Ectozone Art Updates

[Fritz]

Next up down the stretch is the PPE cover I've marked Ghostbusters No.3, and it's the first of five portrait covers: This one features Dr. Peter Venkman, played in the movies by Bill Murray and voiced in the cartoons by Lorenzo Music (who was great at it) and later by Dave Coulier (who did a lame Bill Murray impression and sounded about 30 IQ points dumber than either Murray or Music)

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The profile cover has two parts: the large portrait of the character in civilian clothes (this being the sweat shirt and pants Venkman often wore in the animation) then an action scene. The next three profile covers will also be in this format.

Venkman, being a bit skittish around bugs (ie "Drool the Dog Faced Goblin", "Janine You're Changed") I thought the fun thing to do would be to have him facing off against some giant bugs. I don't have the best photo processing programs (something called ULead Photo Express that came with my cheap scanner) but I think the proton beam came out pretty decently.

And if any of the giant bugs happen to look familiar, that's a complete coincidence.

[Fritz]

Ghostbusters No.4 is the portrait cover of Dr. Ray Stantz, played in the movies by Dan Aykroyd and voiced in the animation by Frank Welker (it's easier to name the cartoons Frank Welker hasn't done, but I'll say probably his most famous role was Fred in Scooby Doo and leave it at that)

www.deviantart.com/deviation/24632078/

The large portrait features Ray (as with Venkman) in an off-duty outfit used often in the animation. In the action shot, he's throwing a trap and facing off against some ghosts that, if you think are familiar looking, you must be mistaken (lol). It was this picture that made me most think about not putting on the spots where UPC codes would go on a real cover--the trap came out so well (I haven't drawn a movie style trap all that often) I hated to cover it up with the box, but there was nowhere it could go that wouldn't work any better.

As usual I got Ray in with work gloves and ecto-goggles. I realize that between the gloves, the tucked-in pants, and the tan flight suit, the only way to tell if it's supposed to be GB1/"Citizen Ghost" Ray or RGB Ray is the brown collar. And I do like to draw him with a cigarette--it's a bad habit, but he smoked like a chimney in the first movie.

[Miss Janine]

Cool! Who's next, Egon or Winston? Or Janine?

[Fritz]

Ghostbusters No. 5 features Winston Zeddemore, the too-often "forgotten" member of the Ghostbusters. He was played in the movies by Ernie Hudson, and on TV by Arsenio Hall. When Arsenio left to start his talk show, he was replaced by Buster Jones (by far the least inferior replacement, as Dave Coulier and Kath Soucie sucked ass at their roles)

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Winston is seen in the shirt and jeans he often wore in the animation, and in his action shot he's fighting some sort of grabby eyeball thing. Unlike some of the previous monsters, this one's pretty much something I threw together just for this picture--there's no in-joke that nobody's guessed yet.

[EGBFan]

Oh dear - it's a while since I commented here. Sorry. Well, these look great. Cool idea. Did you, um, get your inspiration from somewhere else, Fritz? Only I'm sure this latest series of pics reminds me of something - I just can't think what. Anyway. I particularly like the, um, "grabby eyeball thing" - I think that's cool.

[Miss Janine]

No in-joke (that I'd probably miss, anyway)? ;D

Egon's next!!

Love the covers, btw. Each GB gets his (or her) moment to shine!

[Fritz]

Ghostbusters No.6 is the final member of the famous team, Dr. Egon Spengler. Played in the movie by Harold Ramis, and voiced brilliantly in the cartoon by Maurice LaMarche, he ended up becoming my favorite of the four. LaMarche's performance combined with (what I percieve anyway) as some regard for the character by RGB's first and best story editor, J. Micheal Straczynski, took the broad outlines from the movie and moved him far beyond the "mad scientist" cliches.

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A major part of that was the decision not to have Dana Barrett in the cartoon: since Egon's love interest, Janine Melnitz, was in the cartoon, it made Egon, in a weird way, the show's romantic lead. More on some of that stuff next week, when cover #7 comes out, featuring Janine.

Egon's portrait is a little different from the other three Ghostbusters in that it's an outfit that doesn't come directly from the animation--it's my own little whimsical look, which I "establish" for the present day Egon in my fan fictions, a bit of a combination of the anachronistic look Egon had in the animation, the more formal outfits favored in the movies, and just a dash of..well, what I can only call, "What if Doctor Who regenerated into Egon Spengler?"

The action shot features him looking at his meter, as usual, with a particullarly unusual monster following him; a creature I sort of "re-imagined" from one seen in the animation, The Master of Shadow ("Slimer, Is That You?") to make him a little, well, shadowier.

[Miss Janine]

That's one of the best Egons I think you've ever done! (And you do SUCH good artwork!!!) And he's wearing my two favorite colors, blue and purple. *drools*

Can't wait for Janine! Too bad a button that says "I (heart) Egon" isn't her style...or is it...? ;D

[SuperStantzio]

That was so cool. Keep up the good work!

[Fritz]

Ghostbusters No.7 completes the set of portrait cover designs with the Ghostbusters' ever-efficient secretary and the most worthy holder of the "Unofficial Fifth Ghostbuster" title (since the other contenders are Slimer and Louis Tully, she wins easily). Played in the movies by Annie Potts, she's the only one to have had three different animated voices: Laura Summer, who kicked ass in the role; Kath Soucie, who sucked ass in the role; and Pat Musick, who did the part for Extreme Ghostbusters, and did almost as well as Summer (the character was older and more mellow that Laura Summer's version, but still had ten times the personality as Soucie's).

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A big part of the problem were the vast difference in the portrayals: at first Janine was like no other female character in American cartoons at the time: gutsy, abraisive, and not afraid to insult or fight with her bosses and the ghosts if necessary. At the same time, her awkward budding romance with Egon Spengler was by turns touching and hilarious...I simply consider them one of my favorite couples in all of fiction. (I've been getting ready for quite some time to tell the story of their wedding in my fan fic universe; that story will be released very soon)

Then the ABC executives stepped in and had the character lobotomized into just another dime a dozen "Mommy Figure", and Harold Ramis added insult to injury by turning her into a desperate ho in Ghostbusters 2...thank goodness for J. Micheal Stracynski and James Van Hise, who fixed both problems as best they could in "Janine You've Changed" and the RGB comic book.

The main profile part is, like Egon, an outfit not directly from the animation, but used in some of my fan fics--it's an attempt to make her look just a tad more professional without sacrificing her distinct sense of style. Unlike the actual Ghostbusters, the "Action shot" doesn't feature her in uniform busting ghosts, it's a nice work pose (with an outfit and jacket that <i>were</i> in the animation, though not together)

If it was an action shot, Janine would be in the flight suit seen in Now's RGB#22: it's the same blue as Egon's, but with orange trim. I sure as hell wouldn't use that vomitous pink thing.

[Miss Janine]

Just came back from looking through the art (especially the families) when this thought hit me: It just seemed weird that the couple who was the most "meant to be" was the last couple to actually have kids. Although they were also the last couple to actually marry...

[Fritz]

That's all EGBs fault. Since the others only appeared for two episodes, and not much was said one way or the other about their personal lives, we essentially said "Just because they didn't say anything about getting married and having kids doesn't mean they didn't" (we put some of the "off camera" conversations of that sort into "Dreams Reborn").

But unfortunately, EGB did say Egon and Janine weren't married as of 1997. We all know that that would've been the one thing I would've changed first if I'd been in a position to say so when the show was being developed.

[Miss Janine]

Yeah. You said that once before, how having them married would have meant a couple of episodes would have had to be rewritten, and that you still had Kylie and Eduardo for the tension. Would that have been a first- a married couple on a cartoon series?

[Fritz]

The only ones I can think of are inherited from comic books:

--Reed and Sue Richards in the various iterations of Fantastic Four. There was one version in the 1970's that would predate even RGB.

--I do seem to recall Scott Summers and Jean Grey getting married "for real" in later seasons of the 90's X-men cartoon (the first time was a false alarm, because Mr. Sinister in disguise officiated the ceremony. I think it would've been before EGB came out.

Other than that, none I can think of. There are comic book couples married in the comics but not in their cartoons (ie Superman and Lois Lane)

[Kingpin]

Woah... that pic of Janine was unexpected.

Do I sense a little bit of nose rubbing? ;D