Kingpin wrote: ↑January 13th, 2025, 2:48 pm I've removed the covers that were posted a few days ago, as a little earlier today AJ received an email from Dark Horse Comics requesting their take-down. It looks like they'd been unintentionally leaked when they were first posted on Previews World.
Further updates will hopefully be coming soon.
Yargh. Had a feeling this would happen. Just was mentioned it to Jason/GB News. Oh well. Should be officially announced later this month.
It's not about the sales being hurt by the covers leaking, it'd likely be because Dark Horse had a planned timetable for when they were going to announce the new miniseries, and the early posting of the covers has thrown a spanner in their plans.
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I know the art style is a bit divisive, but it is indeed targeted for the younger folks, so I don't mind.
Now that Dark Horse has The License, would we have some crossovers with anything that Dark Horse has? Hellboy could be a candidate, but my money is on a dream crossover I've been hoping for...
Not gonna post them here JUST in case, but the interior artwork is MUCH improved in my opinion. the proton streams look good, the gear looks good, the characters look awesome, but I'll need to see more than two pages to get a handle on the dialogue, but I'll be picking these up.
I had Star Wars jokes all lined up for the official announcement, now I need to throw them all out and replace them with Pirates of the Carribean jokes.
ICYMI, here's the article about the upcoming 4 issue mini-series Ghostbusters: Dead Man's Chest, starts in May. Ghost of Captain Kidd based on an actual NYC legend. https://nerdist.com/article/ghostbuster ... exclusive/
PR I got also notes Tyler Crook did the main cover for issue #1 and the variant cover is by Max Sarin and the release date for #1 is May 21.
Interior art looks good. Phew. Hmm, looks like Lucky with them on the second page? Phoebe gets a new friend arc, hmm, if done right it will help strengthen the Melody arc in FE a bit. Her attempts to make a new friend in the 3 year gap met with failure after failure then she meets Melody and the rest is canon.
Noticed a minor bit on the Dark Horse site. Back in Town's listed age range was 12+ whereas Dead Man's Chest's listed age range is 16+ (and the price went up a dollar to 4.99). I know we were talking about the all-ages aspect of BIT so maybe DMC will be a bit more up our alley. Though I suspect if there's any flashbacks to Captain Kidd's past and what they depict, 16+ is probably telling.
mrmichaelt wrote: ↑January 23rd, 2025, 4:01 pm ICYMI, here's the article about the upcoming 4 issue mini-series Ghostbusters: Dead Man's Chest, starts in May. Ghost of Captain Kidd based on an actual NYC legend. https://nerdist.com/article/ghostbuster ... exclusive/
PR I got also notes Tyler Crook did the main cover for issue #1 and the variant cover is by Max Sarin and the release date for #1 is May 21.
Interior art looks good. Phew. Hmm, looks like Lucky with them on the second page? Phoebe gets a new friend arc, hmm, if done right it will help strengthen the Melody arc in FE a bit. Her attempts to make a new friend in the 3 year gap met with failure after failure then she meets Melody and the rest is canon.
The artwork is reminiscent of Mass Hysteria Prelude: Field Trip (annoyingly I can't remember who drew that one). Nice to have a little feeling of lineage, even though I'm sure it isn't intentional.
robbritton wrote: ↑January 24th, 2025, 4:17 am The artwork is reminiscent of Mass Hysteria Prelude: Field Trip (annoyingly I can't remember who drew that one).
Open question, I've been mulling it and I'd like to hear what everyone else thinks and prefers.
Should I keep this Dark Horse comics to just one thread as it is right now or Should I make a new thread for each series Dark Horse releases? (i.e. one thread for Back In Town and one thread for Dead Man's Chest)
Looking back at the IDW thread, it looks like we ran a single talkback topic for most (if not all) of their publications, so it makes sense to retitle this the Dark Horse Publishing Talkback Thread, {2022-20XX).
That is a MASSIVE improvement on the art; but if writing in the next series is as lack-luster as the last one, I'm not likely to bother with whatever dreck Dark Horse continues to spew. To say it fell far short of Burnham & Schoening's run (which remains the canon of my heart) feels like a gross understatement. Winston & Tiyah and Ray & Jenny fo-REVAH! Plus, who didn't love the Peters pissing each other off; or - better still - Pecker pouring himself like 4 fingers of whiskey as he asks Janine over the phone how many of the parallel Ghostbusters are Venkman -- I was DYING! }X~D.
Dead Man's Chest #2 June 25, 2025 MAR250836 - CVR A Brian Hurtt MAR250837 – CVR B CHOGRIN
The ghost kraken attacks as Trevor and Lucky meet for their rocky one-year "friendiversary"! Before they jump into action, the rest of the crew deal with personal problems and tech issues while Dr. Ray reveals some of the secret history behind Captain Kidd… What awaits Manhattan amongst these nautical threats?
The TPB's logline does offer a few more tidbits. Phoebe's new friend is a fellow outsider named Sammy and is the one who uses a cursed saber and accidentally summons the ghost of Captain Kidd.
Dr.D wrote: ↑April 15th, 2025, 9:31 amIDW was done do dirty.
I might agree with you if Sony had arbitrarily stripped the Ghostbusters rights from IDW, but they lost them because IDW was having financial troubles.
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On the plus side the art has improved, but I feel like the story still leaves something to be desired. Though IDWs early work was pretty bad too, looking at you "the other side."
Phoebe and Sammy venture off on their own to track down Captain Kidd, leaving the rest of the Ghostbusters to face the greater ghostly pirate threat alone. But finding the captain’s quarters is only half the challenge—and puts one of the two sleuths in definite danger!
Back in Town as the first comic tie-in had to do some heavy lifting of setting up the world, characters, and arcs, establish the team dynamics, and just getting into the groove of writing this franchise for the 1st time and as I hoped, Dead Man's Chest opens smoothly in medias res with the family out on a job dealing with a ghost and they have drawn a crowd and news reporters. #1 gets right down to business and looks like we're getting 3 issues of a more direct threat whereas Madame Malveaux was a bit cat and mouse until the very end.
The first issue does convey David Booher is a lot more confident in writing these characters. He already had a strong grasp of Phoebe in Back in Town and he continues to build on her arc of being a Ghostbuster and becoming a teenager that really enriches her ongoing struggles in Frozen Empire of trying to find her place and identity in the grand scheme of things and to find real friendship. It felt evident Booher is having fun thinking of new Phoebe jokes as well. What Frozen Empire didn't have the space for that Back in Town and now Dead Man's Chest is thankfully exploring is Phoebe off-duty and more importantly at school. In Back in Town, she was for the most part invisible but now because of her connection to the Ghostbusters being well known, everyone wants a piece of her.
Phoebe makes a new friend in Sammy Velez who really could be a genuine friend but in typical Ghostbusters fashion, a ghost is on the loose and we have the new big bad, the ghost of Captain Kidd. Trevor, on the other hand, it remains to be seen. He had a small role in this issue and continuing a thread from Back in Town, Trevor remains overly obsessed with hanging out with Lucky and making sure they don't drift apart. Gary seems to be treated as the most static character of the team, nothing phases him and he's always optimistic to a fault. Callie's arc which like Phoebe's has the potential to enrich what she's going through in Frozen Empire. As Phoebe and Trevor get older and hang with her less, she's unsure what that means for her a a parent. They're a strong team while they're on the job, but off-duty not so much.
In terms of critiquing this comic, there's not much I find fault with but, like Callie, I'm concerned with the kids. I'm hopeful but like with Back in Town and Frozen Empire, I am a little concerned Phoebe will continue to have a monopoly on the spotlight while the others fall into a supporting role when they all deserve some character development especially in this tie-in material. With Trevor, his writing is still too surface level. What the heck is going on in his head? Is he still in love with Lucky? Has he accepted being friendzoned but still frantically trying to preserve the hope he'll get a shot eventually? It feels like Phoebe's not the only one having problems with making more friends.
Let's talk about a white elephant in the room with this comic. Knowing what happens in Frozen Empire, will local law enforcement and government have a role in the proceedings? The writing on the wall seems to be Mayor Walter Peck pounced on the Ghostbusters in Frozen Empire because of the collateral damage caused by the Sewer Dragon chase but will we get to see the police and politicians' initial reaction to the return of the Ghostbusters in these comics? 6 months have passed between the two comic series so they must have already racked up a lot of property damage. If they are mirroring mayoral terms from the real world, Peck is already mayor during this comic's timeline. He would have started his term January 2022 so he's almost done with his first year. The police and the mayor always had a presence in the original movies and continued to in lauded releases like Ghostbusters: The Video Game and the comics by IDW Publishing. It stands reason the police and Mayor's Office should pop up here as well.
It stands to reason, Ray Stantz will be the guy that schools the team on the lore of the new threat. Similar to his role in Back in Town. Should he do more? I don't know. Will or should Winston Zeddemore, Janine Melnitz, and Peter Venkman show up? Maybe? I wouldn't be against a story putting in the mileage on developing the new team but the originals having a small role doesn't hurt either. Like Back, Winston and Janine showing up wouldn't be a surprise. The real one would be Peter. As of yet, we don't know when he starts to maintain a presence back in the city at the engineer corps' base since he's been living upstate teaching for years.
Sammy seems like a good match to Phoebe so far. Got the feeling Sammy was upset because Phoebe used "him" when Sammy likely identifies as "they/them." Sammy being pretty interested in the supernatural could be a red flag or not. Too soon to conclude anything about Sammy as the series just started but how a haunted saber from a historical figure got in Sammy's backpack should be an interesting story.
Let's talk about the art. Big, big improvement. I like Aviv Or's style but a lot like Blue Delliquanti, locations and the equipment tend to be too simple in detail. Yes, Dan Schoening and Luis Antonio Delgado set a really high bar when IDW Publishing had the license for comics and we can't expect Or to emulate Schoening 1:1 but we need "more".
As I mentioned above, feels like Booher picked up some character threads from Frozen Empire for Phoebe and Callie. One of the later scenes got me curious if Booher is seeding (retro-seeding) another or it's a coincidence. Sammy accidentally summons/frees the ghost of Captain Kidd with a saber at the end. Could this be patient zero and what leads Podcast and Ray (and in turn the engineer corps) to keep tabs on spirit-loaded objects and form their partnership that we see in Frozen Empire? To a smaller extent when Phoebe mentioned looking at photos of a Poltergeist in Hell's Kitchen, I immediately wondered if that was meant as a reference to Sewer Dragon or not. Probably the latter.
One neat detail that adds to the canon is Ray saying his piece about choosing the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man as Gozer's Destructor Form. Pinning some blame on the Stay Puft Corporation for an aggressive ad campaign that year makes sense. We see the billboard when the ECU gets shut down. I get some would prefer to be just some random memory that popped in there but I liked it. Another was the reveal that the Drone Trap was indeed invented in 2022 and Phoebe's been tinkering with it since.
One note about the timeline. I noticed a contradiction between the two comic book series and double checked with Dark Horse and my contact in turn checked with the editors and David M. Booher. So the synopsis for Back in Town that mentions it starts one and a half years after Afterlife is no longer valid. Back in Town actually starts one year later. Dead Man's Chest is 6 months after the ending of Back in Town so as Trevor says, it's the day before 18 months since he met Lucky. So Afterlife takes place in June 2021, Back in Town in June 2022, Dead Man's Chest in December 2022. I did some minor googling and some if not most private schools in NYC end in late June. Kinda odd Callie didn't just wait until the school year was over but not a deal breaker though I'm sure Trevor's had a harder time. And yeah, no snow in DMC #1 but IRL, snowfall didn't start until mid-month. So all good.
List of references, easter eggs, callbacks etc.
*Regular Cover **Captain Kidd and his ship Adventure Galley are featured on the cover. **The roof rack of Ecto-1 sports the Drone Trap dome, first seen in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. *Variant Cover **Captain Kidd and his ship Adventure Galley are also featured on the variant cover. *Credits page **Lucky Domingo is mentioned. *Page 2 **Gary alludes to an act of God, a phrase used in insurance claims to describe uncontrollable forces of nature. *Page 3 *The layout of the museum interior is loosely based on the interior of the Guggenheim Museum, also located in the Upper East Side. **Trevor means to reference Auguste Rodin, a famous French sculptor, but instead names Rodan, the flying kaiju from the Godzilla franchise. *Page 4 **Phoebe uses the Drone Trap, first seen in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. *Page 6 **Trevor mentions Lucky. **Phoebe mentions a Poltergeist sighting in Hell's Kitchen. **Phoebe refers to Ray as "Dr. Ray" like she does in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. *Page 7 **The Zeddemore Academy first appeared in the previous comic book series, Ghostbusters: Back in Town. **Phoebe indicates to Podcast it has been six months since she enrolled at Zeddemore Academy. **A boy tries to get Phoebe to say the famous motto, "I ain't afraid of no ghost!" *Page 8 **The trio of mean girls from Issues #1 and #2 of Ghostbusters: Back in Town return. *Page 9 **Sammy jokingly refers to Satan. *Page 10 **Phoebe alludes to Podcast's podcast, Mystical Tales of the Unknown Universe, mentioned in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. **Phoebe mentions not knowing Podcast's birth name. Logan Kim is privy to it. *Page 11 **Callie is wearing the pink shirt and blue jeans she wore when she first appeared in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Chapter 2. **Trevor's Spinners Roller Hop shirt is on the wall. *Page 12 **Trevor mentions it will be 18 months since he and Lucky first met in Summerville in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. This contradicts a synopsis for Back in Town Issue #1 stating that series starts 18 months after the events of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. **A drawing depicts the Charging Bull statue near Wall Street. **A drawing of a tombstone references the Trinity Church Cemetery. **Two tickets on the wall reference the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. **Another note mentions Leo's Bagels, located at 3 Hanover Square. **A pink note reads "MOMA", the abbreviation for the Museum of Modern Art. *Page 13 **Gary mentions the microwave broke again. It previously broken in Back in Town Issue #3. *Page 14 **Gary refers to his previous job as a substitute science teacher during the events of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. **Callie brings up moving to New York which was depicted in Ghostbusters: Back in Town #1 **Gary alludes to the talk about Phoebe and Trevor he had with Callie in Ghostbusters: Back in Town #2, page 9. Callie is correct that she didn't mention coming face to face with murderous ghouls but Gary did add, "fighting ancient Sumerian gods to stop them from destroying the world." *Page 15 **Callie mentions Janine Melnitz. *Page 16 **Ray and Phoebe are guests on Podcast's podcast, Mystical Tales of the Unknown Universe, mentioned in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. **Ray talks about choosing Gozer's Destructor form, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, during the events of the first movie. He blames it on Stay Puft Marshmallows advertisements being everywhere. One was seen near the Firehouse in the movie during Chapter 21: Out of Biz when the Containment Unit was turned off. **Phoebe mentions Gozer and alludes to Godzilla. **The hammer later called Hammer of Truth in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is on a shelf. *Page 19 **One of the mean girls does a take on the infamous line "I see dead people" from the movie, "The Sixth Sense". **The same mean girl calls Phoebe a "Ghost Girl," the same nickname given to Erin Gilbert in the 2016 Movie)|2016 movie.
This Post Contains Spoilers
Dead Man's Chest #1 was a solid read. David Booher did his job: set up where Phoebe, Trevor, Callie, and Gary are at, we got to see a bust in progress, by issue's end we clearly know what their struggles will be this series, and we unveiled the new threat. Now, we got 3 issues to see how the Spengler Family is going to solve this one. The potential for greatness is always at its zenith with a #1 and we shall see what happens, good or bad. Aviv Or is a welcome addition to the crew and the art is amazing so far, though with some reservations about not getting too detailed in some aspects. The stage is set, now let's see a city in peril, let's see destruction, let's see ramifications. Fingers crossed but not the streams.
It's a buccaneer blowout in NYC! The city becomes a mix of old pirate port town and present-day metropolis as ghost pirates wreak havoc throughout the city. The crew follow Kidd’s psychokinetic trail back to his newly-reformed lavish 17th century mansion. Here they’ll finally come to cross blades with the dreaded (and perhaps misunderstood) pirate captain . . .
- By timeware
- By Nomake Wan
- By WCat2000