Derek writes...

I have a question about Gargoyle genetics and cloning. Apologies if this makes your head hurt, it's made mine hurt.
In Marvel comics, when they cloned X-23 they used just Wolverine's X chromosomes as the Y sample was damaged and a male clone wasn't viable.

I was looking up reptiles, as Gargoyles as I understand it are closer to reptiles than mammals. In reptile genetics it's the females(ZW) that have two different chromosomes not males(ZZ). So if Sevarius had a sample of say Angela, but only the Z was viable would he'd still be able to create a male clone of her, right? Females clones for Gargoyles would be the trickier of the two?

Anonymous writes...

Are gargoyles classified as mammals?

Anthrokid writes...

What happens to a gargoyle's body in the daytime when it dies a natural death (not being smashed up during the day)? Does the body still turn to stone in the daytime and just remain that way? Or nothing happens, meaning there would have been evidence to gargoyle bodies.

Mel Cel writes...

Hi there! First and foremost, thanks so much for creating this show (and everyone else who worked on it). It was the main trigger that set me down the path of the animation industry. Loving it!
Q1: Are the gargoyles truly natives to planet earth?
Q2: What have they evolved from, and do they have their own version of 'Adam & Eve'?
Q3: (Continuation of Q2) Did their race's stone sleep originated from there on? how and why (spell/curse)?
Q4: How do female gargoyles retain their ability to nurse their young, considering that their young would only hatch a decade later?

Comet writes...

Sorry if this has already been asked. I searched the archives but didn't find what I was looking for.
Gargoyles can dream in stone sleep, but what happens if they have a nightmare that would a human cause to wake up? Gargoyles can't normally wake up outside of their biological rhythm, as far as I know.

Anonymous writes...

Do gargoyles age at the same rate as humans?

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Well, I can't claim to be a biology major, though I've studied it in an amateur way. But I would like to respond to Caitlin's post about stone sleep.

In most ways, gargoyles' metabolisms probably slow down a lot while in stone sleep. But I think Caitlin missed/forgot about one thing: they can't be 100% inactive, because their healing kicks into overdrive during the day. So some process, which uses up nutrients to build new tissue, must continue during sleep. Since they heal so quickly during the day, this process might use up a good chunk of the energy that would run the regular metabolism during the day.

Personally, I just assume that the blood still flows and they still breathe, however slowly, while they sleep. It was a Disney cartoon, so it's not like the stone rubble could bleed rivers of red during the Wyvern Massacre!

Caitlin writes...

Ok, this is not so much question as it is theory, but follow me for a bit if you like.

I've been reading through the biology archives and I had some thoughts regarding the stone sleep. Being a Zoology major, I tried to analyze some things, such as one particular factor- bodily functions like metabolism. A fan once asked if the metabolic functions still took place while they were in the stone slumber, and you were unable to answer, not being a biologist. I mean that in no harmful or derogatory way. I am just giving some insight from a biologist's perspective (I hope). I think that we can look at some analogues from real life- bats. I know it's not a perfect analogy, but some bats do go into a state of torpor (semi-hibernation) and some others actually go into a true state of hibernation. During hibernation, body temperature drops and metabolism slows to a near stop. The heart rate may also drop significantly.
Now, given that all of a gargate's tissues become the organic stone-like material, this means that even the blood is stilled, seeing as the muscles of the heart no longer pump. This seems like a hibernation to me. The fact that the tissues are "stone" probably means that the tissues do not need to constantly be fed oxygen or other nutrients via blood, and therefore do not need blood to flow or metabolism to run.
The "stone" state of the cells is also reminiscent of the dormant states of some bacteria. Essentially, the bacteria will create a "shell" when conditions are not right for survival and will become active again once conditions improve (if). The dormant state has no biological functions going on (that is if I remember correctly).

In short, the gargates are completely dormant until they awaken, and therefore are, for all intensive purposes, "stone".
I hope this was insightful/useful. I love thinking about these kinds of things. Feel free to ask me to elaborate or de-mystify anything biological (in this post or otherwise, if you'd like). My email is dbznut@carolina.rr.com

Joe writes...

Greg,
I've looked for the answer to this question and couldn't find it. Maybe you've already answered it but can the Gargoyles see when their eyes are glowing or do they have some extra sense that humans don't have?

Greg Bishansky writes...

And now, here's a question about gargoyles, clones, attraction, and gender traits. I really miss the Blue Mug A Guests, this would have been a perfect question for them.
Male gargoyle clones' eyes glow red, and the female clones' glow white. The complete opposite of natural hatched gargoyles. I was just wondering, how would gargoyles who might attempt to mate with clones deal with this?
The only way I can extrapolate is by picturing human women with gender specific traits that only a man would have, or vice-versa. Most heterosexuals would consider such things to be massive turn-offs, unless they're a bit kinky. I know it's not as extreme as a female with a penis, or a male with a vagina. But I'm trying to extrapolate. Maybe like a beard on a woman, or breasts on a man. Okay, that feels a bit off too.
Now, we didn't see Brooklyn get anywhere with Delilah, he probably never even saw her eyes glow. And considering he was just seeing her as a body, an available female, I wonder just how much of a turn-off that would have been for him if he did make even a little progress.
On the other hand, we have Demona who was with Thailog for at least half a year, and assuming she is 100% heterosexual, I am wondering if that would have unnerved her at all. But, she definitely seemed very physically into him, so maybe she has bisexual tendencies, or she's just really kinky, or maybe she just didn't care one iota. I don't know.
What are your thoughts on this?

anon writes...

I realize this may have been answered before, but would the manhattan clan be tolerant of homosexuality? What about other clans?

Justin writes...

Hello Greg,
Just a musing/ question based on a post of Matt's

<Matt writes...

3. Aside from Hudson, were any of True and "Kermit"'s rookery parents still alive as of 997?
Thanks, Greg!
Greg responds...

3. Potentially.>

My question is this...
Hudson hatched in 878. So as of 997 most of the surviving members of his rookery would be pushing the bio equivalent of 60.

So it stands to reason that the 898 and potentially the 918 rookery generations may also have had eggs lain in 968 resulting in the 978 gen.

Take the Wyvern Cell as our place holder here. We see Second and Sacrifice ( whom we can assume they had there 2nd egg in the 998 rookery as there is a garg on Avalon who looks almost identical to Second)

So again, it stands to reason they wouldn't start breeding on Sacrifice's 2nd heat.
Same I suppose goes for Chomp and Chaw, they most likely had a kid in the 978 and 998 rookeries too.

Just a thought

Anonymous writes...

My sisters and I have recently had a huge Gargoyles marathon and some things I noticed made me wonder about how they sleep. So the Gargoyles turn to stone and at sunset their skin cracks and breaks off. Now I noticed that when they strike poses you can see into their mouths and even that is stone. So at sunset, when they awaken, are they chewing and spitting out Gargoyle flakes or do they slowly thaw from the inside out and crack like a hard boiled egg?

A Gargoyles Fan writes...

First and foremost, I probably should've looked more carefully when asking the previous question, and I'm sorry for that.

I've checked around the archives, and taken a better look, and haven't found an answer for this.

Sevarius stated once that if a Gargoyle didn't go through stone sleep, they would have to eat several cows in order to get the energy they need. Demona doesn't go through stone sleep anymore, so how does she get the energy she needs for when she becomes a gargoyle once more?

Matt writes...

In the time long ago when there were gargoyle clans all over the world, how common was mating between members of different clans? Did gargoyles nearly always choose a mate from their own clan or was inter-clan mating fairly common when multiple clans existed in a general area?

Thanks Greg!

Anonymous writes...

About gargoyle's senses:

1-Their hearing seems sharper than humans, but just how much? Can they hear as well as a dog does? A cat? (like a gargate, I know, lol, but just to give a general idea :D)

2-Their night sight seem to also be far sharper than humans, for obvious reasons. Can they see as well as a cat does in the dark? Or less or more?

3-Brooklyn sniffs at Elisa, so maybe scent is an important factor for them? Just how acute is their scence of smell?

Thank you!

Anonymous writes...

Brian writes...
If I could pet a gargoyle's wings, what's the closest thing they would feel like?
Greg responds...
Depends on whose wings.

Say...Demona's?

VoLpE writes...

Hi Greg. Hope your 2011 is off to a good start. Gotta question for ya. Are Gargoyles with feathered wings (such as Griff, Zaphiro) susceptible to molting?

Thanks :)

Kyle writes...

Hey Greg, I have a question about the ageing of Gargoyles. Do they age slower or at the same rate as humans?

Laura 'ad astra' Sack writes...

A recent question about the relationship between Hudson and Demona got me thinking...

There was one off note in the question (the rest of the analysis was pretty cool)- Hudson would not have any discomfort at the idea that his rookery children were mated to each other. Given that the chance of multiple births is statistically zero and the strong predilection to marry within ones own rookery there is nearly no chance of biological incest ever happening so there would be no sibling taboo.

I recalled a factotum that caught my attention a few months back- Even the most gung-ho kibutzes in Israel got rid of true communal child raising in the 70's because their children were forming sibling bonds and not marrying. Of the thousands of children raised in the system, about 30 married within their own community and not even one married within his or her age group. (err... I suppose, by definition, two would be the minimum for that....) These children were raised with the intention of being future potential spouses but humans are hardwired not to look at siblings that way, even none biological siblings. A similar problem arises in some endangered animal sanctuaries - I remember a documentary mentioning that if male and female rhinos are housed together they eventually stop mating completely - it may have been anthropomorphizing, but they called it developing a sibling relationship. Obviously there are degenerates and incest does happen, Egyptian royalty was designed with sibling marriage, but we are biologically wired against it even when it is not based on blood and therefore dangerous on a Darwinian level.

It makes sense that Gargates, having evolved as very different species with different circumstances would be fundamentally different at times, but they are so very similar in some ways is it surprising when the differences pop up.

1) Do gargoyles have an incest taboo or does it just not come up?
2) If they do not have it, or, at least no strong one, what do they think of it when it occurs with humans? (I don't mean abuse, rather, for example, if they read about Egyptian kings marrying siblings does it give them pause or it just passes as an oddity.)
3) Are there any other instances that come to mind of there being a basic difference between humans and gargoyles? Not a culturally based one - or if it is culturally, it as outgrowth of their biological reality.

Sorry this last one is so vague. It is hard to think of examples. You once answered that racism puzzles Goliath. It makes sense that a species that seems to have nearly uinlimited skin color possibiilities even within a small and relatively isolated population would think the human skin tone based racism is plain odd. (Granted, gargoyles might have their own version of nonsensicle racism that makes no sense to humans.) I can think of where similar differences would be rooted- they are completely nocturnal, they have wings, the do not share the sleeping experience in any way etc…- but it still seems more the sort of thing that occasionally pops up and surprises you. Maybe...a creature with usable wings would be hardwired against agoraphobia or fear of heights. err. Maybe, not so much, they can still fall if their wings get bound up, so at minimum the concept of falling might lurk somewhere even in their minds.

thanks

Ariell Choy writes...

As humans, we can express ourselves culturally, emotionally and even spiritually through the arts (music, dance, drama, literature, etc). Do gargoyles practice the arts? Do gargoyles even have the capacity to create art? I have always wanted to know since having seen the episode "Kingdom" in which Broadway, Lexington, and Brooklyn return home to the Clock Tower after having attended a rock concert in which Brooklyn proclaims "did you hear that guitarist wail?"

Dax Orbit writes...

I did a little looking around the frequently asked questions list and searched through the archives, so my apologies if I missed this question being answered.

Looking over the clans seen in Gargoyles, I noticed that only the Mutates had any markings. In example, stripes, spots, anything of that caliber. Is it possible for a natural gargoyle to possess these types of markings?

Thanks very much.

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Bad Guys #5 & 6: I wanted to post my Bad Guys reactions all at once, but I wrote my #4 reaction long before this one. So here's the rest, in no particular order.

I just noticed that nobody is willing to sit next to Fang. I wouldn't either!

I continue to wonder about the (constrained) choices made by the members of the squad -- there's lots of tension in Losers about this. They don't know any more about their boss than they do about the Illuminati. Less, in fact, and it's the revelation that Oldcastle and Thailog work for the Illuminati that persuades the Squad not to join. But they still know so little about their own boss... for all they (and I) know, he's could be just as bad. If Robyn knows more she isn't telling, and the rest know basically nothing. They've been given very little choice, of course. They know the Illuminati are untrustworthy... but they can only hope that their mysterious boss is any better. Dingo finally asks, but somehow I doubt Interpol is the truth!
Of course I know the Illuminati are bad news. But I don't know any more about the Director than the Squad do. From what I've seen, they take an "ends justify the means" attitude just like the Illuminati does.
I was seriously worried that Matrix would join the Illuminati and spell Bad Things for basically the whole planet. The Redemption Squad is composed of criminals on the run from the law, and if anyone pointed out to Matrix that the Australian shaman's logic in Issue #1 wasn't actually logical (Dingo can't fight for law and order if he's breaking the law!) then the Illuminati might have looked more attractive to Matrix than its current situation. Fortunately the Matrix isn't bright enough to figure that out. At this point, Matrix is largely at the mercy of whoever controls its access to information about how laws actually work!

Humorous moments: Yama falling asleep mid-sentence, Matrix eating a fork, Yama freaking out over his broken sword, and Doll calling Matrix "that thing."

Yama being impaled on a sword and continuing to fight with no noticeable weakness is hard to believe, especially since Goliath was so much worse off after a much less serious wound in Long Way Till Morning, and completely incapacitated in Bash by a knife wound that definitely did not impale him. It shows how tough a warrior Yama is, but... makes him look literally immortal, Highlander style. This is one place where gargoyle healing abilities are not believable to me without magic.

And Dingo's childhood was finally revealed ... the creep who raised him is the same guy who murdered his mother! That's creepy, ick. The look on John's face is suspicious from the start, but I did not expect that. No wonder Dingo became a criminal.

Yama continues to be impressive. And the scene with Matrix holding up the light under the huge Illuminati banner just looks cool.

I have to wonder why the Illuminati is hoarding priceless art objects, and not even using them for anything. I'm impressed but surprised that Dingo cares enough to prevent their destruction.

Overall, Bad Guys is a good comic, but it leans heavily towards the superhero genre (Oldcastle's gang even seems to include super powers) and as with the Pack, that doesn't appeal to me nearly as much as the other elements of Gargoyles. (Fortunately, nobody except Tasmanian Tiger has a goofy supervillain costume). Not that I wouldn't buy more Bad Guys, if more were published and I could afford it.

Thanks for the stories.

Robert writes...

Hi Greg,

I don't ask a lot of questions, although I am a huge fan of the show, have been since I was 6 years old. (And I have read through ALL the archives.)

I previously asked this question on the Gargoyle Reproductive System - http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=12116 -

And I was wondering what it would take to get a sort of online panel and/or online Gathering. It would not be like the in-person gatherings but it could be interesting...

Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

Hello Greg. Congratulations on clearing out that gigantic queue, and thank you for opening for more questions.

I have a question or two in response to answers you gave relatively recently here.

Rebel asked you if Lexington and Hudson got to watch the sun rise in London due to jetlag, and you said yes.
http://www.s8.org/gargoyles/askgreg/search.php?qid=11957

That must have been an awesome and memorable experience for them. I remember Hudson remarked at the end of The Mirror that he wished he could have seen the sun, just once, before changing back into a gargoyle. Goliath actually spent a whole day awake thanks to the Eye of Odin, but I don't imagine he's eager to describe that particular experience to the others...

I wonder about Brooklyn, Katana, and Nashville, too -- whether they ever saw the sun. Unless the Phoenix took care to deposit them during the same time of day that it plucked them from every time it moved them, they probably experienced at least some jetlag. For that matter Goliath, Angela, and Bronx must have had jetlag during the World Tour. Or did Avalon compensate for that somehow?