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[FoxZerro]

[ectobuster]

I love this issue. looks like we will see an old enemy making a come back. I like the high quality of the stories and art. Love the easter eggs that are everywhere in the book. Can't wait to see which direction the comics go next year

Keep up the good work

Robert

[Tothenines]

Lovely issue. Luis and Dan really nailed the Christmas-y atmosphere, as I knew they would. Awesome to see Tiyah back, as well as Idulnas. Him coming back makes me feel better about the whole volume 2 change-up.

Merry Christmas everyone!
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[The Rookie]

Awesome to see Winston's military background make an appearance in media that is at least mostly considered canon!

(Also, I think someone broke MrBean)
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[mrmichaelt]

[The Rookie]

[mrmichaelt]

[Fritz Baugh]

Fritz Babbles About Ghostbusters #16

I swear, it feels like it was just last week I was writing about issue 15...

Oh...er..it was just last week. At least I'm not as late about it this time, right?

So...anything going on with Winston lately?

Holy crap! He's getting married!?!?

Yes, that's right, Winston becomes the first Ghostbuster to ever propose to his love interest. The woman in question is Tiyah Clarke, introduced in the "Tainted Love" one-shot.

As I think I've said before, I approve of using this character who'd been introduced previously. It could have been easy for Erik Burnham to come up with his own love interest for Winston, but that might have made Winston look more like a "playa"--leave that stuff to Venkman. Mr. Burnham still got to make up a love interest for Ray, so it's the best of both worlds there.

The proposal is followed up by going right into a case, which I'll of course get to in a minute, but it's kind of frustrating. We see Venkman's reaction, and being Venkman he's trying to subtly talk Winston out of it--we know all about Venkman's own commitment issues ("Every time I mentioned marriage you got drowsy and fell asleep"). I really wish I could be a fly on the wall when it sinks in to Ray and Egon. Ray's got his own budding puppy love with Jenny Moran; might spur him into action. Egon's got entire subscriptions of relationship issues simmering under his placid surface, which we saw bubble out just two issues ago; unfortunately, next month we get Martians and then four months of plot related to the renumbering, so I guess this gets to get strung out for at least six months longer.

So, anyway, after Winston's proposal Plot Happens in the form of Janosz Poha getting berated by a painting, an experience he has some track record with. Janosz is convinced it's not Vigo tormenting him again, because Vigo was destroyed right, we all saw it (See? Even Janosz knows that. Somebody clue in the guys who made GBVG)

Back at GBCentral, Janine is squeeing for Tiyah and Winston like she was an internet fan and the happy couple was...er...Janine and Egon. After some of Venkman's reaction mentioned above, more Plot Happens in the form of a Class III scrambling into the firehouse, messing up the electronics, and begging for help--which is explained when a big purple hand grabs him and yanks the ghost kid off. Winston, Egon, and Venkman race off in pursuit (though Venkman takes some prompting--we know how he hates jobs when it's not clear anybody is going to be paying for it)

The Ghostbusters, after stopping to pick up Ray between pages, arrive at the source of the signal Egon's followed. Ray notes that the ghost kid was from a case the Ghostbusters dealt with a few years ago, apparently without zapping--"Kid who watches TV too much" reminded me a little of one of the sample scenarios in the first edition of the West End Games RPG. A nerd get electrocuted before seeing the end of an episode of "My Mother, The Car" and is haunting the apartment complex in hopes of seeing it. I assume it's a coincidence, but it did amuse me.

Winston goes into the house first, and the PKE reading spikes--a force field appears, cutting him off from the others. A voice in ominous gothic script in white font on irregular black word balloons starts calling his name; he goes in, basically deciding to follow Obi-Wan's Law: When Suspecting a Trap, Spring the Trap.

The ghost is Staff Sergeant Adams, who trained Winston in Marine boot camp. Winston's military career was in the GB1 script drafts, but didn't make it into the final product. JMS did sneak it into the cartoon, though, having Winston mention boot camp in "The Haunting of Heck House".

What happens next is a neat scene where Winston gets into the ghost's head in a performance worthy of Venkman and the Manitou nine issues back. Figuring that the Sergeant is still thinking like a Marine, namely taking out anybody who could take him out, Winston insults his pride and gets Adams to make an angry mistake--a mistake that gets him slapped into a ghost trap.

So Winston is freed just in time--he gets outside to see that Egon and the others had planted enough ghost bombs on the front walkway to blow the building halfway to the Astral Sea. Heh. Sorry, Egon, save those for Roger's Christmas present.

So on the last page, Winston is with Tiyah on the train to Connecticut, and is musing about the day's events. Tiyah is already starting to suggest he quit the Ghostbusters and get a less dangerous job. Yeah, right. Like the guys writing this book would throw Winston off the team and replace him with, say, an FBI agent in shorts or something. Tell me another funny story.

Then the last image is of Janosz, with wierd glyphs on the walls.

(sigh)

I'd really be excited about this development if the Internet hadn't told me it was "Gozerian runes" or something like that with Idulnas's name in them. I guess it's official--a year is the longest IDW can go without Gozer tie-ins. Ah well, I guess I should just ride the wave and be eager for Idulnas, who was pretty neat despite his connection to an overused mythos. Maybe I can even hope he brings Horg with him!!!

For our closing contribution from Tristan Jones, we get a mock recruitment poster, where I guess they want Winston to join the Army of the Dead. Then a picture of Slimer with a proton pack, an idea that would have Venkman peeing down his leg with fear. "Yousa keep tryin to blast me? Slimer blast yousa!!!"

I wish to again thank Tristan for his great work on this title. I especially enjoyed his articles on some pre-Burnham characters like Rachel Unglighter and Samuel Hain, which served to fill in some of the blanks and reduce the number of head scratchers those stories left. He made Rachel less Sueish, and explained Hain's name in a way that left the door open for the "real" Samhain to show up some day. I wish Mister Jones well in his future endeavors, and will miss him here on Ghostbusters.
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"Sometimes I think the universe just waits for me to get cocky"--Dr. Egon Spengler

[Erik Burnham]

Spoilers follow! (:

Dan was clever to pick those specific runes on his own -- I just asked for designs on the wall. He left the hint.

Yes, it was Idulnas who compelled what Janosz did, but he's not working on behalf of Gozer. Now, Idulnas has been created and defeated and is trying to get revenge on his own behalf when he maybe isn't powerful enough to act directly anymore. He's our Frazier to Gozer's Cheers! LOL.

Though Idulnas was created out of the Gozerian mythos, you shouldn't expect to see Mr. Stay Puft or Gozer or anything else from that side of things (barring a potential direct return of Idulnas at some point) unless I'm directed to do so. (:

Dan requested a riff on something, and that's where we're going next... the next threat is decidedly not Gozer-fied!
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[Fritz Baugh]

[Erik Burnham]

LOL -- I don't take it like that, I just like to put out disclaimers from time to time on the web.

Especially since I *still* see online warblings that all we've done in the series so far (at all) is use Gozer and Slimer.

THE INTERNET IS AN UNSANE PLACEEEEE!

That said, I can't wait for folks to see the cover of NGB #3.

Janine (in pants, thank you) is in about as badass a cover as you could imagine. (;
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[Spengs85]

My shop got their batch of #16 damaged in transit, so they had to reorder. As a result, I didn't get mine until today.

All the usual heaps of praise that I'm running out of new ways to word. This is just a solid book.

I want to post because I always enjoy a good Winston spotlight and Burnham has been doing great things with the character since he started the run. Him being the "everyman" archetype of the group, I always thought giving him a potential wife and family would be a natural route (while the other three Ghostbusters are too weird to ever hold done a normal relationship). The scene where he proposes was done really well, too.

As for Winston's military background, it's good to see a writer actually using that obscure bit of history for something meaningful. I enjoyed the Ghost Busted "manga" more than most, but the fact that it portrayed Winston as a gun-toting nut didn't sit well with me. And I found his "I got them in the service" excuse extra flimsy.

Exploiting his background as a military man goes well with his other work experience referenced in the different Ghostbusters media (he was a former construction worker in the cartoon and I think it was one of the novelizations that made him an ex fireman).

I dunno, good Winston stories are shamefully hard to come by, so I felt compelled to give my praise.
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[Erik Burnham]

Thanks, Spengs!

I like writing Winston. Glad to give him a spotlight. (:
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