IDW comics
In IDW's comic continuity, PCOC was reinstated after the "Infestation" event to keep the Ghostbusters in check for the public good and the city's interests. A temporary office was set up in the Department of Public Safety at New York City Hall, with its budget due for review the following quarter. On March 1, 1994, a technical report titled "Identification of Biometric Security Measures in relation to the Containment Unit (Storage Facility)" was submitted, credited to Peck, D. Aykroyd, H. Ramis, and I. Reitman. The report noted that PCOC could not access the Containment Unit because of newly installed biometric security that only senior staff could clear, and concluded that any attempt to override it could compromise the unit with catastrophic results.
That fall, Peter Venkman dropped in on Peck's office without an appointment to discuss the Ghost Smashers, leaving with nothing resolved. The Ghostbusters and the Ghost Smashers were later summoned to Peck's office to work out a response to the Megaspook.
The following year, PCOC forced members of Janine Melnitz's new team of Ghostbusters to sign a contract or face criminal charges. An addendum let the city license and merchandise imagery tied to any new Ghostbuster the commission approved, and several clauses gave PCOC heavy oversight: the new team had to make personal appearances and attend press events at the commission's discretion, and PCOC installed a liaison to coordinate and prioritize case loads. After the original Ghostbusters returned, Peck called that liaison, Jack Hardemeyer, to his office and fired him. Following the Tiamat incident, Peck hired Jenny Moran to liaise more closely between PCOC and the Ghostbusters.
Scandinavian entrepreneur Erland Vinter revealed a plan to buy the Ghostbusters so he could clear prime real estate of paranormal activity and then develop it. Peck and Winston Zeddemore recognized the scheme as fraudulent. Peck told Vinter the sale was not in the city's interest given the specificity of the Ghostbusters' municipal contract, and instead negotiated a loan of their services: Vinter would get exclusive access for up to two weeks in any given month at standard rates, plus a 15% commission payable to PCOC on any profits connected to ghost removal.1 The arrangement expanded PCOC's funding, kept New York covered, and blocked the buyout.
Janine and Jenny later met Peck to discuss a reimbursement request for nearly $400,000, which Janine framed as a time-sensitive response to demands from Vinter. Jenny argued that the municipal agreements set aside an emergency budget for preventing foreseeable catastrophic paranormal events, and the charter flights to Chile and Japan were approved. They left Peck to smooth things over with the three sub-committees handling the budget. When New York Police Department officers are assigned to security detail on Ghostbusters investigations, they are paid triple time out of PCOC's budget.2 A week after the latest Coney Island incident, a representative from the EPA visited Peck and announced the agency was fining the Ghostbusters for introducing a toxic element, a reservoir of mostly neutralized Psychomagnotheric Slime, into a residential area, and fining PCOC for failing to keep them in check. The representative said that if it were up to him he would revoke their citizenship and deport them to Guam, prompting Peck to mutter that Guam is an American territory. On the day two Statues of Liberty appeared, PCOC issued a new budget report.
During the Connla crisis at Grand Central Station, the team initiated "Code Dan," an evacuation protocol worked out between PCOC and the city.3 Peck summoned Janine for a meeting and steered the conversation to Jenny Moran's death, which he said made her an unreliable resource at a time when PCOC needed certainty about the Ghostbusters' ongoing exploration of the multiverse. When Janine tried to downplay recent events, Peck cited the dimensional bleed incident and Gozer, then offered her the role of liaison to succeed Jenny. Later, Kevin Tanaka came to the PCOC offices in Janine's place to brief Peck on the interdimensional retrieval mission, walking him through how a teleportation-unit glitch had dispersed several ghosts into other dimensions and how the team meant to return them before repairing the Containment Unit.
In the video-game continuity, Walter Peck is the head of PCOC. In the IDW comics, Peck remains in charge, with Denise serving as his secretary and Jenny Moran working as the municipal liaison to the Ghostbusters. Jack Hardemeyer is a former employee, having served as liaison to the new Ghostbusters before Peck dismissed him.
Background and references
In the October 8, 2007 draft of Ghostbusters: The Video Game, PCOC went by an earlier name, the Department of Paranormal Activities.4 In dialogue bridging the Times Square level and the library level, Mayor Mulligan refers to PCOC as Peck's "fiefdom."5 The address of Peck's office, 260 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, appears on Cover B of Ghostbusters Volume 1 Issue #9. A panel in Volume 2 Issue #13 reveals that the Ghostbusters pass a PCOC fee along in their bills.
The commission recurs throughout IDW's line as a mention or backdrop: it appears in Walter Peck's biography in the Dramatis Personae of Volume 2 Issue #15; is named by Lucy in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters crossover, who complains she "paid PCOC extra" for a ghost-free venue;6 and is cited in Peck's, Jenny's, and Janine's dialogue across the Ghostbusters International, Ghostbusters 101, and 35th Anniversary issues.7891011 An early flier sealing the Sedgewick Hotel, first seen in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, reappears as a background detail in the Ghostbusters Annual 2017.
Appearances
Primary continuity: Ghostbusters: The Video Game.
Secondary (IDW) continuity: across Ghostbusters Volume 1, Volume 2, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters crossover, Ghostbusters International, Ghostbusters 101, the Ghostbusters Annual 2018, Ghostbusters Crossing Over, the 35th Anniversary one-shot, and Ghostbusters: Deviations.1213 PCOC also appears as a card in Cryptozoic Entertainment's Ghostbusters: The Board Game.
References
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Ghostbusters International #2 (IDW Publishing, 2016).
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Officer Mike, in Ghostbusters International #11 (IDW Publishing, 2016), p. 1: "We love working this Ghostbusters security stuff. Pays triple-time, you know?"
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Kylie Griffin, in Ghostbusters Annual 2018 (IDW Publishing, 2018), p. 13: "PCOC and the city worked out an evacuation protocol to make our job a little easier... we call it Code Dan?"
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Zuur Platten, John & Dille, Flint, Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Revised Cut-Scene Script, Third Draft, October 8, 2007), p. 51: "Closed until further notice by the Department of Paranormal Activities, Walter Peck, Administrator of Affairs."
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Mayor Mulligan, Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Realistic Versions), dialogue between the Panic in Times Square level and the Checking Out the Library level.
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Lucy, in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters #1 (IDW Publishing, 2014), p. 15: "I was told this was a ghost-free venue! We paid PCOC extra for that!"
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Ghostbusters International #1 (IDW Publishing, 2016).
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What Came Before! recap, Ghostbusters International #3 (IDW Publishing, 2016): "Instead, PARANORMAL CONTRACTS OVERSIGHT COMMISSION (PCOC) Chief Walter Peck negotiated a 'Ghostbusters time share' deal between New York and Vinter that fattened the PCOC coffers and saw the Ghostbusters sent on a mission to Venice, Italy."
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Peter Venkman, in Ghostbusters International #8 (IDW Publishing, 2016), p. 20: "Jen-Jen, you better let PCOC know that we got something big in the works here and are almost definitely going to be billing the city for our world-saving rate in the near future."
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Kevin Tanaka, in Ghostbusters 101 #2 (IDW Publishing, 2017), p. 14: "I do have some PCOC paperwork to attend to."
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Mayor, in Ghostbusters 101 #5 (IDW Publishing, 2017), p. 1: "At this time, I'd like to introduce Walter Peck, head of the Paranormal Contracts Oversight Commission, the city's intermediary with the Ghostbusters."
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Janine Melnitz, in Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary: Ghostbusters (IDW Publishing, 2019), p. 14: "There are PCOC reports to file."
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Recap, Ghostbusters: Deviations (IDW Publishing, 2016), p. 37: "Paranormal Contracts Oversight Commission Chief Walter Peck, however, doesn't feel a sale is in the best interest of NYC, and invoking the Ghostbusters' municipal contracts, makes sure Erland knows the company isn't for sale."
