Covers
Cover A
by Nick Runge
Incentive Cover
by Dan Schoening
Plot
Television producer Artie Lester is being haunted by a pumpkin-headed ghost and hires the Ghostbusters to capture it. The team declines when they discover Lester intends to film the bust and turn it into a television special. Janine Melnitz, angry about her pay, secretly takes the job herself for the $50,000 Lester promised.
The Ghostbusters soon learn Lester may have a genuine haunting on his hands and that Janine went alone. The ghost is identified as Sam Hain, an escape artist and former business associate of Lester whose mansion Lester took over after Hain went missing and was declared dead. Racing to Lester's estate, the Ghostbusters find Janine held captive by Sam Hain near a fading dimensional "soft spot" leading to the Netherworld. Ray Stantz fires a proton stream at Sam Hain while Egon Spengler pulls Janine to safety. When Egon moves to trap Sam Hain, Janine intervenes and asks them to let him go. Sam Hain then crosses peacefully to the other side.
Cast
Equipment and Locations
Equipment appearing in this issue includes the Proton Pack and Particle Thrower, the PKE Meter, the Ecto-1, Ecto Goggles, a Ghost Trap, Janine's car (license plate "GBI ZUL," a reference to Zuul from the first film), and a radio.
Key locations include the Firehouse, Tobin's Mansion (Lester's estate), East Hampton Public Cemetery, and the Netherworld.
Notable References and Easter Eggs
This issue is particularly dense with nods to Ghostbusters, The Real Ghostbusters, and Ghostbusters II, catalogued page by page by Fandom researchers.
Sam Hain / Samhain: The ghost antagonist, Sam Hain, is a deliberate reference to Samhain, the Halloween deity villain from The Real Ghostbusters. The comic version differs significantly: he has a smaller head, antlers, and a more skeletal appearance, and is not a deity of Halloween but rather a human ghost whose manifestation coincided with the season.
Page 1: The DJ on screen holds a Ghostbusters LP album cover. The phrase "Who you gonna call?" is quoted.
Page 4: A DeLorean from Back to the Future is parked beside the Firehouse. Peter and Ray mention that business is slow, a recurring theme from The Real Ghostbusters. Janine's plant is from the RGB episode "A Ghost Grows in Brooklyn." The magic lamp from "Janine's Genie" sits on the file cabinet. False alarms are also mentioned, another recurring RGB theme.
Page 5: Janine warns Lester that no filming is allowed, recalling the mayhem caused by a 20/40/60 news crew filming during an experiment in the RGB episode "Egon on the Rampage."
Page 6: Making appearances at children's parties is referenced, as seen in Ghostbusters II.
Page 7: Artie Lester mentions having heard of two brothers named "Remington... something like that" who are good with ghosts, a nod to the Winchester brothers from the television series Supernatural (both Remington and Winchester are famous gun manufacturers).
Page 8: Janine's car carries the license plate "GBI ZUL," referencing Zuul from the original film. Two of Samhain's goblin minions make a cameo as decorations near the steps of Lester's house.
Page 9: A partygoer is dressed as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The painting of Vigo the Carpathian is visible. A coat-hanger arrangement resembles one of the forms of Belleranthon from Mrs. Faversham's attic, beneath a portrait of a woman resembling Mrs. Faversham. A sculpture resembling the Bird of Kildarby can be seen.
Page 10: Egon and Janine's PKE Meters show influences from both film and animated versions: the swing arms resemble the movie prop, but their placement echoes the cartoon's. A bust of Cubby from "Chicken, He Clucked" sits next to a statue of a chicken. A portrait of Elwin Spalding from "The Old College Spirit" appears.
Page 11: A magic spells book resembles one from "Look Homeward, Ray." Another flying book is Tobin's Spirit Guide. A statue of the Party Animal Troll sits next to a caged canary resembling Precious.
Page 12: The doorknocker resembles the one on the Doomsday Door from the RGB episode "Knock, Knock."
Page 14: A poster of Dr. Bassingame and a Murray the Mantis doll appear in Sam Hain's secret room.
Page 15: Cynthia Crawford, the reporter from the RGB episode "Citizen Ghost," is listed under a picture of the mansion in an in-story article. The article text dubs the estate "Tobin's Mansion."
Page 16: Egon appears to be working on either the Tobin's Spirit Guide computer interface from RGB or the Ecto Aroma Eliminator from "Masquerade." His coffee cup bears the periodic symbol for cobalt, the atomic weight of which he recited rhetorically to Ray in Ghostbusters II.
Page 17: A child wears a costume similar to Catherine's witch costume from "Halloween II 1/2." One partygoer resembles the RGB version of Peter Venkman in a costume recalling the wolf from Red Hot Riding Hood. Sherri is dressed as Red. Dana Barrett is seated next to the Hatbox Ghost from the Haunted Mansion ride. Other costumes visible include wolfed-out Scott and Boof from Teen Wolf, Zombie Michael Jackson and dancers from "Thriller," Lucy and Charlie Brown from It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, Garfield from Garfield's Halloween Adventure, the ghosts from The Lonesome Ghosts, Lurch from The Addams Family, Witch Hazel from Disney's "Trick or Treat," the Wolf and Red from Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood, and the Headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Sherri says there is "something weird and it doesn't look good," referencing the Ghostbusters theme song.
Page 22: Gravestones in the second-to-last panel contain quotes from the first film. Luis Delgado's Easter egg number 15 is on the headstone nearest the building. Entities watching from the cemetery include a Terror Dog, a couple of the Domoviye from "The Spirit of Aunt Lois," the Greenhouse ghost from "A Ghost Grows in Brooklyn," Fairweather from "The Halloween Door," and Thole from "Egon's Ghost."
Incentive cover: Dan Schoening's incentive cover features the Spider Witch from Ghostbusters: The Video Game reflected in a mirror above the four Ghostbusters.
Haunted Holidays TPB placement: The title page for this story in the Haunted Holidays trade paperback establishes the events as taking place on a Sunday.
References
- IDW Publishing Comics: What in Samhain Just Happened?! (October 20, 2010)
- IDW Publishing Comics: Haunted Holidays TPB (November 16, 2010)
