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COMEBACKS 2007-02 (Feb)

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PDN writes...

Since Bryan Singer's Superman Returns has become a critical and box-office success, although some might dispute the B.O. part, would you now feel more confidant (should you ever get the chance to do Gargoyles again [like, 1 in a mill.]) that people could accept ignoring TGC as cannon and just move the storytelling as you intended like Singer did with ignoring Superman 3 % 4?

Greg responds...

Singer's movie has no bearing on my decision.

Response recorded on February 02, 2007

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Keegan writes...

I want to know why disney doesn't make volume two for season two on dvd... I mean they already make enough money as is, and gargolyes is getting more popular now, i think they should start thinking about bringing back the t.v series!!!... I know disney says there is not enough sales for season two to make the second half of season two, but come on guys is money really the only thing u can think of? what about the fans? think for just once about the little guy...

Greg responds...

Who exactly are you addressing this too?

Look, Disney isn't a charity, and I don't expect them to act like one. They are a company with stock holders (including me by the way) that expect them to make money. That is their responsibility. You can argue over what would make them the most money but not over whether or not that should be their goal.

The responsibility was ALWAYS ours to get out there and make sure sales were high. If I had gone to them and said "In order for this to work, you need to dedicate a large marketing budget to the project, and you need to be prepared to release all the episodes even if sales don't justify it," they would have looked at me like I was nuts... or called security.

Don't push this off on Disney. I might not be happy with all their decisions or feel that they did all they could to maximize Gargoyles success, but at the end of the day they gave us our shot and WE the fandom wasn't large enough and/or didn't spread the word effectively enough to get the release of Volume Two. That's just reality. Perhaps it's unpleasant reality, but no sense living in a fantasy world. (Pun intended.)

Having said all that, I don't think it's impossible that Volume Two will come out. I'm going to try again this month to get them to take a second look at the numbers. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

Response recorded on February 02, 2007

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Twiggess writes...

Hey Greg!
I was skimming the archives the other day when i read something about how Thailog got his name when you were rewinding "Awakening", or something like that. Anyway, that got me playing with the other characters names 2, and I realized when you say Demona's name backwards it almost sounds like "a nomad." Did u know this? I thought it was kind of an interesting coinscidence, since she is, so I thought u outa know. Thank you for your time, and thanks for making the best animated series, like, ever.
Oh, and while we're on the subject of names, is there any reason Demona's name is pronounced De-MO-na as apposed to just Demon-a? I hope that made sence cuz it's kinda hard to ask a question on pronuciation in an email. I just ask cuz it took me awhile that her name was just supposed to be 'demon' with an a after i first started watching the show. Ok! Thanks again! U rock!

Greg responds...

"A Nomad" never occurred to me, but it is very apt.

As for her frontways pronunciation, that's just what seemed natural.

Response recorded on February 02, 2007

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Chameleongirl writes...

Well, I didn't make to the LA Gathering :(
I got home from G'05 to find that management had cut my hours at work, and by October I was unemployed.

So yeah, I had just enough money to keep alive and there was no chance of getting to LA this year. I did pre-register though, so at least I made my contribution.

To make things even better, I got a bad cold that lasted the four days of the Con, then suddenly got better. The Universe conspires against me! :D

Everyone who went this year seems to have had a great time, so congrats to Jen & Co for pulling off yet another wonderful Gathering.

Kyt informs me that I have been registered for next year at Pigeon Forge, so now I *have* to come. Time to go mug old ladies for spare change I think ;D

I'm going to leave you with something I left out of my Montreal Gathering journal (my first Gathering):

Thurday night, when everyone was arriving at the hotel, Kelly and I were waiting for an elevator to go up to our room.
A bunch of people got off and Kelly introduced me to one in particular. You.
I said Hi and I think I shook your hand. We got in the elvator and headed up.
It took me two stories to realise what had just happend, I turned to Kelly and went "That was *THE* Greg!"
I felt like and idiot :D

Here's hoping I'm less of a fool next year :)

Greg responds...

By now, we're old friends though, right?

Response recorded on February 02, 2007

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Karine "Kanthara" Charlebois writes...

Gathering Con Journal, as written on Wednesday, June 28:
Made it back last night. A lot of the convention is a blur for me. I didn't take any notes, and forgot my camera. I debated on getting a disposable camera when some of us stopped at a Rite-Aid on the way to Jen's on Thursday, but decided against it. In this digital age, it's easy to get the photos for other people who were at the con, and I didn't want to have to scan, crop, and resize photos.

Thursday, got picked up by Greg X and Patrick. We swung by Kyt's and then made our way to Jen's. Steph and Seth were already there, and we packed up all the vehicles with everything that was needed, and made our way to the hotel. We claimed our rooms, unpacked the cars, made a new run for supplies, copies and the like, and went back to the hotel. We were eventually joined by the rest of the staff -- the Morgans, Cindy, Laurean, Carol -- and Greg Weisman. We assembled the packets for the attendees. We went out for dinner, joined by several more people. We slept.

Friday, we assembled the art show panels, and then we had the first staff breakfast (french toast). Those of us who had art put it up in the art show after breakfast. I was hosting a couple of panels first thing, so Kyt, Steph and myself made our way to the proper room and gave our Sketching 101 class. Kyt and I continued with the Character design class. Then, there was running around, I forget the rest of the afternoon until Opening Ceremonies. We saw the music videos then. They were good. It was a good idea to show them at Opening Ceremonies -- that way it made it easy to get a lot of votes. Dinner consisted of ordered pizza in our room. Yay!

Saturday, Staff breakfast of tasteless scrambled eggs. Then, I helped a bit with Registration, ran around with errands, sat on Mug-a-Guests (Jymn Magon sat with us as we waited for Dave Schwartz who was stuck in traffic; Jymn was awesome), had a portfolio review with Frank Paur, who gave me very positive and helpful comments, gave out business cards, discussed the animation industry, sat in the art show and drew a little, sold a print, ran around helping out, watched the Radio Play, went out for dinner, came back for Blue Mug, was exhausted and decided to go to bed, updated LJ, talked with Jen and Steph in bed until way too fackin' late.

Sunday, Staff breakfast again. Breakfast tortilla of DOOM it was so huge, so I ate only half. Sat on Comic book panel, made faces at Steph. Sat on another portfolio review Mug-a-Guest with Bob Kline, who finally remembered me from 2001. Commented especially on my wonderful posing. (Squeeee! It was what he'd told me to work on back in 2001...) Did the auction with Laurean while Patrick was secretary. Kicked auction ass. Bought a sword. Got prettied up for banquet, turned heads. Corsets will do that. Took charge of directing banquet, had good food, was generally happy with friends. Then, helped Cindy with costume, got together with volunteers to wrangle the audience and participants for the masquerade, was very grateful for volunteers (Shaun, Dercesthai and Asatira, you guys rock), got the guests in to judge, decided to allow some of the people there for the wedding next door in just to watch the Masquerade. Saw all the costumes; lots of good work. Guests went out to deliberate over a few drinks. Danced for a bit, then wondered where the heck the guests had gone to after a long while, and sent someone to collect them from the con suite. Got them back, prizes were given out, well deserved. Went back upstairs to help Cindy out of her costume. Came back downstairs in the mood to party, found party had died down. Blue Mug had been interrupted the night before, so it was picked up again. Sang with Jen's daughter Stephanie. Saw her and her mom do routine from Three Amigos. Got out of there, eventually came back with Kyt, Steph and Jen, because we were staff and we had to make sure at least one of us was there until closing of the room. Jen laid the smack down and expulsed the two wedding people when it was clear they were drunk and disruptive. Steph and I zombied back to the room. I fell asleep quickly.

Monday came too early. Got up, had staff breakfast of Eggs Benedict, went to host panels (Fan to Pro, Iron Artist, Digital Colouring); got my remaining art and won bid delivered to me after the last panel. Sat on short and sweet Closing Ceremonies. Cleaned up our room for Dead Dog party with Kyt, Susan and Stephanie. Met up with the remaining crew and went to late lunch, shared appetizers with Kyt, Allaine and a newbie, Carrie. Sampled a White Pear Sangria, is yummy. Got back to hotel, had dead dog party, made drinks for people, addicted Tim to Sortilège, a maple/canadian whisky liqueur, and drew him art of Vivienne. Greg W showed us the raw footage from the 2004 Gathering. Was surprised at how well presented and well spoken I was in my interview. People bounced on the bed. Lots of laughing and drinking. People trickled out slowly, some to go home, some to catch a plane, some to go to bed. When everyone was gone, Jen, Steph and I chatted for a bit in bed, talking about our friends, about each other, and about how we hate the physical distance between all of us.

Tuesday, I woke up at 7 on the nose, no alarm or anything. I took a shower, got ready, said my "do I have to go?" goodbyes to Jen and Steph, met Patrick in the lobby, he drove me to the airport. Got checked in electronically, dropped my bags quickly enough, got through security rather easily, had an early lunch, boarded the plane, slept a bit on the plane, watched Eight Below, read most of my Anthology, landed, went through customs, picked up luggage, had to go through Immigration to show my sword and be allowed to take it home. Adam and Matthieu had been going in circles in the car waiting for me. Ran to the car, got whistled at by the security person because Adam was stopped where he wasn't allowed, dumped everything in the car and went home. Snuggled with my little boy, put him in his PJs and put him to bed finally. Snuggled with husband, happy to be home.

Greg responds...

No one can say the Gathering staff doesn't keep busy. Glad you had fun too!

Response recorded on February 02, 2007

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Yami Raven writes...

I'm not very good at remembering details, so this will be kind of short. I'm also formal when it comes to people I've just met, so I use Mr. a lot. I hope I did this right! ^_^

June 23, 2006

Jurgan and I went to the Gathering together. It was our first big vacation. We arrived at the Hyatt hotel around 12 pm. I picked up my badge and decided to hang around the dealer's room until the hotel got our room ready. Then, Jurgan and I checked in and looked over the schedule. By the time we were done with everything, it was time for the opening ceremonies. This was my first time ever coming to the Gathering, and it looked like a lot of other people were new, too. This was also the first time I'd ever seen Greg Weisman. We watched the music videos and the making of Gargoyles. It was very interesting. After the opening, Jurgan and I went back up to our rooms to decide where to go to dinner. On the way back downstairs, Mr. Weisman shared an elevator with us. We introduced ourselves and talked while waiting to get to the 1st floor. We went to dinner and then to bed.

June 24, 2006

I started off my day by getting up early and going to the dealer's room. I absolutely love going to the dealers' room and the art room because I always have to buy things when I go someplace new. I bought a Gathering T-shirt and some cat ears, then made my way to the Gargoyle Physiology, Psychology, and Society panel. It was interesting to hear the people discussing how a gargoyle could have enough power to destroy something, yet be light enough to glide. I stayed in that room to watch the Dude Looks Like a Lady panel. I have always wanted to cosplay as a guy, and this panel really helped with the questions I had. Then, I watched the Advanced Costuming panel while Jurgan went to mug Crispin Freeman. I learned a lot about making very nice wings and feet from things that were inexpensive. This panel confirmed what I already thought to be true: duct tape is your friend! I stayed in the room to see the Villains, Villainy, and Plots panel. After that, I went to the Darkwing Duck panel. I got to hear some wonderful things about the show, as well as that it's coming out on DVD soon. Afterwards, I got Jim Cummings' autograph. Someone borrowed my pen, and then gave it to Mr. Cummings to use. He never gave it back, so he kind of stole my pen, but I later told him he could keep it. I still think it's funny to say that Darkwing Duck stole my pen. After that, Jurgan and I went to see the radio play. The people chosen for the play did a wonderful job. I absolutely loved it! After that, we went to the room and had dinner, and then I went to bed while Jurgan went to the Blue Mug.

June 25, 2006

Started the day once again by buying stuff! I got a cloak, a bracelet, some artwork, and a grab bag. At 10am, we went to the Gargoyles the Comic Book panel. That was very interesting mainly because during the panel, the hotel guys came and took the wall. They forgot to separate the rooms again after the radio play, so they decided to fix them during the panel. Next door, there was a church service going on, and they looked very confused as well. We got some autographs, and then went to Crispin Freeman's panel on Mythological Animation. It was wonderful to see how the western and eastern types of animation differ. After that, I got Mr. Freeman's autograph, and we went to Team Trivia. I had a great time playing the game, and even remembered things about the show I thought I had forgotten. Afterwards, I went to the art room and met someone I kind of knew from Gaiaonline. Her name was Fusion Demon. We chatted for a bit and she drew me a picture, but I didn't get to get it because I had to leave. We left the hotel at 3pm, but not before pre-registering for next year's Gathering. I had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back next year!

Greg responds...

See you in 2007!

Response recorded on February 02, 2007

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Blaise writes...

GATHERING CON JOURNAL, MON. 6/26/06

Spent most of the time before the first panels chatting with other attendees in the lobby (their names escape me right now, but I know Greg B. was one of them for a while). A little after 9am, Gside came over looking for anyone who wanted breakfast--turns out he had some "Free Breakfast for Two" vouchers and didn't want to waste the second spot. I too hate waste (and had only eaten a few slices of bread that morning) and since no one else was interested I took him up on his offer. A real nice guy, Gside.

At 10am I attended the panel on "Time Travel." I never had any problem understanding how it was portrayed in "Gargoyles" but I find it endlessly fascinating. It was also great to hear Greg's thoughts on time travel as it was portrayed in other stories (like "Back to the Future"). One thing I learned though, was that one of Greg's answers to anyone attempting to short circuit the time stream seems to be for a piano to drop on that person's head. :-D
Favorite parts for me include what may have been Xanatos' unseen reaction to the question of how to get back home in "Vows" ("S__t"), and Greg's little ideas for another separate time travel story he's thinking about.
Of course, one thing I will always carry from that panel, is the idea of Xanatos standing on top of the Eyrie Building and proclaiming, "I can fly!" before he jumps, falls, and (in Greg's words) "splatters."

For the next two hours after that panel, I mostly just talked with people, wandered around, and looked at what was left in both the Dealer's and Art show rooms. The last panel I attended was "Hosting a Gathering." It was a very informative and sobering look at just what exactly is required for properly hosting this con. Made me appreciate what the con staffs have done for us even more.

There's not much more to say; awards were handed out, good byes were said, and we all prepared to make our way back to the real world. Frankly, that was not a place I really wanted to go (more bills than money), but it was oddly comforting to know I wasn't alone in that sentiment.

On my way to my truck, I had the honor of holding the elevator for and sharing it with Greg Weisman. It was good to see you again Greg, and I hope that I eventually land a role on one of your shows.

Actually, it was great to see EVERYONE there. I had seen a few faces back in 2001, but this year I really spent some time talking to people, and just generally enjoying my time with everyone. While I'm adding up my hopes, here's one more: I hope it won't be another five years before I'm able to make it to another Gathering.

And that's my con journal. Good times.

Greg responds...

FYI. Anvils work too.

Response recorded on February 01, 2007

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Blaise writes...

GATHERING CON JOURNAL, SUN. 6/25/06

Got up, cleaned up, and hung around until the first panels.
I had two choices: "Gargoyles: The Comic" and "Talespin." As much as I wanted to go to the panel about the BRAND NEW COMIC BOOK I found myself heading over to the much less attended "Talespin" panel, which wound up touching on many aspects of the "Disney Afternoon" in general. Seeing the early pitches of both "Tailspin" and "Goof Troop" was fun (for much the same reason as the "Gargoyles" pitch is fun--it's nice to see the difference in character designs).

Afterwards, I drifted for about half-an-hour (it was a week ago as I write this--I can't remember so well, okay?!), and then made my way to the "Gargoyles: Voice Acting Process" panel. I don't care that Keith and Thom were late; I absolutely enjoyed the panel. I had already seen about 5/6ths of these folks at the 2001 Gathering (of course, it's ALWAYS nice to see more of them), but Brigette Bako was the new face (and a very pretty one at that!). I had a whole list of questions, most of them acting oriented, but I had to settle for my top two. I'm still glad I asked them, though--both Brigette and Elisa complimented me on my questions (yay!). Morgan Sheppard is always a joy (and now I know why he's sometimes credited with the initial W. before his name). I cringed when I heard about poor Keith David's experience as Othello with that one middle school audience ("HE AIN'T CRYIN'!"). It was a lot of fun and nowhere near enough time.

A hurried autograph signing session later, I went to the "W.I.T.C.H." panel--definitely the biggest roster of guests at the whole con. An even bigger surprise was being able to watch the third episode of the new season, which I otherwise would have missed because I forgot to program my VCR. Following that we had a very nice question and answer session, although my last question to the actors ("What led you to pursue acting in general and voice-overs in particular") managed to set the whole panel about 15 minutes over. I still got some great answers (and even MORE autographs and compliments on the questions I asked). Ginny McSwain seems like a great gal, and I really wish I could have attended her Mug-a-Guest, but I couldn't pass up the "Gargoyles: Voice" panel.

Anyway, I got my autographs and hurried over to the Dealer's Room where I was scheduled for the 4pm Jim Cummings Mug-a-guest. I sat at a table with seven other attendees…and an empty guest chair. After a couple of minutes Jen made her way over and mentioned that Jim probably wouldn't be able to make it. I was disappointed but not really surprised--the Gathering is great, but some things have to take precedence. But then Jen mentioned that he had been there on Saturday.

Me: What?
Jen: Yeah he was on the "Darkwing Duck" panel.
Me: (convulses)
Seriously, my neck twitched and everything. To know that I had only just missed him that one day…. Oh, well. Next time you see him, Greg, tell Jim we're glad he came at all.

Unfortunately, I could not afford to attend the banquet this year, and I lost track of the guys going to A Fan's alternative option, so I just drifted until the Masquerade. I read a bit, saw Keith David and his family head out, and then wandered over to just outside the ballrooms where I had a long and pleasant chat with, among other people, Guardian and Kythera. We talked about a little bit of everything (can't remember it all just now, but I do know it was a fun time), and eventually, it was time for the Masquerade.

There were fewer costumes this year (even a two-time attendee such as myself managed to pick up on that), but the ones we got were GOOD. My favorites included Set (an incredible costume--the design and sculpting of the head and eyes alone was fantastic), Onyx (anybody who can pull off a beak and wings like that deserves special notice in my book) and, of course, the Garghoul (what can I say, I'm a sucker for cloaked figures with burning red eyes).
Afterwards there was a bit of dancing ("Let's do the Timewarp again!") and eventually, the continuation of the Blue-Mug. This one was a bit quieter and we still managed to get a decent amount of cool info. I was quite amused to learn that Michael Reaves had never really expected to get "…walk barefoot into Hell" past BS&P. He was a very interesting fellow and I wish I had gotten to see more of him.
I guess there was some sort of disturbance by some drunken guests from the wedding a couple rooms over, but I never really noticed.

A little after midnight, we broke up and all headed to our respective sleeping quarters, effectively ending the day.

I was a little sad that night-tomorrow was the last day.

Greg responds...

I was partial to the Garghoul myself. And Holly. (Wings by Eden, btw.)

Response recorded on February 01, 2007

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Blaise writes...

GATHERING CON JOURNAL, SAT. 6/24/06

I woke up fairly early (the first panel wasn't until 10am, and I was up by 7am or so), and headed into the hotel to wash up. Sat in the lobby and found myself having a nice chat with Greg B. and a few other fans whose names escape me at the moment.
At 10am I headed over to the "Kim Possible" panel and got a nice sneak peek at the upcoming season (a lot of funny stuff to look forward to). After that, and a few quick autographs, I made my way up to the con suite to watch the remaining four music videos that could not be played the previous night (I wanted to see all of them before I voted). The con suite was closed, so I wound up being a part of a small group of people looking for someone who could open it. Eventually A Fan volunteered to "man the suite," so to speak, until a full staff member was available (which wound up happening fairly quickly). Unfortunately, there was no way to watch the remaining four videos in the suite, so the staff was trying to figure out something else.
I'll just end the suspense now--I, unfortunately, never got the opportunity to see those last four videos, and as a result missed out on the voting. I am glad that a couple of my favs placed, though.

In the meantime I went back down to the panels, and saw that I had been cast in the Radio Play!
Now, a funny thing about me is that I tend to worry about the feelings of others--something that even extends to panels. I want every panel to have a decent audience. Consequently, when it came to a choice between the "Gargoyles: Development Process" panel, and the "Adapting Stories & Characters from Comics to Film" panel, although I would have loved to sit in on the "Gargoyles" one, I went with the "Comics" panel. The same thing went for the "Gargoyles: Writing" and "Hellboy" panels as well (although, the fact that Hellboy is a character published by Dark Horse Comics didn't hurt). Those two panels wound up being very fun and informative. They also touched on the differences between the mediums of comics and animation (highlighting why "X-Men: Evolution" had much better animation than the Fox "X-men" series), and they left me feeling psyched up for the DTV animated movies they'll be making for these characters later on.

Then came the Radio Play rehearsal. Several people were already in the room, including (fanfare please) Keith David! I could not help but feel a little self-conscious in his presence (it didn't help that I had a sunburn on my freaking forehead!). Seriously, I felt too nervous to just talk to him, even in such a casual setting. He however felt no such qualms about me, and complimented my oriental dragon shirt. I was happy.
As I mentioned before, the script was for the episode, "The Mirror," and although I had a suspicion, it was still a happy revelation. Likewise, I had a sneaking suspicion since my audition that I would be given the role of Broadway…and I was! It was great fun, and I always love the chance to strut my stuff like this. Naturally, Keith was Goliath, Thom was Lex, and Crispin did his best Hudson.
Anyway, the rehearsal wrapped up a little after 4pm, and we weren't needed until 5pm, so I just sat in on the last part of the "Darkwing Duck" panel. Tad Stones (who had also sat on the "Hellboy" panel…man, what a change of pace!) was there, but I either did not notice or (going by others' con journals) just missed another guest at the panel…Jim Cummings. It would be a little less than 24 hours before I would learn he had even been there.

At last, we come to the Radio Play. We were all introduced, although, despite having worked out the seating arrangements in rehearsal (it was decided that sitting Crispin next to Thom was an unwise idea), there was still some minor confusion and a couple easily fixed seat mix-ups. And, as for the play itself…well, it was GREAT. People laughed in all the right spots (though Greg had to prompt them to applaud for the first Act break), and it's always nice to see "lost" lines that got cut from the episode (one of them being Puck's little aside to the audience after his "Human's love a battle hearty…"). It was a good time, and any worries I had about my Broadway performance were quickly put to rest.

Afterwards, around about 6:30 or so, I had several hours until the Blue Mug with Greg, Keith, Thom and Crispin. I wandered around the hotel a bit, did some reading, and when Onyx came by looking for people to play Munchkin (it's a card game) I joined up, along with KingCobra_582 and a couple whose names escape me at the moment. Of course, Munchkin is a very LONG card game so we had to cut it short in order to make it to the Blue Mug.

Question: How many fans can you cram into the con suite? Answer: Not enough. The place was practically packed wall-to-wall. It was a miracle the guests had any room. There were a number of Blue questions (some asked by me, I admit…maybe I just wanted to "fit in" but I was genuinely curious, too) but not a whole lot. It was great fun (highlights for me include Keith interjecting a cussword into the "I've been denied everything…" line, and Greg venting his frustration with animation executives by standing on the chair and saying what he WISHES he could say ("ARE YOU LISTENING TO YOURSELVES?!"). Unfortunately, there were too many noise complaints from neighboring rooms, so (to avoid getting kicked out), we headed for the ballrooms. Unfortunately, they were locked and so we gathered in the little lobby area before them to figure out what to do. At this point there was an unpleasant encounter with one of the hotel security, who apparently could not, or actively would not, understand that we needed to confer on what to do next before we could properly disperse. Seriously, we would have been out of there even sooner if he had just let us done what we needed to do.

Anyway, the remainder of the Blue Mug was pushed to tomorrow night, and we all headed back to our respective sleeping quarters for some shut-eye.

Next, Sunday….

Greg responds...

You were a damn good Broadway!

Response recorded on February 01, 2007

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Blaise writes...

I figured the longer I wait to write my con journal the less I'll remember, so without further ado…

GATHERING CON JOURNAL, FRI. 6/23/06

Well, there's not much to say about my morning before heading out--I got up, made sure I had all I needed, got in my car, and (after finding a good Samaritan to give my battery a jump-start) drove the 30 miles to lovely Valencia. Got to the registration desk at about 10:30 am or so and started reading the program to see who all we had for guests. That's how I found out that Jeff Bennett (an industry hero of mine) had to bow out. While I was a little disappointed, I wasn't all that surprised (he strikes me as a very busy man). At any rate I signed up for the Jim Cummings "Mug-a-guest" (10:30am and already I was number seven on an eight person list!), and made my way to the "Creating Compelling Characters" panel headed by Christine Morgan, Ellen and Spacebabie. That was a bit confusing because it was supposed to be in Ballroom E, but the dividing wall wasn't up yet, so I finally found it in the Valencia A room. It was a fun and informative look at the process of creating full and…well, compelling characters in fiction. I asked about how to make heroes compelling, and I had more questions but time ran out. I would have loved to have gone to their "Villains, Villainy and Plots" panel, but I couldn't due to scheduling conflicts (in my case, the wonderful Radio Play which I will write more on later).

Since there was still the mix-up with the rooms, I found myself wandering back to the dealer's room and encountering Greg Bishansky (who I had last seen in 2001, but who nevertheless managed to recognize me). We had a nice chat while looking through the animation cels. There were a lot of good one's there, and not just from Gargoyles. At about this time we also encountered the OTHER Greg, Weisman, who sat outside the dealer room for a bit because he had a bit of downtime on Friday (and apparently he felt like he SHOULD be doing something, but the staff members advised him to enjoy the break).

Anyway, eventually I went back to the Valencia A room for the last bit of the "Costuming" panel, and then sat down to wait for "Voice Acting Workshop" with Thom Adcox and Crispin Freeman. Being an actor myself this was right up my alley, even more so because I have been interested in the anime dubbing process for quite some time and I actually got to try my hand at dubbing some young, buffoonish, wannabe knight. One thing I learned about dubbing, IT IS HARD. There's timing, making sure you're not too fast or slow, making sure you match the mouth movements, and then remembering to actually act! Still, I felt I did passably well (and hey, the audience liked me!).

Next came the auditions for the Radio Play. I had wondered what Greg would select this year--"Gargoyles" or something different? If "Gargoyles," what episode? Looking at the audition sheets, I figured out almost immediately it was "Gargoyles" (seeing things in the bottom section like "D (40)" and "G (41)" kind of led me down that route), and a little later I had an inkling that it would be "The Mirror"…and it was! But back to the audition. I was originally going to read Brooklyn's page (it had been five years since I had done that one, after all, and I had learned some new tricks), but I heard the young lady in front of me tell her friend that she was going to do Brooklyn, so I decided another character would be better for me. I settled on Broadway, mostly because I saw a lot of "acting beats" and opportunities for choices in his dialogue. Went in, did my audition (also doing my best Scottish accent and dog bark when prompted) and left feeling pretty good about it.

Checked out some pics at the art show (a lot of wonderful work there). Ran into Greg B. again and got into a discussion about the new comic (hooray that it's here!), and then I headed out and down the street for a bit to get some food rations for this weekend.
Came back and encountered Blaquethorne and Crimson Fury, and he and I killed the time before Opening Ceremonies discussing this and that. Eventually we made our way over to the ballroom, encountering none other than the very "Beth Maza" who started this whole "Gathering" thing in the first place!

Opening Ceremonies was great fun (once it finally started). Hadn't expected the music videos, but they were nice (I really love the one for "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"). Still enjoy seeing all the pitches (damn, Sphinx is HOT), but the biggest treat for me was the lost "Team Atlantis" episode "The Last." Even without a fully finished animatic, it was great. I loved the translation of what was actually being said by Demona's Latin chanting. One thing that impressed me about this show was that it was perfectly capable of standing alone. A person could have watched that episode with no prior knowledge of "Gargoyles," or Demona's immortality. It was great!

Last item of my evening was the Mystery Gargoyles Theater 3000 panel, run by Jade Griffin. It was basically a "Dracon Trilogy"--"Deadly Force" followed by "The Silver Falcon" and finally "Protection." At first, all I was going to do was watch, but barely two seconds into "Deadly Force" I started flinging jibes myself. Thankfully, some of my comments managed to get some laughs.

It was great fun, and after it was over (somewhere between 10 and 11 pm), I headed back to my truck, set up my bedroll in the covered bed and got some shut eye (what can I say--I had originally planned to drive back and forth every day, but the gas necessary to do so was a little out of my reach at the time…).

On to Saturday….

Greg responds...

Sleeping in the truck, huh? Where were you parked that you didn't get busted?

Dude, that's dedication!

Response recorded on February 01, 2007


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