NYGB COMICGUIDE UPDATED (7/4/07)

[Fritz]

One interesting thing about the Marvel UK stories is how much more often they'd not send the whole team out on a case. As most of their stories only run 2 or three pages, this kinda makes some sense--less characters to get in the way of the plot.

FYI: “Tobin’s Spirit!”
Marvel UK and NOW have very different ideas about the man behind the most prominent tool in the Ghostbusting arsenal. In this issue, it’s revealed that Tobin sold his soul to the devil for scientific fame and fortune, using the dark powers to write the Spirit Guide. In NOW’s “Tobin and the Maze of Time” story (RGB vol. 2), Tobin is revealed to have been selected by a group of universal guardians to replace one of their own and chronicle the spirits for all time. He exists within a time vacuum that would allow him to live forever.

...And the GBI game had a third idea, that JH Tobin was an English writer about the turn of the 20th Century who compiled all that information while journeying with a man name Shrewsbury Smith. I'm gonna have to remember this the next time somebody comes on a board saying "But Tobin was real"--"Oh yeah? Then why did the guys doing the books and comics come up with three completely different backstories for him?"

“Winston’s Diary”
Sunday, 2nd October 1988
Peter and Winston answer a call and end up finding a possessed person at the location. The catch? That person is none other than Walter Peck! With Peter refusing to help him, Winston must take on the invading Pollutergeist alone. It seems like a simple task…until the ghost jumps from Peck into his proton pack!

I didn't see a scan of Peck there--how'd he compare to the version seen in the RGB episode "Big Trouble With Little Slimer"?

[ECTO-1]

The reason you didn't see Peck was "Winston's Diary" are all prose stories, so I couldn't tell ya. But, he did come off as big a dick as the movie so at least they got that right. Considering it took place before said ep, I'd think it's a safe assumption the writer was picturing Atherton.

The cover art is typically the art that accompanies those stories, followed by a couple shots of Winston writing or close-ups of his book. Just like with other entries you'll notice that the ghost name is highlighted as usual, yet no image goes with the name because they're prose.

A good indication of which ones are the prose tales for Marvel UK are in the credits. The story that doesn't have every credit spot filled out is the prose one, as indicated by the (# story) that follows each name.

[ECTO-1]

This is the upcoming schedule for the releases of the Marvel UK series pages. This schedule is tentative and subject to change upon addition of new issues or any internal problems.

3/8 - 13 & 18
3/22 - 10 & 19
4/5 - 20 & 21
4/19 - 22 & 23
5/3 - 24 & 26
5/17 - 27, 1989 Annual & Hard Day's Fright
5/31- 36 & 37
6/14 - 38 & 39
6/28 - 40 & 41
7/12 - 42 & 43
7/26 - 44 & 45
8/9 - 46 & 47
8/23 - 48 & 50
9/6 - 53 & 55
9/20 - 56 & 57
10/4 - 58 & 59
10/18 - 61 & 62
11/1 - 63 & 64
11/15 - 65 & 66
11/29 - 67 & 68
12/13 - 69 & 70
12/27 - 71 & 72
1/10 - 73 & 74
1/17 - 76 & 77
1/31 - 78 & 79
2/14 - 80 & 81
2/28 - 1990 Annual & Who Ya Gonna Call?
3/14 - 82 & 83
3/28 - 84 & 85
4/11 - 86 & 87
4/25 - 88 & 90
5/9 - 92 & 94
5/23 - 95 & 96
6/6 - 97 & 98
6/20 - 99 & 100
7/4 - 101 & 102
7/18 - 103 & 105
8/1 - 106 & 113
8/15 - 115 & 118
8/29 - 119 & 120
9/12 - 121 & 122
9/26 - 123 & 124
10/10 - 128 & 132
10/24 - 135 & 136
11/7 - 137 & 139
11/21 - 141 & 142
12/5- 146 & 149

[ghostdiva]

Hey ECTO. Do you think you could provide a scan or text from the Spengler's Spirit Guides? I would be interested in this, just to see what they were like.

[ECTO-1]

Alright, here's one I have handy at the moment:

Spengler's Spirit Guide Part 44:

MONSTERS: SOME FURTHER OBSERVATIONS
Back in Part 31 of the Guide, I ran over a few points about monsters. Then stopped, backed up and apologised. That was an attempt at light relief. Peter says the tone of the guides is not 'humorous' enough and recommended I put in a joke or two. Like that one about running things over, backing up and apologising, which Peter found on page 63 of his Great Gags Yearbook 1903. So I'll try to do as he suggests and drop in the odd piece of levity. And to help, I'll mark each 'gag' or 'joke' with an asterisk, like this *, to make it easy for the readers to spot when I'm 'kidding around'.

Right. here goes again.

Back in part 31, I covered the subject of Monsters in a fair amount of detail. Later, I cleared the detail away, and found the subject underneath*. Meeting up with the monster ape King Kajoo recently reminded me that there were several other pieces of advice I had to pass on to anyone who had thoughts about encountering creatures over, say, forty feet high. Bring you own stepladder, for a start*.

USEFUL TIPS: HOUSEHOLD MONSTERS
Let's say there's a monster in your bathroom. Bo, you've got a big bathroom*. Anyway, you want to take a bath. What should you do? Well, try asking him to wear a blindfold*. Of course he may say he doesn't see much future in that*. In which case you've got an even bigger problem: a monster with a sense of humour. If the monster in the bathroom is making funny noises in its throat then it's definitely a gargoyle*. To get him quiet, tell him he'll wak the sleeping pills in the bathroom cabinet*. Who knows? After some witty banter like that you could end up having a wail of a time!*

USEFUL TIPS: FOOD
It's well known that if you give a monster a plate of chips, he'll eat them with his fingers. And everyboyd knows it's bad manners to eat your fingers with your chips*. If you meet a monster on a Wednesday, it's all right. They only eat people on chewsdays*.

A FALSE ALARM
If you meet something with twenty-two legs and a horn making a loud crunching noise, don't worry. It's not a monster. It's a bus carrying a football team who are eating crisps*.

Excuse me a moment.

LEVITY: A RETRACTION
Go on, Peter.
Do I have to?
Yes.
All right...I, Peter Venkman, do hereby solemnly and publicly swear that I will never again encourage Egon to make jokes during the course of a Spirit Guide, and also I now admit that it was a bad idea in the first place, and I only suggested it because I thought it would be a bit of a giggle for me.
And?
All right! All right! I cross my heart and hope to die and stick a needle in my eye...

NEXT WEEK
That's better. Now then. Next week, I'll be showing you how to get rid of troublesome class 5 infernal beings by way of a simple demon-stration...(*)!

[ghostdiva]

"They gotta' get that boy on Letterman!" Ha ha ha. Did the others have actual useful ghost info or are they basically humorus like this one. I guess what I want to know is do they correlate to the "Spengler's Health and Safety Guides" that we got in the states? Thanks for doing that by the way, I know it was a fair amount of typing.
ghostdiva

[ECTO-1]

Well, some are humorous and some are meant to come off as insightful. Usually they correspond with the theme of the stories in that particular issue. Now, how useful that information actually is, I can't say. I'm sure within the Marvel UK-verse it's important stuff, but probably won't learn anything realistically useful.

I'll also confess I kind of skim over them just to get the basic theme to list, but I may or may not go back to re-read them and give them some FYI/BLOOPER treatment. Haven't decided yet. As short as these stories are, they make up for their page count in quantity so there's a lot of stuff to sift through already.

I was also considering, should there be a demand, to transcribe these guide pages and make them available on the web. Just for kicks. Not sure yet. I'm also missing one so that doesn't help (some of these books are far from pristine).

[ECTO-1]

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Added to the database:

Real Ghostbusters UK #13 & 18.
New FYIs added to RGB vol. 1 #1, 4, 5 & 21, RGB vol. 2 #1 & 4, 1992 Annual & 3-D Special.
New FYIs added to Slimer! #17 & 18.
New FYIs added to RGB2 #1-3.

Coming in two weeks: Real Ghostubsters UK #10 & 19.

[Fritz]

More interesting stuff.

A couple of trivia notes that might be of interest:

RGB Vol.1 #1-2: The four "Travellers" (The Counter Clock Criminals) are named Turek, Cowan, Gard, and Bethany according to the recap in RGB#2. The problem is that they don't definitively establish which name belongs with which (though I think we can make a pretty solid guess with Bethany...) If we presume they're named left to right in the picture, Cowan's the leader with the glasses, Turek's the one with the thick curly reddish hair, Gard's the tall one with the goatee, and Bethany is, well, the one you'd expect.

And a possibly FYI for the 3-D Slimer Special: It was the last Ghostbuster comic book published in the United States until 88MPH's Ghostbusters Legion #1 in 2004

[ECTO-1]

Didn't I put that? Oops. I'll throw that in.

And didn't realize #2 named them (wonder how I missed it?). Since I trust your judgement, I'll throw those names up until James Van Hise or someone from NOW corrects me.

[ECTO-1]

Done and done, thanks, Fritz.

[ECTO-1]

Added to the database:

RGB UK #10 & 19.
New FYI to Slimer! #17.

Coming in two weeks:

RGB UK #20 & 21.

[ECTO-1]

Added to the database:

Real Ghostbusters UK #20 & 21.

Coming in two weeks:

Real Ghostbusters UK #22 & 23.

[Fritz]

“Hair Today…Egon Tomorrow!”
The story that explains Egon’s change from brown hair in the movies to blonde in the RGB-verse.

Funny idea, except that "Citizen Ghost", "Egon's Dragon", "Three Men And An Egon", and "If I Were A Witch Man" strongly imply he's always looked like that in the RGB universe. But I guess they get a few credits for trying...

Gee, did they ever do a story to explain why Ray's hair somehow got reddish?

[ECTO-1]

Heh not yet. Although, I wonder if the "magic mushrooms" in that story were signifying something else... Hmmmmmmm.