Emru Townsend · December 14, 2004 | If nothing else, one has to agree that Greg Weisman can be unconventional. Inverting the standard career trajectory, he spent several years at Disney in an executive position before he dove head-first into a creative one, conceiving and guiding the Gargoyles TV series.

As has been mentioned in these pages, Gargoyles itself was quite unconventional for a Disney TV production. It was distinctly urban (though it also spent considerable time in the Middle Ages), set mostly at night, featured a continuing storyline, and emphasized drama, tragedy, romance and action over comedy. If anything, it captured the feel of dramatic anime better than most other animated North American productions. And small wonder: like the best anime directors, Weisman didn't feel bound to the notion that animation must be constrained to certain topics or means of storytelling.

The essential Weisman: selected works Gargoyles (1994) Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles (1999) The Batman (2004)

Unsurprisingly, Gargoyles caught on and developed a loyal following—one whose character would be quite familiar to science-fiction and anime fans. When Gargoyles ended after its third season, the first iteration of The Gathering of the Gargoyles, a Gargoyles-specific convention, came into existence. I have to admit I was sceptical of the long-term prospects of a convention based on a cancelled TV show, but earlier this year the eighth Gathering came to my hometown of Montreal, just a few months ahead of the DVD release of the series' first season. (I'm happy to admit my scepticism was misplaced.)

I had interviewed Weisman twice for fps in 1996, just as Gargoyles was in its final season, but lost touch with him over the years. After meeting him at one of the Gathering discussion panels, we sat down for a while to do a follow-up on our 1996 conversations, riffing on comics, the current state of TV animation, storytelling, and the plans for the Gargoyles universe that never came to pass.