That Time When The Real Ghostbusters Fought Vigo The Carpathian

Ghostbusters II was one of the movies that made the summer of 1989 a great time to be a teenager. And while I enjoyed seeing it in the theater, the return of the slime guys was mainly eclipsed by the Bat-signal a week later and poor reviews from film critics like Siskel and Ebert. I’m sure most Ghostheads now 30 years later would agree that the original film is their favorite, but the sequel still holds a great deal of value.

I’ve only started collecting comic books over the past 5 years and some of my favorites are movie adaptations. Once I discovered the 3-issue Ghostbusters II adaptation, I was really excited to get my hands on them. While I already knew the story, the “real” reason I wanted the books was that it starred the characters from The Real Ghostbusters animated series! This was really unique to me as I had only seen something comparable once before. The 1987 Masters of the Universe: The Motion Picture adaptation starred the cartoon version of He-man and not Dolph Lungren from the film.

The reason behind using The Real Ghostbusters instead of their movie counterparts was two fold. Since NOW Comics was already producing TRG comics and there were licensing problems with Bill Murray’s likeness, the animated versions of Ray, Winston, Peter, and Egon were an easy choice. And if the aspect of mashing up cartoons with live action isn’t enough, the comic book adaptation also has an unexpected benefit…scenes that weren’t in the movie!

James Van Hise wrote the 3-issue Ghostbusters II series based on the shooting script of the film. Several small scenes that were cut from the movie for whatever the reason, appear in the comics. We get to see Dana wish Peter good luck before the trial, Ray driving like a maniac in Ecto-1 after gazing into Vigo’s painting, and Lewis attempting to bust Slimer at the firehouse. And speaking of Dana, her appearance in this comic series is unique to The Real Ghostbusters as she never appeared in the animated series.

While I still love watching Ghostbusters II, reciting the lines, and listening to Bobby Brown’s “On Our Own”, the comic book series is definitely one of my favorite movie to comic adaptions to date. If you want to dive in further, you can read it now online thanks to GBFans Wiki.