Phantom Menace
Dark Horse miniseries sets the scene for the new Ghostbusters blockbuster
WHILE THEY’RE ALREADY ensconced in the Ghostbusters’ iconic firehouse in the upcoming Frozen Empire, new comic series Back In Town begins with the Spenglers having just relocated from Oklahoma to the Big Apple.
“The great part about Back In Town is that it kind of straddles both existing and new parts of this world,” says writer David Booher. “It’s set between Afterlife and Frozen Empire and it follows the Spenglers now that they’re back in New York. But we’ve gotten the freedom to tell a standalone story, so you’ll see hints of the movies and you’ll also see fun new ghouls and new facets of the Spenglers.”
“What I found particularly interesting was the way the new series was reintroducing New York City, which was such a fundamental element of the original films,” adds artist Blue Delliquanti. “But because these characters aren’t familiar with the city or the firehouse the way the original crew was, I tried to treat those settings as worthy of a reintroduction.”
WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE
While according to Booher “they’ve been involved in the scripts right from the start,” both he and Delliquanti liaised constantly with Jason Reitman and his co-screenwriter/frozen Empire’s director Gil Kenan. “They were helpful in sending me the reference materials I needed to draw the interior of the Ghostbusters’ firehouse – especially the big two-page spread in the first issue where you see every room dollhousestyle,” says Delliquanti.
“I had architectural diagrams and behind-thescenes photos of all of the rooms, and there were a lot of fun details that went into the new crew’s work on the firehouse that I tried to include in the background.”
Delliquanti was also provided with details of the various Ghostbusters paraphernalia, including their classic car, the Ectomobile. But that wasn’t enough... “I received photos of the car on the set of the new film so I could study the details, but if I wanted to draw it from an unusual angle I looked up Lego models built and displayed by fans over the years, which let me be a little braver with the composition,” he adds. The artist found capturing the numerous likenesses a different kind of challenge. “I wanted them to be recognisable as the actors playing them, but I’m also simplifying and exaggerating them to make them more expressive in the comics format – so Phoebe’s got a lot of soft, round features while Trevor’s angular and all arms and legs. The legacy characters are easier to make recognisable because they’ve already got their distinctive features – Gary [Paul Rudd] was surprisingly the most difficult!”
Menaced by an entity that in Booher’s words “wants to see them fail as a team and as a family”, the four-parter finds Phoebe, Trevor and their mother struggling to cope with their newfound situation.
“There’s a lot of adjustments that come with moving to a new home, and everybody in the Spengler family has their own challenges to deal with!” teases Delliquanti.
Ghostbusters: Back In Town issue one is out on 27 March.