's friends and her cousins. They were all very beautiful young women and very nice to talk to and dance with.

But like all good things, this wonderful event had come to an end. I danced the last dance of the night with BJ's mom, Susie. She is a really great lady and I consider her my second mom. Once the DJ started packing up, she was nice enough to give me a ride back to my car at the church. I got home around 11:15pm that night and I was beat. I passed out around midnight, but not before setting my alarm.

*** BJ's and Jess's Weekend Wedding Bonanza sans The Gathering 2007 ***

- Sunday, June 24, 2007

I had my alarm set for 10am. I got up around 9:30am. There was a post wedding celebration at Jess's parent's house at noon where my presence was requested.

I got to their house around 11:54am, and was the first groomsman there. BJ and Jess weren't there yet, but thankfully showed up 5 minutes later.

We had all the left over food from the wedding to eat, which was probably more delicious the next day. We played washers and horseshoes outside, while drinking beers and bullshitting, talking about how well the wedding went and how much fun everyone had.

People didn't stay very long, but I helped clean up and left around 4pm. I took the rest of the day to relax after the crazy and fun weekend that I just experienced.

Great job to all the groomsmen who helped make the weekend so memorable. Congratulations to BJ and Jess, whom I love and respect with all my heart.

Hopefully, next year I'll get to experience The Gathering experience in Chicago.

Greg responds...

We hope so too.

Response recorded on July 02, 2007

Bookmark Link

Carter writes...

Gathering 2007 Journal

--Friday--
As it so happened, I woke up a good hour and a half later than I had hoped to - or, more precisely, I woke up to the alarm and proceeded to turn it off so that I could sleep for an additional hour and a half - and so was not in the best of moods as I made my way out the door.

While I still left early enough to avoid significant traffic leaving D.C., the trucks were out in force on I-81, as were the state and local police. Honestly, in the years that I traveled 81 in order to get to and from school, I have never seen the kind of police presence as I did going to Pigeon Forge. Neither, it seemed, had many of the travelers, and this led to a problem: The left lane was going painfully slow so as to avoid receiving a ticket, while the right lane had taken up a "Damn the torpedoes!" mentality. I, wanting to neither take 10 hours to get to Pigeon Forge nor 30 seconds to get a court date 350 miles from home (been there, done that) navigated between the two lanes as best I could.

Tennessee, however, was an entirely different story. Traffic became nonexistent and moved along speedily, that is until I made the turn to get to Pigeon Forge. Having varied between 65 and 75 miles per hour for most of the trip, I was not happy to find myself in a miles-long traffic crawl that moved along at under 20 miles per hour, despite the much higher posted speed limit.

In all, it was an eight hour trek down, not including the very quick stop for gas at a station adjacent to a fireworks stand.

I walked into the lobby and saw none other than Greg W. himself, and were it not for this encounter I would have probably wandered aimlessly around the hotel looking for the registration desk - one of those significant things that I failed to do on Thursday was get Leo's cell phone number.

Once I got upstairs and registered, I made my way over to familiar faces and chatted with many people, among them Revel, Spacie, Mandi, Greg B., Gside, and Jade Griffin. The conversation was brief, however, as I then went on a quest to find my roommates, Leo, Kelly, and D. Taina.

The quest was unsuccessful, so instead I got in line to audition for the Radio Play and met up with even more people. It was while waiting in this line, however, that Leo, Kelly, and Taina found me, and who brought in tow Rob and Doppleganger.

I was next to last to audition, but not before I met Kathy, and after which time I finally got to the room and briefly put my feet up to watch "Army of Darkness" before heading over to Opening Ceremonies.

Opening Ceremonies was the usual stuff, with the exception that we had to sit on the floor in order to be able to see the television in the conference room, and further excepting that, as Greg talked about the need to bring more people to the Gathering, a very bright light went on in my head to signal that, as "advertisement guy" for Gathering 2008, that task would be in very large part up to me.

Come to the Gathering in 2008! It's Chicago, it's Gargoyles, it's friends, and it's my self-esteem at stake!

I'm still working on taglines.

After Opening Ceremonies were finished, I introduced myself to Susan, co-chair for next year's Gathering (in Chicago!) and we briefly discussed plans before she was overwhelmed by other people. Afterwards my roommates, Doppleganger, Kathy and I discussed our dinner options, and we settled on Huck Finn's Catfish - as would several other congoers, we would learn. No, I did not violate my rule of not eating seafood when more than 200 miles from a shoreline or major tributary, I had the chicken fried chicken, as opposed to the chicken fried steak, which three of the other five had.

But one thing that never changes from one Gathering to the next is that I always end up sleeping on the floor, and after a long day of driving, I must say that the floor of our room was quite comfortable</lie>.

--Saturday--
Well rested, my roommates and I woke up and headed off to breakfast. We settled for the Red Rooster Pancake House, where we encountered Kathy, John, Sarah, and Mike. Actually, we didn't encounter them, John had to throw a wad of paper at me to get my attention; and when that failed, he got up from his chair, came over to our table and proceeded to "fire" us as friends.

On firing, he mentioned that his group was headed over to a firing range and asked if we wanted to come. I don't know what possessed him to invite a bunch of people who were too tired to notice good friends sitting at a nearby table to go off and fire guns, but we agreed to go all the same.

We had fun to say the least, and our lack of sleep had no ill effects on our health.

From there we all branched off to do our own things, and I headed up to the art show/dealer's room to look at the pretty things and talk with more people. I also learned in this time that I had been cast in the Radio Play, as had apparently half of the Gathering-goers.

I am sworn to secrecy on the specifics of the Radio Play, but let me say in no uncertain terms that it is a must - a MUST - that you go buy Gargoyles #5; and if you haven't already, get Gargoyles #3 and #4 as well. The story is fantastic and a half.

And a half, people.

After that entertainment, Garrett, who I had met earlier in the dealer's room, informed me that a group was getting together for pizza and mini golf. In the last few weeks I have had my mini golf efforts thwarted time and time again, so this was not an opportunity I planned to miss!

My roommates, however, weren't too enthusiastic about the affair, as they had already had it in mind to order pizza, so I went across the street to Papa Johns with Revel, Spacie, Greg B., Aaron, Gside, Mike, and… I'm trying so desperately to remember his name, but I'm failing horribly. My apologies.

I had leftover pizza, so I went back to the hotel room and tried once more to rally my roommates around mini golf, and this time Kelly and Leo decided to attend, while D. Taina and Doppleganger (roommate de facto at this point) decided to stay behind. And so our teams were formed, and off we went, although Doppleganger and D. Taina would eventually join us.

I think there was a reason fate had conspired so many times to keep me from playing mini golf: I suck. After 27 holes, which had a combined par of 69, I took third place of our group of four - me, Kelly, Leo, and Garrett - with a score of 97. My reasoning for this is that I "beat" my local mini golf course back in high school, and not having returned since, I am woefully out of practice.

Yes, woefully out of practice.

The reason we cut our second game short by nine holes was so that we could be back to the hotel for the Blue Mug, the "anything goes" Q&A. I was pretty well zoned out for most of it, so when the panel adjourned at 1:30 a.m., despite Greg's insistence that we could stick around for another half hour, I was more than ready to get back to my cozy floor space.

--Sunday--
I slept well past the alarm in order to be as rested as possible for my long drive home, the price for doing so being the foregoing of breakfast. I packed up my things and then headed over to Jade Griffin's writing/reading panel, for which I had completely forgotten to write anything.

Following this panel was the science & culture panel, hosted by Greg, Jade, and Lynati, and which was by far one of the better panels I have attended in all my Gatherings. The discussion was intelligent, informative, civil, and very enjoyable.

Immediately following the panel, however, I had to hurry through my goodbyes in order to get onto the road and home. Given the nature of the drive down, I did not want to risk getting home too late so as to be too tired to go to work on Monday.

That didn't work out too well.

While I managed to get through Tennessee without much incident, after I crossed over into Virginia, the skies began to open up. I pulled over for dinner at Outback Steakhouse and to let the storm pass, adding much time to my journey (but giving me some delicious, heart attack-inducing leftovers).

Storms aside, I managed to get home at about 10:30 p.m., at which point I had little left to do but crawl into bed (yay, no more floors!), forget to set my alarm, and go to sleep.

--Monday--
Having forgotten to set my alarm, I woke up 15 minutes before I had to leave to get to work. The easy going pace of the Smokey Mountains was as removed from me mentally as physically, and with added urgency I began my daily routine.

I still managed to get out of the house on time, but it was all for naught, as the train I got on ended up breaking down, resulting in me arriving at work 30 minutes late. And as I sorted through the 121 e-mails which had piled up since Thursday afternoon, I knew I was back home.

This year's Gathering was fantastic, and my hat's off to the staff for getting it together. I apologize to all the people who I didn't get the chance to say goodbye to in my rush to get home. Hopefully I will get to see you in Chicago in 2008 so that you can tell me in person just how much I hurt your feelings.

Greg responds...

Carter - Always great to see you. Glad you had fun. And folks help him SPREAD THE WORD!!

Check out www.gatheringofthegargoyles.com

Response recorded on July 02, 2007

Bookmark Link

Matthew writes...

Just finished reading #4 for the third time. Let's see I liked the scene at the beginning. I always liked Jeffrey Robbins and would like to see more of him. The costume party was cool. I guess Margot's a fan of old movies if she wanted Brendan to dress as Rudolf Valentino. I like the irony of her complimenting the gargoyles without realizing they were gargoyles. This was also the first I think we've ever seen her complimenting anything. You'd think that she would have recognize the gargoyles though considering all the times she has encounter them. I did not at first remember who Judge Roebling was at first since he was only in Vows.
So at the Labrynthe Thailog thrashes the Mutates. I have to wonder does Thailog have some plan for the Clones or is he just "collecting his property" as he put it?
I'd say that's quite shocker at the end. I'm not sure you could have done that in the cartoon, but like you said in an earlier post it would be how you do it. I think a slightly elevated level of violence might lend the comic a bit more gravitas than the cartoon. Though I don't want it turning into a Garth Ennis comic or anything.

Greg responds...

The sensibility is still my own, and I'm not big on the ultra-violence, personally.

Response recorded on July 02, 2007

Bookmark Link

Victor writes...

1) Does Demona blame the Captain for the Wyvern Massacre, or just Goliath for not taking the other gargoyles out like their plan was?

2) What would have happened if Demona had never overheard Macbeth and Bodhe's conversation about betraying the gargoyles to the English, or if she did overhear but Macbeth had defended the gargoyles to Bodhe?

Greg responds...

1. She has plenty of blame to spread around.

2. Lots of stuff.

Response recorded on July 02, 2007

Bookmark Link

JULY 2

This day in Gargoyles' Universe History....

July 2nd...

1017
England's King, Canute of Denmark, divorces Elfgiva and marries Aethelred's widow, Queen Emma (Princess Katharine's aunt).

1776
The United States of America declares its independence.



: « First : « 50 : Displaying #73 - #107 of 107 records. : Last » :