Gargoyles

One thousand years ago,
Superstition and the sword ruled.
It was a time of darkness.
It was a world of fear.
It was the age of Gargoyles.
Stone by day, warriors by night,
We were betrayed by the humans we had sworn to protect,
Frozen in stone by a magic spell for a thousand years.
Now, here in Manhattan, the spell is broken, and we live again!
We are defenders of the night!
We are Gargoyles!

For those of you who don't know Gargoyles was a cartoon from the mid 90's. It was a well-written, well acted series with complicated story arcs and nuanced characters. Without going into crazy details, they had a 65 episode run and a spin-off series of sorts. The whole first season and half of the second season are available to date.

I certainly enjoyed Gargoyles when it first aired, but what really impressed me about the show in later years was how accessible Greg Weisman, one of the original creators of the property, has made himself. There is a huge archive of questions that fans have asked him, organized by subject or by year, that further enrich the tapestry that is Gargoyles.

In recent months, Gargoyles has returned in comic book form. A twelve-issue story called Clan Building has been released from Slave Labor Graphics. It's a direct continuation of the 65 issues of Gargoyles, written by Weisman and with some excellent art. Needless to say, the story is excellent. It's available as Clan Building, collected in two trade paperbacks.. There is also a six issue black&white mini series called Bad Guys featuring some of the more memorable secondary villains of the show. I think it's wonderful that the show could come back after more than a decade in this new medium.

Finally, for those of you who are already big Gargoyles fans, Bowen Studios is releasing a gorgeous Goliath Statue! It clocks in at a pricey $270, so it's certainly not for everyone. But if you're into comic and sci-fi statues and have disposable income, it's pretty gorgeous.

And this this is nominally a Transformers blog, I'll point out that there is a high degree of crossover between the actors from Gargoyles and the actors from Transformers. Frank Welker played Bronx, though of course he's in everything. Bill Fagerbakke plays both Broadway and Animated Bulkhead. Jeff Bennet plays both Brooklyn and Animated Prowl. Keith David, the lead in Garoyles, also played Barricade in the Transformers 2007 movie game. There are a few more, though the show that REALLY overlaps with Gargoyles in terms of acting talent is Star Trek: Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, LeVar Burton, Colm Meaney, Nichelle Nichols ... wow!

So, there you have it. Gargoyles, one of the best American sci-fi cartoons ever. Check it out!