[Heroic35]

I am a comic book fan massively and I loved IDW's take on them but did not collect them obsessively.

I read issue 1 and I hope it picks up. The art seems odd and the story writing is very basic. My 8 year old loves the comic and maybe that's the audience for this book? Glad to see something I can pick up with my Marvel titles but at the same point, it's pretty rough.

[RiverofSlime]

I am a comic book fan massively and I loved IDW's take on them but did not collect them obsessively.

I read issue 1 and I hope it picks up. The art seems odd and the story writing is very basic. My 8 year old loves the comic and maybe that's the audience for this book? Glad to see something I can pick up with my Marvel titles but at the same point, it's pretty rough.

The art is definitely giving YA vibes.

Not sure who the audience is but I was surprised how good I thought it was and I'm a veteran comics reader myself, and a veteran media-tie-in comics reader and this was definitely better than average for sure.

But let's be honest, the weirdest part is how this is coming out AFTER Frozen Empire, and not before.

[mrmichaelt]

This week's Extraplasm podcast is an interview with David M. Booher.
https://extraplasm.podbean.com/e/episod ... -m-booher/

At 55:02, Booher revealed there will be more 4 issue mini-series after Back in Town and he's writing the next one and continues to fill in the gap between Afterlife and Frozen Empire.

Edit 4/15: Spook Central posted a Q&A with Booher and Delliquanti.
https://www.spookcentral.tk/2024/04/15/ ... reators-qa

[mrmichaelt]

Preview for #2 on DH's page.
https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/3011-0 ... -in-Town-2

https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p1.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p2.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p3.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p4.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p5.jpg

[GhostFaceX]

Preview for #2 on DH's page.
https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/3011-0 ... -in-Town-2

https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p1.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p2.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p3.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p4.jpg
https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.net/c ... 1016p5.jpg

Did it come out today?

Ugh the art is so bad though.

[mrmichaelt]

Did it come out today?

Ugh the art is so bad though.

Yes, #2 came out today. I haven't had time to read it yet.

The general consensus online is everyone does not like the art style. The only two people I've seen compliment it is Troy Benjamin and Chris Stewart on the Crossrip podcast.

edit: #2 - Now things are cooking. The new team are split up having their own encounters: Callie and Gary go out on their first bust, Trevor has teen texting angst, Lucky shows up, Phoebe ditches school to talk to Ray, Ray talks about GB2, Phoebe goes on her own and comes face to face with the big bad.

Didn't know about the Wingspan board game but I now know it's a thing. lol

[Chicken, He Clucked]

I like the Scott Pilgrim aesthetic. I don’t think it’s working here for Ghostbusters. If it was focused purely on the young cast maybe, but I don’t know who their target is with this product coming off the IDW run.

And honestly, the art looks cheap and quick to knock out. I’ll wait for the collection, but after issue #1 I’m not impressed.

[robbritton]

I enjoyed issue 2 more than 1, and have to admit I've warmed up to the art style. It'll never be Dan, but that's a bit like complaining the subsequent films will never be '84.

[mrmichaelt]

Upon reread, there some mistakes... errors... what have you that I wonder why no editor or Ghost Corps didn't catch
-Not necessarily an error and could be rectified that their lockers were combined later on, but on page 9, Callie is shown to have her own locker.
-page 12 - Ray says the events of GB2 were 30 years ago. Closer to 33. GB2 was in 1989-90. This comic takes place in early 2023 (Afterlife was June 2021. Back in Town credits pages say it's 1.5 years later. Frozen Empire was in summer 2024 as the NY1 News says Winston gave them the Firehouse last year + Trevor and Phoebe are 3 years older)
-page 12 - Ray says the museum was in Midtown. While never stated, fans have figured out it was on Upper East Side.

I'm sure the way Callie holds the thrower, especially that shot of her blasting the Trap on page 16 made many squirm.

[Chicken, He Clucked]

I think they just knocked this out cheap. Is the unfortunate answer.

[Bison256]

-page 12 - Ray says the museum was in Midtown. While never stated, fans have figured out it was on Upper East Side.

Wouldn't it be in lower Lower Manhattan, the same place as the exterior shots were filmed? In real life the building was mostly empty between 1974 and 1984 so in the ghostBusters a art museum moved in instead of being empty.

[mrmichaelt]

Wouldn't it be in lower Lower Manhattan, the same place as the exterior shots were filmed? In real life the building was empty between 1974 and 1984 so in the ghostBusters a art museum moved in instead of being empty.

There's strong instances that the MMoA is a stand-in for the Frick Collection on the Upper East Side: the scenery you see outside the windows of the Restoration Room when the Ghostbusters arrive to investigate and Ray is asking Peter who Janosz is and the later slime eclipse at the Mayor's office. Ray and Peter's backs and looking out the window does lend to the notion the location to being in the vicinity of E 70th-E71st. At the Frick/E.70th, you definitely should be able to see 55 Central Park West across the park from inside the building. Google maps seems to agree you can see 55 CPW from the Frick. In the 4K versions, you can see some of 55 CPW. I think robbitron grabbed it in the Missed This GB2 thread in Gen. Discussion

The 2/27/1989 draft lists the Ghostbusters taking the Statue of Liberty up past Times Square/Broadway. Then "A squadron of police motorcycles comes speeding around the corner at 72nd Street and proceeds up Fifth Avenue in the direction of the museum." Then later on, the Statue is described lying on her back on part of Central Park.

There a numerous Fifth Avenue shots during the Statue's march in the actual movie like Trump Tower just barely south of the southeast tip of Central Park. Plus, there is a deleted scene of Ray and Peter debating the route they should take

The slime eclipse sky from City Hall scene shows them looking to an enhanced shot of Central Park South east area but they might have added in some buildings or scenery. By the 30th anniversary 4k Blu-Ray, you can see the Essex House on the far right during the eclipse shot which is at 160 Central Park South. You can clearly read the classic signage on its roof. Although I admit, the shot is wonky and appears to have been salvaged from a vantage point of the deleted Parkview Hospital scene because they had to cobble that City Hall scene deep into post. I'd have to re-examine my notes, but I'm pretty sure it was the shot of Liberty getting ready to hit the dome was two location spliced together, E 68th Street and somewhere else, with model footage in the center.

The exterior day and night shots of the museum I don't recall if they are shown as is the IRL location in Bowling Green or enhanced at all. But all the things I've listed seem to heavily lean to they had a specific location on the Upper East Side in mind.

Alternatively, Booher could have simply mistook Midtown's Museum of Modern Art for the Manhattan Museum of Art.

[Kingpin]

The buildings in the slime eclipse shot are accurate to the view from Central Park West looking out across the park towards 5th Avenue in the distance. And as you noted Michael, the eclipse effects shot was recycled from the deleted Louis/Sherman scene at the hospital.

[mrmichaelt]

An interview with David Booher (will add any tidbits after listen to it)
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show ... wn-e2ho5rq

[mrmichaelt]

5 page preview for Issue #3. The GB2 connections get stronger...
https://popculthq.com/new-this-week-gho ... in-town-3/

[mrmichaelt]

Madame Malveaux's plan is to use her own strain (I guess?) of mood slime to flood the city with ghosts so that people would call on her to speak with their dead relatives again? Ok... But that could account for why they manage to stay in business and FE starts on a bust in 2024 with the Sewer Dragon. Malveaux's efforts did reignite paranormal activity in the city. But presumably she is trapped in #4 but ulp hope she's not one of the ones that escapes the ECU in Fe.

So many bad jokes, lol.

Ah, loved the research stuff with Ray. And he even observed one of Malveaux's seances back in the day. I guess it must have been between GB1 and 2 if he said it was when she had her powers. Neat.

Huhn, so they modified their throwers to make streams from the mood slime crystals to combat Malveaux and her slime. Can't wait to see the reaction to that one.

If that jar is all Ray had left, makes one wonder how he had a jar of mood slime in FE as well as the Engineer Corps having enough for at least one Slime Blower tank a year or so later.

edit: The TPB date changed to 1 week later on November 5.

[RiverofSlime]

So does anyone know if something skewed the release timeline for this series?

I'm a big fan of it so far but I'm confused why the series which was supposed to bridge the two films is wrapping up almost three months after FE came out.

[Chicken, He Clucked]

Yeah would’ve made sense for this to drop last year.

And tbf if the behind the scenes wranglin’ with IDW had worked out, getting Schoening’s art at least would’ve been a huge win.

I stopped buying the individual issues, will just get the compiled release in Nov.

[mrmichaelt]

So does anyone know if something skewed the release timeline for this series?

I'm a big fan of it so far but I'm confused why the series which was supposed to bridge the two films is wrapping up almost three months after FE came out.

Yeah would’ve made sense for this to drop last year.

No official reason was given for why they decided the comic started the same week FE came out on theaters.

We know:
-June 8, 2022: Comic announced.

-June 28, 2022: FE dated for December 20, 2023

-May 2, 2023: Writer's strike starts

-July 28, 2023, FE's theatrical release date was moved to March 29, 2024

-November 16, 2023: Ghostbusters: Back in Town pr starts, says it's four issues. Issue #1 is set to release on March 27, 2024.

Nearly a year and a half between the comic being announced and any new info being released was odd to say the least.

In the Capes & Tights interview with David Booher, he did clarify the credits on #1: Greg Pak did an outline of the story but he wrote the scripts. Speculation hat on, Greg Pak was the original writer hired, strikes start, while Pak has not directed in decades he is in the Director's Guild, perhaps in solidarity with the writer's strike he didn't even want to write comics, left Back in Town, they looked for a replacement, got Booher, but their timeline got bumped up and the comic started later than originally projected.

I agree. Would have made sense for #1 to come out in November 2023, 2 in December, 3 in January, and 4 in February then FE came out in March. And more advertising for the movie to have a canon tie-in comic as a lead-in. Shrug.

[RiverofSlime]

That adds up imo. Good detecting.

If nothing else, something clearly happened on the Dark Horse side. I'm glad we still got the comic though.

[mrmichaelt]

5 page preview for #4.
https://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/3011-0 ... -in-Town-4

[mrmichaelt]

Well, that happened.

The OGs busted a Troll back in the day. Neat.

Nitpick - The Vote Peck poster doesn't make much sense being there as the last election took place closer to the same year Afterlife takes place in unless there was a special election (e.g. mayor stepped down mid term) in 2023 in-universe.

[mrmichaelt]

Nothing in the December solicits so yeah, next mini-series comes out some time in 2025 (but before that the Back in Town trade paperback is out on November 5)