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[mrmichaelt]

[Erik Burnham]

Launch party @ Limited Edition Comics in Cedar Falls, Iowa!

To date, the only store that has ever brought me in. Luckily, they're awesome as well!
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[ectobuster]

i loved the story. i was completely amazed how good this issue was and another great cameo

keep up the good work

Robert

[mrmichaelt]

Another incredible issue. The dialogue was superb, the sharpest it's been, in my opinion. "Landed on my keys." was my favorite.

Interesting move with the Gris-gris. Guess Burnham does want Egon and Janine together. But part of me wondered if it might come into play with the Eugene problem. They gotta address that sooner than later or another demon-god thing should be able to cross over with all the P.K.E. around.

"Laura Parr"

Got to give it to Jones for that rather obscure RGB reference with the cola sign. Peter should really start listening to the instruments when they don't stop beeping. So the story looks Peter-centric but can't help suspect the others will hook up with him in Devil's Bend to battle the trucker in part 3 or part 4. They could use a Boson Dart for this one. Laura was a nice nod to the hitchhiker lore, since I think we can safely assume she's a ghost, too...

Easte eggs so far
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Ghostbusters Volume 2 #3 Notes

[GhstbstrLMLIII]

**Spoiler Alert**

I read it last night. Another job well done guys. Erik, you've done a great job of weaving in the building blocks of the bigger stories (ie: the alternative Ghost Busters, Egon & Janine) without sacrificing the immediate story. I do wonder where you're going with the proton streams being ineffective. We've seen multiple times now that the GBs have had to get lucky with the Ghost Trap alone (even going back to Slimer) because the ghosts were breaking out of the proton streams. I figure this will wrap back into "The Man Who Holds the Hands of Death" and I'm looking forword to see how you play it. (ie: will Egon release death so the PKE levels go back to normal? will we see upgraded proton packs between now and then to specifically address the issue - not counting the cameo-type packs we've seen already? Tune into Issue #___, Same GB Time, Same GB Channel. - Sorry, I couldn't stop myself.)

Dan and Luis - what can be said that hasn't been said yet? You both continue to amaze with your work.

Tristan - Loving the side story (it's really more than just a "back-up" story), and how it fits with the other urban legands that have been cameo-d. Great cliff-hanger with the PKE Meter.

I am really loving some of the darker tones that are being portrayed, while keeping the lighter banter/dry wit of the movies as well. (Both stories.)

[Fritz Baugh]

Fritz Babbles About Ghostbusters #10:

Sorry about the delay. I would have had this up a day earlier, but just as I was done writing the snarky commentary, we had a power outage and thus, all work was lost because I didn't save it. I will now be saving this commentary every time I finish a paragraph

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Spoilers Aplenty:

The next leg of the Ghostbusters "Haunted America" tour brings our heroes to New Orleans, home of Mardi Gras. Since this is June, Venkman misses it again. And it's too bad--the same blonde chick who was in "Play Them Ragtime Boos" appears in the shot of Mardi Gras. Ghostbusters wiki says her name was "Marie Cuttie", but her fake Cajun accent was so thick in the episode itself I had no idea what she said; I guess I'll take mrmichaelt and devilmanozzy's word on this one. The good news is, looks like Malachi was there too, which would have made the trip a lot less fun.

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Anyway, the ECTO-9 arrives in Nawleans to a crowd of screaming, happy fans. No, wait, that isn't what happens at all. The ECTO-9 arrives to an angry mob who's ready to riot. After getting a tomato thrown at him, Venkman drags out a slime blower and hoses down the mob with a dose of pure, concentrated Jackie Wilson. At that point, the crowd probably wouldn't notice if they got run over (as Venkman says in the story itself).

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Their destination is a mansion in the Garden District, where they meet their client, Mister Thibodeaux. As Mister Thibodeaux looks like Billy Dee Williams, and "Thibodeaux" is about as much fun to type as "Schenectady", he will henceforth be referred to as "Lando"

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In one of Dan Schoening's great call-backs, the Ghostbusters are all decked out in their civvies from the cartoon. If you ever wanted to see what a Ramis caricature looked like in RGB Egon's pink shirt and suspenders, here's your chance--and it works pretty well.

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Lando has brought them here on behalf of someone else: famous voodoo queen Marie Laveau. Who was a real person and everything. Look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Laveau

I tell you, a Manitou, the Russian spirit of death trapped in a bag, and now Marie Laveau, it just proves my point that there's a lot of real world folklore to draw upon for stories. Far far more creative and interesting that The Ghostbusters Vs. Gozer Or A Member of His Family Part CXVII

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So what's a two hundred year old plus undead voodoo queen need with the Ghostbusters? Well, turns out she had a daughter with the same name (also from Real Life) who fell to the Dark Side, forcing Mom to put Marie Junior down. But with St. John's Eve, Marie Junior gets an opportunity to come back and disrupt the tourist trade something fierce--Madame Laveau wants her daughter stopped, but not destroyed, which is where...say...a bunch of guys capable of catching ghosts and locking them up in a Containment Unit would come in handy, right?

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Plus Lando is loaded, so money for the job is no object. You can practically see Venkman drooling at the thought. Lando's posh estate included a replica of the Moaning Stones of Tangalla. At least, I sure hope it's a replica--the Undying One would make, to borrow a phrase, an evil voodoo princess look like Little Mary Sunshine. Nah, has to be a replica--we all know Winston has one of the pieces stashed back in New York.

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And to further a subplot that's been brewing, depending on how you look at it, since issue #1 or all the way back to the first movie, Lavaeu takes Egon aside and reminds him there's more to being alive than just breathing. Egon doesn't seem to get her point. "There's love, Son. It turns the whole world, and someday soon you gonna notice that." She then hands him a gris-gris with a heart on it, telling him he'll know what to do with it when the time is right.

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Actually, in Egon's defense, the last two times somebody tried to use magic to improve his love life it...didn't turn out so well. Of course, there were genies and vanity spirits with their own agendas behind those. Plus I don't think he's as clueless as he's playing here--he doesn't go around inventing computer programs to write books designed to "stimulate" women who "read a lot" every day.

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Anyway, fast forward to St. John's Eve, and sure enough, the voodoo hoodoo is on. First we get the dancing zombies, and Venkman is horrified--zombies are lousy dancers. One of them looks like Michael Jackson...maybe this story really does take place in the present. Nah--the zombie looks like Jackson back when he was a black man instead of a white woman. Even 1992 would be too late for that.

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Ray then takes the opportunity to remind everyone of his second job, running an occult book store, as he uses an old trick from Jones' Manual on New Orleans Voodoo--salt the zombies, and they collapse. (Tristan is moonlighting, I take it ) Efficient, I'll give it that. Just don't let the guys making all the zombie movies find out about this--if defeating zombies becomes so easy, they may have to actually come up with real plots or something.

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Marie Junior makes her entrance and, of course, she's pissed at Ray for stopping Thriller Time. Marie Junior is kinda hot in an evil, undead kind of way. She grabs Ray; Egon and Winston then pull their own BS job (hey, Venkman and Ray can't have all the fun, right?)--Egon tears off a hunk of his hair, tries to tell Marie Junior that it's hers, and Winston invokes the name of his ancestor/prior incarnation Shima Buku. Marie Junior is only fooled for about three seconds, but it's long enough for Venkman to get into a position with a ghost trap, and thus New Orleans only has one undead Marie Laveau roaming around once more.

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We get an epilog with the Ghostbusters back at Lando's place, apparently dressed for a trip to Samantha Stantz's dairy farm. Madame Laveau is able to bring peace to both herself and Marie Junior's trapped spirit--she's can talk to Junior in the ghost trap, she's just that good. As the Ghostbusters leave, Laveau reminds Egon about the Chekhov's Gun in his pocket, and thus begins the long road trip to Part Three.

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Meanwhile/Later, we get part two of "Who Killed Laura Parr?" Between the RGB civvies in "Haunted America" and RGB Venkman in "Laura Parr", I'm feeling downright teased. Maybe next you'll let Dan do an entire issue or a one-shot story with the RGB likenesses of the characters. A guy can dream, can't he?

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Anyway, Venkman leaves the diner and gloats as a radio report talks about increasing supernatural activity back in New York. He's thinking Peck might appreciate them a little more now. Unlike us, though, Venkman hasn't seen all the cut scenes with Ron "Jake Kong" Alexander, or read the solicitations for issue 13. "What do you mean we've been replaced? These guys couldn't even come up with their own name! 'Ghost-Busters'? Like that's supposed to make it totally different? Seriously?"

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And low and behold, picks up a hitchhiker named Laura Parr. In the process Venkman mentions his Mom. In hindsight, I shouldn't have used Shiela Paulson's name "Margaret Abernathy" in the Timeline for Venkman's Mom. I should have named her "Cat Schroedinger" since they could never figure out if she was alive or dead. Er, where was I? Oh yeah, Laura Parr, who might also be said to not be totally alive or dead. Venkman warns her that playing with the Ghost Trap could make her go blind (Egon might dispute that). Things get more interesting when Laura picks up a PKE Meter...hm...

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Something tells you you're not getting laid by this one, Peter. Unless Laura is one of those ghosts Ray dreams about.

See you next month.


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"Sometimes I think the universe just waits for me to get cocky"--Dr. Egon Spengler

[mrmichaelt]