Vaevictis Asmadi writes...

TRADE PAPERBACK

==== SPOILERS!!!!!============SPOILERS!!!!!========= SPOILERS!!!!!========

FINALLY the book was published. I had concluded that the book was cancelled. I'm still waiting for Bad Guys. Very glad that I finally have Volume Two. It is still sinking in.

Anyway, I like the book a lot, especially the medieval flashbacks. And the art has been for the most part consistent and nicely done. I actually read through all twelve issues of Clan-Building, although it took me until 3 am. That wasn't so smart. Oh well. Thank you for writing the new Gargoyles stories and jumping through hoops to get somebody to publish them.

Nothing eloquent from me, just scattered thoughts from the single issues as I re-read them:

I find it interesting that Lexington tells Alex to call him by his name. "Doggie" could be responded to in any number of ways, such as "I'm a gargoyle." But Lex is insisting on his name. Quite a contrast to Awakening.

The non-chronological format of the Stone of Destiny arc (and to a lesser extent Bad Guys, Timedancer, and Reunion) is very confusing, though of course now I know why 7-9 are written this way. But I still find it confusing, especially with the different time-zones, and the +# stuff which I do not get. I did not understand the button-pressing, nor the stone-switching, until I read the ramble. I'm still not sure what happened on the bridge.

Gathellus and Scota's wardrobe. I never noticed it before, but now this irritates me. Gathelus (Gathelos?) is an ancient Greek, and Scota is an ancient Egyptian. He and his men should be wearing tunics, chitons, or kilts. She should have a nearly shaved head, and a tripartite wig (at least at first -- after wandering around for years, maybe she couldn't replace her wigs after a while).

Vinnie: "Can you believe it? I'm going to Japan!"
Random passenger: "So is everybody on this plane, genius!"

I can hear most of the TV characters' voices in my head, but I can't get a good voice in my head for most of the new ones.
I want Constance to have an alto English accent, but in my head she always sounds like Fleance. Eugh.

I imagine doing research on legends and myths about himself feels pretty weird for King Arthur. Good thing Avalon made him literate in English (and prevented him from speaking with an incomprehensibly thick accent, too.)

NINE: ROCK OF AGES

Nice cover! I like Griff.

I am confused what King Arthur is apologizing to the Westminster guards for.

"Define this." I laughed out loud. Great line to put in Coldstone's mouth! Was it a deliberate allusion to Warf's "Assimilate this." in the movie with the Borg? Either way, it's hilarious!

Ms. Three must be Blanchefleur (sp?). Interesting that she can get into Castle Carbonek at will, without a problem.

Creepy Borg-Picard-Guy is Creepy! This is Duval. And Peredur fab Ragnal is Percival. I'm quite surprised that they are not the same character, as I had expected. Now I wonder who Duval is. In the words of Fox: "...who is this guy?"

I like that you used Peredur's Welsh name, instead of the French one. Peredur makes more sense than Percival for an ancient Brython. And it's interesting to see it confirmed that he is the son of Ragnal, which presumably makes Gawain his father. Now I wonder if he grew up in obscurity in the woods (like in R.L. Greene) and if so, what could have caused his parents to break up. I would like to learn more about what happened in the Gargoyles universe. In fact, I would probably enjoy just reading a graphic novel about the Gargoyles version of the King Arthur legends, and how the gargoyles and Third Race participated in the stories. Same for the Greek myths.

Also, I'm relieved that Peredur is not a creepy, ill-tempered cyborg. It's sad enough that a guy like Peredur has stooped to supervising the Illuminati's horrible activities, not to mention their eventual allying with the Space-Spawn. I am surprised that he looks so young and fit.

Macbeth's breaking the Stone, and its reaction, is pretty funny. He actually did a fairly poor job gluing it, there's crud oozing out of the crack.

From there it just gets bizarre. This Stone, and a bunch of other sacred and/or magical stones around the world, are temporary or shared vessels for some vast, sapient force of destiny? It even talks to Xanatos and King Arthur simultaneously, from two different stones. Once you suggested that it might be either a magic talisman or a Child of Oberon, but now I feel like it must not, cannot, be either of these. I want to know what it is! And also, why the Holy Grail can talk!

The burden of Sisyphus... he's dead and Tartaros, so isn't his rock a piece of ghostly ectoplasm, or something?

Peredur has expected King Arthur to arrive in 200 years. No surprise that that was his original intended "destination" -- a time when Earth will be conquered and bereft of all its political leaders. But how did Peredur know this? And if this was planned in advanced by some force of destiny, instead of being a hypothetical "What if?", does that mean the Space-Spawn invasion is, within the Garg-universe, an unpreventable event that's fated to happen? That would imply the aliens lack free will, which I doubt.

Also, what is Blanchefleur wearing? Her pants are falling down!

Coldsteel really is a jerk.

Why do I get the feeling Xanatos didn't actually disable that tracking device?

More later...
==== SPOILERS!!!!!============SPOILERS!!!!!========= SPOILERS!!!!!========

Todd Jensen writes...

In the scene in "The Gate" where Brooklyn scares the suspicious townspeople away from Mary and Finella, was the cry "Run away! Run away!" intended as a "Monty Python" allusion? (Especially since you'd done such an allusion in "Future Tense", with the Xanatos Program's "bite my knee-caps off" line.)

David B. Jacobs writes...

Hey Greg!
What's Dr. Bromwell's first name?
Thanks!

Ian Adams writes...

Just picked up and read Bad Guys. Between this and Vol. 2 of Clan Building I have very mixed feelings. I loved reading both, and am ecstatic that you were able to finish these stories. At the same time, being able to finish them just whet my appetite for more. After all this time getting used to the idea of no more Gargoyles, and the troubled life in comics, I was trying to get comfortable with the reality of no new stories. Now the idea seems entirely untenable. I need to know what happens to these people.

I'm not sure how sales are, but I can speak to the fact that my local shop ordered 3 copies of each for the shelf (so not counting people who had requested it) and they were all sold out when I left today. Here's hoping that pattern repeats itself around the country.

Litwolf writes...

At long last, I have Clan-Building Volume Two in my hands! Like most fans, I have been dreaming of this for a full year. To be able to have it in hand and read it is delightful beyond words. So I’ll just start on my review then, shall I?

SPOILERS FOR CLAN-BUILDING VOLUME TWO

PLEASE DON’T READ IF YOU DON’T WANT SPOILERS

Chapter Nine: Rock of Ages

Just a few months before CB2 came out, I got the chance to spend three weeks in England and Ireland and a single day I Scotland. On that day, I got to tour Edinburgh Castle and view the Treasures of the Crown, including the Stone of Destiny. I got a little giddy seeing the Stone in Scotland because I could imagine the battle between gargoyles and robots being fought over it the night before its transportation. Sadly, I wasn’t allowed to take a picture; I could only gawk for a moment before getting shooed down the line with the other tourists. So it’s a pleasure to have seen the Stone of Destiny before reading the conclusion of this arc. (On the same trip, I visited and Eskimo-kissed the Blarney Stone in Ireland; however, I had no idea until reading CB2 that one of the theories of the Blarney Stone’s origin was from the Stone of Destiny. Quite exciting I visited the pieces from the same Stone twice :D)

We got to see the conclusion of the big air battle from the last issue. I liked the glance back to Tibet and seeing the two monks from ‘Reunion’. I think its fitting that Coldstone returned to them to show he had overcome his inner turmoil.

As always, it is a pleasure to see what new way the Coyote Robot will bite it next. And I love the free will chit-chat between Coldsteel and Coyote.

I will admit that I was one of the readers who was confused about who had the ‘real’ Stone of Destiny by the end of it: Xanatos, the Illuminati, or Scotland? But, with the help of your Ramble and by rereading it a few times, I came to understand the fact that all the pieces of the Stone (whatever their name and location) are considered to be part of the Stone of Destiny. I am guessing that the Spirit of Destiny (I believe that’s what it’s called on GargWiki) can jump between the fragments as it sees fit. Hence being unable to be possessed by any one mortal.

Favorite part of the whole arc: the greetings exchanged between the Stone of Destiny and the Holy Grail. I think it’s simple and just so totally perfect that these two artifacts of immense power say, “Hey.” Its beautiful. I may cry.

And Shari ends things right where they began. That is some fine storytelling on her part. I like her as a storyteller.

All in all, I thought it was a fantastic conclusion to the Stone Arc. I’ll admit, the non-linear storytelling took some getting used to but I was hooked by the end of it. My only disappointment is that we don’t know why the London Clan doesn’t have any gargoyle beasts, which we are all curious to know because it seems like there is more of a story behind it than simply “They all died out”. Oh well, gotta save some mystery for when the Gargoyle Graphic Novels get picked up, right? Well done, well done!

Jack-Pumpkinhead writes...

Dear Greg,
I just got my copy of Volume 2 and read it. I am thoroughly impressed with your still-amazing storytelling. The Stone left me slightly confused, but I think I understand what the point was; the stone may take many shapes and names, but it will always be the stone. I like that the stone and the grail can talk to eachother, that was just funny (That and Brooklyn's PSA panel). And I absolutely loved, I repeat, LOVED finally seeing Katana and Gnash. The artists all get my deepest compliments and gratitude fro bringing form to some great characters. I really hope you can get the licenses approved and tell the rest of Brooklyn's story. This was amazing, and I hope I can talk more people into reading such great work.

Spawn Guy writes...

Hey Greg,

I've always wondered how building a writing team works exactly. Obviously Sony liked your pitch for Spectacular (and I'm very glad they did)and we wound up with great efforts from Matt Wayne, Kevin Hopps, Andrew Robinson and Randy Jandt. But did you hand pick these people or were they provided for you by Sony? Or did they have their own takes on Spidey that convinced you that they, out of the many people who must have been vying for a spot on the show, had the right stuff for the series? And you guys had a pretty solid rotation system, so how does whatever selection process used differ from freelancing for a show?

Akeem M. writes...

Hello once again, I just wanted to ask you did Chameleon know that Norman was the Green Goblin when he was hired? When Norman was unmasked, Chameleon had a look of shock that seemed like "THIS is what I was hired to pose as him for?!" before he turned to look at Harry. Or was his look just "The cat's out of the bag"?

Todd Jensen writes...

I thought I'd give you a report on spreading the word.

Since King Arthur features in the first half of "Clan-Building: Volume Two", I gave a brief report on the book on an Arthurian mailing list I subscribe to, "Renditions of Camelot", focusing on the elements involving him. (It helped that we'd read Roger Lancelyn Green earlier this year, and a lot of the list members had enjoyed him. I told them about your fondness for Green, and even mentioned how you included a specific reference to him in the book:

* SPOILERS*

"Peredur fab Ragnal" - Green makes Percival the son of Gawain and Ragnell.

* SPOILERS END *

I also mentioned Arthur's consultation of Malory, and the Stone's "Sword in the Stone" role (though I left the revelation of Percival/Peredur's involvement a surprise, saying only that the Illuminati leadership turns out to have links to King Arthur).

I also briefly mentioned the medieval elements of #10 through #12, since I thought they might interest Arthurian buffs, even if Arthur wasn't involved here. And I made a similar report to a forum for the Arthurian role-playing game "King Arthur Pendragon".

I don't know how many people will buy the book based on my reviews, but spreading the word certainly doesn't hurt.

Todd Jensen writes...

And now, the final story, "Phoenix".

* SPOILERS FOLLOW*

Great opening, with Goliath brooding at Castle Wyvern in his "Thinker" position.

A fine epic battle scene (looks more 13th century than 10th, but then, so did the medieval portions of "Awakening").

Nice touch with Brooklyn's "Bro" slip.

Bodhe's already timid, even as a kid.

Whoa! Constantine crying out about the Hunter's Moon! Gargoyle-haters using that moon goes back further than I'd thought.

I see you've found a way to reconcile Gillecomgain's historical parentage with his depiction in the animated series as a peasant. Good solution.

Valmont's spell of fiery arrows was another unsettling moment - especially since we got to know at least one of its casualties (Magus the horse), and see the grief of Demona's second as he loses his mate to the enchanted shafts.

I like Demona's line "The spell? Perhaps. Its consequences... never". Very true to the spirit of "Gargoyles".

Constantine clearly foresees Maol Chalvim's future treachery.

So now we get to meet Katana, Nashville, and Fu-Dog at last. (And the egg - I wonder whether "Egwardo" will turn out to be another case where canon replaces the old canon-in-training expectations.) And we know what Brooklyn's injury is. (As I said, missing eyes seem to be turning up a lot in the Gargoyles Universe.)

I wonder whether the Pack's attack was meant as a set-up for #13 - had there been one - or a "hero's work is never done" moment. But it was a great way to end the story, as the expanded clan heads off into battle....

And so "Clan-Building" comes to an end. Thank you very much, Greg, for these new stories.

* SPOILERS END *