Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles / Ghostbusters
by Erik Burnham & Tom Waltz; ill. Dan Schoening (IDW, 2015)
Ho-hum. There’s nothing wrong with this multiverse crossover, as such, but neither set of protagonists benefits greatly from the interaction. The Turtles do ninja things. The ghostly menace is a bog-standard Class 7, contained as per usual. Murky art, underlit action scenes.
Ghostbusters 101: Everyone Answers the Call
by Erik Burnham; ill. Dan Schoening (IDW, 2017)
101 brings two dimensions together and so therefore the male and female Ghostbusters. The idea is neat but the story is plodding, weighed down by superfluous minor characters and half-funny, cutting-room-floor dialogue. The likenesses, off-puttingly, convey almost nothing of the original actors.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
dir. Jason Reitman (2021)
Afterlife claims to be ‘based on’ the script for the original Ghostbusters film. It does indeed reprise many elements, but succeeds on the strength of its newness—in particular the decision to base everything around Spengler’s granddaughter (played superbly by Mckenna Grace).
Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History
by Daniel Wallace (Insight, 2015)
In posing the question ‘how did all those iconic visuals come to be’, this hefty hardcover provides a comprehensive behind-the-scenes chronicle not only of the making of the original Ghostbusters films (primarily), but also of the two animated series and other spinoffs.
Pixels
dir. Chris Columbus (2015)
Panned seemingly for not being Ghostbusters, Pixels in fact evokes much of the frivolous filmmaking fun so prevalent in the 1980s. When space invaders show up for real, Earth’s fate rests in the knob-twiddling hands of underachieving ex-gamers. What could be better?