Ghostbusters #1 (IDW)
Writer: Erik Burnham; Artist: Dan Schoening; Colorist: Luis Antonio Delgado; Letterer: Shawn Lee; Associate Editor: Bobby Curnow; Editor: Tom Waltz; Back up story and art by: Tristan Jones
Anyone taking on the challenge of picking up the comic book license of a popular film (or pair of films if you really want to include Ghostbusters 2) takes a big chance. Will the new book satisfy long-term fans? Will the book catch the fun tone of the film adventures? Will it entertain a new reader who knows little of the films?
It’s a real pleasure to read something that produces a resounding “Yes!” to those three questions.
Okay, truth in advertising: Writer Erik Burnham is a friend of mine. I was thrilled when he got the gig on this title. I got that news early, but that was all I got. He’s very scrupulous (as he ought to be) about keeping story/script details under wraps. So I’ve been waiting for the book as eagerly as the most rabid Ghostbusters fan. And Erik knows I wouldn’t pull any punches of criticism if I find flaws.
So we open the book and get a quick reintroduction to our main characters: Venkman, Spengler, Stantz, and Zeddemore are being introduced on a talkshow by their erstwhile receptionist Ja’nine. Except this talk show has an odd audience member that will be familiar to those who know the original film. Something’s screwy here. Burnham quickly uses the necessity of reintroducing the characters and referencing the most iconic moments from the original film to launch his own story of supernatural things gone wrong in New York City.
Very speedily we are tossed into the new “season” of Ghosts Gone Wild for our “heroes” (for lack of a term for such misfits). Dry humor, wacky science, dripping ectoplasm are all here in satisfying degrees.
And then there’s the cliffhanging encounter with a familiar … “face,” who is not being the least bit cute.
Oh, yeah. I’m on board for this.
Tristan Jones adds a three page back up which gives us an additional element to look forward to in coming issues. This short reintroduces us to the bane of the Ghostbusters team: the officious Walter Peck. No longer with the Environmental Protection Agency, Peck has just been hired by the city to serve as their Paranormal Contracts Oversight Commissioner. Oh, my. We can see the clashes coming.
In the main story, Dan Schoening’s broad style wonderfully captures the lines of the film actors’ faces, without slavishly trying to look exactly like them. This really gets the job done, because he stays with the emotions of this story instead of worrying about reproducing a photo-referenced portrait of Bill Murray or Dan Akroyd looking concerned. That would have been distracting. The style may look like it stepped off a cartoon screen, but Schoening has a great sense of composition and action that serves the comic book form well. By contrast, Jones’ three pages about Peck are dark and brooding and more finely turned. The happy aspect of this is that although there is contrast between the two art styles, they do not clash.
You, the reader – any reader – will enjoy this book. It is off to a very solid start with the promise of only getting better.
