Plot
Rebecca Morales, the journalist compiling the Ghostbusters biography (previously seen interviewing Winston Zeddemore in Issue #1 and Ray Stantz in Issue #2), sits down with Peter Venkman in Central Park. The framing scenes at the Empire Diner on Tenth Avenue also continue Rebecca's parallel conversation with Janine Melnitz. Peter deflects and charms his way through biographical questions from Dean Yeager's assessment of him at Columbia to his dual doctorates in Psychology and Parapsychology, before landing on a case that grabs his attention: the bust at The Rose nightclub.
The Rose, a stand-in for The Palladium on East 14th Street, is depicted as a packed New Wave dance club. The Ghostbusters (without Winston, who had not yet been hired) track a poltergeist with a distinctive 1980s hairstyle modeled on Mike Score of A Flock of Seagulls through the venue. What follows is a sequence of Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, and Peter moving through Francesco Clemente murals and a packed dance floor before trapping the ghost. The team ends up dancing with the crowd, and Ray demonstrates his knowledge of dances from the Twist and the Fly through to the Hustle and the Moonwalk. The issue closes with Peter wrapping up his interview and hinting at future television appearances, a nod toward The World of the Psychic.
Covers
Three cover editions were produced.
Cover A (Dan Schoening and Luis Antonio Delgado): Features Peter Venkman and Slimer, compositing scenes from the first film including Peter radioing Ray after the Slimer encounter in the Sedgewick Hotel and Peter holding a Zener card during his ESP experiments.
Cover B (Dan Schoening and Luis Antonio Delgado): An Easter egg-dense collage built around Peter's Ghostbusters employee file and personal effects. Notable details include Janine's whale paperweight, the Ghost Sniffer, Zener cards, Peter's blue lab coat from the first commercial, a People Weekly from October 22, 1984 (the date Winston was hired, per Issue #1 Cover B), a circus flier referencing Peter's carnival background, and a mortgage document from Manhattan City Bank listing Ray's middle name as Francis. Peter's file gives his birthday as September 21, 1950 (matching Bill Murray's actual birthday), records his marital status as divorced, separated, and widowed, and lists "James Venkman" at 227-6009 as his emergency contact. The name Jim Venkman was used for Peter's father in The Real Ghostbusters.
Cover RI (Timothy Lattie): A parody of the cover of Batman #251, with Peter replacing the Joker, two students from Chapter 2 of the film replacing Batman, Mooglie replacing the Batman logo, EPA replacing the Comics Code Authority stamp, and the No Ghost logo replacing the price bubble. Lattie conceived this cover before he knew the Year One mini-series existed.
Development
On October 4, 2019, Tom Waltz made a cryptic post tagging Erik Burnham, Dan Schoening, Luis Antonio Delgado, and Timothy Lattie, revealing four covers each featuring one of the original Ghostbusters with nods to the first film. A follow-up teaser image appeared on October 21, 2019. On October 26, Burnham confirmed he had finished writing three issues of the series.
December 20, 2019 solicitations revealed the logline, Cover A, and basic crew credits for Issue #3. On January 3, 2020, Burnham announced the issue was half drawn. In a January 20 interview, Burnham estimated Schoening was days away from finishing; he noted that Winston would not appear much in the issue since the story is set before he was hired. Schoening's approach to The Rose was to draw the actual club interior in detail and then apply a dark, smoky atmosphere over it in post.
On January 27, 2020, Schoening revealed he had listened to a large amount of 1980s music to prepare for drawing the club scenes, and teased the presence of mohawks, hot pink, and neon blue. Luis Delgado posted three unlettered panels of The Rose on March 23, 2020. A cover, credits page, and five-page preview were posted on March 24. The issue released on March 25. Delgado shared additional unlettered panel sets from the dancing sequences on March 25 and March 27.
Continuity and Annotations
The issue builds on the Year One mini-series' core conceit of filling in events mentioned but not shown in the first film. The Rose bust was only ever referenced in passing in Chapter 14 ("Welcome Aboard") of the film, where it is mentioned alongside Winston's job interview. Peter quoting the "pretty pesky poltergeist" line at the end of the issue tracks directly to Casey Kasem's radio report in that same film chapter. Peter's comment about a meeting with his TV agent looks ahead to The World of the Psychic; his mention of The Tonight Show fits the same trajectory.
Peck's status as being on restricted duty pending official review after the Sedgewick Hotel containment unit shutdown is confirmed in this issue. Janine's chamomile tea preference is a callback to Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Dana Barrett's outfit is modeled on an outfit worn by Sigourney Weaver in the 1986 film "Half Moon Street." The waiter at the diner is based on the headwaiter played by Tony Steedman in "Scrooged."
The Rose's dance floor is visually based on The Palladium's actual interior, including Francesco Clemente murals. Schoening populated the club with a range of period-accurate cameos: dancers based on Annie Lennox, Hall and Oates (posed as on the album Voices), Cyndi Lauper, and David Lee Roth in mid-jump-split. The conga line on page 17 includes Andy Warhol, Tina Turner, Duckie from "Pretty in Pink," and Jellybean Benitez. The crowd during the post-bust celebration on page 19 includes figures based on Prince, Boy George, Billy Idol, David Bowie, and Pat Benatar. Ray Parker Jr. also appears in the crowd, as do Don Johnson and Philip-Michael Thomas as Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs from "Miami Vice."
Egon performing the Moonwalk and Ray acknowledging he "only knows the Blues" are affectionate nods to the actors: Dan Aykroyd's long association with the Blues Brothers, and Michael Jackson's 1983 backslide popularized as the Moonwalk. Egon's mention of upgrading to grenades is foreshadowing to the Proton Grenades later used in the IDW ongoing continuity.
Page 18 includes cameos by fan costuming groups: Carlos and Julio from the Douchebusters fan duo appear above Peter and Egon, and Fiona Henderson and Ryan Doell from Ghostbusters of British Columbia appear at right. The "15" Easter egg, a recurring Luis Delgado signature, appears on a box in panel 4 of page 1.
References
Ghostbusters: Year One #3 (IDW Publishing, March 25, 2020). Written by Erik Burnham, art by Dan Schoening, colors by Luis Antonio Delgado, letters by Neil Uyetake, edits by Tom Waltz and Megan Brown.
