Sirk TV Graphic Novel Review: GHOSTBUSTERS - SPECTRAL SHENANIGANS [IDW]
This progression of the Ghostbusters story is all about the different perceptions and implications of the different experiences they go through. With "Ghostbusters: Spectral Shenanigans" [Eric Burnham/IDW/336pgs], the story picks up after "Ghostbusters II" in terms of the movie using the texture of Gozer and addressing it to show a parity between the actions of the movies and their aftermath. Walter Peck is given oversight of the Ghostbusters business in this iteration, Egon no longer has a romantic inference with Janine and Venkman is completely and continually out of sorts with Dana nowhere to be seen. The humor throughout and the art is right on point with the right balance of comedy and horror. The essence of ghosts that cannot be contained as well as different approaches to how ghosts can perceive time (i.e. within an orphanage where the interior is lost in time) give different story structure to what the Ghostbusters franchise is capable of. The remainder of the graphic novel has the Ghostbusters being loaned out across the country which is interesting showing the interaction of this crew in places other than New York. The New Orleans angle integrated with a voodoo princess and her wise mother definitely keys into what the ghost structure of this franchise is all about. Two other adventures in the Roswell desert as well as in an old historical fort where a ghost army has risen up work because the ghosts' reason for unrest truly make sense. Within this structure, a "Ghostbusters" TV show could work. Surprisingly, this hasn't been floated yet. This idea of roaming Ghostbusters is integrated with the aspect of a mobile containment unit within a large motor home. This is something that night not have made sense in 1984 but definitely in 2018. The final adventure involving a dead musician doesn't have the weight of the other stories but still works to a point. "Ghostbusters: Spectral Shenanigans" definitely expands the idea of Ghostbusters in a way that perhaps the "Crossing Over" storyline doesn't and in doing so very much grows the mythology of these scientists.B
By Tim Wassberg