dracolich5 writes...

Hello again, Greg! I've decided to start posting questions more frequently, and I've got an interesting assortment of production questions.
During the creation of characters, how were their eventual designs chosen? Did the artists in question work on one design only, or were several designs tried? If so, is there any way we can ever see these unused designs? My interest in unused character designs started when I purchased some Japanese Godzilla books that showed alternate designs for machines and creatures. Just curious to see if similar interesting designs are around.

On a side note, IF any alternate character designs were made, were any of these re-used for later characters? Just checking!

LSZ writes...

Did Morgana or Nimue attend the Gathering?

ANGELA writes...

Hi, Greg. I noticed something in "Hunter's Moon: Part 2" that was inaccurate. When Angela wasn't breathing, and Elisa performed CPR on her, she was doing it wrong. Elisa was pushing directly on the breasts, when in reality you are suppossed to push just below the breastbone so that you can move the lung sac to force air into it. Now, if someone were to watch this particular show, and then in reality someone actually imitated what they saw to someone, they could make matters worse or even kill them. I was watching the news one day, and they were talking about how on the kids' show "Rugrats", a character was choking on an eraser and another character performed the hiemlich maneuver to save their life. This happened in real life at a grade school, and the child, remembering what they had seen on the TV show, preformed this procedure and ended up saving the other child's life. I was just concerned that if kids or anyone for that matter were to watch this scene in the Gargoyles show, then someone could die because the CPR procedure was not done correctly. Thanks for your time, Greg. I appreciate it! :)

Laura aka 'ad astra' writes...

Glad to see Ask Greg running again! I had downloaded the old archives, (or most of them) sometime last year. I checked periodically and it seemed the page was down. I gave up on the Ask Greg page and only checked it again on a lark. It took me weeks to read through everything!

Oh, a question-

You seem to have a much more optimistic view on the series coming back then when last I checked in. Has something changed? To be more precise- Before you seemed to say "long shot at best for the series in any form, even the live action movie seems dead". Now the movie doesn't sound dead, and the long term revival hopes good, (lost the quote, sorry). I am much heartened, and almost as curious.

I have many more questions to follow, but for now I want to say thank you for doing this, and thanks to Gorebash for running it.

Jade writes...

Dear Greg,
Thank you so much for responing to my Q's. It really made me feel a lot better to know that my Q's were going to the right place. I've wacthed a few of your Max Steel shows. I think it'll be a great show. But any way on to the Q's.
1. I've looked along the archives and didn't find this question, so here it goes. Is there any way to get the show back up? I've tryed every thing I could thank of! I wrote tons of letters to Buena Vista, and at first they were nice about it then on my, oh I don't know, my tenth letter? They wrote back telling me NOT TO WRITE THEM AGAIN, can you belive that I can't. I've even called Walt Disney, and what about that they put me on hold forever! Okay that felt good getting that of my chest. Anyway if you lost the question it my "ramblings" here it is:

1. Is there any way to get the show back up?
And please don't tell me to look at the archives again. I did't want that to sound rude but it came out rude, sorry.

Todd Jensen writes...

My ramble-reply on "Enter Macbeth".

Well, now we know the reason for the delay on this one. I really liked this episode, particularly on account of the name. I've always been quite fond of Shakespeare's "Macbeth", and so the title grabbed my attention at once. I don't know if I'd even suspected that Macbeth was *the* Macbeth (not until "City of Stone" came out), but I found his name very intriguing, and the character as well. Mac's one of my favorite characters in "Gargoyles", in fact. (And "Macbeth" certainly strikes me as the most appropriate Shakespeare play to get into "Gargoyles", in view of Goliath and his clan being Scottish).

I honestly don't recall how I responded to the gargoyles moving out of the castle, the first time that I saw it. Except that I was a bit sorry, since I liked Castle Wyvern. But at the same time, I understood that it was necessary to do so, and the clock tower made a good home for them.

(Truth to tell, I can understand, and sympathize with, Goliath's reluctance to leave the castle. For one thing, having moved twice in the last five years, I know that it's not an easy thing to just move to a new home; it's difficult to tear oneself away from a place that you've been living in for quite a while. Also, as Goliath pointed out, the castle was the only link that the clan had left (except for themselves) to the 10th century. Take away that, and they'd be feeling entirely stranded in the modern world. Plus, I've always liked castles, which gives me a further bias there).

(I very much liked Macbeth's home as well, with its very medieval atmosphere - particularly the suits of armor and swords - almost like the armory displays in the Tower of London - and thought it a bit of a pity that the place burnt down).

Slash writes...

Hi Greg...
I just wanted to a say I was alittle confused as to you are when I wrote my question on april 6th.... (I only had the internet 3 days at that point) now that I have a clue... I just wanted to give you an explanation to why I asked...Well it just makes me somewhat angry that I still haven't had the chance to see many of the goliath cronicles, and our cable provider does not carry toon disney...(and still won't) I can't wait to see you at G2K... (I live like 10 minutes form the place and wouldn't miss it for the world!) Thank you for your time..... Keep on rockn'

Maria Destine writes...

WHEW!!! I like Demona Taina's post about Goliath! She said everything right. But I do agree with her and several others that he does have too strong a temper. But in the troubling times he and his clan are in, I can't really blame him. Still, in the future is it possible to let him learn to control it?
And, when she mentioned that there was a concept picture of Goliath with multiple spikes on his arms and a bony stub at the end of his tail, it made me curious. Where can I see a pic like that? I missed the first two years of the gathering, and in '99 I missed the opening ceremonies. BUAHH!! *Just kidding* ^_^
Anyway, I'm really curious of that. Is there anyway to see some of those concept pics? I'm sure they're not cause it would be considered confidential. But if we could see them, where could I go to see them?
Thanks again. ^_^

Ambrosia writes...

Ever since you first mentioned you were going to be teaching a class at UCLA, I've been thinking about it, but I'm just far enough away to make the commute impractical. Also, it overlaps my Spring semester. By the time you get this, you'll have already started, but is it okay if I crash a class or two? I've never been to a Gathering and I'd love to say hi. I'm currently a math major, but I've been seriously considering doing SOMETHING (I know, very vague) with animation. Anyway, I would have loved to attend, but maybe another time.

Matt writes...

Hello I'm a really big fan of Gargoyles, I watch the show all the time.

Well here's my Q.

Is there anywhere on the web that your spin-offs are in print, or are they only at the gatherings?

Lexy writes...

Hey Greg!

Hmm This isn't really a Q so I hope it dosn't get booted. But I just had to say this.

You are working on 3x3 with a nice lil chunk of garg voice actors??? *sighs blissfully* wow..first Nazca now this?

To have my FAVE ppl get together and work on an ANIME just ..well, it brings a tear to my eye. *sniffs* I'm glad you guys are having a good time. ;)

Xeennexx writes...

Dear Greg:

First off, I would like to say that Gargoyles is one of my all time favorite shows (and this is coming from a woman that has, for the most part, given up on TV). There is not a thing more I can say about it that has not already been said, other than this: Gargoyles is one of, if not "the", greatest animated shows of all time (heck, the USA Today poll proved that). I very glad that you put so much into Gargoyles, and I'm sad it had to end all too soon. In short, Thank You.

However, I'm glad that you have moved on and continue to produce quality animated programing (I'm particularly interested in the English adaption of 3x3 Eyes, as that I've been a fan of Japanise animation for years, but I don't speak a word of Japanise). One of your most recent works interests me (and is the reason for my questions, forthcoming). It is Starship Troopers: Roughneck Chronicles. What I would like to know is:

1) How did you like working on SST:RC and are there any intesting stories you have about your experiences working on the show?

2) Did you wish they had covered more of the controversal ideas that were in Heinlein's novel?

3) I know that 4 of the planned episodes for the show were scrapped due to budget and production problems.
a) What are your feelings on this?
b) The last 3 eps that would have ended the Bug War
were, I have learned, written by you. So:
1) Since the possibility of seeing these last eps
produced are remote to nil, is there any info you
can give out about the story line of these eps,
or are you bonded by contract not to reveal any
info on the show?
2) If these eps in question had been produced, would
there have been any room for a second season?

Thank you. And I look forward to seeing you at The Gathering 2000.

Stephen R. "Coldstone" Sobotka, Jr. writes...

Greetings Greg!

To reply to you answer on my "Max Steel" question on 2-23-200:

Some time ago - around mid-1980's or so - Tonka (or Mattel) released a toy line called "Max Steel's Robo-Force"; basicly a series of cylindrical, claw-armed robots whose major gimick was you could attach them to any flat surface via a suction-cup. They had good guys and bad guys, and I assumed there was to be a show made for them, but the toy line never really took off. (This was during the time when shows like "Transformers", "GoBots" and the like were very popular.)

Now for a question:

If you've ever read the book "Planet X" (a Star Trek:TNG/X-Men crossover novel) then you should understand this query: If you ever got around to writing novels or making a graphic novel with Gargoyles in it, would you ever consider doing a crossover story that pits the Gargoyles with another group of characters from another licensed universe of characters (with the creator's permission of course)?

P.S. - Here's to seeing you in Orlando (if I'm lucky enough to get down there). Maintain and Check Six!

Chris writes...

Um, hello. In that one episode, I forget the name,(when Golith is in Australlia & meets up with that Pack member in the armor) the pack member in the armor gets his armor suped up by those little nanities guys. My question is what ever happened to him? I don't recall seeing him in any other episodes.

Thanks for your time.

Bud-Clare writes...

Okay, this one I _know_ is a separate topic.

I've been meaning to mention this for months. After the last Gathering, you mentioned that you thought that RotG had gone over better than the script you had at G99. I did like RotG better, but I didn't bother to wonder why that was until after you mentioned it. Todd Jenson, for instance, would have liked RotG better (I think), because... that's just the type of story he likes better. (Sorry to drag you into this against your will, Todd.) I, on the other hand, have no preference between the two at all, as far as I can tell. There's nothing about the stories themselves that should have made me like one significantly better than the other. So, I gave a lot of thought to this, and I think that RotG was liked better because it was simpler. With RotG, we were able to easily follow everything that was going on, and even imagine the way it would have looked if it had been made into an episode. But with that script from G99, there were a lot more characters, and lots of action scenes, and it was just generally harder to follow. It's not that we weren't _able_ to follow it, it's just that following what was going on took enough effort that we didn't have any time to just enjoy it. In fact, I liked the beginning the best, which was before it really started to pick up. (Of course, this could be just me. Does anyone else agree with this?) So, I think if you just pick a less complicated script again this year, everything should be okay. But I could be wrong. Who knows?

Ambrosia writes...

One more quick thing... this is probably ridiculous, but there's someone named Jeffrey Bennett running for House of Representatives in California... do I even dare to hope...?

Robby Bevard writes...

Hey Greg, it's me. The Vinnie fanatic and the guy who voiced the psycho truck driver at G99. This is my first post to ya, and I'm not even asking a question! (Well, I am curious about where you got the name "Nashville", but thats a different matter, I'll ask about that in a bit.) This is in response to your rambles about the series, and you asking about our first impressions of it. Since you're covering Awakenings, I'll cover the first season, since you'll be well past that by the time you read this.

My first impression of the show came during the trailer in "Nightmare before Christmas" actually, and I was totally psyched by that. I could tell it was going to have that sort of feel "Beauty and the Beast" had. The live version, with Linda Hamilton. Mixed in with Batman and nifty looking creatures. Looked good.

My second experiance unfortunatley, was a Disney Adventures mini-comic, so I knew the characters names and that Xanatos and Demona were villains before I ever saw it, which is a real pity. Ah well.

Then came the airing of the first episode. I watched the firs... 5 minutes, mezmerized. Then, my dad told me I had a doctor's appointment, and I had to leave, without a chance to set my VCR. I argued and fought to stay, but had no choice but to leave.

The next day, a couple of kids in my art class were talking about it. I tried to join the conversation based on what I knew from the Disney Adventures comic, only to be told, "But they don't have names. You're making that up." Heh.

Then came the second episode, which I watched, enthralled. I think perhaps having Demona's shadowed hint was a bad move, but I recal watching it with a friend and going "wow" the first time I saw the gargs cape their wings. Strangely enough, that's the part I remember most clearly, them caping their wings and thinking it was cool. Wierd.

The next three episodes flew by in a blur, day after day, that was grand. I was hooked and amazed by this series, and since it came on after I came home, I didn't even need to set the VCR! Yay! All of Awakenings just sort of blurs together as one great experiance with romance, action, and lots of good things. I rather enjoyed the trio's experiances in modern day, including the kitchen and bike riding scenes. (Incidentally, circumstances CONTINUOUSLY made me miss the first episode, so I never saw it until Awakenings was released on video, so I had no idea there was cut footage at first!)

The next episode I saw was the first encounter with the Pack. I liked Lexington at that point and thought perhaps he could be my favorite character. I also enjoyed the concept of a really cheezy TV-show being liked by the gargs, but at the time, didn't like the Pack at all. This I suppose, is just because you brought in the five of them all at once, and it was a lot of new personalities to keep up with.

After that, my schedual made it so that I saw episodes out of order, and both "Temptation" and "Reawakenings" I inintially saw only the last few minutes of.

Temptation however, I loved. It locked Brooklyn into place as my favorite character, and was the first episode I taped on the second run through. The way Brooklyn reacted to Demona was great, and she was also an interesting character as well, particularly in the little hints she dropped. The first time around I totally missed the fact that the bikers had failed to notice Brook was a monster until after he took his helmet off, I just knew it was a cool bike, and a cool attitude.

Long way till Morning- It was just cool to see Hudson kick butt and Demona be totally evil and sadistic. "Fine, I'll just shoot everything in this room." Man, I miss Demona being that nasty.

I suddenly forget the name of the episode where Broadway shoots Elisa, it'll come to me as soon as I post this... The first Dracon, didn't really care for him in that episode, he was much more interesting later. All I remember clearly is, Broadway firing, seeing Elisa on the ground, and then the cut to a commercial break. I stood up, stared at the screen, and went "NO! You can't do this!" Particularly effective since Gargs was so different from every other show on the air, it was actually possible a main character could die right then and there. I was scared for Elisa's life.

Enter Macbeth- All I remember about that one the first time is "Ouch." Vrooo. "Ouch." Vrooo. "Ouch." Hee hee... That's still probably the best bits of the series. In retrospect, I was really impressed with MacBeth at the time. Cool voice, cool outfit, cool sense of honor. I *LIKED* him.

Her Brother's Keeper- Wasn't too thrilled with this one the first time. It was another Pack episode, and I still didn't really care about them. (Later viewings made it out to be a much better episode than the original impression gave.)

ReAwakenings- ANother one I originally saw the last few minutes of first. However, another of the best lines in the series, "It's alive! Aliiiive! I've always wanted to say that." still cracks me up to this day.

Hmm. I've missed an episode, but for the life of me, I can't recall which one it was. It'll come to me... And I've probably rambled on enough already considering I think I'm one of the first to ramble back at you...