TokyoPop

TokyoPop is a publisher, licensor, and distributor of manga, manhwa, anime, and Western manga-style works. The company held the Ghostbusters manga license and released a single graphic novel, Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted, in October 2008 through their manga imprint.

Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted

Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted is a manga-format graphic novel published by TokyoPop in October 2008 (ISBN 9781427814593). It collects six standalone chapters that share an overarching antagonist and a connected climax. Scripts were written by Matt Yamashita (chapters 1 and 6) and Nathan Johnson (chapters 2 through 5). Art duties were divided among Maximo V. Lorenzo (chapter 1), Michael Shelfer (chapters 2, 4, and 5), Nate Watson (chapter 3), and Chrissy Delk (chapter 6), with additional tones by Maximo V. Lorenzo (chapters 2 and 5) and Chi Wang (chapter 3). Lettering was by Michael Paolilli and Lucas Rivera. Editors were Luis Reyes and Bryce P. Coleman. Hans Steinbach provided the original cover painting, with James Lee handling the cover design layout.

The central conflict running through the book involves Jack Hardemeyer, the disgraced former mayoral aide from the second film, who recruits a coalition of ghosts called the Ghost Busted Army and equips them with inverted versions of the Ghostbusters' gear capable of trapping human souls rather than ghosts. The architect behind that gear is Professor Harold Teplitz, a physicist who once dismissed Egon Spengler's work on the paranormal and who turns out, upon investigation, to be a ghost himself, unwilling to accept his own death.

Chapter summaries

Chapter 1: The Ghostbusters are brought in when a Broadway production is disrupted by the ghost of an angry theater critic who objects to the show's reliance on spectacle over performance. The Ghostbusters resolve the situation by recruiting the ghost of actor Monty Biggins to rehabilitate the production, to the crowd's delight even after Biggins' head explodes and drenches the theater in slime. Peter Venkman mentions the Broadway run of "Cats" on page 14, and Ray Parker Jr.'s photo appears in a deli on page 26.

Chapter 2: Jack Hardemeyer, seeking revenge for his institutionalization debacle, convenes with the Ghost Busted Army and provides them with technical diagrams of the Ghostbusters' equipment. He breaks into a condemned property formerly belonging to someone named Shandor, a reference to Ivo Shandor.

Chapter 3: Ray Stantz works through a string of false calls before finding a genuine monster-under-the-bed case in a residential building. He eventually confronts Hardemeyer and the Ghost Busted Army. Janine Melnitz assists throughout.

Chapter 4: Egon is contacted by Professor Harold Teplitz, a college contemporary who had publicly dismissed Egon's supernatural research. Teplitz's family ghosts have appeared in his townhouse. Through investigation, Egon deduces that Teplitz himself is a ghost who refuses to acknowledge his death, and that his family has come to guide him to the other side. As Egon leaves, he is captured in a ghost trap modified to hold living souls.

Chapter 5: Peter Venkman and Winston Zeddemore are drawn into a call that is a setup. Winston retrieves gear from his old Marines kit, breaks into Hardemeyer's hideout, and frees the captured Ghostbusters. Teplitz explains he built the inverted equipment out of a philosophical objection to imprisoning ghosts. Egon counters that he is now uniquely positioned to study what comes after death. Ray notes they have an archenemy now; Peter points out no one will pay them for the ghosts they just caught.

Chapter 6: The Ghostbusters investigate Rambeau's House of Fashion, where clothing sold in the store is revealed to be enslaving wearers to Heel, described as one of Gozer's preferred concubines. The Ghostbusters distribute jumpsuits to Heel's victims. Peter defeats Heel by dousing him with red wine, which, as the story notes, never washes out.