The Real Ghostbusters NOW Comics was a monthly comic book series published by NOW Comics that continued the adventures of the team from The Real Ghostbusters animated show. Built around the cartoon's character designs rather than the film likenesses, the title carried writer James Van Hise and artist John Tobias among its creative talent, and it ran for 32 issues across two volumes before ending unfinished.
The series brought back many of the supporting faces from the show and introduced new ones of its own (fresh, for the dead). Its fortunes tracked the cartoon's: as interest in the animated series cooled, so did sales, and the comic was eventually cut short.
Beyond the commercial adventures, the series was also notable for featuring fan pages that showcased some of the most well-regarded figureheads of the Ghosthead community during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Publication history
NOW Comics produced the title in the traditional monthly format. The line drew on the popularity of the cartoon, and the comic carried over the show's animated versions of Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler, Winston Zeddemore, Janine Melnitz, and Slimer.
As the comic's popularity slipped in step with the declining cartoon, production suffered. A number of later issues were never fully coloured, and the run ended on a cliffhanger that was never resolved. During this period the title also reprinted stories that had first appeared in the Marvel UK Real Ghostbusters comic, and it reused cover artwork from that British counterpart.