Anonymous writes...

Hi Greg,
I've really enjoyed all your work. Spectacular Spiderman s one of my "gateway" superhero shows! Thanks for that and Young Justice. This is a retype of my question because I forgot to mention how much I love Rain! I love big mystery/treasure hunts that build on themselves, and the way that Rain and Charlie save the day (no spoilers!) was so fun and cathartic. Rain's relationship with the other generations in her family is such a valuable dynamic that you just don't see elsewhere. :)

One thing still confuses me about Young Justice, though-I'm trying to understand some of the logic behind Dick's decision to keep Wally "hanging back," as you said.

Why would Dick feel there was "no shortage" of heroes? At the least, they were down the six most powerful heroes on Earth with most of the JL off-planet, and in the War World episodes, almost the entire Team was kidnapped. Why wouldn't he call Wally in then? (M'gann is really powerful, but that was a small planet they were fighting. Also, later, the Reach showed that they had an armada with hundreds of ships left over the fight with the War World - surely he'd want all hands on deck, particularly with so much of the League gone?

Why would Wally's appearance be able to catch the bad guys "off guard" after Bloodlines? Wally was already in the game; the nuclear bomb in Central was well publicized; why would his appearance be any more a surprise after that?

On the War World, Dick knew Artemis wouldn't be an issue because M'gann knew she was down under the ocean, so that wasn't a big concern. Even if Artemis did teleport to the alien world, it seems foolhardy in the extreme (almost unbelievably so) that Dick would attempt to take on a planet with only one other hero when another was supposedly waiting in the wings, ready to help whenever.

It doesn't make sense to me that Wally's appearance would be most needed and the biggest surprise only in Summit, when Dick had more backup than at any other point in the entire season and Wally had already showed up in Bloodlines. How was he more useful or a bigger surprise in a huge crowd than in a group of three on the War World, propotionally, when Dick was in the biggest trouble?

It also seems very, very strange that Dick wouldn't let Wally contribute to the efforts of bringing the people who nuked his hometown to justice. No one died that day, but their livlihoods were destroyed and there would be nuclear fallout. Even if Dick was too worried Wally would hurt himself (?), or whatever, Wally showed in Homefront that he was very capable of support - moral and technical - without necessarily getting into the fray. It seems just so strange that, if Wally really *wanted* to help, that he'd shut him out of something that had so ruined Wally's home. It seems strange that Artemis wouldn't have an issue with Dick forcing Wally to stay home, too.

As an aside, why would Dick initially try to keep the truth about Artemis's death from Wally if he *wanted* Wally to hang back for some reason? How would they guy who wanted to kill every alien robot dead in when he really believed Artemis to be dead in Failsafe be easier to control and tell to "hang back" if he REALLY thought Artemis was dead?

Logistically, to me it feels like Dick was more adept and logically minded when he was 13 than 19 with five more years of experience, which is strange. No real judgement against "Dick," really, but none of this seems to hold water at all.
I'm just trying to wrap my head around it.

I enjoyed the rest of the show a lot, though! And Rain is the best!

Thanks. :)

Windona writes...

Hi! I've been a fan of Spectacular Spider-Man, Gargoyles, and Young Justice, but now it's time to ask about the latest show you worked on: Star Wars Rebels.

1) What was it like working on the production team? After all, many of the creative team on Rebels worked together on The Clone Wars, but there's some new blood like you.

2) Related- how much creative input did you have compared to other projects? Obviously you had less than you did in your books, given the dichotomy of working with a team versus working on a novel, but compared to other animated series and adaptations you did, was it more, less, or the same?

3) Now that you've left the production team for season 2 onwards(if that is just a rumor, my apologies for propagating it), what are you looking to doing?

Obviously, it's not a lot because at this time only the first three episodes have aired and asking questions about the season's progression would be like asking for plot points of a movie that's currently running. However, chances are I will be back with more questions after the season. Have a good day!

Stanley Cowens writes...

Just got done reading your first book and really enjoyed it. Just got the second book on kindle and will start reading it soon. I hope you are able to turn this into a movie or animated program at some point.The first book would make an awesome movie In my opinion.THis book seems to have Guillermo del Toro written all over it.

I was wondering what type of advertising you are doing for the book and what have found to be the most useful in getting the word out?

I was wondering about the possibility of you ever doing any gargoyles novels.I can not wait to see the story line continued in some form or other. I felt like I was just reading the tip of the ice berg or cool stories. I do not know how feasible that would be,but I would love to read more gargoyles related stories from you in any format.

Phoenician writes...

So here's my entry into the Rain of the Ghosts typo contest -- In Chapter 12 "The Storm," on page 114, in the first full paragraph, we have Rain studying the familiar faces of the Eight. In the middle of the paragraph we read the sentence, "She looked at young Joey C. Wounded but smiling--and now so obviously good Old Joe."

But what I think happened was that period was taken as the end of a sentence and not part of an initial of a last name. So there after the 'Joey C.' I think was supposed to be a dash with a lower-case 'wounded' instead of just the upper-case 'Wounded.'

For example: "She looked at young Joey C.--wounded but smiling--and now so obviously good Old Joe."

Whether it's an actual typo or not, know that I only noticed it while I was rereading the first book in anticipation for Spirits of Ash and Foam! :)

Phoenician writes...

This is definitely overdue, but better late than never!

I picked up Rain of the Ghosts the day it came out with the simple struggle in figuring out just how fast I wanted to turn the page to know what happened next when I quickly realized that I would eventually have to wait a fair heap of time for the next installment, thanks to the knowledge previously revealed on AskGreg that Rain was intended to be a series. In short, I wanted to cherish the ride that I had been waiting to get on. But now that the ride has finally started, I can finally say I don't ever want to get off!

Without getting into the details that makes most of these reviews sound all too similar (and to minimize any spoilers), let me just take the time to point out some of the strongest (and/or favorite) aspects of the story that stood out to me. As someone who has enjoyed a lifetime of reading books (and well aware I've not read enough) and watching more than a few shows with Greg Weisman at the helm, this book almost felt like the long awaited cosmic alignment that I've only just realized I should have been anticipating, lol.

Moments I liked (***POTENTIAL SPOILERS!!!***):

-- This was brought up at CONvergence for Gargoyles and Young Justice (ConJournals on the way I promise!), but I LOVE that Rain of the Ghosts is also dedicated to the realism so as to make the fantastic pop . . . from the Spanish to the slow track of time, it really does flesh it out. Such attention to detail - detail that's far more engaging than encyclopedic - makes the first novel feel like a diary for the entire Ghost Keys (at the least, the personal diary of the native omniscient narrator).
-- 'Bastian's nickname for Rain, and happy we'll be hearing it for at least a little longer :)
-- I enjoyed the magicked-scenes where Rain and Charlie (and whoever else) sees and hears different things. Especially since we actually get a lot of detail on what the folks who don't see *are* in fact seeing. If it played on television, I'd imagine it'd feel very familiar to the Weird Sisters in "City of Stone."
-- I was actually lulled into a false sense of security when Rain had snuck out of Callahan's window . . . not so much that I didn't think Callahan was clever enough to put two and two together (I do think I give him a touch more credit than Rain currently does), but I guess I didn't anticipate them having a row with each other so soon.
-- Appreciate the subtle and conscious effort to demonstrate how Rain's parents handled raising a kid with guests. Even when things got heated, there was a delicate approach to show how Alonso and Iris needed to check Rain's antics, taking her skeleton key but giving her a break. Tough - but fair.
-- I enjoyed the notable paces set by the various uses of commas, ands, and ellipses (among other tools in the syntax) in the exposition . . . whenever I noticed a pattern, or even a notable pause, it got me visualizing not only the scene but also the theoretical direction and use of the camera (transitions and cuts and everything), which, now that I'm thinking about it, would be (more often than not) from the point of view from Opie, right?
-- On that note, I remembered reading a line when a character paused for nine seconds (it even emphasizes that it was exactly nine seconds). Lines like those had me going back and trying to read the sentence in the allotted time. With the nine seconds line, I do remember its length and beat actually made it quite feasible. :)
-- Oddly enough, all the mouth wordplay . . . Alonso pushing his tongue against his cheeks, Charlie biting his cheeks, Old Joe licking his lips, Rain sticking her tongue out at Charlie . . . the visuals just seem like signatures for each character, lol.
-- And of course, finally meeting our native omniscient narrator, Opie, lol.

Overall, it's a great story with a ton of heart (Rain's experience with a death in the family is so relatable that you absolutely feel for her the minute she realizes she's pushed away the ghost she most desperately wants to see), with probably a ton more other stories to tease out. Needless to say I'm looking forward to each and every one of them!

**POTENTIAL SPOILERS END***

Harlan of the Ghosts writes...

A few questions about Spirits of Ash and Foam (which I loved, by the way).

1. Who were the two characters who demanded a bigger presence as you were writing Spirits of Ash and Foam?

2. Ghosts have a similar affinity for the night that gargoyles do (in that day is pretty much a no go for them). Do you have your own affinity for the night, or do you see a bit of thematic overlap between ghosts and gargoyles?

Quindar writes...

At CONvergence, you mentioned that you have a written list of things to keep in mind while writing scenes for Rain of the Ghosts: what music Rain is hearing, what's the light source, what's the weather, etc. Would you mind posting the complete list?

Anonymous writes...

I recently began to compile a shelf of the best books I have ever read. Rain of the Ghosts was the 8th book on that shelf, preceded only by the exploits of a certain Mr. Potter. She is joined by the likes of the Pevensie siblings, the gods of Greek myth, and Sherlock Holmes. Thank you for creating a fantastic new series. And know that there is a spot reserved for Spirits of Ash and Foam, Masque of Bone, and the other six books yet to come.