Gargoyles

[DisneyBoy]

It's just too bad the figures look so detailed...I guess the fear was that if they made translations of the animated designs, it wouldn't be "enough" for the adult collector market. So they went with this hyper-muscled/textured aesthetic.

I would have been all over figures that kept the aesthetic of the characters on the show. But these? They're pricey and they're a different "look", so not really for me.

I'll support the comic though!

[Xwho]

Should someone make a campaign to make it a cartoon again and for its spin off's keep up the support.

[Hypo]

Gargoyles #2 Preview
Writer: Greg Weisman
Artist: George Kambadais

[Jackalope89]

Should someone make a campaign to make it a cartoon again and for its spin off's keep up the support.

Its ultimately up to Disney if a new cartoon of it ever gets made. That's what has been so frustrating about this whole thing. The fandom has always been there, but Disney has been stubborn about it.

[Rzerox21xx]

So read the issue, loved it, anyone here else read it, its a nice character moments and beats, Thailog showing how much of a compelling villain he is as he had the pregnant cat gargoyles Maggie kidnapped and she goes into labor. Derek confronts Xanatos thinking he was behind it but is not. loving this. hopefully it goes beyond this story arc.

[Agent Z]

For those reading, how is the series so far?

[Voices From the Eyrie]

For those reading, how is the series so far?

Enjoying it, the first three issues are both bringing new readers up to speed and setting up a new story. Weisman has said #4 is where he feels the book really hits its stride (should be out in March).

Also, three issues add up to the equivilant of one episode.

But so far, fun stuff.

[Jackalope89]

For those reading, how is the series so far?

Like catching up with the animated series (not season 3, though).

[GamerSlyRatchet]

For those reading, how is the series so far?

It's a pretty strong start so far. It catches up readers on the characters and status quo without overdoing it on exposition and just giving the essentials. The art is different than what I expected, but it gives the world a unique, stylized atmosphere. I have some issues that I want to address at some point, but I'm enjoying it so far.

[dornwolf]

For those reading, how is the series so far?

Basically the cartoon in print form.

[DisneyBoy]

Oh, I think we can do better than that...

Thus far, the first two issues have been pretty slow. Most of the time has been spent following very little action, but allowing for the "new clan" to be established and reintroduced to readers, as this is a slightly expanded core cast compared to the 7 Gargoyles we saw on the show (picking up where the SLG series left off). There is a plot, but frankly, not much is happening. Remember when an entire story would be told in a single issue of a monthly comic? Yeah. I miss those days.

The new art style has things about it that I like, but other things that I don't. It's slightly abstracted which at times looks neat, and at other times is distracting and slightly confusing. Elisa looks nothing like her television counterpart, save for the coloring. I think I said it earlier in this thread, but she's drawn very much as a "generic female". The curves of her hair? Her facial features? Forget them. They aren't here. That's unfortunate. The Gargoyles do look 75% like themselves, though, which is good, because they aren't easy designs to nail.

The voice of the book is fine, which is a relief. Greg W hasn't forgotten how to tell stories with these characters and set the tone. It's just that we're two issues in and nothing is happening yet...and no, I don't mean that in a "I'm too lazy a reader to get engrossed in the set-up" kind of way. I love set-up. I love establishing tone and going from there. I can get with a "slow" story. But the fact remains that I read each of the first two issues, put them aside, and gave them no thought afterwards because truly...nothing much had happened. I'm not saying it needs to be wall-to-wall action or anything, but...it's a bit sluggish and with the art as it is, strangely unfamiliar.

Apparently we're going back to the SLG concept of 3 issues comprising one "episode" of the series. Even factoring that in...I'm not feeling the pacing here, but it's still early on in the series, so I'm not passing judgement just yet.

As nice as it is to have slightly "new and fresh" art, I hope the art team either starts using more conventional layouts to tell the story, and gets more specific with Elisa...or that after these first arcs, we get a more traditional comic book artist to come in and make the book look more faithful to the source material. Gargoyles has been through enough as a property - let's keep the art as in-line with the original series as possible please. I mean, some of the covers are great and very Disney Afternoon in style. Why not put that inside the book?

So, no, I don't think it's "the cartoon in print form". Not yet anyway. It looks different, the storytelling is not quite there yet, and I'm honestly wondering if it can outlast the SLG years. I really, really hope it does, but I think it needs to be more simple and readable to get there. The SLG books were weighed down by erratic scheduling, wildly inconsistent (and sometimes plain old bad) art...and the dense mythology. Gargoyles rewards the longtime fan, but it needs to tell simple stories too, and let new fans fall in love with these characters so it can have more longevity. I don't expect the book to dumb itself down at all...which means the pacing and art need to be accessible and simple enough for a casual reader to get pulled in. That's not really the case at present, or doesn't seem to be anyway.

I really hope this series runs for years, because I'm sure Greg has good stories to tell, and we've all waited a long time to hear those stories. We've also, however, seen the property get buried before. I sincerely hope it doesn't happen again. Hopefully things improve a bit. It's a solid enough start, but not quite stellar.

spoilers:

What exactly was going on in issue 2 with people getting knocked out?? I was very confused by the pretty-looking but vague artwork, in which the gang shows up to the birth of Derrick's child, only to see them in stone, but then not, and then Elisa is awake, but she wasn't before, and um.......whaaaa? I was completely lost as to the passage of time they were trying to convey. There were a lot of "silent" panels in issue 2 that, possibly because of the abstracted layout, didn't sell the story for me. Clarifications please, if anyone has them. ...to summarize, the criminal Dracon family are making moves, Derrick's kid is born and Xanatos is getting involved. That's it. That's two issues.

end of spoilers

[Jackalope89]

The spoil tag is [spoil ][/spoil] (just remove the space between the first "spoil" and the "]").

[DisneyBoy]

Thanks! Appreciated

Edit: Interestingly, I spoke with a merchant recently who had read the book and was a big Gargoyles fan - they also expressed disappointment over the art style straying too far from the show's aesthetics.

[Voices From the Eyrie]

#3 is out today! We'll be discussing our first impressions with writer, Greg Weisman, on Friday's show!

[Jackalope89]

#3 is out today! We'll be discussing our first impressions with writer, Greg Weisman, on Friday's show!

Cool! Think you could ask him if he ever thought about a Gargoyles crossover? Canonical or not, just for the fun of it. Could be Marvel, DC, or even TMNT.