G2005 or BUST!

Hey gang,

Well, I'm taking off tomorrow for Vegas. I'll be back here in August to post my Gathering Journal. Don't forget to post yours too!

GATHERING JOURNALS

Hey gang...

Gorebash is going to be opening the ASK GREG posting function in the next day or so. Specifically, that's because I'm hoping that a whole bunch of you will post your Gathering Journals, Diaries, Notebooks, etc. right here.

It helps to have a central place for industry types to read this stuff. Plus I like to read it all.

I'm told we have 170 people pre-registered for the Gathering. So my goal is to get 100 Gathering Journals up on this site in the next couple weeks.

During this period, we'll also be open for questions, but I urge you not to post a question lightly. I'm still backlogged nearly two years worth.

Thanks in advance,

Greg

San Diego ComicCon 2005

Hey guys,

I'm heading down to San Diego tomorrow for a brief sojourn at ComicCon. Specifically, I'll be participating (at least I'll be sitting there) at a Slave Labor Graphics Panel at 4pm on Saturday, 7-16-05. Stop by and say hello.

Regarding Oberon

The other day, I was asked a question about sources for Oberon. I didn't know the answer, but I received this e-mail from site moderator, Todd Jensen:

Dear Greg,

In "Ask Greg" today, curousity asked you if there were any other sources besides Shakespeare for Oberon as "king of the faries [sic]". You replied, "Not off the top of my head." I hope that I'm not presuming here in e-mailing you, but I have found at least three works beside "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that portray Oberon in that role, both of which are early enough that they count as "primary sources".

One is a late medieval French work about one of Charlemagne's knights, entitled Huon of Bordeaux (written in the 15th century, and translated into English by a certain Lord Berners in 1548 - early enough, in other words, that Shakespeare could have used it as a source for Oberon). In it, Huon befriends Oberon in his adventures, and the latter becomes Huon's guardian, almost a "fairy godfather". (Oberon is portrayed in it as around three feet tall due to a curse placed upon him in his infancy, and as the son of Julius Caesar and Morgan le Fay!) At the end of the story, Oberon even brings Huon to Avalon and formally abdicates in favor of Huon, declaring him ruler over the "faerie-folk"; a bit of trouble develops, however, when King Arthur arrives at the gathering and protests, saying that if any human should be ruling over Avalon, it should be he himself rather than a relative newcomer like Huon. Oberon angrily tells Arthur that he has chosen Huon for his successor, is not going to change his mind, and even threatens to curse Arthur by transforming him into a werewolf if he doesn't accept it. Huon at this point steps in as a peacemaker, to say that he doesn't think that he could rule Avalon on his own and suggests that he and Arthur act as co-rulers. Oberon and Arthur both agree to this, after which Oberon peacefully dies and Arthur and Huon are crowned in his stead.

Another non-Shakespeare "primary source" involving Oberon is Michael Drayton's Nimphidia, which has Oberon ruling over the "fairies" as well - and wedded here to Queen Mab! (According to the research that I've done on fairy mythology, Titania appears to have been Shakespeare's invention as opposed to a pre-existing legendary figure, though Oberon and Puck both predated him.)

A third is Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, which presents Oberon as the former ruler over "Fairyland", now deceased, with his daughter Gloriana - the Faerie Queene of the title - ruling in his stead. (Gloriana is actually an idealized Elizabeth I, meaning that the Oberon of Spenser would be an idealized Henry VIII.) The poem also includes, incidentally, King Arthur, Merlin, and Talos as on-stage characters.

THANKS, TODD!!!!

IKKI TOUSEN

For those of you who have worn out your GARGOYLES first season DVD playing the words "Nice Mask" over and over and over again...

For those of you who have waited and watched for that Panda-La episode of Talespin, just so that you can hear: "Father, the rockets aren't working!"...

For those of you who just can't get enough of the homeless guy in 3x3 Eyes humming the Gargoyles' theme...

I'd recommend you rush out and purchase the four volume DVD set of IKKI TOUSEN (Strength of a Thousand).

Heck, I'd recommend it anyway. I've watched the first three volumes and plan to watch the fourth volume tonight. They're all a lot of fun. The interview with the director is worth the price of admission alone. Loads of action and sexy stuff. (NOT FOR KIDS, BTW! ADULTS ONLY!)

Ikki Tousen.

Creature Comics.com

Creature Comics.com.

It doesn't quite exist yet. But, yes. It's coming. Or at least I'm starting to feel confident that it's coming. (Traditionally, this kinda confidence has a history of blowing up in my face, but what the heck, right?)

Want the backstory?

At the Gathering 2003 in New York City, I sat down for a while with Martin Lund. Some of you know him as Kai, I believe. At the time, I have to admit, I mostly knew him as Lexy's other half. (Sorry, Marty, can't quite bring myself to say "better half".) Anyway, Marty and I talked. About a lot of stuff, but mostly about how much we'd both like to see a new GARGOYLES comic book telling original stories for the fans.

Marty felt we could make it happen. And Marty got me to believe it was possible.

We soon partnered up with Greg Guler. Many of you have met Greg G. at various Gatherings. Greg was one of the main development artists who helped create GARGOYLES. (He did the key inspirational designs on a few minor characters that you might remember: Goliath, Elisa, Demona.) He was also the Lead Character Designer for the entire Second Season of the Series. Like me, Greg G. also has a comic book background. We both worked at DC Comics in the late eighties/early nineties -- though we never actually worked together back then. He did a bunch of stuff, but the thing I always rememered was his monthly work on HAWK & DOVE.

(When Greg & I first met in person, he was doing prop design at Disney. I kinda credit myself for giving him a push into character design. He's been one of WDTVA's chief character designers for years now. His credits there are almost endless.)

Anyway, Marty & Greg & I formed a partnership, which we soon called CREATURE COMICS. Our initial goal was to license and launch a new GARGOYLES comic book. Marty would handle the business end. Greg G. would handle the art end. Yours truly would handle the writing (and to a lesser extent be the big mouth mouthpiece for the group -- hence this ramble).

Of course, this was nearly TWO YEARS ago. But Marty does NOT give up. Money was our first problem, i.e. we had none, and *surprise, surprise* Disney wasn't keen on the idea of licensing the GARGOYLES property for free. In fact, because we were a start-up (up-start?) company with no track record, they actually wanted a LARGER license fee as, in essence, insurance, in case we screwed up. The good news was that they did LIKE the idea of having two of the original creators being in charge of the creative. (This would fortunately be of importance down the road.) They just weren't wild about a bunch of "amateurs" being put in charge of their property.

But as I said, Marty does NOT give up. Still, for the time being, we put a pin in the GARGOYLES idea. If that was too expensive, we'd start with an ORIGINAL property -- one that CREATURE COMICS could own. We'd prove ourselves on that. Then after we were huge successes, we'd be able to go to Disney again with that track record they felt they needed.

Turns out we had a problem here too. No money. (Funny how that keeps coming up.) So CREATURE COMICS morphed into CREATURE COMICS.COM. We'd launch the comic on the web. This seemed like a plan. But life/reality/actual paying work kept getting in the way. (We -- meaning Greg G. -- did manage to create a logo though, which should be revealed soon.)

Meanwhile, as I mentioned, Marty was busy NOT giving up. He maintained contact with Disney. They were still interested in having the GARGOYLES creators on a GARGOYLES comic book. (And I figure the relative success of the DVD didn't hurt our situation either.) It was just that pesky start-up status that they couldn't deal with. But believe it or not, DISNEY suggested a solution. They were (are) currently in the process of making a licensing deal with SLAVE LABOR GRAPHICS... i.e. a comic book company with an actual track record!

Now, as of this writing, to my knowledge, the deal between SLG and DISNEY is not yet fully, totally realized. As I understand it, they're VERY close. But it's not signed. So normally, I would TOTALLY not be discussing ANY OF THIS (this whole ramble would not exist). But Dan Vado, who runs SLG, spilled some beans last weekend. So we talked with him, and he was okay with us talking to you, with us being cautiously optimistic.

SLG is on the verge of licensing four properties from Disney: HAUNTED MANSION, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, TRON and... GARGOYLES.

GARGOYLES was NOT part of SLG's original pitch to Disney. But Disney hooked Marty, Greg & myself up with Dan. Everyone (Disney, Dan, Marty, Greg, Greg) really liked the idea of CCC packaging the creative on a new GARGOYLES comic for SLG. So THAT is the plan.

But I have to add the caveat, that at the moment, it's STILL only a plan. Because SLG hasn't signed on the dotted line with Disney, they have -- for obvious reasons -- not yet made any deal with us at CCC. As I said, I'm cautiously optimistic. But s--t happens, you know? So cross your fingers for us, but... well, it may still be a touch premature to ACTUALLY hold your breath.

Anyway... I'll be the writer. THE ONLY WRITER. So those of you looking to trade me in for Joss Whedon or Neil Gaiman are SOL. Greg Guler will be the Art Director. He may not pencil every issue, but he'll be making sure that every issue looks damn good. Marty, as usual, will handle the business end of things in his capacity as Executive Vice President of Not-Giving-Up.

Our direction is pretty straight forward. The book we'll be styled to look like the series, and my plan is to pick up pretty much where "Hunter's Moon" left off and do the "third season" that I wanted to do (as opposed to the GOLIATH CHRONICLE version). (The year is 1996. Although I'm probably not going to go out of my way to put a date in the content of the comic that'll scare away a new audience. There's always ASK GREG to fill people in on timeline details. And eventually, I'm hoping to catch up to the present.) I'm also eventually hoping that this thing is such a massive success that it'll lead to all the spin-offs we've been talking about for years. Not to mention those ORIGINAL PROPERTIES that CCC would own and that we still hope to do someday. But to some extent that won't be up to us. It'll be up to all of you.

Marty & Greg & I are all VERY excited! I'd say SPREAD THE WORD!!! But frankly, it's all a bit premature. We hope to begin finalizing things in the next month or so. (Dan's "leak" has certainly lit a bit of a fire. Hmmmm.... wonder if that wa his plan all along? Why, that little scamp!) Greg G. and I are both planning to be on hand for a bit with Disney & SLG at the San Diego ComicCon, so look for us there.

And of course, I'm hoping to be able to tell you a LOT more at the GATHERING 2005 in Las Vegas. Marty'll be there too. You can all hoist him on your shoulders, cuz honestly, he's the real hero in all of this. I get the juice, but he squeezed it.

So that's the scoopage, folks.

CREATURE COMICS.COM. It doesn't exist yet. But... damn... don't give up!

Frank Gorshin, RIP

I just read that Frank Gorshin passed away. I'm kinda bummed about it.

I didn't know him well, but I did meet him a couple of times. He played Professor Hugo Strange in "The Batman" episodes that I wrote. He was terrific.

I've seen him do George Burns (briefly) live, and he was amazing.

And of course, as a kid, I just loved him as the Riddler. And there was that strange-o Star Trek episode too.

Like I said, didn't know him all that well, but he was a very talented guy. He'll be missed.

Since Chad spilled the beans...

WHAT WE KNOW
I've been authorized by Buena Vista Home Entertainment to confirm that there will indeed be another release of episodes from Gargoyles on DVD.

Obviously, those episodes will come from the second season... and I have been assured that in any case the episodes will be released in the correct order.

They are planning on involving me again.

WHAT WE DON'T KNOW
We don't know how may releases there are going to be to cover the second season.
We don't know how many discs. We don't know how many episodes per disc.
We don't know what the extras are going to be.
We don't know any release dates.

As I learn more, I'll keep you posted.

WHAT I'M HOPING FOR
My preference would be that they break up the 2nd Season into three separate releases.

The first release would include 23 episodes, running from "Leader of the Pack" through "Avalon, Part Three".

The second release would include 26 episodes, running from "Shadows of the Past" through "The Reckoning".

The third release would include 3 episodes, running from "Hunter's Moon, Part One" through "Hunter's Moon, Part Three".

I am not even vaguely implying that this is there plan. I don't know what they are planning. I'm simply expressing my personal preference, as many of you have done in the Station 8 Comment Room.

I will, of course, take whatever I can get.

Correction...

I just received this very helpful missive from Greg Bishansky:

Hey Greg,

I just saw the latest question in Ask Greg about the stone Xanatos model
sheet, sounds to me like she may have been refering to the stone model of
Xanatos that Puck creates in "The Gathering Part Two" when we finally learn
his backstory.

Greg

MYSTERY SOLVED! Thanks, Greg!!

Chapter LVI: "Future Tense"

Time to ramble...

Chapter LVI: "Future Tense"
Story Editor: Michael Reaves
Writers: Marty Isenberg & Bob Skir
Director: Bob Kline

CAVEAT
This episode is/was so jam-packed with stuff that I literally couldn't take notes fast enough. I'm bound to have missed a ton of stuff that I might have wished to comment on. So this ramble is going to be far from comprehensive.

I think the title was Michael's, by the way.

GOLIATH ON THE SKIFF
Take this opening scene for example. In less than a couple minutes, Goliath mentions the Gathering (setting up Puck's eventual motivation), wishes to be back home, longs to "see the Trio and Hudson" again and says he would "give much" to return home (all of which invites and allows Puck to interfere in mortal affairs)... and THEN gets hit by lightning.

I wonder how many of you remembered that odd lightning hit. Our hope was that with all that was going on in the ep, you'd forget about it.

PLANET OF THE APES & THE X-MEN
Hard to show the Statue of Liberty in ruins without summoning up that classic moment from the Heston film... a definite influence. Another influence, clearly, was the Claremont/Byrne run on X-Men in the eighties. That first time they sent the Kitty Pride from the future to the present and showed us some horrifying scenes in that alternate future stuck in my memory. Later, of course, I thought all that stuff got WAY out of control in X-Men. It wasn't one story. It became a source of endless regurgitated characters and over-grim (but no longer shocking) situations. It was tiresome to me. But the visceral shock of that first story was a clear inspiration for Future Tense.

Of course, Gargoyles has MUCH stricter time-travel rules than X-Men has.

Again, I wonder what you guys were thinking as shock after shock SMACKS Goliath and the audience. Starting with the explosion of the skiff. When the "face" of the skiff sinks away, I thought it was a chilling start to the festivities.

THE NEW STEEL CLAN
Putting the face of Xanatos on this new Steel Clan was Frank's idea, I believe. It seemed both odd and appropriate to the "new" Xanatos we were presenting.

FORTY YEARS
Did you buy it? Even for a moment? We tried to ramp up the shocks gradually, to suck you in. Claw without wings. An old Matt. The Talan Commandos. Chavez'sdaughter. (I love the baby crying symbolically as she looks at the picture of her mom Maria.) Xanatopia. ("They have better things to be afraid of.) The destruction of the Clock Tower. The late Hudson memorialized in bronze (so it was clear that it was just a statue of him and not him frozen in stone, as in "The Price".) Xanatos having achieved immortality. A Grown-up and Hostile Brooklyn. A grown-up and blind Broadway. The reported deaths of Maggie, Talan and Coldstone. Sevarius and the Ultra-Pack. The last free humans turned into mutates?

All this revealed in a matter of minutes. The idea of course is to try to keep both Goliath and you guys off balance for as long as possible. How many of you just went along for the ride? How many spent the half hour balking?

THE PHOENYX GATE
Step by careful step. When Brooklyn brings up the gate the first time, our hope was that it wouldn't come across as -- 'Hey, this is what this whole episode is really about?', but simply as a logical question that needed to be refuted by Goliath's great line: "Solutions lie not in the past, but in the present."

CLONE WARS
We wanted to play fair, but we still wanted to fool you.

Demona is introduced -- as Brooklyn's mate, no less. And for the first time it is Puck who is caught off guard, unaware that Demona and Thailog have hooked up. His Brooklyn is forced to vamp that Thailog was killed in the "Clone Wars". (I like to think that it was Puck who spur of the moment stole that reference from George Lucas as opposed to us.) And to justify it, he later shows the Thailog Shock Troops.

(Note that both the Talan Commandoes and the Thailog Shock Troops are cybernetically disfigured -- with a full hemisphere of their brains replaced.)

AND THE SHOCKS KEEP COMING...
A cybernetic Lexington, clearly influenced by Hyena & Jackal. (And as it turned out, more influenced than we knew.)

Fox not being Fox. But being F&X's son, Alexander, a.k.a. Fox 2.0. I love that VERY anime battle scene between them. Isn't that kick-ass animation. And Xanatos killing his own son because he no longer "required an heir"... woo.

Goliath: "...but to destroy his own son..."

This was ALSO us playing fair... on two levels. The Xanatos we all knew would NEVER murder his own son. So this must NOT be the real Xanatos. And it isn't. Not within Puck's vision (where this Xanatos is just a computer program with delusions of grandeur and the LACK of self-awareness necessary to be blind to the fact that Lex was actually calling the shocks) and not really AT ALL (as the whole thing was just an illusion of Puck's).

When Brooklyn says: "We better get out of here before Xanatos nukes the place," we were hoping that by this point the audience wouldn't be sure whether or not to take Brooklyn's statement/fear literally.

DEATH & CONSEQUENCES
I love Broadway's Sonar collar.

I love Demona's appeal to Goliath to save their daughter by sending her back in time with the Gate. If not to change history, at least to live out her natural life in a better era in safety.

The shocks AND hints proceed to escalate rapidly. Next up is the deaths of Claw, Matt and Bronx.

The death of Bronx, I feel is in some ways the biggest shock/clue of all. With all the other deaths up to that point, both those announced (Hudson, Maggie, etc.), implied (Chavez) and depicted (Claw, Matt), we may still see them as part of a future that we somehow hope to avoid. But Bronx is a rider on the skiff. If he dies, isn't he REALLY dead?

Then comes the abduction of Lex. Again, we were hoping that SO MUCH would follow this (especially the immediate death of Broadway) that you'd all forget about Lex until we were ready to reveal him as the big villain (of Puck's vision).

Then the death of Broadway. As I've said many times, we had a WONDERFUL S&P person with Adrienne Bello. But we still had a fight here. Showing these deaths -- or even talking about them -- would DEFINITELY be out in today's environment. The fact that eventually it was all revealed as an illusion would not stop today's S&P from K.O.ing the ENTIRE NOTION.

But even Adrienne balked at the death scene. She thought it would be too painful for our audience. My point, and I was adamant about it, was that we had to make it painful. That a violent death is painful and that the audience had to feel, really feel, the consequences -- the horrible consequences -- of that death. So Broadway and Bill Faggerbakke get that wonderful death scene. The most potent moment perhaps in the entire series (at least IN the moment, if not in hindsight -- given that it was all part of the illusion). The music there is just heart-breaking too. And the sun that never comes...

CYBER-DEATH & CONSEQUENCES
Tron is another influence of course. Digitized into the cyber-world, our last trio of heroes is immediately trapped. We learn that Xanatos is in fact DEAD.

I love Goliath's line: "You're not immortal. You're not even Xanatos."

Angela dies. Brooklyn dies. Demona is transformed to human. (Another clue: Puck can't resist praising his own handiwork.) Then she dies.

And then Goliath awakens while STILL in stone form. And Xanatos goes to work on him in a way that would make Jackal envious. I love the juxtaposition of Shakespeare and Monty Python...

"Alas Poor Goliath, I knew him well." and "What are you going to do? Bite my kneecaps off?"

And then I love how Goliath's floating stone debris SWALLOWS the Xanatos program whole.

The cyber-world dissolves and all Goliath can do is save Elisa. His last tie to this world. He is nearly back to the state he was in after the Wyvern massacre. Alone in a world that contains only horror and tragedy.

LEXINGTON
I think he was fairly effective and chilling as the ultimate villain here. Goliath KILLS him personally, which I thought was also quite chilling... The Eyrie "Pyramid" explodes and again, all Goliath can do is protect Elisa.

PUCK
But now Goliath lies, broken on the ground. Elisa again asks for the Phoenix gate. And he cannot even muster the strength to deny it to her. But Puck has overplayed his hand. Goliath is so weak, he cannot hand it to her. And the more Elisa begs, the more suspicious Goliath gets. And the more suspicious he gets, the more Puck's hold weakens. And the more Puck's hold weakens, the stronger Goliath gets. I know it sounds complicated, but I think it plays.

I love how not just Elisa, but the entire world (or BG anyway) is sucked together and transformed into Puck.

I love how Puck created this entire horrible torture device just to get Goliath to "fork over" the Gate, and that the only reason for that was so that Puck could have something to bribe Oberon with, so that he could skip out on the Gathering.

I love how Puck still torments Goliath with the "dream or prophesy" line. And I love how that line has similarly tormented the fans. Much has and still will come true from that "prophesy" and yet much already has not.

FINALLY
I remember we stuck in that line about Goliath falling into the water. I remember that we had a play-fair reason for putting that line in. But for the life of me, I cannot remember what that reason was.

I like how Goliath dispatches the Phoenix Gate and how it seems to rain a bit of magic on them all. (This was also the set up/inspiration for the TimeDancer spin-off.) The idea that the Gate would be "forever lost in time".

And finally, Goliath explains: "I had a nightmare, Elisa. And now we must make sure it does not come true."

Did you guys sense that the World Tour was FINALLY coming to an end?

And overall, what did you think? We wanted the episode to really effect you. We wanted to play fair. We didn't want you to walk away feeling cheated because the whole thing was a trick of Puck's (and ours).

Anyway, that's my ramble. Where's yours...?