Extreme Ghostbusters
Kylie's fascination with the paranormal traces back to a traumatic childhood event. In 1987, when she was a child, her only close friend was a seven-year-old boy named Jack. A Grundel sought her out, but she was strong enough to resist its influence; it turned its attention to Jack instead, and Jack went missing and was never found. No one believed her account of what happened, and she repressed the memory for a decade. Her backstory mirrors Egon Spengler's own childhood encounter with the Boogieman, and may have shaped her drive to study the supernatural.
Her family circumstances changed further when her parents divorced, a detail revealed in the episode "Grease." She grew close to her Great Grandmother Rose, who died sometime in 1996. After Rose's death, Kylie moved into her own apartment, where she lives with her cat, Pagan. She enrolled in Egon's Paranormal 101 course at the university, eventually becoming a "Brainiac" with deep scientific interest in the occult, which led to her joining the new Ghostbusters team.
In the team, Kylie takes on the role of paranormal expert whenever Egon is not present and is the team's primary ghost trap operator. Her equipment differs from the rest of the team: rather than a full-sized proton pack, she carries a compact proton pistol powered by a small pack attached to her belt, and she wears the ghost trap as a backpack. This gives her a completely different silhouette from the other Ghostbusters. While other team members used the trap on occasion (notably Eduardo Rivera and Garrett Miller in "Sonic Youth" and Roland Jackson in "The Infernal Machine"), Kylie remains the team's primary trap handler. Her calm, measured exterior frequently puts her at odds with Eduardo's brashness, and their ongoing love-hate dynamic runs throughout the series. She is depicted as the team's "goth" member, recognizable by black hair and dark lipstick.
Her repressed childhood trauma resurfaced when she encountered Jack again, now a Grundel. She confided in Roland, and together they disobeyed direct orders not to open the Containment Unit in order to interrogate the original Grundel. The situation escalated when the Grundel enthralled Casey Jackson, Roland's younger brother; the original Grundel then confronted Kylie alone and planned to torture her. Roland returned in time and they trapped the Grundel together. In a separate episode set in an alternate future, Kylie is shown to have become a revered rebel leader. A Time Slip stranded her in that future, and she fulfilled the role she had been prophesied to play before returning to her own time.
Kylie also functions as the most visible point of contrast between the nihilistic sensibility of the late 1990s and the more optimistic spirit of the original films and the 1980s animated series.
IDW Comics
Kylie Griffin was the first Extreme Ghostbusters character to cross into IDW Publishing's ongoing Ghostbusters comic series, first appearing in Issue #5 of the ongoing. In this continuity, she is not initially a field Ghostbuster: Ray Stantz hired her to manage Ray's Occult Books, a job she took to help pay her way through college. She proved valuable as a researcher, organizing the store and increasing its profits while providing the team with research support from older texts.
Her role expanded significantly when the original Ghostbusters were abducted by demonic forces. Walter Peck kept her on the team because of her thorough vetting by PCOC and her extensive paranormal research credentials. In the ensuing investigation, she identified the Collectors as the responsible demons, trapped Gareth Dibello in Central Park, conducted research at Parkview Psychiatric Hospital on Janosz Poha, and ultimately helped drive a wedge between Janosz and the possessing entity Idulnas, contributing to the original team's rescue.
After the original team returned, Kylie remained an active member of the extended Ghostbusters operation, working frequently alongside Peter Venkman on busts. She piloted the Marine Ecto-8, co-authored a paper on bogeyman-related manifestations published by the Parapsychological Journal of North America, conducted investigations in Puerto Rico, Ireland, Japan, and the Midwest, and at one point was teleported to Tokyo alongside Janine Melnitz after Proteus retaliated against the team. The IDW version of Kylie has an eidetic memory, and she is known for her lack of patience with colleagues who underestimate her skills.
She dresses somewhat less severely than her Extreme Ghostbusters counterpart, though her sharp personality and intense interest in the paranormal remain intact.
In Volume 2 of the IDW series, Kylie became one of the "New Ghostbusters," suiting up in a flight suit. On the covers for Issue #1, she is depicted wearing a uniform in the colors Ray Stantz wears in The Real Ghostbusters. She also hired her friend Eduardo Rivera to watch over Ray's Occult when she was out on busts, maintaining a nod to her Extreme Ghostbusters counterpart's dynamic with Eduardo.
During the Ghostbusters Crossing Over crossover event, the IDW Kylie participated in the multiverse-spanning operation, working alongside the Extreme Ghostbusters and meeting the 68-E version of herself. In that encounter, the two Kylies found each other largely agreeable and even finished each other's sentences when expressing skepticism about spreading dimensional portal technology.
Personality
Kylie is portrayed as highly intelligent with deep expertise in the occult, witchcraft, seances, and paranormal phenomena. She reads widely in her field: in Extreme Ghostbusters she has read Spengler's Spirit Guide cover-to-cover six times, and in IDW she draws regularly on texts ranging from Tobin's Spirit Guide to obscure regional grimoires. She holds deep respect for those she considers knowledgeable, particularly Egon Spengler and Ray Stantz. Early in Extreme Ghostbusters she is in awe of Egon, though the dynamic gradually shifts to a more equal footing over the course of the series.
Her working style is no-nonsense, and she takes paranormal threats more seriously than many of her teammates, in part because of her childhood trauma with the Grundel. She maintains a running love-hate dynamic with Eduardo Rivera that is a consistent source of tension and humor, with an underlying romantic element. She gets along better with Garrett Miller than with Eduardo, though Garrett's habit of calling her "Vampira" after the cult-classic horror TV host irritated her. She works well with Roland Jackson and frequently defends him against self-criticism. She is comfortable around Janine Melnitz, amused by Peter Venkman's approval of her take-charge attitude, and tolerant of Slimer, though not fond of him sliming her books.
A sampling of notable character details from Extreme Ghostbusters: she likes Nine Inch Nails; her favorite play is Macbeth; she is afraid of maggots; she attended junior high in New Jersey where she was Cheerleader of the Year in eighth grade; she took one semester of French; she claims she is not a laugher but is ticklish; she dreamed about Christian Slater; and her only wish is to be reunited with her Great Grandmother Rose. She was named after pop singer Kylie Minogue.
Voice and design
Kylie is voiced by Tara Charendoff, who is credited under that name in Extreme Ghostbusters. She married Craig Strong on May 14, 2000, and has since worked professionally as Tara Strong. Her extensive career includes Bubbles in The Powerpuff Girls, Twilight Sparkle in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Raven in Teen Titans, and Ben Tennyson in Ben 10, among many other roles.
Kylie was not part of the original concept for Extreme Ghostbusters. Designer Fil Barlow's initial sketch for the series featured three female characters: Lucy, a Goth character, and a "Troubled" third. Executive Producer Richard Raynis rejected the Troubled character because it coincidentally resembled a family member of his. He liked the Goth character and pushed to develop her further, wanting her to be diminutive in build. The original costume design for Kylie was rejected during development but was later repurposed as one of her civilian outfits in the finished series. The weapon she was originally armed with, a suction device designed by Matthew Brady (an artist on Barlow's team), was repurposed as the design for the proton packs in the Trendmasters Extreme Ghostbusters Classics: Action Figures toy line.
In 1996, Barlow prepared Kylie's main model pack while still working in Australia, including character expressions to assist the animators. There was initial resistance from Sony storyboard artists when they first had to work with Kylie as a character, but that resistance had dissipated by the end of the season.
Kylie's distinctive equipment loadout, a belt-mounted proton pistol pack in place of the standard backpack configuration, makes her one of the more unique cosplay and prop-building subjects from Extreme Ghostbusters. Her silhouette is recognizably different from the original four Ghostbusters, which appeals to builders looking to represent the EGB era distinctly.
In Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, the Glam Griffin hairstyle added in the DLC #2 update is based directly on Kylie's hair, and the Extremely Safe top is modeled on the torso armor she wears in the series.
Kylie also appeared as an unlockable character in Cryptozoic Entertainment's Ghostbusters: The Board Game crowdfunding campaign. The Kylie Griffin and Pagan stretch goal was introduced on February 20, 2015, at the $700,000 funding tier, and was unlocked on February 22, 2015. Her character card lists employee ID number 222 78 0512.
References
- Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), animated television series, Sony Pictures Television
- IDW Publishing, Ghostbusters ongoing series, Volumes 1-3
- IDW Publishing, Ghostbusters: Get Real
- IDW Publishing, Ghostbusters Annual 2017, Ghostbusters Annual 2018
- IDW Publishing, Ghostbusters Crossing Over
- IDW Publishing, Ghostbusters 101
- Cryptozoic Entertainment, Ghostbusters: The Board Game (2015)
