Gargoyles

 A letter from the writer of the new Gargoyles comic:

Allow me to take you on a little journey…

Back in 1991, my team and I at Walt Disney Television Animation, began developing a little show called GARGOYLES. Originally inspired by Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears, it started life as a comedy-adventure series about cute little multi-colored gargoyles (with names like Amp, Coco, Lassie and Ralph), who woke up in the late 20th Century to battle a comic villain (in the Captain Hook/Duke Igthorn-mode) named Xavier and his evil gargoyle henchwoman Demona. We were extremely enthusiastic about this show and pitched it to Michael Eisner, Chairman of the Walt Disney Company.

He passed.

But we still thought there was something in the notion, so we went back to the drawing board. We created the character of Goliath to lead the Gargoyle Clan and put the entire GARGOYLES development through the prism of who Goliath was, coming out the other side with, fundamentally, the television series that ended up airing on stations across the U.S. and elsewhere. We were extremely enthusiastic about this new version of the show – coming up with idea after idea – and pitched it all to Eisner.

He passed.

But by this time, a lot of folks at Disney thought we might be onto something. So, we went back to the drawing board for a third time, to figure out what GARGOYLES was missing. Ultimately, I decided it was missing nothing. The problem wasn’t the show; it was the pitch. We had thrown everything and the kitchen sink into it. We had to simplify, bring it back to the core ideas. We tossed a lot of stuff out of the pitch that did eventually get into the show. (The Pack? Out. The Mutates? Out. Etc.) And we focused everything on the core relationship between Goliath, and his human friend, Detective Elisa Maza. One last time, we pitched the series to Eisner – though to be honest, I kinda thought he’d toss me out of the boardroom for pitching it yet again.

But this time, he bought it.

With Eisner’s backing, we made two seasons of GARGOYLES for television syndication. And years later, I wrote an eighteen issue “Season Three” for Slave Labor Graphics. But GARGOYLES is my baby, and I’ve been desperate to get back to the series and its large and wondrous cast of characters for over a decade now – as have our extremely loyal fans, who’ve never allowed the show to fall out of the zeitgeist. Now – thanks to Disney, Dynamite, Nate Cosby and George Kambadais – we’re back for “Season Four” with Goliath, Elisa, Demona, Xanatos, Brooklyn, Lexington, Broadway, Bronx, Angela, Coldstone, Coldfire, Owen, Fox, Alexander, the Pack, the Mutates, the Clones, and new or newer characters like Katana, Gnash, Fu-Dog, Egwardo and Dino Dracon. I can’t wait for both old fans and new readers to see these stories and adventures, to resume this long and wonderful journey…

Thanks for hopping aboard,

Greg Weisman

November 2022