Fandom

The Fandom is a community of fans who have loved and supported Gargoyles as far back as it's original run on the Disney Afternoon to those who have discovered it as recently as yesterday.

"I once described their relationship as Sam & Diane-esque. No one got that, but the intellectual crowd here did understand a Beatrice & Benedick reference. Made me feel old and young, simultaneously"
- Greg Weisman, on Brooklyn and Katana's relationship. July 2nd, 2001 [1]

The Early Days of Online Fandom

Gargoyles does not predate the internet, but rather it premiered during the infancy of the internet. Discussions would take place on usenet and various emailing lists. At times, members of the crew such as Greg Weisman and Michael Reaves would participate, responding to questions and comments by fans.

When Greg Weisman left Disney, he posted a letter to one of the mailing lists discussing why he left the show and later why the show wasn't renewed and what the fans could do to keep the series alive. [2] He also shared his Master Plan with the fandom which ignited talk, speculation and chatter.

As the re-titled and rebranded third season of the show, Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles was poorly received by most of the fandom; much of what was discussed was what could have been and what should have been. Fanfiction which largely ignored this much-maligned season began to sprout.

Rise of the World Wide Web

Circa 1997, fans from all over the world began to set up their own personal web pages. Web Rings were founded connecting every fan who chose to participate. Services like America Online, Geocities, and the like aided in the rise of these personal web pages. Two websites arose above the others, The Gargoyles Fan Website which contained a lot of information on the series, and allowed fans to participate by posting their essays and fanfiction and Station Eight which featured the Comment Room, the Chat Room and, eventually, Ask Greg, which allowed Gargoyles fans to interact with Greg Weisman in a controlled environment.

During this time, a small group of fans discussed getting together in a hotel in Manhattan, this became the very first Gathering of the Gargoyles convention and was spear-headed by Mae Li. Greg Weisman and Keith David attended as guests and the convention was successful enough to warrant a second Gathering the following year. The convention began to grow until The Gathering of the Gargoyles, Inc was established to oversee the convention which featured different staffs operating under the supervision of the company as it traveled around North America on an annual basis until it came to an end in 2009.

Due to the conventions, in 2004 Disney released the first season of Gargoyles on DVD. Sales were strong enough that Disney released the first half of the second season on DVD the following year. This release didn't perform as well, with many fans saying they would wait until the second half was released before purchasing it - this mentality did not help sales and Disney made the decision not to release the second half of the second season on DVD.

During this time, Slave Labor Graphics licensed Gargoyles and released a new comic book series written by Greg Weisman, ignoring The Goliath Chronicles, and producing a spin-off title. For the most part, the comic series was well received and fans were disappointed when SLG was unable to renew the license in 2008 and the comic came to a premature end the following year.

The Modern Internet

"I have people come to me who don’t even know Star Trek, who are Gargoyles fans. They’re like, 'Oh my god, you’re Demona.' Dressing up to be Deanna Troi is complicated, but dressing up as a Demona… I mean, I’ve had people come up to me at conventions as Demona, with the wings and the claws and the feet and everything. That’s dedication. That is like, boy, have you got too much time on your hands if you’ve got the time to do this. It’s unbelievable. It really is. I actually feel quite honored that I’m in two franchises that meant a lot to a lot of people."
- Marina Sirtis, December 7th, 2017.[3]

As the Gathering of the Gargoyles came to a close and personal webpages became a thing of the past, the Gargoyles fandom appeared to quiet down but many still kept the flame alive. In 2013, the second half of the second season was finally released on DVD as a Disney Club exclusive before being released to general retail in 2014. Gargoyles fans celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the series at CONvergence in Minneapolis, Minnesota. But the franchise was arguably a thing of the past. Many vocal fans yearned for a new comic release or a return of the series, but nothing came to pass.

Joe Books briefly held the Gargoyles license and the hope was that they would release a new comic book series, but nothing ever materialized. The franchise continued to remain dormant and the fandom was quiet.

2019 changed everything. Disney launched the streaming service Disney+, and began streaming the entire series on there. Many old fans returned to the fold rediscovering the show and having that passion reignite within them. And many new fans began discovering the series, some who were around when it originally aired and it passed them by and many newer, younger fans.

Social Media also changed things with the rise of Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Discord, and more with much discussion taking place on those forums and sites like Station Eight being a place that is mostly populated by older fans. Many older websites only remain available thanks to tools such as the Wayback Machine.

In 2021, NECA announced that they had acquired the license to produce new Gargoyles action figures, long time fans: Jennifer L. Anderson and Greg Bishansky launched Voices from the Eyrie - A Gargoyles Podcast (featuring in-depth discussions with many members of the cast and crew as the podcast covers the series episode-by-episode) and, in 2022, Dynamite Entertainment announced that they had acquired license to produce new Gargoyles comic books with Greg Weisman returning to write the series. Unlike the SLG run, the Dynamite run of comics is also available digitally and thus is more easily accessible to fans who don't have a comic book store near them.

Within the span of a few years, Gargoyles fans went from a famine to a feast. In 2024, they gathered again at CONvergence in Minneapolis to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the series, Mondo announced that they had acquired the license to produce a new series of 1/6th scale action figures, and Dynamite's Gargoyles comic (while suffering delays) shows no sign of slowing down.

In 2024, Greg Weisman paid tribute to the long time fans who kept the property alive by introducing the Gathering of the Gargoyles Guild to the comic book. ("Questions")