Gargoyles #6 will be in stores next week, and Pulse has an interview with Gargoyles creator and writer Greg Weisman. How timely! The interview is illustrated with art by Karine Charlebois and colored by Stephanie Lostimolo from Gargoyles #5, as we don't have approved artwork from Bad Guys #1 quite yet. The Gargoyles spin-off will also be illustrated by Charlebois and the first issue is rattling the bars on its cage -- we're hoping for a November release of the first issue.

There is a review of the Haunted Mansion trade paperback at Pop Syndicate that requires some clarification. SLG is not releasing the Haunted Mansion trade paperback; Disney's publishing arm, Hyperion Books, is. As far as I know, the trade paperback will collect the first four issues of the series, and not all of the stories from the comic will be included in the trade paperback. The reviewer at Pop Syndicate seems to have based his/her review on the assumption that all six issues thus far released would be collected. (Let's see... the book is listed as 96 pages -- six issues with 22 to 24 pages of story in each...  doesn't quite work, does it?)

However, SLG is publishing a hardbound collection of the first six issues that will include all the stories, except for Roman Dirge's story that included Lenore, as there are legal problems with us including it. We're aiming for an October release, but the complicated nature of the project (a hard slip cover, deckled page edges, cloth covers) makes me hesitant about giving a definite date.

Another point of clarification: The pseudonymous reviewer (note to online publications: hiding the identities of your writers is so 1999) incorrectly states that some of the issues of Haunted Mansion did not carry the "T for Teen" rating on them and worries that parents might blindly chuck the comics at their impressionable children, who will immediately kill themselves so they can be free of their dreary little lives and have fun with a bunch of ghosts. I went and checked all of the issues, and they all have it on the back cover. Oh, god, think of the children and note that Haunted Mansion is not necessarily for the kiddies.

Also, everyone knows that the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland is the definitive one.

The rest of the review in question... I won't quibble with the reviewer's opinions, but generally reviews that consist of "I liked that" and "I didn't like that" are pretty useless to me. There's no way to get an idea of whether I'll like something based on another person's opinion if there are no reasons given for it. If the reviewer gives reasons, I have a better idea if his or her taste jibes with mine. For example, when I read the review of Stardust in the New York Times, I knew that the reviewer's point of view was just lame, and I should ignore what he thought. All hail awkward girls who scrunch their generally pleasing features into scowls if the situation warrants it!

In any case, Haunted Mansion #1-6 is available at www.slgcomic.com. The series is going to run to issue 8, which will have stories by myself (Jennifer de Guzman) and Brian Belew, Dan Vado and Drew Rausch, and... Cory Doctorow! Neato, eh? We're closing out the series with much affection.

GeekMonthly.com interviews Greg Weisman about all things Gargoyles, including the SLG comic and the upcoming Bad Guys miniseries we have planned for October.

Comments Greg, "I am loving doing the comic book. I have written eight issues of Gargoyles and one issue of Garygoyles: Bad Guys and it’s such a joy to be working with these characters again and to be working in this world. I hope I can do it until the day I die. I’m not kidding."

Gargoyles #4 is scheduled to be in stores on May 16!

I have NY Comic-Con photos coming, courtesy of SLG First Son Dustin Vado. Meanwhile, here are a couple of NYCC-spawned articles about SLG projects.

The first is an interview with SLG head honcho Dan Vado at Toon Zone, in which Dan talks to "Ace the Bathound" (I assume this is a pseudonym) about the SLG's Disney-licensed comics, the crazy world of optioning, and more. A couple of corrections:

The Haunted Mansion comic book is NOT based on the live-action movie. It is based on the Haunted Mansion ride in Disney theme parks.

Ace writes, "Vado noted that Eric Jones and Landry Walker’s Little Gloomy comic was optioned and might become a live-action movie. He also said he thought James Turner’s Rex Libris would be a great prime-time cartoon in something like an Adult Swim block, and that there has been interest in the title but nothing definitive yet." The titles here are switched around -- it is Rex Libris that has been optioned (we were waiting for an official announcement, but I guess the cat is out of the bag) and Little Gloomy that Dan thinks would make a great cartoon. EDIT: And actually, Little Gloomy has been optioned, by 1492 Pictures.

And toward the end, Ace writes: "He said that the the new coloring studio working on Gargoyles really 'gets' the art style, and that both 'didn’t want it to be just another licensed comic.'" Here Dan was actually talking about Tron, which is colored by the talented guys at GURU eFX. You can see their work, as well as that of artist Michael Shoykhet and the Walker Jones team in Tron #3.

And at Wizard Universe is an interview with Landry Walker about Tron. I love thinking about THE COMPUTER WORLD while using THE COMPUTER WORLD. It gives me the same strange feeling as when I think about my brain... using my brain. It's like the lapel pins of Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Song in Pyongyang by Guy Delisle, a great graphic novel.

Anyway, in this interview Landry ruins my child-like illusions: "It’s an analogy," he says of THE COMPUTER WORLD. "There aren’t actually these little people running around inside the computer."

Gee, thanks, Mr. Wizard. But at least I can still have a light cycle.