Emma Rooney writes...

Where do you get all the information about Gargoyles from, without calling/visiting the sculptor?

Anonymous writes...

Since the Illuminati are going to be the villains for Pendragon, New Olympians, Bad Guys and Gargoyles were you planning a crossover for all four series?

phil seiler writes...

hi greg i want know why they put gargoyles on churches

Wolfram Bane (wolfram_bane@hotmail.com) writes...

Weisman, Greg

Given the 'everything is real' concept, does Greg Weisman, gargoyle scholar, exist within the Gargoyles universe?

Gipdac writes...

In the gargoyles universe;
1) How large was Atlantis?
2) Where was Atlantis originally?

LK writes...

This could be a delicate subject:

Although the World Trade Center is gone, <:( ,
will it still exist in the "Gargoyle universe?"

(or will this even be an issue?)

I apologize if there has already been a 9/11 "ramble".

I couldn't find anything in the archives.

Benjamin Gilbert writes...

Right off the bat, I should let you (and everyone else) know that I have some reservations about asking this question at all, but... the question seems important, somehow. The whole "gargoyles protect" thing, I suppose.

I was watching Awakening the other day, and there's a prominent shot (I don't remember in which part) of the World Trade towers. They were central to The Mirror, and probably were shown in other eps too.

1. In your mind, did the September 11th disaster happen in the Gargoyles universe?

2. If so, in your mind, is there a story there somewhere? (Not that you could tell it on the air, necessarily.) I mean, do you have thoughts about what the gargoyles did, or what Xanatos' reaction was, or suchlike? How do your particular set of extraordinary people react in those extraordinary circumstances? Or have you not thought about it?

3. If no to #1, would the WTC towers still be there in future episodes, or would they quietly vanish from the Manhattan skyline?

Aris Katsaris writes...

Galvatron> I think you are confusing Greg's words and intent... His take is after all something like "Everything is true for a given value of 'true'"...

He never said that Muslims, Jews and Christians are *correct* in everything they believed. That might indeed be offensive - but it would also be impossible to pull off, since after all, they believe in some contradictory things as well.

From what I understand, Greg said that these guys worship what they perceive as Infinite and as Creator. That's factually correct in our real world. And then he went on to say that such an Infinite and a Creator exists. Some of the more specific beliefs may well be wrong.

Pagans believed in Zeus or Odin or Osiris or many others gods. And Greg says that, yes, Zeus and Odin and Osiris also exist. But some of the more specific beliefs about them may also be wrong.

So your claim seems to me to be nothing more than "Odin isn't portrayed as Infinite!". To which my response is: "He was never supposed to be, not even by the Norse themselves."

Now if Greg went on to portray the afterlife exactly as Christianity portrays it, *that* might be a bit exclusive... But it seems to me that he's going for a diversity of afterlives, a bit similar to what Terry Pratchett did...

(Weirdly enough however I *was* annoyed by the intrusion of monotheism and dualism in shows like Hercules & Xena which previously featured polytheistic pantheons. But that was more because it seemed to me to subvert the very theme of the heroism of "Man vs gods" and turn it into "The Real God[tm] vs the many false gods"... Greg portrays a universe where all these beliefs can pretty much coexist. The producers of Xena, on the other hand decided to portray a universe where they must fight to the death - the introduction of The One God immediately made the lesser gods something evil which needed to be destroyed. Bleh! )

Sorry for the rant, Greg! :-)

Justin writes...

Dear Greg,

You said that, and Goliath has also said that, "Long ago there were clans all over the world." Well that is a pretty vague statement. I do understand it was intentional but the idea has bothered be for close to six years now, where were these clans? Were there any in the americas? Africa? Italy? Moscow? I really would like to know how far the species migrated.

Thanks

Laura 'ad astra' Ackerman writes...

Lastly the hard one: I took a quick look through the waiting to be answered section, (mea culpa, I don't usually check that part, only the actually answered sections), and I saw a few questions about the recent terrorist attack and the Gargoyles universe. I too am wondering what your thoughts on it are. Forgive me for being presumptuous, but my gut reaction is that you would want to deal with it. Gargoyles never stayed away from difficult issue, and this one came to it. If and (hopefully) when the show continues in some form, and assuming Disney allows you to, how would you handle it? Until now you have said you are leaning to continuing the show post Journey and going through the intervening years at a quick pace. It wouldn't necessarily be obvious what year it is in the story, but the people who are interested would be able to fit it into place and know the time frame from the internet. Now the time frame will be obvious with the most cursory glance.

Aside from the logistics of fitting it in and when, is the issue of how. Gargoyles has it easier than your run of the mill superhero. First off, it happened in the morning, so there us no question of them having been there. (And the fact that so many characters in the show are cops puts us literally and figuratively at ground zero.) Second off, they are strong and they can glide, but they have no way of magically lifting building high stacks of rubble, or zeroing in on survivors under those stacks. They cannot teleport, or put trapped survivors in stasis until they can be reached. In short, they are little more than a few extra sets of extremely strong hands. Still, for a fictional story to save one more life than we have so desperately managed to save strikes me as somewhat offensive. With the heartache and heroism we have seen in the past few days, it is so hard to find the balance between doing disservice to a difficult issue by ignoring it, and doing disservice to that same issue by trivializing it. Not that it shouldn't be tried, In between the extremes is a major service art plays to humanity.

Personally the whole incident has been as bizarre as it is horrendous. Sometime in the middle of Rosh HaShanna I found myself praying I would turn the television after the holiday to hear they found even just one more survivor. I am sure many were doing the same thing, but I was praying that for the rescue workers, so that they would have something to help them go on. At the same time I still hadn't, haven't completely registered the event. The numbers are too big to compute. And yet, I saw the second tower fall from Christopher street, the closest the subway got to work, and knew I had to continue walking south to work to get to my non-telephone based e-mail to be sure I could contact the outside world and get word out I was fine and find out about all my friends who worked even further downtown than I, (not to mention getting word to cousins in Israel who are used to the calls going the other way). I was able to hear that all my friends got out unharmed by noon and began the long walk home. All along the way people had set up radios and televisions for everyone to huddle around and sort out what exactly had happened. I have always maintained New Yorkers are far more friendly and caring than we will admit, but now, it is obvious. By the time we reached the 12th street the people lined up to give blood filled avenues by Saint Vincent hospital. They had so many people asking to volunteer that we were told
to try again in several hours. My friend had chosen a bad day not to wear sensible shoes, and we were stopping into shoe stores all the way north to find her a pair of Keds without luck.

Of course, once I got back to my apartment, and later at friends, we watched amazing amounts of news. With exception of sabbeth and the holiday, I don't think I've gone more than 5 hours without checking it in one way or another. In the days before we were allowed to go back to work we switched off between the news and silly things. I saw The Princess Diaries, my boss admitted to a slightly more
serious movie, but not much more. Thursday the wind shifted and we could smell the smoke. The wind still mainly blows away from us, but every once in a while it turns north again and it smells as if the city decided to put all its ovens on self clean mode. But for the most part the weather had been bizarrely clear and lovely.

Since then we have heard stories of heroism and humanity. Instead of panic and everyman for himself, people were orderly as they made their long way down. Strangers helped, even carried, each other down the stairs. Hundreds of firemen, police and other rescue workers ran back in and up and most probably died in the collapse. Thousands are dead, but thousands were saved by human kindness at the most basic and heroic level. I have never been more proud to be a New Yorker. [And that isn't even dealing with all the people that flocked to NY to help, nor the war I feel we must fight and pray we are mature enough to handle as we have not been in the past.] Everyone here knows at least someone who lost someone. And you can't help but look out windows that used to see the towers, or just down the street, and see a surreal open skyline still full of smoke.

I can't see how any story set in this city at this time can ignore the events, yet I am still too close to know if it is possible to do it justice. I am a (supposed) adult who has had more exposure to terrorism
than most New Yorkers and have an ability 'get used' to new status quos quicker than many. You have repeatedly said that Gargoyles would remain child friendly, even if the topics became more mature. I cannot help but think that children are in even more need than adults to make sense of these events and how it changes us.

thanks for the answers, (and the chance to vent).

Laura

Anonymous writes...

You said Prospero and Sevarius would be interested in creating a kid for Elisha and Goliath so is Prospero a sick and depraved individual like Sevarius?
What exactly is Calaban in the gargoyles universe? Halfling?
Is Miranda still alive in 1996?
What about Prospero? Is he still alive? If so how did he stay alive?

Anonymous writes...

Were you ever going to introduce the multi-armed gods of Hinduism? What would they be? If they were going to be Children of Oberon how did you plan to stop the Hindus from boycotting Disney like they boycotted Xena (I think for planning to kill the Hindu gods)?

Anonymous writes...

You said that you were trying to develop a scarecrow character for the Gargoyles Universe so have you finished developing it? Does it resemble Marvel¡¯s Scarecrow character, which is a demon or does it resemble DC¡¯s Scarecrow?

Anonymous writes...

Who is presently the president of the USA in the Gargoyles universe? Is he a member of the Illuminati?

Anonymous writes...

What exactly were the sirens in the Gargoyles Universe(GU)? Halflings? Children of Oberon?

Seeker of Knowledge writes...

In the Gargoyles Universe, are vampires afraid of crosses and other holy symbols, as they are in in Transylvanian myths?

Artemis writes...

Hi Greg! First time poster here. I want to thank you on writing such a great show!! I only started to watch it a little over a year ago. I've only seen about 70% of the episodes, because of it's late airtime and the fact that I have older siblings who what dibs on the tv. What I really want to ask you is how did you come up with this whole series? It's really incredible how it all ties in, considering its complicated plot. My teachers have always told me that I have a gift for story telling, but most of its all been fan fiction. I love to write, but the only reason I do fan fiction is because I can't seem to make up my own characters. So how did you come up with all these complex characters? Did you have to sit down for hours to think of characters, or did they just suddenly come to you one day? Anything you're willing to tell me will be greatly appreciated. I don't care if writers don't really make it on their first story, I know that (I'm only 17, after all). I just want to write share with some people something that I can truly call my own. Thank you! (Next time around, I actually will ask questions regarding the show)
=^..^= <---Meow!

Tynne writes...

Does Bigfoot/The Sasquatch (or to be more specific, beings who inspired legends of Sasquatch) exist in the world of "Gargoyles"?

Aris Katsaris writes...

<g> You've recently received a lot of timeline questions, perhaps encouraged by the fact you've recently indeed given more specific timeline information about things and events... So I am a bit embarrassed that my first question after a long time is also a timeline one...

Anyway... :-)

Since Count Dracula exists in your universe, what year do you place the events that are described in (or which inspired) Bram Stoker's original novel?

Most modern adaptations of Dracula place them in 1897, the year of the novel's publication... but I had always thought that 1890 was a more reasonable date, since the story's epilogue starts with "Seven years ago we all went through the flames"...

Ricky writes...

I am a firm believer that ATLANTIS once existed. It sink deep into the Atlantic Ocean and has never been seen since. Edgar Cayce predicted that the western portion of ATLANTIS would surface in 1967 or 1968 and in 1968, then a huge stone road or wall was discovered off Bimini. It is commonly known today as the Bimini Road. Cool hunh?

It is theorized that ATLANTIS was powered by mystic crystals that eventually destroyed the fable island that Plato said was larger than Africa. He positions the fable island outside the Pillars of Heracles, which are known today as the Striats of Garbiltor. (Excuse the spelling)

Are you a believer?

JEB writes...

Are the Space-Spawn from within our galaxy (the Milky Way) or do they hail from another galaxy? If the latter, do they rule a substantial portion of their home galaxy?

JEB writes...

Did humans really build the great (known) monuments of the ancient world by themselves in the Gargoyles Universe? I refer to the Egyptian and Mayan pyramids, Stonehenge, etc. (Personally, I'd prefer to think so.)

Anonymous writes...

Is the supreme God of the gargoyles universe something like the Source of the DCU?

matt writes...

so you've confirmed that Atlantis definitly existed or exists in the Gargoyles Universe. are the Gargoyles Universe and the "Atlantis"/Team:Atlantis Universe compatible or the same universe?

Anonymous writes...

Where did Gargoyles originate? British Isles? Asia? Greece?

Todd Jensen writes...

One amusing little historical note about Canmore, which I must confess spooks me a little. In actual history, two of his sons, both of whom became Kings of Scotland after him, were named Alexander and David. In the context of "Gargoyles", I must confess that I find that a bit on the creepy side.

Anonymous writes...

Did you ever plan a crossover between the Redemption Squad, Gargoyles, Pendragon and New Olympians?

Siren writes...

Seeing as many gargoyle collectors call them "ugly" or "stone" angels, did you ever consider placing heavenly angels into the show?

Siren writes...

You brought in a few religions and cultures into the show, did you ever consider using Wicca?

Siren writes...

Seeing as you had a little cryptzoology in your show, such as Nessie. Did you consider other cryptids like Mokele-mbembe (Brachiasaurs in Africa), Bigfoot, Big Cats of United Kingdom, Chupacabras, etc.

Sapphire writes...

The majority of the world's people believe in a creator, from the Semetic peoples of the middle east to the indigious
peoples of the Americas. I was wondering in the gargoyles universe is the god that the Jews, Christians, and Muslims worship a fay or is he truely the god of the universe?

Aris Katsaris writes...

Next ramble - Xanatos and Gilgamesh:

As I said my first thought was Gilgamesh, since he also had the wish to find immortality - yet above all because Gilgamesh is the mythological hero whose mortality is an integral part of him: the same thing that you said about Xanatos... Both have had dealings with immortals, yet both are hopelessly mortal...

Other than that, admittedly they don't seem to have any other point of similarity... Perhaps (though a bit far-fetched) that Gilgamesh also starts like a bit of a villain until he discovers friendship. But comparisons between Enkidu and Goliath seem even more farfetched and I decided to stop that train of thought.

The Gilgamesh story is among my very favourite ones... And I love characters such as Utnapishtim (the survivor of the Great Flood - the gods turned him and his wife immortal). In fact I find Utnapishtim's version of the story far more fascinating than that of Noah or Deucalion - two stories which for me are so sketchy as to be really *dull*.

Anyway...
1. Do you have any plans about Gilgamesh or Utnapishtim which are more specific than "Eventually everything?"
2. Since Utnapishtim was turned immortal - do you think he's still around? :-)

Oberon writes...

In the Gargoyle Universe are Prospero, Caliban, Ariel, and Miranda still alive? Secorax? Setebose?
What race is Caliban?

Vasy writes...

The gargoyle universe has norse gods like odin

and oberon and avalon from celtic culture, and banshee

From egypt the is the god of death and such

in central africa there is anansi

from america india there is coyote

1.Does the gargoyle universe have any gods from india in the stroies.

2.if so when do the stories take place....

3.Who are the gods in your stories

Aris Katsaris writes...

Since you plan to include Dracula, I have to ask you: Have you read about the historical Vlad Dracula the Impaler? And do you plan (as you did with Macbeth) to have his story incorporate more real history than we usually seen in the vampire stories about Dracula?

This guy seems to be one who was actually *worse* in real history, than he ever was in fiction... *shudder*

Todd Jensen writes...

You mentioned here recently that if the series had continued, or if it were to be revived, you'd eventually do an episode based on the Faust legend.

My question about this: would this story be a bit of a problem from the S&P level, in view of the fact that a focal point of the Faust legend is his deal with the Devil, something that could be drawing very close to elements of a living religion? Of course, you already were able to use the Golem in "Gargoyles", and had plans to make use of the Holy Grail, so it's certainly likely that you have a means of making Faust and Mephistopheles's bargain workable in the Gargoyles Universe without bringing in explicit Christian elements, but I thought that I'd ask about this one anyway.

Ruthlis Ahbanden writes...

1. Did Robin Hood exist in the Gargoyles Universe?

2. If so, do you see him as a normal human, or someone with some connection to magic?

Ed writes...

Did the mediaeval witch-hunts ever actually kill any witches? Were there even very many around to be killed at that time?

Ed writes...

In the Gargoyles universe, whatever happened to Atlantis?

LSZ writes...

Does the survival of the Loch Ness Monster have anything to do with the fae or the Lost Race?

Kayless writes...

October and Halloween are approaching so I thought I'd ask some Werewolf questions.

1. Wolf is a genetically altered Werewolf. The Eye of Odin briefly turned Fox into a Werefox. Yet we never saw a true Werewolf despite Princess Katharine's hint; 'silver be for Vampire's and Weres'. Did you ever intend on featuring one in your stories or did the aforementioned characters fill your personal quota for Werebeasts?

2. Are the Werepanthers (can't remember their names) vulnerable to silver like Werewolves? They didn't seem like true Werebeasts to me due to the fact that they changed into full panthers and not hybrids, as is customary with most Werewolf tales.

3. Is it possible for a Gargoyle to contract Lycanthropy? (Mighty inconvenient since Gargs are only active at night)

4. Or a Fae? (Highly unlikely but you never know)

5. Or a New Olympian?

6. What is cause of Lycanthropy? Is it a curse based on Fae magic like in 'Mark of the Panther' or something else?

7. Is it something you're born with or something you contract? Or possibly both?

8. What would a Werewolf change into? A full wolf or a bipedal hybrid?

9. How much control do they maintain over their altered forms? Are they savage beast like the creature Fox turned into, or do they retain their lucid thoughts?

10. Do they change ever night, during the full moon, or at their leisure?

That's probably enough Lycanthropic related question for now.

Justin writes...

Greg,
You mentioned that you consider vampirism to be a curse.
What if a gargoyle were to be cursed? Vampires can't be in daylight or they will die. But a gargoyle/vampires gotta sleep! So what chnages would happen?

Adam writes...

You gave the ages of most of the characters before. I found the answer in the Old Archives (do a search for the word "biological" and you'll eventually come to it). A few people have asked about ages on the "Questions Being Submitted" page, so it's quite possible that you'll have give this answer by the time you get to this question. Just in case you haven't, here is your original response:

Ages in parenthesis represent biological age when that age differs from the character's chronological age.
As of December 31, 1996:
Hudson - 1118 (59)
Goliath - 1058 (29)
Trio - 1038 (19)
Angela - 952 (21)
Bronx - 1018 (9)
Demona - 1058 (35)
Coldstone - 1058 (28)
Macbeth - 991 (52)
Xanatos - 41
Fox - 30
Alexander - not yet 1
Elisa - 28
Talon, Dracon - 26
Beth - 21
Katharine - 1020 (62)
Tom - 1010 (52)
Gabriel, Ophelia, Boudicca - 952 (20)

Siren writes...

1.)In the Gargoyles Universe are there mermaids?
2.) " " unicorns?
3.) " " dragons?
4.) " " Pegasus
5.) " " gryphons?

Todd Jensen writes...

One last post.

You revealed in your last batch of answers that Gabriel is the leader of the Avalon clan. I will confess that this revelation amuses me a bit because of a slight echo here with "Paradise Lost" (which might be coincidental, of course, but which I'll mention anyway).

In Milton's epic poem, the original Gabriel (the Archangel) is portrayed as the leader of a squadron of angels stationed in the Garden of Eden to guard it (and who clashes briefly with Satan at the end of Book Four). Both the Garden of Eden and Avalon are earthly paradises; both are also associated with apples (although the general consensus of biblical scholars is that the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden wasn't an apple after all). And now both have as the leaders of their guardians a figure named Gabriel. I must confess that I rather like this touch, even if you didn't have Milton in mind when you came up with it.

John writes...

Hi Greg
It is just impossible, how you beat people, asking you mad questions. So I wanna sak you a good one:
Did you EVER thought about let one of the charakters die????? That would be bad for the fans (and for you, of course) but it would be good for the story and the dramatic. Please, don´t think, that I didnt like the show. I think, that if you really decide to let one of the Gargoyles die, that I´m the first, that throws tomatos at your house;-).
cu, John

Aris Katsaris writes...

Mary Mack> "The oldest known legend about vampires comes from ancient Greece, where they were known as Vrykolakes-- uncorrupted human corpses inhabited by the spirit of a demon."

Just for the record, nowadays, the greek word Vrykolakas is the standard translation for "vampire" - however the concept conveyed by the word is nowadays the more common vampire we're all accustomed of hearing/reading about - not the variation you cite.

Aris Katsaris writes...

To Duncan Devlin who said: "I don't quite understand the response. From my experience, not ALL things are true."

Let me just paraphrase a sentence of Terry Pratchett: "All things are true, for a given value of 'true' "

Ed writes...

What species are vampires? One of the big three, or hybrids, or something completely different?

Todd Jensen writes...

This is a sort of response to your comments on doing or not doing a Gargoyles/super-hero crossover of any sort. You mentioned that you didn't see it happening, short of a crossing between parallel universes, because the Gargoyles Universe and the super-hero universes of DC and Marvel Comics are very different in style. From what I know of mainstream super-heroes (which, I will confess, isn't all that much), I can certainly agree with you.

Take Batman, for example. The Batman Universe is clearly different enough from the Gargoyles Universe. In the Batman Universe, the "super-villains" are more out in the open, with the public all too aware of them. In the Gargoyles Universe, the "super-villains" are more low-profile; the general public don't know that Demona, Thailog, Oberon's Children, and the Illuminati actually exist. They know about Xanatos and Macbeth, but only in terms of their public personas; they know about the Pack, but only as "TV actors who went bad" - I haven't seen any indications that the general public know as yet about Jackal and Hyena being cyborgs now or Wolf being a mutant wolf-man. They don't even know for certain about the gargoyles until the end of "Hunter's Moon Part Three" - and even then all that they know is that the gargoyles exist, and nothing more than that.

In conventional super-hero universes, the weird and paranormal is very public and high-profile, known to the public. In the Gargoyles Universe, the weirdness exists just as surely, but is far more "covered up". For this reason, I can't seriously imagine Batman or Superman or Spiderman or the X-Men existing in the same universe as the gargoyles.