UK and Slimer comics

I think they started those in 1988 and nobody is 100% sure how many issues they had (ECTO-1 has slots for 193, but there is still some doubt about the exact number) and I'm not sure how long that was time-wise.

I admit one problem I had with including them in the Timeline was, simply, I didn't have very many of those--I didn't even have all of the stories Now reprinted, because I didn't have all the Slimer! comics--and that fact that some of them showed some glaring defiiciencies in continuity with the actual RGB cartoons. Things like actually explaining why Egon looks different from Harold Ramis, but in the cartoons they establish he's always looked like that. Venkman having a telepathic link with Slimer. And the King Remils origin for Slimer that's just too stupid for words. They even screw up a movie reference by referring to Gozer as Zuul.

ectozone.proboards31.com/index.cgi?board=www&action=display&thread=1123166802 for more on the UK comics.

There are a lot of stories that probably could be put in easily, though. A lot of them could classify as little more than "zap and trap" jobs that could've taken place at any time between late 1988 and the breakup in 1991.



As mentioned, I don't have all of those, and there are, again, some wierd stuff in those. Issue#3 with Professor Dweeb was actually kind of funny, but it had the Junior Ghostbusters in it and I admit I hate them with a passion (as do many other RGB fans). Another one I have has Egon inventing the "Dr. Jeckyl formula" in a rather blase fashion.

I don't totally ignore Slimer!--I actually used Professor Dweeb in my stories,, sorta, though he underwent some extensive retooling. "Don't Tease the Sleaze" has been accepted as semicanonical due to "The Slob" llogical Reaction implies the existance of the singing ice cream lady. Ghost Stories establishes the fussy manager of the Sedgewick in the movie to indeed be named Morton P. Grout, and implies the existance of Bud, the stoned-out bellhop.

I guess, again, most of it just ends up being too silly and/or too inconsequential




Here's the deal:

Ghostbusters: The Return was written without continuity with the cartoons in mind. The official word is that it takes place "Two years after GB2", which in our terms would be 1991. Taken at face value, that presents several problems with the overall continuity that had already been established:

1. Due to EGB, it's practically impossible that Venkman and Winston could have been mayor of New York.

2. Janine is still seen dating Louis Tully. Due to RGB#16, "The Ghostbusters Live From Al Capone's Tomb", and "Janine You've Changed" we know by 1991 Janine and Louis are very over and she's dating Egon.

3. The Ghostbusters break up in either 1991 or early 1992, per EGB.

Then there's one more thing: there's no Mayoral election in 1991 in the Real World. That's the least of the considerations, I admit, but still a concern.

If I were to include The Return I would actually place it in 1989. There was a real mayoral election that year (David Dinkins was elected to replace retiring mayor Ed Koch). Instead of being the incumbent, Arnie Lapinski would be the Republican nominee to succeed Democrat Lenny Clotch (Lenny basically is Ed Koch, especially in the cartoons, where he sorta looks like him). Venkman would have to lose the election to Lapinski, though (and Lapinski would in turn be challened and defeated in 1993 by Edwin MacShayne, the EGB mayor). And the idea that Janine's relationship with Louis would be fading by this point actually already fits the book, where she blows off going to a mayoral debate with him to help Egon with the case.

Thing is, that would still mean doing a lot of changes to the book's continuity, and I haven't exactly encountered a wide swell of support to doing that.

Thanks for your thoughtful questions, though. And welcome to the Ectozone.

Thanks guys I appreciate your help.

Updating the Fact List is something that's been mentioned from time to time, but we never seem to get around to it. At one point we even thought of expanding it to include the EGB characters.

As far as the name Evangelean goes, I did float one idea to the other GBOT writers: we have that be the name of Winston's sister, the one mentioned in "Back In The Saddle". If they don't stop me that "fact" will be established in an upcoming story.

In the GBI Timeline I offer the revamp of the Tobin concept that changes the guy recruited in Alexandria to Carthio (it sounds like a very Greco-Roman name to me); he is lost/died/destroyed in the early 1920's so the Council of Eight recruits John Horace Tobin, who did indeed (according to the GBI game books) vanish mysteriously in 1924. That Tobin is the one the Ghostbusters meet in 1991, and is apparently killed.

We did send some of it to the writers and editors when 88MPH and iBooks had their material in production; some of it couldn't be used because of licensing issues (Sony apparently considers movie-based Ghostbusters and RGB to be technically seperate properties) but a few things snuck in, like iBooks mentioning Winston's dad as being in construction, which was from the RGB episode "The Brooklyn Triangle"

Still, it's something we will undoubtedly keep in mind if we get more concrete evidence that new stuff is actually going to be produced.

That actually changed--in the earliest versions of the Timeline, before I ever posted it and it was nothing but a diversion I kept on my hard drive, I roughly placed it alongside the seasons that were running as it was published.

#1-3 were put in the 1987 ABC season, late 1985( considered either Season 2 or 3), as the came out before the 1988 season began.

#4-14 were placed in the 1988 ABC season (Season 3 or 4), 1986.

#15-27 were in the 1989 season, as #16 and #17 were clearly after GB2 (in #16 Egon and Janine argue about her flirting with Louis, and Louis appears in #17) As with the cartoon, there was no real sense of a break in the action (established by GB2) and the comic didn't even have the season divisions to help make the break; so setting #14 as before GB2 and #15 after, when they came out a month apart as normal, was a bit arbitrary, aside from #15 beginning the story arc that included Louis.

#28 was the only one in the 1990 season (5 or 6); the comic went on hiatus for nearly a year as Now restructured and fought off bankruptcy; by the time Vol 2 started, the cartoon was in Season 6 or 7 (1991) and the stories were placed there. Vol.2 are the only ones that didn't get moved.

I moved them when, rereading #1, I noticed a specific mention of 1988, and then the fact that #15-18 clearly take place just before Halloween. That would have to be Halloween 1989, but not on it ("The Halloween Door" takes place exactly on October 31, and #17 does have Egon mention Halloween is "next week").

So with that in mind it made more sense to me to go ahead and say that the reference in #1 to 1988 could be literally true--just say the Counter Clock Criminal incident is during the GB2 montage--and move everything else to, more or less, the same time the story was actually published. Other than eliminating the serendipity of having "Janine You've Changed" and RGB#28 being close together, I think it worked out better that way.

(Oh for one of those "Combine Topic" buttons like on vBulletin--this stuff would be great for the Timeline thread...)

I'm trying to figure out what you're asking...do you mean when the Slimer comics and RGB comics came out in relation to each other, independant of whether RGB was running a multi-part story?

If so, it works like this: The Slimer comics came out the same month as the RGB vol.1 issue with a number 8 issues higher. Slimer #1 came out the same month as RGB#9, Slimer#2--RGB#10, ect. up to Slimer #19, the last issue, which came the same month as RGB#27.

If that isn't what you're asking I need more clarification, because I'm not understanding the question.

please take your time if you need to. if u still dont understand my question I can try to rephrase it.