Put some gas in the Ecto-1 and fire up your proton packs, the Ghostbusters are finally back in business, accepting requests, and ready to help with your paranormal needs in IDW Publishing's "Ghostbusters: The Other Side," set to hit stores in October. And now we've got your first look at the upcoming series from writer Keith Champagne and artist Tom Nguyen who together have crafted a story that pits the four heroes against a slew of new boogeymen out to terrorize New York.
Well, make that old boogeymen, Champagne explained in an interview with MTV News, revealing that the first issue would see bad guys made out of wise guys. "Lucky Luciano, Bugsy Seigal, Meyer Lansky, and Al Capone," Champagne said. "Ghosts [that] were the types of guys that -- while alive -- weren't shy about hitting first."
You can glimpse the four tommy gun holding made men in the cover, revealed exclusively here on MTV's Splash Page along with the first art.
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More interesting than who they fight, however, might very well be when they fight, as in "when in the continuity of the series does the comic pick up?"
"Directly after the second movie," Champagne revealed, his answer exposing the fact that this is the closest we'll ever get to a real "Ghostbusters" sequel.
"So we're back about '89 or '90. The decade isn't important so much as picking up with these characters before they were watered down in so many different incarnations between now and then. The Ghostbusters are flying high in the aftermath of defeating Gozer and Vigo. Enough so that the gang has caught the attention--and the ire--of a quartet of Ghosts that realize the Ghostbusters are getting a little too big for their britches, that the gang could become a threat to these particular ghosts way of un-life. And these ghosts look at guys like Gozer and Vigo as pansy ballerinas, and they decide to get rid of the Ghostbusters before the Ghostbusters can get rid of them."
Enter Capone, Seigal, et all. Exit the Ghostbusters themselves. Wait, what?
"Did I mention that the Ghostbusters all die at the end of the first issue?" Champagne teased, hinting at future trips to the afterlife, Dante's "Inferno" as told by Bill Murray. "For real."
The death of the Ghostbusters (for a little while, anyway), is indicative of a darker approach to the material, Champagne insisted, emphatically stating that his series would never devolve into the types of stories told by the animated series, what Champagne called "Slimer, accompanied by his pals, the Ghostbusters."
"I can't be thankful enough for that -- for no Slimer," exclaimed Champage. "The way the parameters of this series were described to me was to push the boundaries of a PG-13 movie and not aim the story at kids the way some of the other Ghostbuster stuff has been in the past. There's plenty of humor here but there's also some darker themes and real character development in the place of green slime."
The focus squarely on the four Ghostbusters themselves, there will also be no Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), no Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), either, Champagne said.
"It's just a real back-to-basics approach to the property. It's a different kind of adventure for the team, part adventure, part hard boiled crime drama, plenty of comedy," Champagne asserted. "But the focus is squarely back on the characters we all loved growing up. Which is where it should be."
"The Ghostbusters" comic comes to shops in October.
What do you think? Like the cover? Think the storyline is an intriguing one? What about Champagne's plans to kill all the Ghostbusters, and follow them around in the afterlife? Sound off on your thoughts below!
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