Last Sunday, I found a used copy of
Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted, a licensed OEL manga from Tokyopop: thus, a series of columns examining comics adaptations of '80s flicks is born. (Next week:
Bill and Ted's Excellent Comic Book by Evan Dorkin.)
2008's
Ghostbusters: Ghost Busted is prefaced with short plot summaries of the two
Ghostbuster movies; however, the reader is clearly expected to have seen at least the first film: Bill Murray's character is referred to only as "Peter" in the intro, but is first addressed by his last name, "Venkman," in the comic.
This text also brings the reader up to speed: apparently 25 years have passed since the team's first adventures, meaning the graphic novel is taking place more or less nowadays, although no one seems to have aged or indicate how much time has passed (Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) remains the ever-faithful secretary, although characters such as Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) and Louis Tully (Rick Moranis) are unmentioned and absent).[1] The main plotline of the book has the Ghostbusters bedeviled by a disgruntled bureaucrat and a former mentor, bookended by two standalone chapters.
GGB has two writers and five artists (six if you count Hans Steinbach, who did the cover), who trade off a couple chapters at a time. Each artist has his or her own style, from Maximo Lorenzo's crosshatching and brushwork experiments to Michael Shelfer's even screentones and shadings: aesthetically, it's too jarring, and the book never recovers. (It doesn't help that the artists pastiche from very different eras of comics, both Eastern and Western.)
Not only that, but I had a hard time across the board telling Ray Stantz (portrayed in the film by Dan Aykroyd) and Peter Venkman apart without stopping to check for Venkman's telltale stubble. (In the last, standalone chapter, "The Devil Wears Nada," artist Chrissy Delk finally solves this problem by brushing Venkman's hair back and Stantz's forward.)
Of the two writers, it is of note that the less-experienced Nathan Johnson, an actor by trade, prevails: he's tasked with both the emotional center of the
GGB, such as it is, and the hopelessly outnumbered fight scene (much like the films, the less screen time Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) gets, the more badass he is). Johnson's real achievement is a fair approximation of the quippy verbal exchanges of the group in the midst of combat: perhaps his voice-over work gave him a feel for cadence and timing.
Matt Yamashita tackles the set pieces, the haunting of a Broadway show and a showdown with Gozer's concubine, Heel, which are given plenty of breathing room by the book's slightly oversized, larger-than-your-standard-
tankouban format. Yamashita can pull off the occasional sight gag (
though Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) in goth loli drag is amazingly unfunny) and serves up the requisite slime, but his standalone chapters have all the narrative heft and emotional weight of packing peanuts.
It's a given that the humor of Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis at the height of their powers most likely wouldn't transmit (
though bespectacled Spengler lends himself well to manga stylization). What's really missing from this adaptation, however, is the fantasy Manhattan community that the films featured: it's a character in itself — silly, self-absorbed, venal and surprisingly romantic — and perhaps the most complex one.
The suspended-in-time-feeling could have worked to advantage, here: as it is, the nod to the City in contemporary imagination, "The Devil Wears Nada," already feels quite tired. Since Tokyopop and Columbia Pictures are clearly trying to cash in on nostalgia, is it so wrong to dream of a socio-economically diverse, pre-9/11 New York, whose scariest ghost is literally a marshmallow? Ultimately defeated by shear moxie?
Note:
[1] My memories of the animated spin-off are dim, but it appears they took a similar tack.
Image credits:
Images ©2008 Columbia Pictures Industries Inc.
JohnsonShelfer is from "Just Your Typical Class 1 Infestation", written by Nathan Johnson and drawn by Michael Shelfer.
JohnsonShelferLorenzo is from "Ghost Busted," written by Nathan Johnson and drawn by Michael Shelfer, with inks and tones by Maximo V. Lorenzo.
Yamashitadelk is from "The Devil Wears Nada," written by Matt Yamashita and drawn by Chrissy Delk.
YamashitaLorenzo is from "The Theater of Pain," written by Matt Yamashita and drawn by Maximo V. Lorenzo.
Kristy Valenti currently works for The Comics Journal and Fantagraphics Books, Inc.
Uncharted Territory is © Kristy Valenti, 2008
