[Heroic35]

I am a comic book fan massively and I loved IDW's take on them but did not collect them obsessively.

I read issue 1 and I hope it picks up. The art seems odd and the story writing is very basic. My 8 year old loves the comic and maybe that's the audience for this book? Glad to see something I can pick up with my Marvel titles but at the same point, it's pretty rough.

[RiverofSlime]

I am a comic book fan massively and I loved IDW's take on them but did not collect them obsessively.

I read issue 1 and I hope it picks up. The art seems odd and the story writing is very basic. My 8 year old loves the comic and maybe that's the audience for this book? Glad to see something I can pick up with my Marvel titles but at the same point, it's pretty rough.

The art is definitely giving YA vibes.

Not sure who the audience is but I was surprised how good I thought it was and I'm a veteran comics reader myself, and a veteran media-tie-in comics reader and this was definitely better than average for sure.

But let's be honest, the weirdest part is how this is coming out AFTER Frozen Empire, and not before.

[mrmichaelt]

This week's Extraplasm podcast is an interview with David M. Booher.
https://extraplasm.podbean.com/e/episod ... -m-booher/

At 55:02, Booher revealed there will be more 4 issue mini-series after Back in Town and he's writing the next one and continues to fill in the gap between Afterlife and Frozen Empire.

Edit 4/15: Spook Central posted a Q&A with Booher and Delliquanti.
https://www.spookcentral.tk/2024/04/15/ ... reators-qa

[mrmichaelt]

Preview for #2 on DH's page.
https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/3011-0 ... -in-Town-2

https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p1.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p2.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p3.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p4.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p5.jpg

[GhostFaceX]

Preview for #2 on DH's page.
https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/3011-0 ... -in-Town-2

https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p1.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p2.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p3.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p4.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p5.jpg

Did it come out today?

Ugh the art is so bad though.

[mrmichaelt]

Did it come out today?

Ugh the art is so bad though.

Yes, #2 came out today. I haven't had time to read it yet.

The general consensus online is everyone does not like the art style. The only two people I've seen compliment it is Troy Benjamin and Chris Stewart on the Crossrip podcast.

edit: #2 - Now things are cooking. The new team are split up having their own encounters: Callie and Gary go out on their first bust, Trevor has teen texting angst, Lucky shows up, Phoebe ditches school to talk to Ray, Ray talks about GB2, Phoebe goes on her own and comes face to face with the big bad.

Didn't know about the Wingspan board game but I now know it's a thing. lol

[Chicken, He Clucked]

I like the Scott Pilgrim aesthetic. I don’t think it’s working here for Ghostbusters. If it was focused purely on the young cast maybe, but I don’t know who their target is with this product coming off the IDW run.

And honestly, the art looks cheap and quick to knock out. I’ll wait for the collection, but after issue #1 I’m not impressed.

[robbritton]

I enjoyed issue 2 more than 1, and have to admit I've warmed up to the art style. It'll never be Dan, but that's a bit like complaining the subsequent films will never be '84.

[mrmichaelt]

Upon reread, there some mistakes... errors... what have you that I wonder why no editor or Ghost Corps didn't catch
-Not necessarily an error and could be rectified that their lockers were combined later on, but on page 9, Callie is shown to have her own locker.
-page 12 - Ray says the events of GB2 were 30 years ago. Closer to 33. GB2 was in 1989-90. This comic takes place in early 2023 (Afterlife was June 2021. Back in Town credits pages say it's 1.5 years later. Frozen Empire was in summer 2024 as the NY1 News says Winston gave them the Firehouse last year + Trevor and Phoebe are 3 years older)
-page 12 - Ray says the museum was in Midtown. While never stated, fans have figured out it was on Upper East Side.

I'm sure the way Callie holds the thrower, especially that shot of her blasting the Trap on page 16 made many squirm.

[Chicken, He Clucked]

I think they just knocked this out cheap. Is the unfortunate answer.

[Bison256]

-page 12 - Ray says the museum was in Midtown. While never stated, fans have figured out it was on Upper East Side.

Wouldn't it be in lower Lower Manhattan, the same place as the exterior shots were filmed? In real life the building was mostly empty between 1974 and 1984 so in the ghostBusters a art museum moved in instead of being empty.

[mrmichaelt]

Wouldn't it be in lower Lower Manhattan, the same place as the exterior shots were filmed? In real life the building was empty between 1974 and 1984 so in the ghostBusters a art museum moved in instead of being empty.

There's strong instances that the MMoA is a stand-in for the Frick Collection on the Upper East Side: the scenery you see outside the windows of the Restoration Room when the Ghostbusters arrive to investigate and Ray is asking Peter who Janosz is and the later slime eclipse at the Mayor's office. Ray and Peter's backs and looking out the window does lend to the notion the location to being in the vicinity of E 70th-E71st. At the Frick/E.70th, you definitely should be able to see 55 Central Park West across the park from inside the building. Google maps seems to agree you can see 55 CPW from the Frick. In the 4K versions, you can see some of 55 CPW. I think robbitron grabbed it in the Missed This GB2 thread in Gen. Discussion

The 2/27/1989 draft lists the Ghostbusters taking the Statue of Liberty up past Times Square/Broadway. Then "A squadron of police motorcycles comes speeding around the corner at 72nd Street and proceeds up Fifth Avenue in the direction of the museum." Then later on, the Statue is described lying on her back on part of Central Park.

There a numerous Fifth Avenue shots during the Statue's march in the actual movie like Trump Tower just barely south of the southeast tip of Central Park. Plus, there is a deleted scene of Ray and Peter debating the route they should take

The slime eclipse sky from City Hall scene shows them looking to an enhanced shot of Central Park South east area but they might have added in some buildings or scenery. By the 30th anniversary 4k Blu-Ray, you can see the Essex House on the far right during the eclipse shot which is at 160 Central Park South. You can clearly read the classic signage on its roof. Although I admit, the shot is wonky and appears to have been salvaged from a vantage point of the deleted Parkview Hospital scene because they had to cobble that City Hall scene deep into post. I'd have to re-examine my notes, but I'm pretty sure it was the shot of Liberty getting ready to hit the dome was two location spliced together, E 68th Street and somewhere else, with model footage in the center.

The exterior day and night shots of the museum I don't recall if they are shown as is the IRL location in Bowling Green or enhanced at all. But all the things I've listed seem to heavily lean to they had a specific location on the Upper East Side in mind.

Alternatively, Booher could have simply mistook Midtown's Museum of Modern Art for the Manhattan Museum of Art.

[Kingpin]

The buildings in the slime eclipse shot are accurate to the view from Central Park West looking out across the park towards 5th Avenue in the distance. And as you noted Michael, the eclipse effects shot was recycled from the deleted Louis/Sherman scene at the hospital.

[mrmichaelt]

An interview with David Booher (will add any tidbits after listen to it)
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show ... wn-e2ho5rq

[mrmichaelt]

5 page preview for Issue #3. The GB2 connections get stronger...
https://popculthq.com/new-this-week-gho ... in-town-3/

[mrmichaelt]

Madame Malveaux's plan is to use her own strain (I guess?) of mood slime to flood the city with ghosts so that people would call on her to speak with their dead relatives again? Ok... But that could account for why they manage to stay in business and FE starts on a bust in 2024 with the Sewer Dragon. Malveaux's efforts did reignite paranormal activity in the city. But presumably she is trapped in #4 but ulp hope she's not one of the ones that escapes the ECU in Fe.

So many bad jokes, lol.

Ah, loved the research stuff with Ray. And he even observed one of Malveaux's seances back in the day. I guess it must have been between GB1 and 2 if he said it was when she had her powers. Neat.

Huhn, so they modified their throwers to make streams from the mood slime crystals to combat Malveaux and her slime. Can't wait to see the reaction to that one.

If that jar is all Ray had left, makes one wonder how he had a jar of mood slime in FE as well as the Engineer Corps having enough for at least one Slime Blower tank a year or so later.

edit: The TPB date changed to 1 week later on November 5.

[RiverofSlime]

So does anyone know if something skewed the release timeline for this series?

I'm a big fan of it so far but I'm confused why the series which was supposed to bridge the two films is wrapping up almost three months after FE came out.

[Chicken, He Clucked]

Yeah would’ve made sense for this to drop last year.

And tbf if the behind the scenes wranglin’ with IDW had worked out, getting Schoening’s art at least would’ve been a huge win.

I stopped buying the individual issues, will just get the compiled release in Nov.

[mrmichaelt]

So does anyone know if something skewed the release timeline for this series?

I'm a big fan of it so far but I'm confused why the series which was supposed to bridge the two films is wrapping up almost three months after FE came out.

Yeah would’ve made sense for this to drop last year.

No official reason was given for why they decided the comic started the same week FE came out on theaters.

We know:
-June 8, 2022: Comic announced.

-June 28, 2022: FE dated for December 20, 2023

-May 2, 2023: Writer's strike starts

-July 28, 2023, FE's theatrical release date was moved to March 29, 2024

-November 16, 2023: Ghostbusters: Back in Town pr starts, says it's four issues. Issue #1 is set to release on March 27, 2024.

Nearly a year and a half between the comic being announced and any new info being released was odd to say the least.

In the Capes & Tights interview with David Booher, he did clarify the credits on #1: Greg Pak did an outline of the story but he wrote the scripts. Speculation hat on, Greg Pak was the original writer hired, strikes start, while Pak has not directed in decades he is in the Director's Guild, perhaps in solidarity with the writer's strike he didn't even want to write comics, left Back in Town, they looked for a replacement, got Booher, but their timeline got bumped up and the comic started later than originally projected.

I agree. Would have made sense for #1 to come out in November 2023, 2 in December, 3 in January, and 4 in February then FE came out in March. And more advertising for the movie to have a canon tie-in comic as a lead-in. Shrug.

[RiverofSlime]

That adds up imo. Good detecting.

If nothing else, something clearly happened on the Dark Horse side. I'm glad we still got the comic though.

[mrmichaelt]

5 page preview for #4.
https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/3011-0 ... -in-Town-4

[mrmichaelt]

Well, that happened.

The OGs busted a Troll back in the day. Neat.

Nitpick - The Vote Peck poster doesn't make much sense being there as the last election took place closer to the same year Afterlife takes place in unless there was a special election (e.g. mayor stepped down mid term) in 2023 in-universe.

[mrmichaelt]

Nothing in the December solicits so yeah, next mini-series comes out some time in 2025 (but before that the Back in Town trade paperback is out on November 5)

edit 10/27: Nothing in January solicits

[mrmichaelt]

If anyone was curious about the trade paperback that released on Tuesday:

-Page 1 is the title page.
-Page 2 and 3 are the credits.
-Page 4 features the classic No-Ghost Logo.
-Pages 5 and 6 are the Issue #1 covers and Issue #1 runs from pages 7 to 26.
-Pages 27 and 28 are the Issue #2 covers and Issue #2 runs from pages 29 to 48.
-Pages 49 and 50 are the Issue #3 covers and Issue #3 runs from pages 51 to 70.
-Pages 71 and 72 are the Issue #4 covers and Issue #4 runs from pages 73 to 92.

The end of the trade paperback features four pages with commentary by Blue Delliquanti:

-Page 93: Initial designs of Phoebe, Trevor, Callie, Gary, Winston, and Podcast. Phoebe, Trevor, Callie, and Gary is what we saw on Ghostbusters Day 2022. Notably, Podcast does not physically appear in any of the four issues. Delliquanti had the easiest time with translating the likenesses of Trevor and Phoebe and the hardest time with Gary.

-Page 94 to 96: The last three pages shows Delliquanti's process. Page 18 of Issue #1 is used as the example.

-Page 94 is the thumb nail version of the page layout.

- Page 95 is the quick pencil stage with inking. Delliquanti notes the perspective in the first panel was flipped to provide a better look at the interior of the open foot locker.

-Page 96 shows the page with final colors before it is lettered.

The Janine misspelling in Issue #4 was corrected as well.

[joezlo]

I hope the mini-series in 2025 does a better job with the equipment.

The character designs, while not being an animation style I prefer, were fine.

However, I cannot get over the lack of detail on the Equipment.

[Chicken, He Clucked]

Not to be Mr Negative having bought the collected edition. I just don’t understand why Burnham and Schoening weren’t approached - maybe they were -
But Schoening’s art style is sorely missed here. Nothing against Blue but I just don’t think this art style suits the IP.

I’m not sure I want any more of this. I guess I’ll buy a second collection but the only thing going for it are the Phoebe jokes - everything else just feels subpar compared to the IDW run.

[timeware]

I kind of make it a rule of thumb not to buy comics when I can draw better then the comic artist. If that's the level of art they're giving us I have to agree with Chicken on this one. What the hell happened to Schoening any how?

[mrmichaelt]

Yeah, it's safe to say online I've seen that an overwhelming majority disliked the art style in Back in Town. I haven't seen much critique on the writing, but yeah it was a little too safe. Was Booher constrained what he could do? Shrug. Should Reitman and Kenan have a direct hand in scripting? Shrug.

I doubt it would be common for the writer and artist to carry over when the IP changes hands from one publisher to the other. Maybe it was decided a new team was needed to avoid "confusing" the audience on continuity (even though Dan can draw photorealistic, too). It's certainly not because Erik and Dan are bound to one publisher as they do work with multiple ones. Maybe they were and declined i.e. they had a big work load at the time, they were content with the stories they told, etc.

It's strange Dark Horse didn't officially announce the next series at NYCC, when all the other GB news pretty much dropped - Hasbro and Mondo. So it's not at a stage to be announced? It could be the same exact schedule as BiT and it'll be announced around March next year? Shrug.

[Chicken, He Clucked]

I wonder if there will even be any more?

If anything I think the writing highlights some of the problems the movies are having with this character mix. The family aren’t a strong core - outside of Phoebe (and in the movies Gary) there just isn’t much to them. Now Frozen Empire had so many characters I think it juggled them all pretty well, but you’re either building the movie around this family dynamic, which isn’t popular and isn’t given the screentime it needs to connect, which risks alienating more traditional GB fans - or you focus on the younger crew… which I think should be the direction of travel for the next story post-FE given they will all be adults. Phase Gary & Callie into support roles.

[mrmichaelt]

I wonder if there will even be any more?

Booher already revealed there will be more and he's writing the next mini-series, too. Just Dark Horse itself hasn't issued a press release yet.

If anything I think the writing highlights some of the problems the movies are having with this character mix. The family aren’t a strong core - outside of Phoebe (and in the movies Gary) there just isn’t much to them. Now Frozen Empire had so many characters I think it juggled them all pretty well, but you’re either building the movie around this family dynamic, which isn’t popular and isn’t given the screentime it needs to connect, which risks alienating more traditional GB fans - or you focus on the younger crew… which I think should be the direction of travel for the next story post-FE given they will all be adults. Phase Gary & Callie into support roles.

Or it's too soon to be soliciting new writers to handle this new team of characters. 4 issues is a short order to get the voices down pat. Did Booher get to watch FE when he wrote this or did he only see Afterlife? It felt like he was making gains in #2 with all 4 but then had to pull a 180 and shift to the story/threat in #3 and 4 and Phoebe stole the spotlight from everyone.

Erik Burnham kinda made it look easy to write the classic cast alongside recurring new characters...