GargFan writes...

Of the stories in the gargoyle comics that were originally planned for the television show such as the stone of destiny and double date stories, how much of what appeared in print was conceived during your time as the producer of the show and how much was developed as you started writing the story for the comic?

Was the Double Date story always suppose to feature the return of Thailog and was the Stone of Destiny story intended to be always non linear or for that matter to show that the Stone had multiple vessels?

Chris writes...

Hey Greg,

Just wanted to both thank you for the sheer awesomeness of Spectacular Spider-Man, which I think is both the best Spidey cartoon ever and your own best work (not that I don't love Gargoyles, mind you), and ask a couple (non Season 3 related, I can assure you) questions:
1. In "Gangland", what recording of Rigoletto did you use?
2. There are a couple moments in the series where the Green Goblin seems to break the fourth wall: in "The Uncertainty Principle" when he turns to the camera and says, "Anyone else getting deja vu? Oh well, let's run with it!" and in "Opening Night" when he looks up at the camera and says, "I'm in a rhyming mood tonight." Were these meant to have any larger significance or were they just fun breaking-the-fourth-wall jokes?
Thanks again!

Anna McNarin writes...

Unfortunately, I no longer remember what my first reaction to Gargoyles was as I was eleven when the show aired, I just know what I saw stuck with me. In the back of my mind the memory of being enthralled by the characters and stories always hovered with one thought, "that was an amazing show." I do, however, recall my reactions to watching the volume one DVD oh so many quick years later. Needless to say, a spell had been cast and my love for the tale was born anew.

Having been blessed with a decent memory, there weren't any new big surprises for me as an adult, and so I felt drawn towards watching character relationships more than the action. Two characters in particular caught my interest: David Xanatos and Owen Burnett. Being a lover of duality in life, these two business men stirred my imagination and had me laughing in what was probably a very Puck-like manner.

To the average Joe on their streets, Xanatos is a charismatic -I swear I can hear Jonathan Frakes smiling-, eccentric man with just enough brains to know what to do with his money. His assistant, Owen, is the opposite, so stoic in nature some might see it as borderline masochistic, despite no doubt equaling his employer in brains, and perhaps money. There were times Xanatos treated Owen with such disregard, it was a wonder the blond man stayed on with a man, who for all appearances, viewed the worth of his life as being only as valuable as he was useful. It's that last line that never fails to put a smile on my face, because with the knowledge that Owen is the Puck the meaning twists.

Puck is an actor, arguably the best ever born, so I went through and watched Owen not just being Owen, but as Puck playing Owen. Once I did that I realized that even if the pact between them didn't exist, and given Xanatos knew Owen was born fey, Puck would probably stay on for the simple reason he and David are part of one of the biggest pranks in history. Their interactions, comments, even the extent to which Puck stays in character, it reads as one gigantic private joke on the world. After reading through some of the archives, I also had the startling notion that any person Owen were to become involved with more than likely would not know of the true nature of his soul since trapped as human he would be breaking character if he told. The "prank" continues, and Puck goes down in unwritten history as the greatest actor to live. His magic and form were suppressed, his personality wasn't, yet he keeps to his character. And to all those who would think he would go mad spending the rest of his life locked behind a mask, I don't believe so, not one bit, not when breaking character is more maddening a thought than living with it. The proof is in the scene Oberon proclaimed his sentence upon his servant, Puck swallowed his tongue the second Owen appeared. If begging for his magic were more important than his reputation as an actor he wouldn't have let transforming into Owen stop his lament. Besides, he still has his dreams, in sleep he can be as he wishes.

I have to agree, too, that the idea of Puck being Oberon's boy is absurd. Perhaps the reason so many see a resemblance is similar to how some cannot tell different people of the same nationality apart. I will grant that Oberon appears to view Puck as a child who doesn't know what is best for him and that can be seen as paternal nature, but there was never a doubt that theirs is that of master and servant. My sympathies lie with Oberon, though, for as a personal servant Puck was privy to the intimate on goings of Oberon's life as Owen is to David. To personally go and fetch your own servant, then to hear him choose another over you; I would surmise Oberon came as close to feeling like he'd lost his best friend as he ever could. Sad as I am to say it, I see Puck dying as Owen. If the great ones burn brightly to die young, Oberon's Children will never forget their Lord's pale trickster, and I venture the wisdom Hudson shares in "The Price" struck not David, but Owen.

Pardoning the lengthy analysis, I did have a few questions floating through my brain. They're lovely, potentially silly little ones those of us who love to read into everything ask. If any of it is a repeat, I'm truly sorry, I haven't made it much beyond the Owen Puck archives, the FAQ, and a few random links.

1. In your mind, do Puck and Owen share the same eyes, or at the very least eye color? Animation and comics have their faults and reasons, I'm curious to how you see it.

2. Throwing out a rough guess that there is about six inches height difference between Owen and Puck, would he have even noticed the difference it makes when standing, or being prone to floating at all heights, not have noticed at all?

3. You've previously stated that if Owen dies as the result of external forces, i.e. car crash, he gets shot, then he's dead, no coming back, good-bye. Makes perfect sense. Then there is his pact to serve Xanatos, which if I understand, counts for the whole of Xanatos' life. Also makes sense. I cannot seem to correlate the two, as Owen dying first would breach the terms. Is this a loophole in their contract?

4. Common sense, and how into character Puck gets says they wouldn't be, despite Fox and Alex proving otherwise, but any children he were to sire as Owen would be fully human wouldn't they? Or because his magic has been locked away as opposed to removed, would it be passed on like a recessive gene?

5. Speaking of suppression, as a fey caught in a mortal shell, if someone or something were to remove the inherent magic within him, would Owen die? I would think so, but you may see it differently.

Anyway, thank you -and whoever else happens upon this- for taking the time to read it. May the plot bunnies bless you. :)

Shaun "BrooklynX" Donagher writes...

Ok, Greg, here is my Gathering Journal. I'll admit this is the one year I almost didn't make besides the first 3 Gatherings (learned about after the fact). Money ended being rather tight because I needed to get my wisdom teeth out back in July. But I managed to catch a couple breaks, so I was able to come.

Wednesday, August 19th:

My Gathering trip started by driving down to Sunnyvale from Sacramento to meet Tigris for the drive down to convention. I left my house a little later than I wanted and got to her place around 10 pm. We gamed for a little while and decided to leave around 10 am the next morning.

Thursday, August 20th:

I got up around 8 and slowly started to unpack a few items I didn't need to bring on the trip. Around 10, we took off and hit Safeway where I picked up some Gatorade for the trip before we got gas. After those two things, we hit the road for the long drive south.

Around 12:45 we stopped at Harris Ranch for lunch. I got a hamburger with jack cheese and wished they had pepper jack. After eating, I picked up a shot glass to add to my collection. Our next stop was just north of the Grapevine for some more gas.

Traffic was pretty smooth until we hit the 1-5/ CA-14 junction where there was a pretty big slowdown. Speed up for a little bit until we hit Valencia. After got just south of the 405 junction, it was nice and smooth all the way to the hotel.

We managed to arrive around 5:10 and we saw Jennifer Anderson and Karine right we got out of the elevator. On the way to check in, we also ran into Cindy, Patrick and a couple of others. Managed to hi before getting our room keys. Much to our surprise, they didn't work, so we had to go back down to get them recoded. Went back up and got rid of our backpacks.

Our next trip was for the main suitcases and we when we got back, they had put in the mini-fridge that we had requested. The final trip was the drinks and cooler that had come along. Wandered back to the lobby where I ran into Vicky (from the U.K.), Banshee, and Gside. We talked for a while before Jade Griffin and her husband showed up.

Around 8:30 to 9 pm Tigrise, Jade, her husband and kid, Karl, and I all walked over to City Walk to get some dinner. We ended up at a sushi place. I ended up having the Salmon salad, which was actually pretty good. We talked about a variety of things before heading back to the hotel around 10:30 pm.

We said good night to each other before trying to crash for the night. I think I managed to pass out close to midnight.

Friday, August 21st:

I woke up around 8 am. I took a shower and then tried to call Gside to meet up for breakfast around 9. Never did manage to meet up with him, so I went over to City Walk and ended up going to Jamba Juice for breakfast. While it wasn't the greatest choice in the world, it was something.

Went back to the hotel where I ran into Sarah the Great. We chatted for a while before putting her luggage into my room before trying to track the registration desk. I got my stuff and proceeded to help Patrick.

Around 11:45, I helped Greg X move the items for the silent auction and books down to the dealers room. After all of that was taken care of, Susan and I got to work unpacking everything. After a while, it became clear that there wasn't enough room for everything. Once the stuff was labeled and out of the boxes, I helped Karine with the pricing and trying to condense all the auction items.

After that was finished, I sat down with Cindy to take a break. We chatted for a while trying to juggle the sales of the graphic novels and keeping an eye on the art room. I picked up a copy of both Gargoyles novels and the Bad Guys one as well. I spent some time reading through them was happy that we had gotten some additional material since the show got canceled.

I helped Cindy close up the art room around 6 before heading down to the opening ceremonies. I missed part of it, but did get to catch Greg's usual talk and videos. Granted I had seen them nine times before, the tenth time was still a treat.

After that was over, Tony, Andrea, Jade Griffin, Trevor, Cindy, Karine, several others and I headed down to Fat Burger for some dinner. After the guy taking the orders for my name, I spelled it out for him and somehow, it came out it as “Ahun” on the receipt. Usually, most folks mispronounce my last name, but I think this was the first time my first name got mangled.

I decided to take a picture of it since I found it highly amusing after showing the receipt around. Before I got to finish, the second round of folks showed up. Seth, Sammy, Greg Bishansky, Patrick, and several others whose names escape me. And poor Seth's receipt ended up with being named Sith. Most us were highly amused by the misspelling of our names.

After eating, most of us walked back up that blasted hill to hotel before heading to bed.

Saturday, August 22nd:

I got up some time between 7:30 and 8. I decided to check my email, read some web comics and took a look at Station 8 briefly. After a taking a shower, I decided to make a quick run to get some breakfast. I was half way to Jamba Juice when I got a call from Cindy saying Patrick needed help at the registration desk, but by the time I got back, the crowd had cleared up.

I ended up helping at the dealers table once again. At one point, I managed to get away for a few minutes to get Marina Sirtis to sign in Gargoyles Clan Building Volume 1, when I should have had her sign the second one. Oops. I also managed to get my picture taken with her, which was nice.

I joined Guardian at the desk for a bit before she went off to a panel. I decided that while Brianna Garcia was doing some commissions, I asked for her to draw one of my characters. While waiting for that, we tried to get folks to vote in the art show.

And by the time we closed down for the night, I knew how much it was to buy all three of the graphic novels. Or a combination of two of the three. Karine, Cindy, Tony, Andrea, Shing, and I headed over to Universal City Walk for dinner. We stopped at the crepe's place whose name I didn't catch. I had a nice one that was made with ham and cheddar.

After we found a place to sit down to chow down, we wandered into the Lush store for a while before walking back to the hotel. It proved to be a bit interesting since we ended up walking against the crowd that was leaving Universal Studios. After getting back, we chatted for a little before everybody got ready for the Blue Mug panel.

During the middle of the panel, Greg has to leave for a little and Edmund Tsabard showed up. Just in the heck is that guy? I swear, he sort of looks like Greg's evil twin, but I could be wrong. After insulting us and talking about his “Last Tengu in Paris” project, he left and low and behold Greg came back into the room. Talk about weird.

After a number of questions, none of which I can remember, the panel closed down for the night. I headed back up the room and was going to make an attempt to try and get 8 hours of sleep after checking a couple things on the laptop.

Just before Tigris and I were about to crash, Cindy's husband Max called while trying get in touch with her. After taking a note to have her call him in the morning, we ended up talking for about an hour or so before finally going to bed for the night.

Sunday, August 23rd:

This time I decided to shower a bit earlier before hunting down Cindy to drop off the message. I loaned her my cell phone so she could call Max while I went off to get breakfast. Once again, I ended up at Jamba Juice. Anybody sense a theme?

Once again I ended up back in the art and dealers room to help out since I was able to do the math for making change in my head. Sales of Clan Building Volume 1 and Bad Guys seemed to be fairly brisk, but we did sell some Volume 2 from time to time.

Most of us ended up talking for a while about a variety of random things. At 3, we closed the auction for all of the goodies that got sent to us. After sorting out what was going to live auction, we started selling everything else. Over the next couple of hours, we managed to take almost everything in the back, save for a few items.

At 5:30, we shut down the bidding for the art auction. After taking care of a few folks who were leaving during the night or very early tomorrow morning, we shut down around 5:50. I quickly back to the room and changed for the banquet and left behind the backpack.

I managed to find a seat with Tigris and several other fans whose names I didn't get. Our guest was one of the Spiderman writers, Nicole Dubuc. We ended up chatting about a variety of things, including how she was nervous about working for Greg at first.

The food was pretty good this year. I loaded up on some of the salad, a roll, chicken, mashed potato and roast beef. And decided to get a slice of German chocolate cake to finish it off. There was supposed to be a trivia game during dinner, but that didn't happen. Oh, well. The Q&A went pretty well despite Thom Adcox showing up a bit late.

After that was the masquerade. There was a pretty decent group of folks in costumes this year. I think the most amusing one was Rebeka as a red shirt. After the awards were announced, some folks danced and others circulated around and talked.

I think around 11:15 or so I headed back to the room to get some sleep.

Monday, August 24th:

I woke up around 7:30 and slowly got to work on packing up things. After I took a shower around 8:15, Tigris took hers. After everything was packed up, we did one run down to the car to drop off the suitcases and drinks. Came back up to get what was left and checked to make sure we didn't leave anything behind.

After checking out, we hung out in the lobby for a little bit before heading out to get some breakfast. I ended up going to Jamba Juice one last time. I had thought about going somewhere else, but decided to go one last time since I very rarely go to the ones up in Sacramento. Probably because the closest one is a good 3 or so miles from my house.

I went back up to the art and dealers room to help out Cindy once again. While she wrote out the receipts and looked up the total including tax, I took the money and gave folks their change. Ah, nothing like doing math in the head. A couple times I tried to calculate the wrong amount of change and she mocked me over it, but hey, it was in good spirit.

Once it started getting closer two, we started to wind things down and started to put some things into boxes to move up to Patrick's room after closing ceremonies. At 2, we walked over to that room and it was a bittersweet moment.

Cindy handed out the art show awards and thanked the few of us who helped make sure she didn't go insane. Quite a few folks were taking this being the last Gathering rather hard. I think a few folks did start crying and I don't blame them. I know Greg, Thom, and quite a few others took it rather hard.

After it was over, we opened up the dealers for a shot time to try and sell a few copies of the trade paperbacks and sell off as many shirts as possible. I decided to pick up another 2009 shirt. After about 20 minutes, the last of the stuff was put into boxes and was hauled upstairs.

A number of us hung out up in Jennifer's room for a bit and chewed down on some pizza. Around 5, Tigris and I said our goodbyes and hit the road for San Jose. I'm going to miss getting to see Jennifer, Patrick, Set, Sammy, Greg X and others year after year.

I felt sad that it came to end, but understand why. Hard to believe that I managed to go to ten Gathering, yes, ten. My first one was the 2000 Gathering in Orlando. I had missed '97 and '98 because I had learned about them after the fact. '99 I learned about 3 months ahead of time, which wasn't enough time for me to save the needed money.

It has been a great ten years. And it's been an honor getting to meet you Greg.

And here are the photos I took this year: http://www.shaunpup2.com/gallery2/v/g2009/

Pardon the red eye. I couldn't find the needed software to fix them up.

SpecSpidey546 writes...

You said that there's going to be new Sinister Six every season. That's great, but do you plan to make the original line-up?