Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline: Years Six-Fourteen

PERIOD TWO: 1988-1996

Back To The Timeline Main Page
Before The Movies: Prehistory-1982
Era One: 1983-1987
Era Two: 1988-1996
1988 - 1989 - 1990 - 1991 - 1991 or 1992 - 1992 - 1993 - 1996
Era Three: 1997-On
1988--YEAR SIX
March 18. Birth of Oscar Wallance to Andre and Dana; the two divorce soon after when Andre gets an offer from a European orchestra that is too good to pass up. Dana has also given up her musical career, and works restoring paintings at the Manhattan Museum of Art under the supervision of Janosz Poha.

Ghostbusters 2 takes place late in 1988, and Oscar is only a few months old, so he was born in the same year. Oscar's full name was a complete mystery until Miss Janine uncovered the name of his father from the GB1 novelization. The exact date of Oscar's birth is conjectural, from EGBFan. Will and Hank Deutschendorf, who played him in the movie, were born on April 29, 1988.

GHOSTBUSTERS 2(AMG 19671)(XU GB2 1-01; XU GB2 2-01) (First part of the film)
Five years after her victimization by Gozer, the supernatural has again set it's sights on Dana Barrett--and her son Oscar. She consults with Egon Spengler, who brings Ray Stantz into the case. Venkman finds out and also intervenes. The three former Ghostbusters find a river of pink slime flowing through the lines of the old New York Pneumatic Railway--and big trouble with the law.

Louis Tully is hired to defend them in the court of Judge Steven Wexler, but it is the appearance of the Scoleri brothers that forces Wexler to rescind the Ghostbusting injunction and dismiss the case.

The Ghostbusters return to business, with a new two-fingered symbol and a new vehicle, the ECTO-1A. Winston and Janine also return to the company, and Louis is hired as legal consultant. Janine flirts with Louis for a brief time. Egon and Ray experiment on the slime, discovering that it is responsive to human emotion---and that it's power is building, fed by all of the patented New York hostility it's soaking up.

There is a montage of events seeming to indicate quite a few adventures in the month or two between the Ghostbusters return to business and the New Year's defeat of Vigo. It is in this interval I have ended up placing the first two issues of Now Comics' Real Ghostbusters series, for reasons that will be explained below. Just regard the absence of the 2-finger logo as a translation error

Real Ghostbusters#1(XU RGB 1-01)
The Ghostbusters are called to a bistro being haunted by an angry Captain Nemo. They trap him, but four mysterious people in hippie outfits steal the ghost trap and teleport away with it. Egon is angry, and concerned about the newcomers, but Venkman doesn't care--they still got paid for the job.

The four newcomers are named Turek, Cowan, Gard, and Bethany, and that night send the four Ghostbusters to a "parallel Earth where the laws of space and time aren't so strictly enforced" Winston is accosted by clowns, but he out-attitudes them. Venkman ends up in a high school run by werewolves. Ray is dumped in the midst of a group of human/alien hybrids trying to repair their spaceship. Egon ends up in a ruined version of the firehouse, but discovers that it includes copies of the backup proton packs he has stashed in the "real" HQ: he sends the packs to Ray and Venkman, who use them to get out of their situations--Venkman by predictably blasting everything, Ray by allowing him to recharge the aliens' star drive and hitch a ride. Winston also accomplishes something through sheer will: he phases back home, only to be met by a hysterical Slimer and a giant green gastropod...

My entries on the comics will tend toward greater length--I know not too many people are familiar with these stories!

Gard mentions the year 1988, which WAS the year RGB#1 was released, though it creates a headache because it's also actually during the hiatus between Seasons 3 and 4. For a long time I put RGB#1-14 all in Season 4, then they came out related to the cartoon, but this actual date, as well as the specific Halloween time-frame of RGB#17, led to a major rethinking: RGB#1-2 would still work as in 1988...but only if they become an "unknown" incident during the build-up to Vigo. It's not a perfect solution, as it means some stories are released before they "happen", but heck, the Common Wisdom is that GB2 occurs six months after it's release!

Another interesting note: this is the only Real Ghostbusters story (unless you count the comic adaptation of the second movie) to even mention Dana Barrett: as Venkman naps, he deliriously apologizes to her (mentioning Dana by name) for calling her a dog...This is even more interesting if my idea of placing it "between" parts of GB2 is applied...

Real Ghostbusters#2(XU RGB 2-01)
The creature identifies itself as Sl'g ("Slug"), and explains to Winston that the four anarchists---the Counter Clock Criminals--come from the Twenty Sixth Century, and stole his devices to upset history. Winston and Sl'g recover Egon and Venkman. The Counter Clock Criminals convince Nemo that they need the power source from the Nautilus to free him, and he tells them where it is: being worshiped by a "Space Brother" cult in California. They steal it and use the power crystal--an apparently quite rare and valuable item--to power a gravity ray, with the intent of pulling the moon our of orbit and devastating the Earth. Ray and the hybrids arrive just in time to stop the beam, and Nemo busts out of the trap to help defeat the criminals--he knows he's been snookered. In the end, the Counter Clock Criminals are defeated. The hybrids volunteer to take them back to the Twenty Sixth Century, while Nemo and Sl'g (who was actually a ghost all along, having been murdered by the Criminals) leave in the Nautilus

December. Doc Hazzard makes his annual check on the capsule containing his arch foe Fu Fang, and discovers that Fang is gone! He immediately alerts his old comrade, the Crimson Crimebuster, who later brings in Alan Weinberg, the son of the original Lunar Avenger.

A "few months" before Real Ghostbusters#7; the story specifically mentions December 1949 as the month Fu Fang was defeated, and this presumes that Hazzard made his checks on or around the anniversary of that defeat.

GHOSTBUSTERS 2(AMG 19672)(XU GB2 2-01; XU GB2 3-01) (Second part of the film)
December 29. Late in the day, some of the pink slime emerges from Dana Barrett's bathtub and attempts to abduct Oscar. Dana flees the apartment with Oscar, and goes to Venkman.

December 30: Egon and Ray have tracked the river of slime to the emerging essence of medieval madman Vigo Von Homborg Deutschendorf, alias Vigo the Carpathian, living in a self-portrait at the Manhattan Museum of Art. Oscar is kidnapped in full sight of Dana, Janine, and Louis by a ghostly clone of Janosz Poha. Poha, by the way, is deeply under Vigo's domination. Jack Hardemeyer, a mayoral aide, has the Ghostbusters committed to Parkview.

December 31. A cloud of black energy fortells Vigo's return. The Ghostbusters are freed, and using Vigo's own weapon--the psychomagnetheric slime--against him, animate the Statue of Liberty and break the shell around the museum just before midnight.

1989--YEAR SEVEN
The very end of Ghostbusters 2
January 1. The Ghostbusters foil Vigo's attempt to possess Oscar. He then tries a desperate ploy, dominating Ray, but fails. The madman is defeated and destroyed.

The very first scene establishes Ghostbusters 2 as happening five years after Ghostbusters. The latter part of the movie can be given very specific dates, as the events center around New Year's Day. Like Ghostbusters, the events of Ghostbusters 2 end up "happening" around the time the movie was filmed in real life (the New Year's scene was actually filmed on New Year's 1989!). brian_reilly of Ghostbusters.net has offered the idea that Ivan Reitman "fudged" the "five years later" part, and GB2 ends on Jan 1, 1988, and it would correct some of the issues with the comics, but I hate throwing out the only solid date reference from the movies.

As an interesting aside, the Ghostbusters 2 comic book gives us a speculative Real Ghostbusters style version of Dana Barrett. She greatly resembles Dr. Novachenka from "Russian About"

After New Year's, the registration on the original ECTO-1 expires. The replacement, first registered as ECTO-1A, is reregistered ECTO-1. The team also returns to their original Ghostbuster logo.

Conjecture, as the ECTO-1A and the two-fingered Ghostbusters 2 logo are not used in the cartoon. I thought the business about the registration provided a good excuse, the theory being that the team couldn't license the new ECTO-1 as "ECTO-1" because the plate was technically still in use by the old ECTO-1, thus they settled temporarily for "ECTO-1A" until the old license expired.

Note than in the original script for the sequel the car was referred to as "ECTO-2"; presumably somebody in Columbia's licensing department suggested the change to avoid contradicting the animated series (as much...)

Venkman and Louis sell Columbia and Dan Aykroyd the rights to do another Ghostbusters movie for quick cash to help rebuild the company; Aykroyd and Ramis decide to do an account of the battle with Vigo

Conjecture, based on Ghostbusters 2

One area of fan conjecture after Ghostbusters 2 concerns the continuance of Venkman and Dana's relationship. While Dana does not appear in RGB at all, it is not impossible that she and Venkman continued their romance "off camera"--though it could create some interesting turbulence with the comic's portrayal of Venkman's flirtations with Irena Cortex, especially RGB#19, which is without a doubt after GB2. An interesting conjecture I've offered in fan fictions is that Dana receives a lucrative offer from the LA Orchestra and decided to take it--and that the reason Venkman ends up in LA between RGB and EGB is that she's already there.

(The fifth season of The Real Ghostbusters and issues 3-19)

"Transcendental Tourist"(RGB-201010;#501)
Venkman and Winston's vacation ends up with problems when a ghost family shows up

"Something's Going Around"(RGB-201001;#502)
The Ghostbusters become strangely allergic to ectoplasm, and end up trapped in Janine's apartment. Janine, Slimer, and Louis discover that the cause is cursed potato chips passed to them by a phony ghost doctor

This episode establishes the fourth season as taking place after Ghostbusters 2, with the animated debut of Louis Tully and Janine sporting the godawful haircut from that movie. Louis even has his own hideous green, purple-trimmed Ghostbuster jumpsuit.

Real Ghostbusters#3(XU RGB 3-01)
The Ghostbusters are contacted by Ellis Johnson of Choate Chemical, who wants them to quietly investigate the swamp monster that broke into the Choate lab the night before. They journey to the dying town of Horstingville, and are met by Johnson and Choate's chief chemist, Doctor Diablo. Venkman, after being coated in a hundred pounds of peanut butter, serves as a decoy to draw out the swamp monsters. They're after HOS92, the secret invention Diablo has created: formula to turn dead soldiers into warriors! The earth spirit controlling the monsters agrees to leave after taking all of the HOS92.

In return for a promise not to manufacture any more HOS92, the Ghostbusters agree not to tell anyone about the horrific work. Egon sternly warns Johnson that his "government contacts" will tell him if they break their word...

"HOS92", the chemical that creates the swamp monsters, is a reference to the DC Comics character Swamp Thing, who first appeared in House of Secrets #92

"Trading Faces"(RGB-201009;#503)
Janine finds a magic mirror that sends Slimer and Louis to a netherworld, simultaneously replacing Slimer with an evil lookalike.

Irena Cortez is attacked by a mugger in Central Park, and in self-defense her dormant werewolfism reactivates. The next thing she remembers is being found, naked, by a mysterious man who lends her his coat.

Unbeknownst to Irena, the man is sorcerer Nathaniel Blaque. Seeing her as useful to his schemes, utilizing the alias "Necromancer", he manipulates three cultists into kidnapping Cortez and, through use of a control collar, committing robberies in her werewolf state.

A month or two before Real Ghostbusters#5. The identity of the Necromancer is never actually revealed in the series, so having it really be the so-cool Mister Blaque is conjectural.

"Elementary, My Dear Winston"(RGB-201003;#504)
The Ghostbusters have to deal with Sherlock Holmes and his archfoe Professor Moriarty, brought to life by the power of the human imagination.

Interesting trivia note: in the movies, the Ghostbusters have nametags. In the cartoon they don't--not even in "Citizen Ghost". But in this episode, for a brief moment, one appears on Egon's jumpsuit!!! I suppose they are there all along, and most of the time we don't "notic" them (they're also on the cover of GB2#2)

"Ghost Gangsters"(XU RGB 4-01)
Julio Ramanajan finds the secret vault of Caesar Caldoni, but it turns out to be a dud. At first.

Slimer is watching a gangster movie later than night, and accidentally turns up the volume. The firehouse is attacked by ghost gangsters who think it's a "Caldoni safe house", but scram when cops arrive in the movie. The Ghostbusters realize that the culprit is Webby "The Tractor" McBain, and rush to the Children's Hospital: it was once the Majestic Hotel headquarters of Caldoni, McBain's rival. The Ghostbusters capture McBain's gang, but the Tractor eludes them until he shows up, driving his car in a "suicide" charge...upset that "Caldoni told me...I'm dead!"

The Ghostbusters don't know it, but atop the hospital, in a boarded up section, Caesar Caldoni has returned from the grave as well...and plots to retake control of the New York underworld...

After the capture of Webby "The Tractor" McBain, Caesar Caldoni teams up with Fu Fang to take control of the New York underworld

Real Ghostbusters#7

"Slimer's Curse"(RGB-201013;#505)
Slimer wins the lottery, but the money is cursed by an undead tycoon who wants it back!

Episode 6 of the season is "Partners In Slime", which takes place on Janine's birthday. As "The Crawler" establishes her having an October or November birthday, I move 506 later into the year.

"The Werewolf!"(XU RGB 5-01)
The Ghostbusters are called by Inspector Wilbur to try and stop a werewolf that keeps robbing jewelry stores and banks. Then it strikes the Natural History Museum, and the mummy of "The Nameless One", guardian of King Tut, is stolen by three cultists in ninja costumes as the Ghostbusters battle the werewolf. The werewolf escapes, but the control collar is shot off in the process.

The next day, Irena Cortez appears at Ghostbusters Central and tells them that she is the werewolf they fought. Egon tells her that she can control the transformations. Venkman and Irena are kidnapped by the "ninja"s while the others are out on a bust, and the three use Irena's shadow to reawaken the Nameless One. The Nameless One goes on a rampage and the ninjas escape. Irena is able to control her transformation for the first time since childhood, and stops the mummy, which falls down a hole and has the whole building collapse on him. Both the "ninja"s and a New Age nut who approaches Venkman mention "the Necromancer".

The title actually comes from a Marvel UK reprint of the story; thanks to ECTO-1 for this tidbit

"Video Nasties"(XU RGB 6-01)
The viewers of WAKO (including one Peter Venkman) find their sudden dose of reruns livened up with an infestation of ghosts. Count Sprockula is hassled. Commander Bob becomes one of the undead and starts devouring his furry animal co-stars. On Stalag Dolts ("the funny side of being a World War Two POW") Col. Klobber gets a cattle prod! Mister Wielage, who looks and acts like one of Venkman's distant relatives, comes to the Ghostbusters for help. When they get to the station it's been redesigned to look like an Egyptian pyramid, and Wielage is wrapped up like a mummy. Ray stumbles upon an innovative way to capture the ghosts--he records them onto a VHS tape.

The Ghostbusters discover that the Nameless One, the guardian of King Tut, is behind the problem--he'd survived the fall in the warehouse and hoped to "draw out your strongest magicians" by "tampering with the focal point of your culture". Venkman convinces him to go back to his old job: he is set up right by the mummy of King Tut to deal with would-be robbers!

This parade of parodies includes two great Ghostbuster nuggets: "Now It Can Be Told", featuring a warped view of ghostbusting with Slimer saving their butts "Slimer? Brave?" Janine snorts derisively "This really is science fiction". The other is an ad for the "Ripper Special Fast Action Grenade Launcher and Flame Thrower", wherein a girl looking suspiciously like a young Sigourney Weaver hunts alien bugs. No wonder it made Venkman want to go out and buy one...

This issue also features a teaser about the vehicle we know as the ECTO-4, though it's referred to as "ECTO-3" because "The Joke's On Ray" hadn't aired when the issue was in production.

"Till Death Do Us Part"(RGB-201014;#507)
Janine goes on vacation, and the Ghostbusters hire a temp, a Southern belle named Dixie. Everyone except Egon tries to impress her (this includes Slimer), but of course she develops an eye for Spengler. Turns out she's a ghost, and her redneck brother ghosts try to force a shotgun wedding. With Dixie disposed of, the team hires a new temp: Egon's mother, Katharine Spengler!

"What is it with you and secretaries?" Venkman asks Egon at one point

"Three Men and an Egon(RGB-201002;#508)
An encounter with a chrono-spirit has Egon de-aging, leading to the predictable array of baby jokes. including him escaping his crib with tinker toys.

Intentional or not, this episode also provides a small continuity with the last one as Janine's not in it--like she was still on vacation!

"Kitty Cornered"(RGB-201012;#509)
A witch's feline familiar falls into the firehouse and suddenly Slimer's wishes are coming true

The Crimson Crimebuster and the new Lunar Avenger, having gotten a tip that Fu Fang and Caldoni are set up in a waterfront warehouse, walk into a trap and barely escape with their lives--aided, in part, but micro-proton guns of Doc Hazzard's design.

Just before Real Ghostbusters#7

"The Secret Empire"(XU RGB 7-01)
The Crimson Crimebuster and the Lunar Avenger show up at the Ghostbusters doorstep, and tell them about the alliance of Ceasar Caldoni and Fu Fang having taken over the New York underworld. The Ghostbusters set up a meeting with Caldoni by posing as a rival gang--Cody Jarrett and his gun mol (Egon and Janine) meet with Caldoni and insist that they must deal with "Number One"--Fu Fang.

The ECTO-4 gets it's first use to carry the Ghostbusters to the meeting at Wentworth Plaza, but the plasma starts flying pretty quick--Fang knows exactly who they are. The Lunar Avenger and even Doc Hazzard show up to lend a hand--Fang and the entire Caldoni Gang are defeated and contained.

"If I Was a Witch-Man"(RGB-201004;#510)
The Ghostbusters go to Lewistown, where Egon's ancestor Eli bound the witch Kestral in 1689. Kestral has escaped from her containment crystal, and is seeking revenge on the descendants of Lewistown's founders. The witch possesses Egon as part of her scheme, but of course she is defeated and Egon repeats his ancestor's act of binding her in the crystal.

"Toad Island"(XU RGB 8-01)
Bud and Judy, two young lovers, are kidnapped from the Tunnel of Lovecraft at Toad Island and brought before Nogad, who cheerfully informs them that they've been granted a great honor--to meet "the Deepest One"

Kenneth Grahame, one of the the peaceful but strange-looking inhabitants of Toad Island, one of Ray's childhood haunts, contacts the Ghostbusters and tells them the whole story of the Deep Ones and Nogad's takeover. Egon and Janine scout out the place, "posing" as a couple on a date, and uncover strange evidence when an artist draws a picture of a monster behind them. Kenneth, meanwhile, makes one last attempt to reason with Nogad and is rebuffed.

The Ghostbusters, Janine, and Kenneth enter the Tunnel of Lovecraft (Venkman, Ray, and Winston in full uniform, all four Ghostbusters fully armed now). Janine is dragged under by a slimy tentacle and another fish monster gets fresh with Venkman. The Ghostbusters reach the center of the grotto in time to halt a perverse "wedding" ceremony where Bud, Judy, and Janine were to be "hitched" to some of the fish monsters. One of the Deep Ones themselves appears, and after explaining he really meant no harm to the humans he leaves, promising never to return, thus abandoning the distraught Nogad.

Another story with Lovecraft roots; as if "Tunnel of Lovecraft" didn't make it clear enough. The "Deep Ones" are straight from Lovecraft, and "Nogad" is just Dagon (Lord of the Deep Ones) spelled backwards!

Fun story, but let me tell you--the art was very sloppy and hastily done in spots. Janine switches back and forth from Season One and Three hairstyles, and on one page appears to be fading out of existence!

"It's About Time"(RGB-201015;#511)
The Ghostbusters travel back to 1959, and actually work with the firemen of the Hook and Ladder #8 to foil a ghost invasion.

The Hook and Ladder #8, now known as Ghostbusters Central, is certified as a Historic Landmark.

This episode gives us the year of Ray Stantz's birth, 1959. Thanks to Kingpin for some material in this episode write-up

Ghostbusters 2, featuring the entire original cast of the first movie, is released. Due to a sloppy contract drafted by Louis Tully, the studio is able to take more liberties with what "really" happened, and some of the Ghostbusters (particullarly Janine) are not happy with the finished product. Ghostbusters 2 makes only about half of the original, but is still one of the top movies of 1989.

Ghostbusters 2 was released on June 16, 1989 (Contemporary Accounts)--this is about halfway through the Season Five episodes. The idea that the contract was "sloppier" is conjecture, based on the greater style differences between the sequel and the cartoon. Mary Morris once wrote a hilarious story, "Wrath of a Redhead", illustrating just how pissed off by GB2 Janine Melnitz was...Think about it! A private moment of incredibly lapsed judgment splashed onto the silver screen for all to see and laugh at, worse without any context of her relationship with Egon. One would leave GB2 thinking she'd end up with Louis...that'd piss anyone off!

"The Father-Thing Trilogy, Part One: Rising Son"(XU RGB 9-01)
The Ghostbusters break a cult ritual centered around a young boy; when they disrupt it, the coven is absorbed by the demon they were summoning, a minion of Astorath, and the Ghostbusters are left to deal with the traumatized thirteen-year old, Shannon Phillips.

He slowly opens up to the Ghostbusters, particularly Venkman and Janine, and admits that the coven was his family--his mother was a witch, and some strange powers began to develop on his thirteenth birthday. His tutor, Nathaniel Blaque, a weird looking guy with pale blue skin, attempts to abduct Shannon, but Venkman stops him. Blaque then goes back to the Phillips estate to "consecrate" it for Astorath's coming.

A freak, unpredicted solar eclipse ("A supernatural occurrence of a supremely high order!" Egon remarks) causes a wave of strange energy to envelop the Earth, transforming everyone--save the four Ghostbusters, shielded by Shannon's growing powers--into monsters. And then the demon Astorath appears: "My Prince! My son! Embrace your Father, Shannon, I await you!!!"

This story is the most direct reference to Margaret Venkman being dead: "My Mom's been gone a long time. My Dad raised me" Venkman tells Shannon. It also has one joke reference to the Filmation Ghostbusters: Venkman says he's surprised Shannon knew who they were since they didn't have an ape along. Winston of course says they do--Venkman.

"The Father-Thing Trilogy, Part Two: Empire of the Son"(XU RGB 10-01)
Astorath explains that Shannon is his son, bred specifically to allow the creature to take over Earth. He tries to reclaim Shannon, but the Ghostbusters drive him off with their proton beams and escape in the ECTO-4, taking Shannon with them.

Janine, meanwhile, has been protected by Shannon's powers also, and makes her way back to the firehouse.

Ray finds a null zone in Astorath's energy centered on the village of Moodus in East Haddam, Connecticut. Egon flies there, and the Ghostbusters are aided in driving Astorath away by the wizard Morehemoodus. The Millstone and Connecticut Yankee nuclear power plants are generating atomic energy that weakens Astorath and keeps him away--but they learn from Morehemoodus (real name Dennis Fischer) that time distortions are setting in. Astorath secures a nuclear bomb and attacks the village; the Ghostbusters and Shannon flee once again as the wizards try to hold off Astorath--he incinerates the village with the bomb.

The Ghostbusters find another null zone, which turns out to be the domain of the earth spirit that escape Choate Chemical a few months before. The elemental attacks Astorath to help the Ghostbusters, but Astorath uses a dirty trick and emerges victorious. In return for leaving the Earth and returning it to normal, Shannon agrees to return to Astorath's realm with him and be his "son". Astorath, deciding that Earth is more trouble than it's worth, agrees--he takes Shannon and Blaque back with him.

During the Astorath crisis, Phineus Eventide sends his familiar, the black cat Tarantula, out into the world to gather information. An evil sorceress, Marlene Whately, siezes the cat.

Timing is conjecture from Real Ghostbusters#12.

"The Father-Thing Trilogy, Part Three"(XU RGB 11-01)
The ECTO-4 returns to Ghostbuster Central, to find not only Janine and Slimer but Irena Cortez awaiting them--she'd been turned into her werewolf form by the Astorath event, and now is one of the only ones who even remembers it happened. Over the next thirty-six hours, the Ghostbusters work feverishly to complete the transdimensional warp drive for the ECTO-4; to finance it, Venkman agrees to do a commerical for SuperCard in return for a raise in the Ghostbusters' credit line.

Back in Astorath's realm, Shannon becomes depressed and morose, hating his existence. Mister Blaque makes sarcastic remarks until Astorath puts the necromancer in charge of an outlying community of inept goblins. "I thought Hell was supposed to be warmer than this..." Blague grumbles to himself.

Irena joins the Ghostbusters in jumping to Astorath's home realm in the ECTO-4, but the dimension drive is damaged in the transit--Egon has to stay behind to fix it, and entrusts the mission to Venkman. The three Ghostbusters wear robes to disguise themselves, but a mix-up at the costume store has Venkman's emblazoned with teddy bears--he bitches about it until the goblins start bowing to him. "I guess teddy bears are a lot scarier over here". Blaque discovers the commotion and comes to investigate--he zaps Venkman, but Venkman sucker punches him and knocks him out.

Astorath appears, and battles the Ghostbusters. With the help of Irena and Shannon, who of course turns on his hated father, they stagger Astorath and beat a hasty retreat--the ECTO-4 is repaired and ready to go. Astorath is ready to follow them with a nuclear bomb (he kept as a memento of Earth) but Blaque zaps away from him laughing--the necromancer has armed the timer on the bomb, and it blows up, taking Astorath with it. When the ECTO-4 returns to Earth, they discover Shannon's powers have vanished, but his demonic nature has also been excised. Cortez agrees to take him on as her ward.

This three parter was Now's best story, in my opinion, and the villainous Mister Blaque could've been used to great effect as a recurring menace: as a human being, the Ghostbusters couldn't just zap him and stuff him in the Containment Unit. Alas, James Van Hise never followed up on this great character, though I entertain thoughts of using him in my own fan fictions.

The Ghostbusters film a commercial for SuperCard; their fee pays half of the debt to SuperCard, leaving them a debt of $250,000

Between Real Ghostbusters#11 and 12

"A Cat named Tarantula"(XU RGB 12-01)
The cat Tarantula escapes the Catskills manor of evil sorceress Marlene Whately and her humonculous, Strugala, and runs to New York City. Whately contacts her conspirator, Daniel Whitworth, and she conjures up some minions from cockroaches to try and find the cat before Phineus Eventide becomes aware of it. There's a funny scene where the sorcerers have the roaches deal with two punks in Central Park.

The Ghostbusters are working their butts off, and aren't too happy that Janine announces they have a new client: Tarantula, who is computer literate. Strugala tracks Tarantula to Ghostbusters Central, and gets into a fistfight with Slimer.

The sorcerers and the Roach Patrol attack the Ghostbusters and try to take Janine hostage, but by now Eventide is aware of the location of his familiar. The Prince of Warlocks shows up to banish Whately and Whitworth to eternal torment in another dimension, and in gratitude for resolving the Astorath crisis gives the Ghostbusters a gold bar. One worth $250,000, thus eliminating the rest of their debt to SuperCard.

Xoryl, a female member of a race of Lemures, is captured by scientists in the Himalayas. She is sent to the Buffalo Zoo. Her mate, Lem, leaves thier home near Mount Everest to find her, posing as a human sailor.

A few weeks before Real Ghostbusters#13

Episode 512 is "The Halloween Door"; I moved it to later in the year to make the October date "fit" better.

"Jailbusters"(RGB-201007;#513)
The Ghostbusters are condemned to eternal torture in the Arm Pit until Janine and Louis manage a quick rescue

"Surely You Joust"(RGB-201011;#514)
Some kind of pseudo-medieval crap..knights from the Realm of Fantasy kidnap Janine and drag her back there. The Ghostbusters must battle the knights and the wizard Orlox to free her and save the dragon the knights pursue.

"Blizzard Queen"(XU RGB 13-01)
The Ghostbusters catch a creature Venkman nicknames the "Weather Gizzard"--or so they think. the Gizzard had split into copies, and all they'd captured was one of the copies. Later, Egon shows the others a sensational headline about a "missing link" at the Buffalo Zoo. Venkman begins a string of Buffalo jokes. Shortly after, they're called about an "exceptionally hairy" man being held at the police station: they meet Lem, who tells them that the creature at the Buffalo Zoo is his mate, Xoryl.

As the Ghostbusters head to Buffalo, Xoryl is found by the Weather Gizzard, who has her conjure up a snowstorm threatening to utterly bury Buffalo in more snow than it usually gets. The Ghostbusters capture the Weather Gizzard and Lem breaks Xoryl out of it's spell. The Ghostbusters fly the couple--joined by Lem's new human friend--back to the Himalayas aboard the ECTO-4.

"Future Tense"(RGB-201006;#515)
A weird TV set foretells the doom of the Ghostbusters during a thunder storm

"Venk-Man"(RGB-201019;#516)
Venkman is accidentally given super powers in another experiment gone bad. He lets it go to his head and becomes a hammy superhero, Venk-Man

This is the only time, in my own personal Ghostbusters universe, the Dave Coulier voice is canonical to me: it works perfectly when Venkman is the bombastic hero Venk-Man (though it goes straight back to Lorenzo Music when the powers fade. If only it had worked that way in the show.

"The Lost and the Lonely"(XU RGB 14-01)
Two child spirits, Laurie and Micheal, try to escape into the sewers of New York, but Micheal is caught by spectral tentacles. Laurie escapes. Back at Ghostbusters Central, Ray has received an invitation to a reunion of his junior high school, and decides to accept.

After Ray leaves, Venkman's intended dream about debauchery in Tahiti is interrupted by the appearance of the ghost child Laurie. The tentacle beast attacks them, but Venkman dodges it by waking up--and Laurie materializes in the firehouse!

Ray arrives at Harry Flashman Junior High, and is assaulted by Benny and a demonic gym teacher (meaning it literally as opposed to the usual metaphor) Laurie explains to the other Ghostbusters that the reunion is a trap set by the Soul Catcher, a barrow wight that has captured thousands of child spirits over the decades, and part of his scheme to get her back. The other three guys and Janine head into the sewers to find the Soul Catcher; Ray defeats Benny and opens the boarded windows of the school, allowing the light in, and it weakens the barrow wight, allowing the Ghostbusters to catch it. Laurie and the other child spirits pass to the Other Side peacefully (except Benny, who's stuck on top of his smoke stack).

Janine is seen wearing one of Egon's flight suits.

"Loose Screws"(RGB-201018;#517)
A trap that Slimer dropped is leaking, causing machines all over town to come to life.

According to computers in Ghostbusters Central, 7387 entities are confined in the warp space of the Containment Unit

This was the amount of entities in the unit before the escape of Samhaine, according to Real Ghostbusters#26. The Ghostbusters don't actually trap anything in #15-16, and this presumes Louis and/or Janine don't catch anything during the interval between 16 and 17 either

"Spike"(XU RGB 15-01)
The Ghostbusters attend a parade at the...strong insistence of the Mayor's office. Venkman looks for blondes to hit on while Egon and Ray admire the balloons and get into a spiel about the return of zeppelins as cargo carrying vehicles. After the parade, Egon and Ray are answering a call from Officer Boyett when Janine gets another call: cops saying a dinosaur stepped on their car, melted it, shot them the finger, and stomped off.

Ray and Egon meet a red lizard man calling himself Spikorouleusdennum, Male Heir of Ceratel. They call him "Spike" for short. Spike explains that he comes from a realm at the center of the Earth, and was recently deposed from the throne of Ceratel by an evil tyrannosaurus with psychic powers named Nurtog. Who promptly shows up at the Immigration office to try and finish Spike off.

Janine gets another call about the Immigration Office attack...she insists on joining Winston and Venkman in the ECTO-4 as they rocket to the rescue. Venkman's not the best pilot, but manages to prevent being eaten by Nurtog. Ray and Egon nearly catch the psychic projection of Nurtog's power, but he flees when he realizes they pose a danger to him. The Ghostbusters and Spike attempt to reach Ceratel from the gate at the North Pole, but the ECTO-4 is driven back by electromagnetic fluctuations. Egon has a new idea: a zeppelin.

"The Land Unknown"(XU RGB 16-01)
Thanks to the sponsorship of the Extra Rugged Baggage Company, the Ghostbusters are able to build a special zeppelin in record time.

Just before they leave, Egon and Janine finally have a big argument about her flirting with Louis Tully. She tells him Louis is "sweet but harmless", and he admits he doesn't want her to go with them because he cares about her and it'd distract him on the mission. Venkman chases Slimer while wearing a cheap lizard costume.

The Ghostbusters and Spike reach Ceratel in the zeppelin, and blend in with the environment by having a pterodactyl parade balloon attached to it for camouflage. The fivesome reaches the Skull Mountain headquarters of Nurtog, and the battle is joined. Venkman accidentally uncovers Nurtog's withered true body; he doesn't kill Nurtog, but the Sleeping Tyrant's true vulnerability is revealed. Nurtog tries to collapse the place around them, but the Ghostbusters and Spike manage to escape.

Spike thanks them for their help, and pledges to rebuild his shattered kingdom. But below the wreckage of Skull Mountain, Nurtog plots his revenge...

This episode clearly places the Spike/Nurtog/Samhaine trilogy as subsequent to Ghostbusters 2, by having Egon and Janine argue about her flirtation in with Louis in the movie. James Van Hise took advantage of the one source of hope that I, a major Egon/Janine booster, took when seeing the movie: notice that the two of them actually never appear on screen together, not to mention the strange touch of having her stick Tully in a jumpsuit marked "Spengler". My own, conjectural scenario is this: Egon became absorbed in his work, ignoring her more than usual. And in this show, don't disregard the supernatural: both the effects of the river of slime and, as we discover later, a certain "Fairy Godmother" in explaining her brief fling with Louis.

"Chanted Evening"(XU RGB 17-01)
Louis and Slimer storm into Ghostbusters Central--his bowling tournament was disrupted when the pins came to life and attacked the opposing team. Janine is fielding call after call--all hell is breaking loose, and where are the Ghostbusters?! Just four hours away from New York, the Ghostbusters' zeppelin is attacked by goblins. Egon has a sick realization: those goblins looked very similar to the ones who freed Samhaine from the Containment Unit in 1985...And it's almost Halloween!

Louis straps up in a proton pack to go check noises in the basement, and sure enough Samhaine emerges, and he's pissed. Janine is frantically answering a call that turns out to be Egon...she tries to tell him what's going on but...after she screams the line goes dead. The Ghostbusters find New York, as twice before, utterly transformed and enshrouded in darkness. They land the zeppelin in Lakehurst and rush to the city in ECTO-1, but are being swamped by monsters until Phineus Eventide shows up to lend a hand. The Prince of Warlocks tells them that he will rally the mystics at the four main ley line nexi (Stonehenge, the Brocken, Blockberg, the forest of Ardennes) to counter Samhaine's spells, but the Ghostbusters must stop the Celtic god himself before he cements eternal night with the sacrifice of their friends--Janine, Slimer, and Louis.

Tarantula stows away on the ECTO-1 and frees Janine and Louis as the Ghostbusters battle Samhaine. Venkman ends up having to save Slimer himself. Between the attack from the Ghostbusters and the mystic countermeasures thrown at him by Eventide, Samhaine is defeated and New York returns to normal. Including having Samhaine imprisoned in the containment unit.

Established about a week before October 31, as it is mentioned that "Halloween is next Tuesday"

During the disruption of the containment unit, the Boogeyman escapes also; still weak from the destabilizer gun, he hides and bides his time.

Real Ghostbusters#26

"Partners in Slime"(RGB-201005;#506)
October 28. Louis and Janine are kidnapped while shopping on her birthday by Poso, the self proclaimed "Ghostfather"; to find them, the Ghostbusters work with a turncoat named Shifter. Egon coats Venkman with psychomagnetheric slime (leftovers from the battle with Vigo) so he can penetrate the ghost's lair and free them.

This is the only episode of the cartoon to refer to the events of Ghostbusters 2, mentioning the "battle with Vigo the Carpathian last year" (well, all but the tail end of the battle would've been in the year before.) I moved this episode later in the year as it takes place on Janine Melnitz's birthday, established as somewhere between October 23-November 22 in "The Crawler", and conjectured as Oct. 28

"The Halloween Door"(RGB-75002;#512)
Dr. Crowley tries to destroy the celebration of Halloween, but only succeeds in releasing the demon Boogaloo. Supposedly, "destroying" Halloween breaks the contract between human and demon, and allows Boogaloo to take over the world. But the Ghostbusters find one child with the Halloween spirit, and it's enough to force Boogaloo to admit that the contract is still in place.

But wouldn't it have been fun if Boogaloo HAD opened the containment unit, and he and Samhaine had to fight over who got to be the king of Halloween? Once more, I shuffled it's place in the order of episodes to make it "fit" the October 31 date better.

"Creeping Suburbia"(XU RGB 18-01)
Winston is stressing out from all the recent problems and escapes to Florida, hiding out in the sleepy town of Beachhead.

Egon, meanwhile, uncovers alien transmissions being beamed into space from, you guessed it, Beachhead, Florida. Winston is accosted on the beach by zealous protectors of the town, Darlene and Dennis, convinced he's an invader until they realize who he really is. They explain that they are the descendants of aliens who came to Earth to flee the tyranny of an insectoid race, and they'd been alerted that they were about to try and invade Earth.

One of the town boys is kidnapped by cranky old Irving Fenortner; Darlene and Dennis rush to the rescue and discover that Fenortner is really the advance scout from the insectoid creatures. Winston takes out "Fenortner", but more of the giant creeps come slithering out of the basement: the quick arrival of the rest of the Ghostbusters turns the tide of battle once more.

Egon is reluctant to leave the aliens be, but Winston and Venkman convince him to do so. The invaders are mind-blanked and sent into a sector of space far from their empire.

Part of Venkman's argument on Egon: "Polish aliens from beyond space? C'mon, Egon, how can you resist?" seems a lot funnier since I learned of Spengler's own Polish ancestry...

Jock Mulligan is elected Mayor of New York City, to succeed outgoing long-time Democratic Mayor Lenny Clotch. He takes office on January 1, 1990.

This is one fact that we're using in the Classic Timeline from the 2009 Ghostbusters: The Video Game. While the game as a whole presents continuity problems with EGB if taken at face value, in a nod to it we're using Mulligan as the "replacement" for real-world mayor David Dinkins, who served between Ed Koch (Lenny Clotch) and Rudy Guiliani (Edwin McShane). Prior editions of this timeline used Arnie Lapinski from The Return

"The Ghostbusters Live From Al Capone's Tomb!"(RGB-201008;#518)
Venkman sells the rights to the opening of Al Capone's tomb, starts up a TV spectacle, and draws the annoyed attention of the ghost of the real Al Capone. Capone draws the Ghostbusters into a ghost world patterned after 1920's Chicago; the Ghostbusters ally with Capone's enemies to defeat Capone and return to Earth, much to Janine and Louis's relief.

This episode I think clearly marks that the TV writers, like the comic (RGB#16) had decided to veto Harold Ramis and Ghostbusters 2: Janine gives Egon a heartfelt hug in full sight of Louis Tully.

"Revenge of the Ghostmaster"(RGB-201017;#519)
The Ghostmaster, who's "Punk Cinema" bounty hunter had failed to catch the Ghostbusters in 1986, comes to finish the job personally. He is, of course, no more successful.

"Slimer Streak"(RGB-201020;#520)
A demonic train enthusiast, "the Player", traps the Ghostbusters on a locomotive gauntlet of death.

"The Ransom of Greenspud"(RGB-201016;#521)
Really stupid episode where Slimer is kidnapped and the kidnappers regret it.

"Zoned Out"(XU RGB 19-01)
It's down time for the Ghostbusters.

Ray visits Toad Island, and saves a mermaid he saw years before from a gang of bullies

Venkman catches up with Irena Cortez..or, to be more accurate, Irena catches up with Peter.

Egon and Janine, with Shannon Phillips serving as chaperon, visit the Stromboli Circus and discover a troll, a former minion of Samhaine. Egon tries to talk to the owner sensibly, but it fails. Instead, the troll calls up his "burrower" and escapes

Winston goes out on a date. Gargoyles try and follow him and ambush him, but Slimer stops them.

In Egon's opening narration, he says "This is the place we call...the Ectozone". So now you know where I got the name

1990--YEAR EIGHT

(The sixth season of The Real Ghostbusters, and issues 20-28 of the Now comic)

"Janine, You've Changed"(RGB-140-504;#601)
While looking at a scrap book, Slimer clues the team onto a startling discovery: that thier own secretary, Janine Melnitz, has somehow been physically altered over the years, in some ways quite drastically! Egon orders a series of covert tests, and uncovers evidence of supernatural involvement in the changes. Slimer is sent to spy on her, and finds out that a "Fairy Godmother" is involved, altering her slowly, apparently to Janine's specification, all in a quest to look "prettier". Egon and Ray don't buy the "fairy godmother" bit, and identify the true party as makeoverus lotsabucks, a parasitic spirit that feeds on a person's vanity, at the same time slowly destroying their mind and will, eventually to the end of creating a new lotsabucks. Sensing that they're on to her, the lotsabucks takes Janine on the run, convincing her that they've all become jealous of her perfection.

Appropriately enough, Egon finds them first, but instead of listening Janine rails against him, venting the years of frustration built up: HE was the reason she did this, all so HE would notice her. Egon finds himself unable to fight her with his proton pack, instead releasing his own hidden truth: that he loves her. Caught between the lotsabucks lies and violence, and the simple truth that binds her to Egon, Janine breaks free and defeats the lotsabucks.

Pardon the length, but as I mentioned before I'm a big Egon/Janine booster, and this episode was major pay-off. Egon and Janine stand before each other and Egon blurts out the truth that, if you paid attention, burned within him for a long time. Granted that the attraction was obviously one-sided at first, but look at "Ragnarok and Roll": the Ghostbusters were about to blow themselves to smithereens to stop Whittington. Ray, Venkman, and Winston are exchanging witty banter reminiscent of the end of Ghostbusters. Egon lightly whispers a single word: "Janine" It certainly wasn't Louis he was interested in saving in "Partners In Slime", and when the team deduces Boogalloo is after thier containment unit in "The Halloween Door", Egon's first thought isn't for the carnage to be unleashed on the world: it's that a certain redhead is at ground zero. Especially go back and watch "Robo-Buster": if that isn't naked, flaming, glorious jealously and anger at Paul Smart ("Then what do you call that, your jalopy?!") then what is it?! My main regret at Extreme Ghostbusters is that they seem to have back-tracked the relationship somewhat, especially in "The Crawler" Damn it, if I'd had a say Janine would've been introduced as "Oh, this is my wife, Janine" and maybe a couple of kids or something...

This episode, by the way, features Venkman's one and only shower scene. It is, fortunately, tasteful.

"You Can't Teach an Old Demon New Tricks"(RGB-140-503;#602)
The Great Strazinski enlists the Ghostbusters help to find out why his assistants keep vanishing into his magic box. The culprit is Gorgar, a would-be stage magician; Ray teaches the demon card tricks in return for releasing the team and the assistants

"The Great Strazinski" was named in tribute to early story editor J. Micheal Straczynski, returning the tribute Joe played to this episode's writer, Larry DiTillio, in "Ragnarok and Roll"

"War...At the Earth's Core!"(XU RGB 20-01)
The Ghostbusters receive an urgent communication from their friend Spike of Ceratel, telling them that Nurtog, the Sleeping Tyrant, has returned.

Ray tries to contact Alan Weinberg, but reaches his brother Matt instead (both sons of the original Lunar Avenger). Matt in turn contacts Doc Hazzard.

The plan is to have the Crime Patrol serve as back-up as the Ghostbusters travel back to Ceratel, this time in the ECTO-4: Egon has used the data stored from the prior meeting, combined with the vehicle's warp drive, to allow the ECTO-4 to teleport to Ceratel.

They do, and arrive right in the middle of a pitched battle between Nurtog's minions and a squadron of old Terran planes, including a GB Racer, a Flying Wing, a Grumman Duck, and an Albatross; the dinosaurs refer to the foursome as the "Legion of the Lost" Thanks to the other planes and Egon's deft handling, the Ghostbusters look to be putting a quick end to Nurtog's plans...

Except that Nurtog's science goon, Bataar, has figured out what they've done; Nurtog downs the ECTO-4, and removes the focussing device for the warp drive--he uses it to teleport himself and his minions to New York City, leaving the Ghostbusters trapped in Ceratel!

"Wild In the Streets"(XU RGB 22-01)
Janine frets and worries about Egon and the others--dinosaurs are roaming Manhattan and the mayor is apoplectic because the Ghostbusters aren't there. Then Nurtog shows up at Ghostbuster Central--Janine and Hazzard repel him, but know it's only temporary. The Crimson Crimebuster and Matt Weinberg, now filling in as Lunar Avenger, are called in to help in the Crimebuster's Crimson Crimewing.

Egon salvages parts of the warp drive from the ECTO-4, and splits it between the four Legion of the Lost planes. He sends a signal tp Hazzard, and the four planes--each including a Ghostbuster as gunner--are teleported back to New York. The five planes battle Nurtog.

Hazzard and Egon figure out a way to invert the focusing device, and it sends Nurtog's goons back to Ceratel--as well as cutting off Nurtog's power. The ancient beast withers and dies, gone for good.

Janine what I consider her best Ghostbuster jumpsuit this issue: it's the same blue as Egon's but with orange collar and cuffs! I wish something like this had been used instead of that crappy pink thing!

This has absolutely nothing to do with the story, but in the letter column of RGB#22 was my first printed letter anywhere! I spout at length about Egon and Janine...I guess some things never change, huh?

"The Haunting of Heck House"(RGB-140-502;#603)
The Ghostbusters finally meet a haunted house so scary it even terrifies THEM!

"Ghostworld"(RGB-140-509;#604)
Carl Sands, proprietor of the supernatural theme park "Ghostworld", offers the team money to endorse his project. First Ray and Janine go, and come back acting odd. They talk Venkman and Winston into going next..Egon can't go--he's sick with a cold and his mom is there treating him.

But Egon and Katharine have to go anyway to save the rest: Carl Sands is really Karro-Zands, a nasty demon.

In this episode, Mrs. Spengler is voiced by Rose Marie, of Dick Van Dyke fame.

"The Strength to Dream"(XU RGB 23-01)
Winston and his date are present at a screening of a bad horror film, The Deathless Image, at the Rialto theater and suddenly monsters start to carry away audience members. Winston is suspicious, of course, but chalks it up to the best 3-D effects ever--until the police drag a raving maniac to Ghostbusters Central that Winston recognizes as one of the audience members!

Egon confirms that the punk has been in contact with a powerful supernatural power source, and upon researching the movie and it's weird lead character, Rowen Schow, come to some horrifying discoveries: Rowen Schow was a real wizard who discovered a way to make the unreal real through the power of human imagination and suspension of disbelief.

Key to his plans is an imaginative young boy named Sergio Fernandez, whom Schow calls a "dream receptor". With the Ghostbusters' help, Sergio denies the monsters and they weaken, allowing the Ghostbusters to trap them and Rowen Schow. They hire Sergio's gruff dad to fix the dings in the ECTO-4, too...

This is the only appearance of Winston's oft-mentioned girlfriend; in the fan fics, we named her Kaila McMillon. There is another reference to Ghostbusters 2 in this story, as Ray and Egon mention their "encounter with the psychoreactive ecto-slime"

"Mean Green Teen Machine"(RGB-140-505;#605)
Three trash-talking teenage mutant lizards terrorize New York before being trapped in Egon's VR machine.

"Space Busters"(RGB-140-506;#606)
Winston is selected to serve a two-week tour of duty as a civilian specialist in the International Space Project; sure enough, a meteor passes close to the station, releasing a demonic monster that stucks the life force out of everyone in the station except Winston. The rest of the Ghostbusters arrive; Ray and Egon are consumed by the creature, but Venkman, Winston, and Slimer stop the monster before it could knock the station out of orbit and chow down on the people of Earth. Ray, Egon, and the crew are restored once the monster is defeated.

Too bad Dana Barrett was never in the cartoon...this would've been right up the alley of a Sigourney Weaver character...

"Carnival"(XU RGB 24-01)
The Ghostbusters are relaxing after a bust at a circus when a girl named Denetia literally blows into Ghostbusters Central. As she leads the guys to Greentown, she explains what has happened:

Back in 1942, the Cosmos Carnival came to Greentown; a seer predicted a bad end to the world, and as war was waging at the time, the circus's powerful leader, Mister Cosmos, used his powers to "cut off" Greentown from the rest of the world, and grants the inhabitants a kind of immortality--though their bodies continue to age and decay. Anyone who tries to leave is stopped by Cosmos' coterie of were beasts--only her own powers allowed Denetia to leave: she's Cosmos's daughter!

Denetia and the Ghostbusters battle Cosmos, and as they do his hold on some of the inhabitants fades. Their spirits separate from their bodies, and form a giant ghost ready to attack Cosmos. Egon convinces Cosmos to release the spell completely, and the inhabitants of Greentown pass on to the other side!

My second letter. In this one, I again rave about Janine and pump the idea of Mister Blaque as a recurring villain. I mentioned him again years later on Ghostbusters.net! I really haven't changed!!!

"My Left Fang"(RGB-140-513;#607)
A vampire is terrorizing a small town in Germany. Not really memorable...

"Russian About"(RGB-140-501;#608)
The Ghostbusters go to Russia, to stop Vladimir Maximov and Demitri Melyakov's cult from freeing one of the Great Old Ones using another copy of the Necronomicon.

The episode makes innuendo toward the Lovecraft mythos and its previous treatment in "Collect Call of Cthulhu", without establishing the creature definitively. It's purely conjecture, but the analysis of my local Lovecraft expert, OgreBBQ, pegs the creature seen as Cyaega. Writer J.Micheal Stracynski, interviewed in the book Saturday Morning Fever, confirms that the book Maximov and Melyakov uses was indeed supposed to be the famous Necronomicon, but ABC forced him to rewrite it as a more generic "Book of the Old Ones" because some "expert" was concerned about Satanic content!

Another interesting note is in the Ghostbusters ally, Dr. Katarina Novachenka--she greatly resembles the "cartoon version" of Dana Barrett created by John Tobias for the NOW Comics' adaptation of Ghostbusters 2

"Ghost Train"(XU RGB 25-01)
The Ghostbusters are contacted by General George Armstrong Badge, leader of the top-secret government agency ARMOR (Advanced Radical Military Occult Railroad). He explains that he'd fought in the "Unearth War", a secret part of the Vietnam conflict that had begun when a dimensional gate had opened in Southeast Asia. The gate had been closed years later, but a new one had started to open after the eruption of Mt St. Helens in 1980--and a prototype armored train had gone into the gate and never returned. Thus, the decision to call the experts on dimensional travel...

Clad in body armor, the Ghostbusters enter the gate and eventually find the train, though the five man crew had been possessed. The possessing entities rave about how they were smart and stayed away from the only humans that scared them...""Place of giant metal hu-man near sea". Egon suddenly realizes what they're saying--he shows them the Ghostbuster logo on his arm and the possessing entities abandon their captives and run: the "giant metal hu-man" was the statue of liberty, and they, the Ghostbusters, were the humans the monsters feared. "You mean we just won because we have better public relations?" Venkman asks incredulously. The Ghostbusters return home with the train and it's crew intact.

July. Alberto Rivera, a member of the NYPD, originally from Mexico, is killed in the line of duty. He is survived by his wife Carlota, sons Carlos and Eduardo, as well as a grandson, Kevin.

Name and exact date are conjectured from a story by "EGB Fan"

"The Slob"(RGB-140-511;#609)
As quack scientist Norman Dweeb chases Slimer, The Sleaze is releases from the containment unit and combines with his brother the Glob to become the Slob.

This episode features Dr. Dweeb, a staple of the Slimer solo stories from season three, as well as the Sleaze, seen being caught by the Ghostbusters in another Slimer! episode. I generally consider the Slimer material apocryphal, though obviously some of it "happened" in one form or another. Dweeb also appears in "Deja Boo"

"Deja Boo"(RGB-140-517;#610)
Dr. Dweeb looks into Slimer's mind, giving us a chance to revisit old adventures

Or, to be more accurate, to create the hated "clip show" full of footage from "The Copycat", "Halloween II1/2", "The Two Faces of Slimer", and "Sticky Buisness"

"Closet Case"(XU RGB 26-01)
Tommy Newkirk is being haunted, and the monster that came out of his closet scrawled a message on the walls: "REVENGE EGON SPENGLER REVENGE"

Egon's own nightmares lead him to scan the Containment Unit and confirm his suspicions: the one entity that wasn't returned after Samhaine's latest escape: The Boogeyman.

Egon is present when the Boogeyman kidnaps Tommy, and Venkman is sucked into his realm also. Ray and Winston use their proton packs to reopen the doorway and meet up with Venkman.

The Boogeyman drops Tommy and Egon into a replica of Egon's childhood bedroom; he fails to intimidate the Ghostbuster, and Egon has figured out the Boogeyman's secret: he's still weak from the Destabilizor gun, and Ray and Winston trap him easily.

"Afterlife In the Fast Lane"(RGB-140-510;#611)
The Phantom interferes in the Ghostbuster's charity road rally

"Guess What's Coming to Dinner"(RGB-140-507;#612)
The Bundy/Simpson-esque Grungy (Foul, Pig, Bug, and Smelly) family moves into the firehouse while the Ghostbusters are on vacation.

"Last Voyage of the Lady Anne"(XU RGB 27-01)
Treasure hunters Wade Connoly and Tony Traegeser have found the wreck of the Lady Anne, but it might be more trouble than it's worth...

They call the Ghostbusters, who travel to the little town of Leland in the ECTO-4. Traegerer has cleared out, but Connoly shows them what he's learned: at nightfall a spectral woman, Jessica, appears, who shows them what happened when the Lady Anne went down a hundred years ago: her husband Lucius made a pact with a water spirit: their spirits would serve it for a century...

Then the government shows up and arrests Connoly (for "looting" the wreck) and the Ghostbusters (as accomplices). But then the wreck of the Lady Anne resurfaces and ghosts start coming ashore in Leland in droves. The Ghostbusters are freed just as the water spirit reneges on his deal and starts to reclaim the spirits. The Ghostbusters and the other spirits team up to defeat the water demon, and the spirits pass on peacefully.

"Stay Tooned" (RGB-140-514;#613)
One of Ray's favorite cartoon characters, Sammy K. Ferret, comes to life and begins to turn things in New York into cartoon characters--including Ray, Winston, and Egon!

"Very Beast Friend"(RGB-140-508;#614)
A three hour cruise gone bad finds the Ghostbusters stranded on a desert island and Venkman and Ray possessed by the warring elemental spirits Anshar and Khishar

"Hat Trick"(XU RGB 28-01)
As Venkman confounds Slimer with math ("If you guess how many pizzas are in these boxes without peeking, you can have both of them!") Egon and Janine go on a much-needed date. Of course, things don't go smoothly...

They visit Janine's cousin, Michele Jacobs, and her son Alec. Alec insists he sees a ghost that looks just like him; and in short order, the two Ghostbusters meet the spirit of Aaron Jacobs, who tells them he had been sacrificed to allow a witch spirit to posess his mother Ginevra--who is about to seize Michele Jacobs...

However, it's too late--Michele opened the box containing a witch hat--the hat containing the Ginevra spirit. It possesses Michele...the Ghostbuster couple tries to stop her, but they get thrown into a closet.

Aaron appears, and whisks Egon and Janine back to 1840. It's the only way to stop the witch now, he explains. Janine grabs the hat from Ginevra Jacobs and throws it into a fireplace--Michele can't be possessed by a hat that burned in 1840! Janine runs to the pentagram Egon has created to protect them and Ginevra...the witch spirit, having nowhere to go, angrily dissipates. The two Ghostbusters return to the present, and despite Egon's concerns that they've changed time, Slimer is still confounded by Venkman's challenge...

"Busters in Toyland"(RGB-140-512;#615)
Louis's obnoxious nephew Lawrence makes trouble for the gang, especially when a ghost called Lothgar gets involved...

"The Magnificent Five"(RGB-140-516;#616)
Pathetic western knock-off, The Ghostbusters travel to Spittoon TX to bust a ghost called Black Bart. But does Black Bart want the gold under the town or the spiritual well which will give him incredible powers?

1991--YEAR NINE

(The seventh and last season of The Real Ghostbusters, and The Real Ghostbusters, Vol.2 from NOW Comics)

"The Treasure of the Sierra Tamale"(RGB-140-603;#701)
Venkman's dad convinces Ray to go with him to Mexico to hunt for treaure. The happen upon coatls, Aztec dragons, and their master, Quetzalcoatl

"Not Now, Slimer"(RGB-140-602;#702)
As Slimer is hassled by Professor Dweeb, the Ghostbusters battle a spirit channeling the powers of many of their prior opponents

"The Rise and Fall of Ghostbusting"(XU RGB2 0-01)
A rollercoaster, the "Screamer", is being haunted. After failing to trap it, Venkman convinces the ghost to not harm anybody, so it can stay and be part of the attraction.

"Tobin and the Maze of Time, Part One" (XU RGB2 0-02)
Egon is conducting some dream experiments on Ray when some strange images come in: they eventually realize that it is the legendary Tobin, chronicler of the Tobin Spirit Guide, and he's in deep trouble from a creature referred to only as "Evil"--the monster has taken the chronicler out of his temporal null zone, and Tobin is aging quickly. The Ghostbusters hook themselves up to Egon's dream device and head off to help him...

"Tobin and the Maze of Time, Part Two" (XU RGB2 1-01)
The Ghostbusters arrive on the dreamscape, and have to triumph over several obstacles--a trapdoor to a bottomless bit, a cave featuring another bottomless pit, and finally a set of revolving doors that ends up scattering the four Ghostbusters throughout time...

Winston ends up in ancient Crete...and an angry minotaur...

Ray ends up in one of his ancestral homelands. Specifically, Scotland in 1638 AD...

Venkman is dropped into Southern France in 1432...where he encounters the ghost of Joan of Arc...

And Egon is deposited in ancient Egypt, circa 2550 BC. And his first encounter with a Sphinx...

"Tobin and the Maze of Time, Part Three" (XU RGB2 2-01)
"Evil" gloats as Tobin continues to age rapidly. Tobin knows that only by figuring out the secret of the Maze of Time will allow the Ghostbusters to save him...

Winston is chased around the Labyrinth by the minotaur until Daedalus shows up; Daedalus gives Winston wings and, to the Ghostbuster's disbelief, the two fly out of the maze. But Winston does an Icarus and gets too close to the Sun...his wings start to melt, and he desperately grabs Daedalus's amulet...

...And pops into a chamber where Egon, holding a similar chunk of metal, is waiting. Egon explains that he was in ancient Egypt--he guessed the Sphinx's riddle, and got the monster to stop hassling the pyramid builders by having them agree to building a monument to the Sphinx...

"Tobin and the Maze of Time, Part Four" (XU RGB2 3-01)
Egon and Winston are joined in short order by Ray and Venkman. Ray is talking in a Scottish brogue, and tells a fantastic tale about how he saved a town from the Loch Ness Monster: it agreed to stop attacking people if Ray would stop playing the bagpipe. Ray recieved a chunk of metal similar to Egon and Winston's for his service...

Venkman regales them with his tale of Joan Of Arc, and how he teamed up with her to stop an English assassin from killing King Charles. When Venkman fell out of the rafters, he grabbed a now quite-familiar chunk of metal...

Egon assembles the four segments into a box. Venkman says it reminds him of a toy he had as a kid and twists it--the image of Tobin appears, and congratulates them for passing the "tests of time"...

"Evil" knows the Ghostbusters are coming and has come up with a gambit of his own, disguising himself as a certain five-one redhead from Brooklyn...

"Tobin and The Maze Of Time, Part Five" (XU RGB2 4-01)
Tobin leads the Ghostbusters to his dying corporeal body, where Janine is waiting for them--she doesn't take the time to explain how. But it's too late--Tobin dies. The Ghostbusters wonder what to do next, while Egon concentrates and summons up a proton pack. The other Ghostbusters are incredulous when he points it at Janine--but when he blasts her it's obvious it's just "Evil" in disguise (Egon wasn't fooled. Knows his woman, that one does...)

Then, with "Evil" weakened, the Council of Eight shows up and confines the creature. The Ghostbusters wake up at home and even they're confused by all of this--if the Council couldn't destroy "Evil" and Tobin's still dead, then what's the point???

This account of Tobin conflicts with the version presented in Ghostbusters International, where John Horace Tobin was an Englishman from the early Twentieth Century. I prefer the JH Tobin version, but it's hard to disregard an actual story for an RPG reference work. See Ghostbusters Fact List: Occult Reference Network for more on the GBI version of Tobin, and the Ghostbusters International Timeline for a proposed "compromise" between the two ideas.

"Attack of the B-Movie Monsters"(RGB-140-605;#703)
The Ghostbusters go to Japan to battle a Godzilla knockoff called Lizardo

Who is more like Godzilla than the Gino (Godzilla In Name Only) seen in the 1998 American Godzilla movie...

"20,000 Leagues Under the Street"(RGB-140-601;#704)
Apshai, Egyptian insect god, tries to take over New York.

This was the last new animated Ghostbusters story until 1997, the last featuring the original Ghostbusters exclusively.

"Poltergeist at the Pentagon" (XU RGB2Ann 1-01)
The Ghostbusters get a call from the President of the United States: poltergeists are tearing up the Pentagon. The Ghostbusters fly to Washington DC and meet with a Colonel Sullivan, who takes them inside. Ray sets a trap for the playful critters using the model tanks and airplanes in the War Room, and the ghosts are easily confined.

Just as the Ghostbusters are about to leave, Colonel Sullivan asks them if they've heard of "Professor Ian Epimethius"--and Egon certainly has: Epimethius was one of his old mentors, who'd dropped out of teaching after supposedly finding a "gateway to the deepest, darkest depths of evil"

"Pandora's Box" (XU RGB3DAnn 1-02)
The Ghostbusters receive Ian Epimethius's experimental interdimensional portal. When they activate it, Egon and Venkman don spacesuits and go inside it...the dimension they end up in looks familiar to them...their suspicions are confirmed when three familiarly wierd ghostly versions of themselves and Ray appear: the Peoplebusters!!!

Worst of all, they find the portal and use it--Ray and Winston only see shadowy shapes until it's too late!!! Egon and Venkman return--the Peoplebusters are loose in New York City!

The Ghostbusters free Professor Epimetheus from his dimensional prison, in the same realm from which the Peoplebusters hail.

Conjecture. The above material was slated for Real Ghostbusters Vol.2 No.5-on, but the series was canceled and the completed material salvaged for the above specials. From this point, the Ghostbusters franchise became all but completely dormant save for re-runs on USA.

Shameless plug: I offer an adaptation and highly unofficial ending to the story of Epimethius and the Peoplebusters here

"Trick or Treat or Defeat" (XU RGB3DAnn 1-01)
It's Halloween, and Egon has detected some major spikes in the PK levels (another Big Twinkie, I guess). The other Ghostbusters are getting ready for a Halloween party, and Venkman is teasing Janine because she dresses like a clown every year.

Samhaine has somehow escaped again, and is seeking to shatter the barrier between the living and unliving worlds, allowing him to (of course) take over both. He's posed as a kindly old man to pass out toys and candy to kids--that come to life and start attacking them!

The Ghostbusters find Samhaine, and utilizing an..innovative (actually, kinda bullsh*t pseudoscience) tactic, cause him to overload and explode. The toys and candy return to normal.

Back at GB Central, Janine surprises them all with her new pirate costume...

I just about didn't put this in the timeline, as it represents a major continuity breach: Samhaine somehow escape the Containment Unit with no explanation. The Ghostbusters don't even seem surprised about this!!! A line or two explaining it would've been nice, y'know...

I will also note that in the fan fic version of the Timeline, I moved this encounter to Halloween 1990. This would place it roughly around the same time as RGB#27 and "Stay Tooned"

Ghostbusters: The Video Game occurs in late 1991; however, the game does not easily work in the Classic Timeline, which includes Extreme Ghostbusters as it's 'set" future. Problems include the use of equipment even more advanced, in ways, than those from six years "later", and the presense of the Rookie, a character who, of course, is not mentioned or alluded to in EGB. The Video Game is thus not part of the Classic Timeline canon, save for use of Jock Mulligan

It is, however, part of the New Timeline

Late 1991 or Early 1992
The Ghostbusters, faced with plummeting profits from a dearth of supernatural activity, again cease business, this time willingly. Janine Melnitz and Louis Tully are "downsized" out of their jobs, and Louis's activities are wholly unknown after this point. Ray Stantz does research on pyrokinesis at a major university in Idaho until an undefined "accident" puts him so down on his luck he's become a used car salesman for Perpetual Motors in Colorado. Winston Zeddemore trains as a pilot, and flies a commutor line in Montana. Peter Venkman goes to Hollywood, becomes a successful agent, and by 1997 is trying to shop around a concept for Ghostbusters 3. Egon Spengler elects to remain in New York, living in the firehouse to keep an eye on the containment unit, and accepts a posting as a parapsychology teacher at New York City College, a community college

Egon's activities since the breakup of the original Ghostbusters are well-defined in "Darkness At Noon", which also re-introduces Janine: her activities are undefined, though it appears obvious that she does not keep in touch with Egon. The rest of the Ghostbusters' fates are detailed in "Back In The Saddle"

Earlier editions of this Timeline misstated Ray's research as taking place at Stanford. This was purely an error of memory and I've corrected it. The Ectozone/GBI Timeline still mentions his tenure as being at Stanford, but I have intentions of adjusting GBOT Fanon to partially correct it there also.

Over the next few years, Janine Melnitz's appearance continues to evolve due to age and the loss of the makeoverus lotsabucks. By 1997, her appearance seems to have slowly evolved "back" into something in-between her original appearance and her "improved" one; her voice remains unaccented, but is deeper than even her original one. Even her personality acquires some of it's old fire and vinegar.

Conjecture from "Janine, You've Changed" and her appearance in Extreme Ghostbusters; her voice, of course, is due to her being played by Pat Musick, a totally different voice actress from the two in the animated series, Laura Summer and Kath Soucie. (And no relation to Venkman voice actor Lorenzo Music)

1992--YEAR TEN
While doing research at a New York City College, former Ghostbuster Egon Spengler meets Dr. Edward Kirillian, another paranormal researcher with "unusual" ideas. In specific, he believes that three crystal Toltec skulls can be used to enslave supernatural entities. Eventually, Egon decides that Kirillian is too unstable and ends his relationship with him.

Conjecture from "Heart of Darkness" In all honesty, the time frame of Egon's working with Kirillian is never established, and could just as easily been either of the two other times Egon was in research: 1978-1983 (before Ghostbusters) or 1986-1988 (between "Brooklyn Triangle" and Ghostbuters2), but as Kirillian no mention is made of Ray or Venkman, I consider this the most likely time frame.

Kylie Griffin becomes Cheerleader of the Year for her eighth grade class

"Heart of Darkness". Four years before Kylie graduates (senior year=twelfth grade) in 1996.

1993--YEAR ELEVEN
Edwin McShane is elected mayor of New York; he had defeated incumbent Mayor Jock Mulligan, and takes office on January 1, 1994.

Conjecture. This was the year that Rudy Guliani was elected in real life; while McShane's party affiliation was never mentioned, it is presumed he was a Republican like Guiliani (which casts the election in a slighty different dynamic than the Real World election of 1993, when Guiliani defeated Democratic incumbent David Dinkins. Jock Mulligan is a character from Ghostbusters: The Video Game, which is not canon in this Timeline, but he's been placed here as a nod to it. "Luck of the Irish" mentions that none of the Extreme Ghostbusters voted for McShane...but do the math. They were too young at the time!

1996--YEAR FOURTEEN
Kylie Griffin's grandmother, Rose Nelson Lockyer, dies. Kylie, already a budding new-age spiritualist and Ghostbuster scholar, intensifies her studies into the supernatural in hopes of contacting her grandmother's ghost.

Rose died one year before Extreme Ghostbusters, as established in "Darkness At Noon". Rose's last names (maiden and married) are a conjecture from EGB Fan

Back To The Timeline Main Page
Before The Movies: Prehistory-1982
Era One: 1983-1987
Era Two: 1988-1996
1988 - 1989 - 1990 - 1991 - 1991 or 1992 - 1992 - 1993 - 1996
Era Three: 1997-On
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