oneuke writes...

CON-JOURNAL
OF A SORT

Never having truly posted to this site before (or any other for that matter) I thought that now would be an appropriate time to speak of the Gathering. I won’t bore you with memories like the look and grief I gave my brother (a PhD in Bio-chem.) who told me about a really well written Disney cartoon and the humble pie I ate after watching the first show. Or the joy my oldest daughter experienced after asking a question of Keith David at the 2001 con and he responded by giving his famous line “I’ve been denied everything, even my REVENGE.” Caiti was 8 at the time. Or of how my youngest daughter, Ally, started watching Gargoyles when she was 2 and became instantly enraptured with Lexington. Then heard his voice 2 years later in the dealer’s room, shouted out “It’s Lexington” and ran over to hug a complete and somewhat startled stranger (Thanks for being so understanding, both then and now, Thom). Or…but I digress.
And so, as per Greg’s request, and with apologies to W.S.:

Why so sad, coz?
This is the time call'd the Gathering of Gargoyles.
And he or she that shares this meet, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this time is nam'd,
And rouse at the name of Gargoyles.
He that shares this time, and sees old episodes,
Will yearly on the vigil recount to his clan,
And say ‘Tis the time of the Gathering.'
Then will he bring out his memories and show his photos,
And say 'These friends I met and these moments I had on this day.'
The old forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What adventures he had that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Greg the Creator, Keith, Salli and Thom,
Michael and Marina, Bill, Ed and Jeff-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his clan;
And the time of Gathering shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we clan of brothers;
For he or she to-day that shares this time with me
Shall be my brother; be he or she ne'er so far,
This day shall bring them near;
And those who stayed away
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold themselves cheap whiles any speaks
That Gathered on this final meet.

Thanks for the memoriesâ€"may there be many more to follow.
(Hey, Greg's not the only one who can borrow from Shakespeare)

Blaise writes...

GATHERING OF THE GARGOYLES
CON-JOURNAL

DAY 1
FRIDAY AUGUST 21, 2009

Well, Greg, you asked for the con-journals to be posted. And here I am at home with the evening ahead of me, so I may as well oblige. I will be writing largely from memory, so I apologize in advance to anyone whom I may forget.

My day started fairly early--about 5AM. This was because I was house/dog-sitting for a friend. This overlapped with the first two days of the Gathering, so I had to juggle my responsibilities with the convention. That meant getting up early enough to give the dog a good, long walk and feed him before heading off to the Gathering (and this is a BIG dog, with a LOT of energy, who does NOT like being left alone).

At any rate, I managed to make it to the registration desk at a little before 10AM, and apparently became the first attendee to receive my badge! I spent the first 2 or so hours just wandering around and meeting both old friends (like Greg Bishansky) and folk I had only met online (like Harvester of Eyes).

At 12PM (after munching a bagel with cream cheese for lunch), I attended the "Drawing Comics" panel hosted by Karine Charlebois. It was an informative look at translating Greg's comic scripts to a page in a comic book. This included:
-having to turn a one-panel scene with TWO actions in the script into two separate panels.
-the importance of character positioning during dialogue.
-keeping track of where everyone is during a battle sequence (even to the point of having a map of the area so you will know where the "camera" is facing at any given time).
-the differences in layout between American comics and European comics.

After that, I really wanted to attend the "Machiavelli on 'Gargoyles'" panel, but I had too many other things to do. For starters, I had to audition for the Radio Play. True to the nature of the radio play itself, the audition sides contained BOTH "Gargoyles" and "Spectacular Spider-Man" sides. I had considered reading Brooklyn (my favorite garg), but I decided that others could do the "heroic-snarker" role better than myself, so I chose a more extreme character: the Green Goblin. The audition sheet also asked if one was capable of imitating a Spanish/Hispanic accent (I marked "No"), and if one was capable of emitting a "Ghoul Shriek" (I marked "Yes").
One fun audition and shriek later, I ducked into the Dealer's Room to pick up a copy of "Clan-Building: Vol. II." I read the darn thing until 3PM when it was time for Ben Diskin's Mug-A-Guest, which I had signed up for.

Ben Diskin is a great guy; very approachable, easy going, with a great sense of humor. He had a number of funny stories, including a voice session for "Kids Next Door" where Tom Kenny played Santa Claus (and went a *little* off book while the director and engineers weren't listening). I have to agree with Greg B., though--it's amazing that Venom's voice comes from such a skinny guy!

After heading out to Rubio's on CityWalk for a little dinner (and finishing CB:V2), I returned to the hotel and waited for Opening Ceremonies, which were running a little late. Thus, I spent the time talking with several people, such as Greg B., Phoenician, Lucas McLain (I'm sorry, I can't remember your net name!), Guardian, Matt, and others I'm forgetting, I'm sure.

Opening ceremonies were great. There was, of course, a bit of sadness that this would be the last one. On the plus side, since this WAS the last one, Greg Weisman and the members of the staff (OTHER THAN Jen Anderson and Patrick Toman), decided to break the rule that staff members could not be "Fan Guest of Honor" and gave that distinction to both Jen and Patrick for their YEARS of work to keep the Gathering going and "Gargoyles" alive.
Greg did his usual spiel about how "Gargoyles" came to be, and showed the videos he had shown for Opening Ceremonies over the years. Now, as I understand it, for the past few Gatherings, Greg would show one video one year (one version of the pitch, one version of the promo), and would show its counterpart the next year (for variety). This year, being the last, he showed them ALL! So I got to see at least one video I had not seen before: a version of the pitch read by Jim Cummings, and with some artwork not seen in the other version (the one on the first season DVD set). After these, the reconstructed "Dark Ages" and "New Olympians" pitches, and the "Bad Guys" leica reel, we saw the fan constructed animatic for the "Team Atlantis" episode, "The Last." A great deal of progress has been made since 2006 (my previous Gathering), with only a few blank spots left to fill (and it sounds like work will continue on it, with or without the Gathering). Watching the videos was kind of bittersweet, since I don't know when I'll be able to see them again.

Inevitably, Opening Ceremonies ended, and I made my way back to my friend's house to walk and feed the dog and try to get a few hours of sleep.

Kozispoon writes...

"Do gargoyles suffer from gargoyle-specific illnesses or handicaps?"

Brigadoon Traveller writes...

Well I finally got my copy of Clan Building 2 last week; it was weird, even though I'd been waiting MONTHS to read this, when I had the book in my hands I wasn't in that much of a rush to read it. Maybe subconciously I was registering that this would be the last few stories of Gargoyles that I would read for some time. :(

Anyway, I have to say when I did read it I loved it, couldn't put it down.

Just one question (for now at least):

As of 1994 (or "Awakening part 4") did Demona remember her encounter with "the gargoyle of the sword" back in 997? If so, how did she reconcile it with Brooklyn waking up in 1994 after being put under the sleep spell?

I have to say, I loved the 997 arc btw; thought it was brilliant. Especially loved the end pages of #12; finally we get to see Katana, Nashville (or Gnash as he likes to call himself) and Fu-Dog (& not to mention Egwardo) after all these years.

It was also a surprise seeing Coldstone and Coldfire rejoin the clan.

On the whole loved the book; here's hoping for more soon.

Battle Beast writes...

Hello!

Greg,

Since we now call them "Beasts," if you could, would you change the line in "Awakening 1" from "I see you've met our Watch-dog..." to something like "I see you've met our Beast..." ?

Phil writes...

Greg,

I've been reading and re-reading Clan-Building 2 this past week and I love it. I think I finally understand it well enough to ask a question.

In the Stone of Destiny story arc, how did the convoy end up using the "trick car" with the rotating trap door? And how was Xanatos able to drive away with it after the Stone was "safely" transported back to Scotland? (I have theories, but they may be considered ideas so I'll refrain from suggesting them.)

Thanks for everything. I'm looking forward to getting Bad Guys: Redemption and whatever future Gargoyles stories are coming.

Ming writes...

You've established that you mentally cast actors for some of the new characters in the Gargoyles comics, such as Quincy Hemmings played by Morgan Freeman (or someone who can sound like him i.e. Kevin Michael Richardson). Anyway, do you have any voices in mind for some of the Illuminati figures (Percival, Duval, Shari, et al.)? What about Katana and Tachi and some of the characters from the Phoenix Gate arc?

Battle Beast writes...

In CBV2, We see a clan of Gargoyles with Demona as her leader. There are two beasts.

I think my two favorite character designs are: the small green Gargoyle in Demona's Clan (He also appears briefly in CoS, squating near Demona and Macbeth as he names her) and in the trade; and Fu-Dog. I love Fu-Dog's color, and the basic style.

I currently use Future Tense Brooklyn as my Avatar on Station 8, but if I could, I would switch to Fu-Dog. Great job on the new designs, Greg, and to all the artists who worked on the comics!

1. When designing new characters, is it a back and forth between you and the artist on the look and coloring? Or is it all from your imagination, or previous concept designs?

2. I know Disney owns Gargoyles. Do they own any NEW characters you create like Fu-dog or Gnash? Who DOES own them, if not?

Thanks again, Greg! Thank you for all of your hard work over the last couple of years! (You don't know how much I appreciate it.)

Battle Beast writes...

In CBV2, we see more of London Clan (Leo and Una were a nice cameo touch) and young Lunette. (I was literally standing at work staring at a wall thinking about the new trade when it hit me that Leo + Una = Lunette.

1. Did the Name "Luna" come into play ever? Did you decide against it? I am jsut wondering as Leo + Una = Luna as well.

Thanks!

Battle Beast writes...

Hello! I haven't posted anything to "Ask Greg" in quite some time, although I do enjoy reading responses.

I just got through reading the trades for the hundredth time (in only four days mind you.)

Sooooo.... How could you so this to us?! Shame on you!!!

The trades were the hight of awesomness, and worth ever second of wait time, but you ended both books on such cliff-hangers! Not really, but... Brooklyn et. al show up at the end of CBV2, the Redemption Squad doesn't complete their objective... leaving the door open for more... I mean, I want to see more! I turn the page and there isn't another page! It's really a big tease, to me at least.

I know it will be a long time before/if we get anything new, and I know how hard you worked just to get out what we have, so I will not complain but rather (how can I compliament you without gushing too much?) praise you magnificent job on all three trades and 12 comics.

I wanted you to know that I (and probably many, many, many others are ecstatic with the trades and the job done by all.

Thank you!