 In 1984, the world was introduced to a film that would change the pop culture landscape forever. Ghostbusters starring Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Ackroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Rick Moranis, and Annie Potts was directed by famed filmmaker Ivan Reitman and explored the realm of the supernatural in a comedic style with action, drama, romance, horror, and sarcastic humor. The film spawned an entire franchise after becoming Box Office Gold shortly after its release. Three years after its introduction to the public, the film was transformed into an animated series which in turn produced a line of toys, comics, video games, and other merchandise. The theme song for the film held the billboard number one spot for three weeks and produced its own series of spinoffs and merchandise. Ghostbusters became a pop culture sensation seemingly overnight but it wasn't without lawsuits or controversy. Violating a judicial restraining order, willful destruction of public property, fraud, malicious mischief. Seen a couple of years at your first parole hearing. They'll never take us alive. Alright, alright, let's get on with it. The idea for the film originated with Dan Ackroyd, whose family had long been involved in the occult and paranormal. The original concept for the film was completely different than what it ended up becoming and was originally set to start John Belushi in the role of Peter Vankman. However, Belushi died during pre-production and Bill Murray was cast for the role which would help establish him as a leading man in many different genres of film alongside his work in meatballs, stripes, and Ghostbusters 2. All of which were co-written by Harold Ramis, directed by Ivan Raiment, and starred Bill Murray. A relationship that would continue until the film Groundhog Day in 1993 when Ramis and Murray had a falling out. Their relationship would not be mended until their work on Ghostbusters is a video game in 2009, just five years before Ramis' death in 2014. I thought you might turn up. I'm sorry. I didn't believe you. I should have called. A mission, my friend. In 2009, Terminal Reality developed what before Ghostbusters Afterlife came along was intended to be the third official installment of the franchise and included the voices and likenesses of all four original cast members from the film. The game introduced a new member of the team that would represent the player. This character would be dubbed The Rookie. Canonically, this would secure the idea that unlike other superheroes, anyone could be a Ghostbuster. This concept actually had its origins in the original film when the character of Peter Vankman stated The franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams. It was then secured in pop culture by the king of the ghost heads, Peter Mosin who was the first fan to begin cosplaying at public events such as conventions, premieres, tours and autograph signings almost immediately after the first film having been the first fan to replicate a screen accurate proton pack and jumpsuit. It was this act of fandom which eventually helped to launch the real Ghostbusters animated series. A ghost head is someone who has clearly found some meaning and purpose and relevance to the whole Ghostbusters phenomenon. They are Ghostbuster chapters all over the world. Every state has a Ghostbusters chapter with their own patch usually incorporating the no-ghost logo and the shape of the state. Sometimes it's about doing something positive and making a difference in the community. This however was not the first time cosplay in general occurred. The fans of the comic strip Mr. Skygack from Mars began doing it as early as 1908. It was however the first time it was done in a way that established the idea that anyone could be part of the story as themselves in the role of the hero. Each one of them kind of operates a little bit differently. Some of them are more organized, some of them are a little bit looser. Going to children's hospitals or going to a child's party who has special needs and really loves Ghostbusters to kind of brighten up his day. The animated series was developed shortly after this. However due to the popularity of the 1984 film Filmation the studio which owned the copyright to the name Ghostbusters and produced the original show decided to develop their own animated series piggybacking off the film's success. Being that Columbia Studios had not thought to secure the cartoon rights for the name producers were forced to title their animated series The Real Ghostbusters. The series went on to become a merchandising juggernaut. The vast majority of t-shirts, toys, posters, comic books and games that were released during this time were based upon The Real Ghostbusters animated series and not the film. Ernie Hudson was the only member of the original cast to attempt to retain the role he starred in when he auditioned for the voice of Winston in the series. However producers chose to distance themselves from the film and cast Arsenio Hall as the voice of Winston in the first three seasons. However this would begin a pop culture voice swap over the course of several years as the voice of Peter Venkman in the animated series Lorenzo Music prior to Dave Coulier's addition in the third season went on to voice Garfield in the animated appearances of the character until Bill Murray who played Peter Venkman in the film and game franchise took over as the voice of Garfield in the live action films. In 1988 The Real Ghostbusters received their first comic book series in Now Comics and was later picked up by Marvel UK. It was immediately after this that the animated series changed its format in order to appeal to younger audiences. Gone was the dark tone of the earlier series and scary elements that attracted kids on Saturday mornings due to it being completely different from anything else on children's television. The title for the show was changed to Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters and each episode was divided into two parts. There was the first half which was more in line with the original series and the second half which was more cartoonish and revolved around the Ghostbusters mascot Slimer. Soon the comic series followed suit but dropped the Real Ghostbusters title altogether in favor of simply titling the comic series Slimer. The change in the animated series and comics to a more child-friendly format was quite similar to the censorship and comics of the Silver Age. This however wasn't as favorable to the fans who fell in love with the series by way of its original format. It did however manage to achieve what it set out to do. By pulling in a younger audience Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters filled up seasons 4 through 7 of the series and ended in 1991 with the comic book series continuing until 1992. The popularity of the Real Ghostbusters and Slimer and the Real Ghostbusters is what ultimately led to the production of Ghostbusters 2 and all the tie-ins that followed. Elements of the series can be found in the film as Slimer has been changed from a malevolent spirit to a friendly ghost who helps Lewis get to the museum. Winston's mustache was also removed for the sequel in order to more closely resemble his animated counterpart. The more adult-oriented elements of the original film were also left out of the sequel in order to better appeal to younger fans of the series. The series managed to cross over with other animated series of the time for a half-hour-long public service message which was introduced by the President and First Lady George and Barbara Bush called Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue. This cartoon, which warned of the dangers of drugs simultaneously broadcast on ABC, NBC and CBS in 1990 and featured Slimer, Alph, the Smurfs, Garfield and even Michelangelo of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well as many others. This had never been done on TV before but was strongly influenced by the comics of the 70s which depicted the dangers of substance abuse such as the Amazing Spider-Man number 96 and Green Lantern Green Arrow number 85. The Real Ghostbusters universe would be revisited in 1997 when a sequel series was released by the name of the Extreme Ghostbusters. It was the 90s. Everything had to be extreme in the 90s. Though the series didn't receive its own comic book until IDW published the Ghostbusters 35th Anniversary releases in 2019 it developed elements which would carry over into the other elements of the franchise as well as other comic books. The series won an award from the Los Angeles Commission on Disabilities for its portrayal of a paraplegic ghostbuster in the form of Garrett Miller who also happened to be claustrophobic. Though the concept of claustrophobia had been depicted in comics prior to this it was generally done to characters like Storm from The X-Men who were never really forced to confront their fears and had to rely on other teammates to save them. In Garrett's case however, the character showed that someone could still be afraid but it was the act of overcoming the fear that made them a hero. The idea that anyone no matter their struggles could be a ghostbuster is something that carried over into IDW's Ghostbusters 101. This miniseries not only crossed over the original Ghostbusters with the answer to the call Ghostbusters from 2016, you know, the female Ghostbusters but it also introduced the possibility of an autistic Ghostbuster. Though never explicitly stated in the miniseries when I interviewed Eric Burnham and Dan Shoning during the miniseries release Burnham confirmed it was his intention for the character to be on the autism spectrum and that not even something like autism could stop someone from becoming a Ghostbuster. The character in the issue was Garrett Parker. According to Shoning and Burnham they were inspired by the extreme Ghostbusters characters Garrett Miller and Roland Jackson. It was also revealed a short time after my interview with them that Dan Aykroyd who co-wrote the Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 and played Ray Stance is actually on the autism spectrum himself. Eric, you kind of answered this slightly on Twitter a couple weeks ago. Whose idea was it to merge Roland and Garrett from the extreme Ghostbusters into Garrett Parker for the 101 series and did you intentionally make him autistic or was that just a happy accident? I did intentionally name him Garrett because they close to Roland and I didn't want people to start asking for the debut of the extreme Ghostbusters which they already have to a degree they wanted to see the whole team pop up ever since we started using Kaility. We tried to throw him off or I tried to throw him off by a little Eduardo Kaneo but I don't want to bring in that whole team and rebuild them and then I wouldn't be able to use them because we have a lot of characters as it is. But yeah, so I just wanted to throw out there that he's not Roland. I just wanted to make it clear that he wasn't Roland and the best way to do that and have a little link was to name him Garrett. I'm not saying that the characters don't exist somewhere in that world I'm just saying that this isn't him. As far as autistic I didn't know if that was something that I could pull off, I had it in my mind that maybe we would go that way with him but I wasn't sure that it would play so I tried a couple of things and I would see if anybody tripped onto it or not. Yeah, it's very nicely done. One of my neighbors is autistic so I caught on to that right away. It's very nicely done. I've been promoting the hell out of it because of the potential autistic ghostbuster. Very nice. It could give some younger autistic fans someone to look up to. Very nice. I think Dan, you drew it perfectly the way he didn't really quite make eye contact and you guys never really came out and said that he was autistic in the comic that you just wanted to see if anyone would catch on and I think anyone who's familiar with it did catch on quite well. You guys pulled it off amazingly. Thank you. I also sensed in a lot of the dialogue when I was reading it that he was very sad as well so I really wanted to play that emotion up in the art and try and showcase that with his expressions because it would be a challenging situation as well what he's going through. A few folks now have come up and messaged me on Twitter and Facebook and so on and have talked about that little scene between Kevin Tanaka and Garrett and they've pointed that out as something that struck them which again, I'm super happy to hear it but I thought that maybe folks would not connect to it. You know, maybe. I was worried I asked Tom if I should cut it because I wasn't sure it would play. Sometimes there's a scene that I write that I'm not sure it will play and every once in a while they turn out to be the ones that people connect to. So I'm kind of grateful for that. The name Ghostbusters was borrowed from the 1975 Children's sitcom which starred Forrest Tucker and Larry Storch and was named The Ghostbusters and in obtaining the rights to the name the film was nearly titled Ghost Smashers though Columbia eventually managed to secure the rights to the name alternate scenes were shot for the film using the Ghost Smashers name. IDW Publishing would eventually use the alternate name as a rival paranormal elimination team in Ghostbusters number 13 in 2012 but were eventually merged into the Ghostbusters in a later issue. The leader of the Ghost Smashers, Ron Alexander went on to join the rookie from Ghostbusters a video game in the Chicago branch of the Ghostbusters. Controversy followed the franchise when Harvey Comics filed a lawsuit against Columbia Pictures because the No Ghost logo infringed on their copyright due to it bearing too strong a resemblance to Fatso from the Ghostly Trio who appeared in Casper the Friendly Ghost comics and cartoons. The characters that make up the Ghostly Trio made their first appearance in the comic book The Friendly Ghost from 1945. The court eventually ruled in favor of Columbia Pictures due to the limited ways in which a ghost could be artistically depicted. When the 1995 film Casper was released both parties seemed to put their differences aside and allowed Dan Aykroyd to make a brief appearance near the beginning of the film as the Ghostbuster Ray stands in full costume. Due to the ruling of the court during the aforementioned case the depiction of ghosts in a similar manner as the Ghostly Trio and No Ghost logo is fair use as long as it does not present confusion with the other two copyrighted and trademark properties. Similar to the use of the No Ghost logo the theme song for the film also presented a fair amount of legal controversy. This was due to its resemblance to Huey Lewis' song I Want a New Drug which came out a year earlier. The case however was settled out of court with a confidentiality agreement being imposed. This agreement led to a new lawsuit in which the studio for Ray Parker Jr. filed suit against Huey Lewis for breaking confidentiality in regard to the settlement during an episode of VH1's Behind the Music. Unlike other superheroes in comics which require people who are extremely wealthy have genius level IQs or superpowers to become heroes and villains the thing about Ghostbusters truly is that anyone no matter their culture no matter their educational level no matter their gender, age, economic background or abilities and disabilities anyone can be a Ghostbuster. Further the popularity of the franchise paved the way for so-called paranormal reality shows such as Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures which have become popular. The technology used in the franchise as well has also inspired many of the pseudo tools used by paranormal investigators as gadgets such as EMF meters are thought to be real life versions of the PKE meter, even though the theory of use has no basis in reality. The entire concept of Ghostbusters is to face your fears and that it's okay to be afraid but the power is in your hands to face that fear and bust it. Though Ghostbusters didn't originate in the comics many aspects of its longevity can be contributed to comics either directly or indirectly. Further as stated earlier Ghostbusters succeeds where other franchises fail because while not everyone can be a superhero anybody can be a Ghostbuster. Take care Geeks