Fritz Babbles About Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted

Technically released the same day as IDW's Ghostbusters: The Other Side #1, TokyoPop's graphic novel didn't turn up in my area until a little later. Well, here it is.

I was interested in seeing what would come of this; TokyoPop got it's start (and still does the vast majority of it's business) as a translater of Japanese manga. They released an English version of the Sailor Moon manga back when they were know as Mixx, and back around 2003 or so even released Digimon manga adapting the first three seasons.

Anyway…

The book is a little bigger than the standard manga size, but that's no problem.

The cover: I admit, I liked the “not final art” version that leaked out, featuring Egon with blond hair and Ray with red hair. Ray still very much looks like the animated version. On the other hand…Venkman looks awful. He could be just about anybody.

The book is divided into three stories.

“Theatre of Pain” is the first story, and it features some nice, surreal moments worthy of the Ghostbusters name. Egon trying to dance. A stage play that includes an F-14 Tomcat. And Venkman chewing the scenery during his stint as “The Di-Rector!!!” The art's a bit loose and messy, but that fits the screwball atmosphere. There's some nice mocking of both Blintzy Jones' very Micheal Bay-esque approach to storytelling (“More explosions!”) and the more artsy-fartsy pretentions of the ghost of Francis Frum.

The second part is divided into chapters by different artists, and features the return of Jack Hardemeyer, the mayoral aide from GB2. As is typical, Hardemeyer looks only vaguely like Kurt Fuller, and at times I see perhaps a bit of the RGB version of Hardemeyer from the Now Comics GB2 adaptation.

The enemy pulls the classic “divide and conquer”–Ray is snagged while on a series of wild goose chases and “false alarms”. Egon is nabbed just after (apparently) resolving the situation of his old physics professor, Harold Teplitz. And Venkman is nabbed by a ghost posing as a coed wearing nothing but a towel.

Winston gets to save the day here, using some mundane weapondry to fight ghosts who have developed their own version of the proton packs, these designed to hold and trap humans. This is kind of ironic–the title of the book, Ghost Busted, is the same as an RGB episode: “Ghost Busted” featured the brief career of the Crimebusters, who used proton packs designed to trap and hold humans. I wonder if that was a coincidence?

Anyway, it turns out Hardemeyer has an accomplice, but I won't spoil every surprise.

Artistically, the best stuff in this section is Micheal Shelfer, who draws an awesome Janine. Janine, by the way, hits on Egon, and there's no mention of Louis Tully at all in this book.

The last chapter is unrelated to the rest of the book, save for one cameo of Hardemeyer in a soup line at the end. The main story is about a Sumerian fashion nightmare who looks like a glam boot before becoming, as Venkman phrases it in the story, a “fussy tranny”. I admit I thought the line about “concubine of Gozer” was a bit gratuitous, though, a bit of “connecting it to something from the movies just to do it even though it adds absolutely nothing”.

Like the first story, there's a wonderful screwball sense to the proceedings (it's by the same writer) and some satire of the fashion industry, leading to a surreal climax involving all four Ghostbusters in drag. The art is, in my opinion, the best in the book–Chrissy Delk does the best versions of the characters by not trying as hard as the others to make them resemble the actors. They're not the RGB versions either, but I see their spirits in them; her Janine is also excellant.

I admit, I enjoyed this a lot more than I enjoyed the first issue of The Other Side

The books awesome. XD And they even mention Ray Parker Jr. in the first story, I must admit, that was awesome, and yes, I'd definitly recommend it, as well as with the comic of course.

I just got this one yesterday. Excellent stuff…but why, oh why do they keep drawing Peter Venkman to look like Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day?

I just picked up the manga last night whilest out christmas shopping. I must say I really like the art style of Chrissy Delk the best.

Has anyone heard of this Ghostbusters Manga Graphic Novel? I didn't until I got it from a friend as an early Christmas gift It's pretty awesome. Where would one order such a book?

Are you referring to “Ghost Busted”?

Its been pretty widely published, and there's a couple topics about it on the forums.

Its available at lots of stores, I know my comic store carries it. And you can also order it online from Graham Crackers:

http://grahamcrackers.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=105260

Although, its out of stock right now on that site.

GB Freak;132883
Has anyone heard of this Ghostbusters Manga Graphic Novel? I didn't until I got it from a friend as an early Christmas gift It's pretty awesome. Where would one order such a book?

Merged because… the topic for the manga was about three topics down from the one you created, GB Freak.

Kingpin;132897
Merged because… the topic for the manga was about three topics down from the one you created, GB Freak.

Applause!!!

Is this based on the films or cartoon, and is it a better read than The Other Side? Could someone post some pics of the interior art?

The manga is based exclusively on the movie universe, despite the RGB-styled version of the cover at one point.

It is extremely more enjoyable to read than The Other Side.

I'll try dig up some of the art that was posted online.