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8th Annual Gathering of the Gargoyles
Montreal, Quebec, Canada 
August 6-8, 2004

As seen through mine eyes.

Sunday, August 8, 2004

Having stayed up until 2am the night before, I slept in late on Sunday. I woke 
up around 10:30am. Vash and Sean had already woken up and taken off for who 
knows where. I was left to fend for myself. I got myself together and headed 
down in hopes of catching the first of two Keith David mug-a-guests. 

The mug-a-guest was to take place in the same room where the art show and dealer
room were located. When I showed up I discovered Keith had missed his first mug-
a-guest. Later I was told this happened simply because he hadn't been informed 
about the mug-a-guest and didn't know he was scheduled to show up. No worries, 
there was still the afternoon mug-a-guest, and Closing Ceremonies.

I still hadn't found Vash and Sean and I wasn't up for lunch, so I decided to 
hit the art show. The art this year was some of the best stuff I've seen yet. 
Even Greg's kids got into the act and have a few pieces on display. The "wtf" 
of the show goes to Stormy's 'Caught in the Act'. Basically she took some of 
the Kenner Gargoyles figures and put them in dresses. Odd? Shocking? Different? 
I don't know, but I sure as hell won't be getting THAT image out of my head 
anytime soon. A lot of the con staff are exception artists and more than once I 
had to be reminded by IRC Goliath (who was there checking out the art as well) 
that I couldn't vote for them. I dug the etchings which I believe were made by 
Y2Hecate. I was very close to buying one and trying to put that in as a window 
on my computer case. I definitely wanted to buy a piece of art this year. I had 
a few extra bucks and I wanted to do my piece to support the artists in the 
fandom, so I was on the hunt. Most of the art that was up for sale were done 
through silent auctions. However the piece that caught my eye wasn't, it had a 
flat buy price, and so I quickly snatched it up. It's a profile of Demona's 
face done by Andrea Zucconi. I'd love to know what Andrea was thinking as she 
drew this. (I should probably e-mail her.) What I see when I look at it is a 
moment of vulnerability and perhaps sadness in her face. It's one of those 
things you just really never see or expect to see from Demona, which makes it 
all the more interesting. When I'm looking at it, I don't see the cold-hearted, 
walled-up Demona seen throughout much of the show, but someone who actually 
feels emotion. I dunno. I dig it. I've got to take it to a place and get it 
framed.

Still a few minutes before the mug-a-guest so I headed outside the door, onto 
the terrace, where I saw BrooklynX. I finally got a chance to check out 
BrooklynX's stash of cells. As he told to me, what Vic Cook (storyboard artist 
for the show) said at last year's con was true, he has more Gargoyles cels than 
Disney. BX even has the cel used in some marketing materials that shows the main
cast lined up together. It's the same image of Owen, Xanatos, Demona, Goliath 
and Elisa that I've had on the front page of s8 for the past couple years. 
Incredible. He also had a couple cels from "Eye of the Beholder" which is a 
personal favorite of mine. He also has another book of cels from other shows and
artwork that he's either commissioned or had given to him as a gift. The guy 
knows his artchicks.

Karlyl and Silver were also there and I sat down and hung out with them for a 
few. There were some oddball balloons floating around so I grabbed a couple to 
give a minor reenactment of the '98 con. Although these balloons were a bit on 
the large size, not that I minded, much.

I headed back into the art/dealer room to await Keith's eventual appearance. 
While I was waiting I was finally clued into who the line of 10 or so people 
sitting behind one of the tables were. They were the authors of the Phoenix 
Gate Anthology and they were signing copies of the book. Never one to turn down 
the chance for a good souvenir, I grabbed myself a copy and proceeded down the 
line getting autographs of all the authors. Stormy and Whitbourne were both in 
line and I they really made it an especially treasured souvenir as they both 
wrote comments about how they met each other through s8 and that they're 
planning on getting married. It's especially cool to hear about people who met 
through the fandom and developed a close relationship. I wonder, 20 years from 
now, how many kids there will be simply because this fandom exists. (Not to put 
any pressure on Stormy and Whit, hah.) And do we include Keith David's kids in 
that? He and his wife had their first date during the first Gathering back in 
1997, as Greg tells it. Pretty cool.

Keith showed up to the mug-a-guest and went around the room shaking hands, 
checking out the artwork that was on display, and talking to the Phoenix Gate 
Anthology people. He was a real class-act, taking his time to meet everyone in 
the room. He seemed genuinely interested in the artwork and PGA stuffs. Very 
cool guy.

I was too busy paying attention to my camera, trying to get everything on tape, 
to hear everything he said. And I am presently away from my tapes of the mug-a-
guest, so I don't have much to say about what was said. I can say that Keith was 
very open, very willing to talk and go into great depth on whatever he was 
asked. I remember his first question was about the cologne he was wearing, which
a lady or two seemed to enjoy. He said he couldn't remember every show 
specifically, when asked about his favorite episode. He said one of his favorite 
lines from the show was "I've lost everything, even my revenge!", which Goliath 
yells out in Awakening (part 2 I think). He talked a bit about his 
interpretation of the line and what it meant to him. He also talked about the 
lack of killing in the show and how important he felt that was. "We beat [the 
bad guys] up pretty good, but we never killed anyone.", I think was what he 
said. He talked about other movies he's been in, told a story or two about 
filming "Men At Work" with Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez. He was very cool, 
very willing to talk, and it was really enjoyable.

After the mug-a-guest I caught up with Vash and Sean who had shown up for the 
mug as well. I paid for the art piece I had bought and we went back up to our 
room for a few minutes while we waited for Closing Ceremonies.

This would be the first time I was able to attend closing ceremonies as at 
previous cons I would have to leave early on Sunday to catch my bus or train 
home. Since I was leaving on Monday, I could stay and catch all the Sunday 
events. Karine got up and said a few words, got the crowed pumped for the 2005 
con, and thanked the con staff and volunteers. The whole crew really did a 
great job putting together and managing the con. Greg wasn't around for the 
closing ceremonies as he had to leave early to be with his family and 
celebrate his daughter's birthday.

After closing ceremonies, Keith was available to sign autographs. I had brought 
with me a copy of issue #1 of the Gargoyles comic put out by Marvel, with the 
giant Goliath on the cover (and a bumpy cover too). I also had with me one of 
those new silver Sharpie markers that I picked up at the Staples (equivalent) 
next door to the hotel. I handed him the book to sign and he took a few moments 
to look through the comic. He seemed to get a kick out of it. I then asked him 
for a second autograph for a friend, and to sign it "Hey Dave, where were 
you?!!". An odd request no doubt, but he was very cool and signed it. It's for 
a friend whose autograph collection is made up of those collected by his 
friends, each one saying "Hey Dave, where were you?!!". It had started as a 
goof when he missed a signing by Kevin Smith way back in the day, and it's 
just snowballed since. He's got a Captain Atom book I had Greg sign last year 
as well. 

Vash and IRC Goliath also had things to get signed. Vash had her picture taken 
with Keith, as did IRC Goliath. He gave Keith a t-shirt as well. I forget which 
one it was, but it had a line-drawing of a gargoyle (Goliath?) on the front. I 
think Step L.. I can't spell her last name, Raptor Woman, I think she had drawn 
it.

Anyways, with our autographed swag in hand, we got together, (Vash, Sean, 
myself, IRC Goliath, Wingless and Dan) and we headed out to the pasta place 
for dinner, again. This time through I ordered angel hair with the teriyaki 
sauce, which had dark-meat chicken in it. It was mighty tasty.

When we got back there was a group of people trying to get 30+ people together 
for a game of laser tag at a nearby place. But I declined. I wanted to get to 
bed fairly early so we could leave early the next morning. On our way back to 
the room, IRC Goliath stopped by the con suite to see if he could swing a couple
of non-staff passes into their postmortem party. We continued on to our room. 
IRC Goliath showed up an hour or two later. We hung out for a while, then IRC 
Goliath took off, I watched TV for a little while, then went to bed.