Broken Frontier

Growing up, I was a huge fan of both movies and the original cartoon series.  I was even a fan of the sequel cartoon, Extreme Ghostbusters.  However, with news of the upcoming movie slowly trickling out to the public, I recently re-watched the movies and the shows.  The movies, I found, were a lot more adult than I remember.  The shows, on the other hand, were childish and corny, not as edgy and exciting as I remember.  Still, the cast had chemistry and the adventures were fun.  Aside from nostalgia, that dynamic is probably the biggest draw of the series today.  Ghostbusters: Con-Volution brings that dynamic back in full-force, without the Saturday morning slapstick. 

Ghostbusters: Con-Volution keeps the pure spirit of the franchise alive.  Artist Josh Howard does an incredible job of capturing the subtleties in figure drawing and body language.  The likenesses of the characters haven’t remained completely consistent, but it’s very easy to tell which character is which.  That’s an incredible achievement.  Keith Dallas and Jim Beard do a great job of characterizing the Ghostbusters through dialogue and actions as well. 

Dallas and Beard have a very pure sense of humor which suits the series perfectly.  It’s not overly corny, and is actually delivered pretty organically.  While the movies focused mostly on Peter Venkman, the eccentric and wildly inappropriate one, this issue focuses on Ray Stantz, the dorky and lovable Ghostbuster.  This fits perfectly with the tone of the book.

The story panders to geeks, and does it well.  It captures and addresses all aspects of big conventions, which is where this issue takes place.  Creators, vendors, cosplayers, sketches, panels—this book has it all.  Dallas and Beard’s version of Ray’s character is so lovable and relatable to the target reader. 

The most interesting thing about this comic is that while these are the Ghostbusters, they don’t really do much ghost busting.  It is, put simply, a comic about the team, and not the job.  For most of the issue, the guys aren’t even in uniform.  When they finally do get dressed up, it’s after they take it off fans that are cosplaying.  Those scenes were especially fun.  They address something that I’ve always thought was funny, which is that people often spend more money on making their costumes accurate than the actual characters would have spent putting their uniforms together.  Anyway, without their equipment, the Ghostbusters rely on talking and posturing, which is something they’ve always been good at.  Finally, at the end of the story, a comic book creator returned from the dead to fight off the demon with his art and imagination.  It’s a strong and thoughtful tribute to art, artists, and the Ghostbusters.  All-around fantastic.