Ghostbusters New Timeline: After the Movies

At this point, the placement of non-GBVG stories is highly speculative, and subject to change. I'm trying to keep them more or less in order of publication.

"The Other Side, Part One" (XU GBTOS 1-01)
A seemingly routine bust of some gangster ghosts turns bad when one of them possesses Venkman; Winston clocks him, and the ghost gangster vacates, but to their horror the Ghostbusters discover that Venkman's spirit has been kicked out of his body, and consigned to the "Dark Void of Dispair"

The ghost gangster--Fred--reports to his bosses, notorious dead gangsters Meyer Lansky, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, and Al Capone--and they agree that something has to be done about it. Fred enthusiastically volunteers to handle the messy deed...

Fred returns to Venkman's "empty" body, and lures the Ghostbusters outside: where a team of spectral thugs wielding real guns shoot them dead.

"The Other Side, Part Two" (XU GBTOS 2-01)
Fred, still wearing Venkman's body, reports to his bosses. Ironically, they're all in a church. The other Ghostbusters are dead--and their bodies sunk in the ECTO-1. They're not going to bother the ghost gangsters anymore. Fred tells them he's "retired"--he likes living in Venkman's body. and goes to find a "dame"

Ray, Egon, and Winston "awake" in Purgatory, and are attacked by the ghosts of an old lady, a more modern tough, a kid, and conjoined twins. The Ghostbusters fight off the attack--Egon goes into a wonderful moment of freak out--but while fleeing the attackers, Ray and Egon end up separated from Winston.

The ghosts attack Egon and Ray again, and they run into a demon guarding the "border". The two Ghostbusters are about to be destroyed by the demon when Venkman appears, and pulls the creature's spine out. Gross.

"The Other Side, Part Three" (XU GBTOS 3-01)
Venkman isn't alone--he's got the ghosts of some famous lawmen on his side, now: J. Edgar Hoover, Elliot Ness, and Jelly Bryce. Venkman's also befriended a boy named Jiff. Capone, Lansky, and the other gangsters are running a spectral smuggling operation, smuggling souls out of Purgatory (in return for a "cut" of the souls "off the book")

The good guys are attacked again by a lion demon, but Venkman manhandles it--for some reason, his ghosts is like some sort of super hero (Venk-Man! Sorry...) Egon theorizes it's because his physical body isn't dead yet.

Winston eventually turns up with a bikini-clad girl named Janelle, who was his girlfriend before her untimely death by drowning.

Back on Earth, Fred has just finished with a couple of prostitutes when he's contacted by Lucky Luciano, who orders him to "finish the job". Janine shows up finding the firehouse trashed; Fred knocks her unconscious and leaves.

The gangsters have made a "special arrangement" and Fred, still in Venkman's body, is transported to Purgatory. Oh, and Fred's armed with a proton pack, and you know how dangerous those are if you're a ghost...

"The Other Side, Part Four" (XU GBTOS 4-01)
Fred catches Venkman in a ghost trap; things look dire. Then Jiff smashes the trap, releasing Venkman.

While he was in the trap, though, Venkman had a vision of angels. They give him the ol' "We cannot overstep the truce" spiel, and Venkman is sent back to his body, evicting Fred.

A larger demon appears, trying to claim Venkman's body per the terms of it's deal with the gang bosses. Fred is incensed to realize he was gonna be "thrown under the bus"; he wants to help against the demon, but they trap it without his help. Hoover promises that Fred and Capone (who'd been captured by Ness, of course) will get what's coming to them as Venkman passes out and blue light surrounds them all...

One week later. The ghost gangsters are at the same church seen previously, grooming their newest recruit, John Gotti, when the Ghostbusters show up, alive and well, having been revived by a fairly literal "Deus Ex Machina". The four gang bosses are zapped and trapped with little problem.

Janelle and Jiff's ghosts are there, and she tells them that her time is up. She says her goodbyes to Winston, and the two of them fade into the ether, crossing over to the other side.

"The Theatre of Pain" (XU GBT 1-01)
Theater producer Blintzy Jones has a problem: his big budget, explosion-laden play "Runaway Romance" is being haunted. The director quits, and Venkman takes over (hamming it up all the way), with Ray as stage director and Egon as the male lead, leotard and all.

The culprit is the ghost of Francis Frum, a theater critic who sees Jones' plays as monstrosities without soul.

They discover that Frum was a frustrated playwright, and put on a production of his show complete with a spectral cast. Jones grumbles, thinking every form of entertainment requires F-14s, but the show is a hit.

"Worm in the Apple" (XU GBT 1-02)
Jack Hardemeyer, former assistant to Mayor Lenny Clotch, is out of a job and bitter. He approaches a bunch of ghosts with a proposition...

"We're Ready to Believe YOU" (XU GBT 1-03)
Ray is on duty, and is sent on a bunch of false alarms...until he finds a real monster posing as a kid who claimed one was under his bed. Ray catches the ghost...but then Hardemeyer shows up, released the entity, and it attacks him...

"Just Your Typical Class 1 Confined Manifestation" (XU GBT 1-04)
Janine tells Egon he's got a call, but he isn't interested until she mentions that the call comes from his old physics instructor, Professor Harold Teplitz. It isn't until Teplitz's on, Harry Jr, arrives, that Egon is able to convince the senior Teplitz of the truth: he died two years ago, and the entities "haunting" him, his wife and parents, are trying to take him to the Other Side, where he belongs. Teplitz accepts his fate, and fades away peacefully (or so it appears...). Then Hardemeyer ambushes Egon, and ghosts with proton pack-like weapons blast the unarmed Ghostbuster, and place him in a wierd kind of trap...

I just have to mention that Janine is hitting on Egon in this story. Which is as it should be.

"Ghost Busted" (XU GBT 1-05)
Janine tells Venkman and Winston that Egon and Ray haven't returned from their last calls, or contacted her, and has them check out the newest calls. Apparently knowing who they're dealing with, the enemy ambushes Venkman by taking on the form of a female coed wearing nothing but a towel. Hardemeyer appears, gloats, and Venkman is caught. Winston escapes, and arms himself with some mundane weaponry, namely guns. He finds the other three Ghostbusters, their spirits contained in a micro-sized Ecto Containment Unit, and frees them. They confront Hardemeyer, and find out that Teplitz has been working with him all along, and that it was Teplitz who designed the modified "people buster" weaponry. Egon captures Teplitz, and the defeated Hardemeyer escapes.

"The Devil Wears Nada" (XU GBT 1-06)
The Ghostbusters are picking up PKE readings at "Rambeau's House of Fashions"; they send Venkman in to buy a dress, and when they get the ugly thing back to GBCentral, they force Ray to wear it. It begins to squeeze him, and they blast it off of him.

Janine tells them Rambeau is the hottest fashion designer in the city; she shows them a fashion magazine full of her designs. Egon is horrified to discover some of the fashions with Sumerian glyphs reading "Behold the Power of the Deciever--the Power of Heel"

Heel is a Sumerian God of Deception and, rumors say, the concubine of Gozer. The Ghostbusters break into Rambeau's shop, and find her summoning Heel itself--who has adopted the form of a giant glam boot. Unfortunately, an army of possessed fashion victims are sent to attack our heroes, driving them off.

Venkman hatches a plan, to fight high fashion with "low fashion"--they buy up every jump suit and set of coveralls they can get their hands on, and pass them out to everyone they see. It breaks the power of Heel, and it adopts the form of, as Venkman phrases it, a "fussy tranny". Heel then uses magic to transform the Ghostbusters uniforms into some of it's dresses. Venkman spills red whine on Heel, causing him to freak out, and the Ghostbusters In Drag defeat him.

In closing, we see the Ghostbusters launching a new line of flight suits, and Hardemeyer at a soup kitchen

The demon Koza'Rai attacks Ghostbusters Central, and sends Venkman, Ray, Egon, and Janine hurtling through the time stream into separate eras. Only Winston remains in the present; the Ghostbusters gone, Koza'Rai starts to rewrite time to his satisfaction, turning present day New York into a demon infested hell-hole, and distorting even the eras that the Ghostbusters have landed in.

Winston, who leads a resistance movement, is contacted by Rachel Unglighter, whom convinces him she's a former student of Egon Spengler, and to allow her to take the ECTO-1 and turn it into the time traveling "ECTO-10" to rescue the other Ghostbusters

Just before Displaced Aggression #1

"Displaced Aggression, Part One" (XU GBDA 1-01)
Rachel arrives in 1865, where Venkman has just defeated the Rudely Mallard Gang with his cobbled together equipment. Venkman's doing so has drawn the attention of the Demon Collective in New York, and they send the Black Train out for revenge. Working together, Rachel and Venkman defeat the Train, and take off in the ECTO-10 in search of Ray.

"Displaced Aggression, Part Two" (XU GBDA 2-01)
Venkman and Rachel arrive in the Sixth Century, Camelot to be more specific, and find Ray working as a court wizard to King Arthur himself. Ray is suspicious of Rachel's story--Rachel's claim of attending Egon's lectures "last semester" don't jibe with the fact he hasn't taught since before the Vigo battle. Rachel does some sort of mind trick, resets the scene, and this time Ray buys it.

The two Ghostbusters and Rachel then battle the Ghost Dragons that are attacking Camelot, and their leader: Morgan Le Fay. Venkman pretends to turn to her side, pours on the Venkman charm, and traps her.

The kingdom safe, Venkman, Ray, and Rachel take off through the time stream once again.

"Displaced Aggression, Part Three" (XU GBDA 3-01)
The two Ghostbusters and Rachel arrive in 2060, on a Terran settlement on Mars. In search of Egon, they find what seems to be a futuristic utopia--until a horde of demons sent from the Koza'Rai dominated Earth attack the place.

But the colony has a "Great Defender" who's defense mechanisms drive the entities away. Perhaps not all that shockingly, the Great Defender is Egon Spengler; but when the Ghostbusters are brought before him, he hasn't the faintest idea who they are. Ray smacks him with his neutrona wand, and the Ghostbusters make a swift retreat with their addled colleague.

They arrive in the Present, albeit the distorted one dominated by Koza'Rai. Fortunately, Egon now seems to have regained his senses. On the down side...well, they're still in a hellhole version of home dominated by Koza'Rai.

"Displaced Aggression, Part Four" (XU GBDA 4-01)
The three Ghostbusters and Rachel have been captured by Koza'Rai, and Egon now knows the extent of the danger the world is in: the demon plans to open a Devil's Shoe Horn, and replace every human on Earth with his demon minions. Rachel's facade crumbles further as Egon insists he'd never met the girl in his life. But Koza'Rai has made a fatal miscalculation--he thought Winston not important enough to throw into time, and he shows up to free his friends from the demon's dungeon.

The Ghostbusters reunited, they and Rachel confront the demon, who taunts and blusters in comedically broken English. All still looks lost, until Rachel finally admits the truth: she's Koza'Rai's stepdaughter, and is part demon herself--the key to powering the ECTO-10 and the mysteriously upgraded proton packs. She sacrifices her own existence as a human to defeat Koza'Rai and restore the timestream to normal.

There's just one little bit of unfinished business...

"Working Overtime" (XU GBDA 4-02)
The ECTO-10 makes it's last round trip, to Versailles in the year 1780, where Janine has been battling the ghosts of France with the help of the spirit of Leonardo Da Vinci. She's of course happy to see them (and Egon to see her), but she still insists she needs a promotion.

Two days after the Koza'Rai incident, an amnesiac girl appears at Mount Sinai Hospital. She is eventually identified as Rachel Unglighter. Egon Spengler is consulted, and his tests confirm that she is now completely human, all traces of demonic power expunged from her.

Ghostbusters #6. Once again, this offers an interesting parallel to Shannon Phillips in Classic Timeline continuity, who became completely human once Astorath was defeated and done with him. It also slightly bolsters the "Daemonseed" case, in my mind, for both Shannon and Rachel to have technically had biological human fathers, probably cultists infused with their respective "demon father"'s powers.

"Past, Present, Future" (XU GBPPP 1-01)
Christmas Eve. The Ghostbusters are hired by rich douche bag Woodrow Wainwright Fraser III to deal with two ghosts who have been making his Christmas Eves miserable. He will pay the Ghostbusters $4 million total if they succeed.

Venkman accepts the job, and offers Winston a "generous" $10 thousand Christmas bonus. Ray and Egon are not pleased with this, but Venkman insists Winston is "only an employee".

The first ghost takes the Ghostbusters to Ray's memories of Lake Wokanda, with his parents. Ray is stuck in the vision, even after the ghost is busted, and Egon realizes it was the Ghost of Christmas Past, straight out of Dickens.

The next vision is of the present, but no ghost appears. They vision is of the firehouse, where Janine is being forced to work on Christmas Eve (and Egon is suitably annoyed). Winston, on the other hand, is understandably furious when the vision reveals how badly Venkman is trying to screw him financially, and Winston quits. Doing so traps him in the vision, and (again, the Ghost of Christmas Present conspicuously absent), Egon, Venkman, and Fraser are sent to the next vision.

The Ghost of Christmas Future shows a world of...oh, come to think of it, sometime around 2009-2010, being stomped by Gozer the Gozarian. Gozer (now in the form of a giant hell slug) smooshes Egon, and only Venkman and Fraser are left as the vision fades.

Fraser shows him the Ghost of Christmas Future, saying that trapping it will free his friends and end the visions, but Venkman has his own leap of intuition. He instead blasts Fraser, and turns the other Ghost loose. The other Ghostbusters also appear, having been told of the botched first intervention years ago. The three Ghosts depart, reunited at last, and Fraser threatens to sue the Ghostbusters six ways from Sunday.

But on the plus side, Winston believes the massive paycheck was just part of the illusion, and things are all right between the four again.

Ray Stantz reopens his occult book store. He hires an eighteen year-old young paranormal enthusiast and Goth named Kylie Griffin to help him run the place when he's distracted by Ghostbuster business.

First mentioned in Ghostbusters #5; "Two years" before Ghostbusters Vol.2 #1 .

"Tainted Love" (XU GBTL 1-01)
February 14. A bust at a high school brings Winston into contact with a sexy substitute teacher with a ghost problem of her own. Her name is Tiyah Clarke, and her apartment is haunted.

Winston and Venkman check it out, and Venkman pieces together that the ghost is jealous whenever Tiyah brings home male company. They take this information to Ray and Egon; as Egon throws together some smaller proton packs (to not damage the apartment as badly) Ray finds tales of Ballard Smith and Hazel Mayfield, confirming Venkman's theory.

The Ghostbusters show up at the apartment with the micro-packs, but they prove useless. It takes Winston basically chewing the ghost out to solve the problem, as it dissipates without further trouble.

The day ends with Venkman being interviewed by Anitra Day of Psychology Monthly, and Winston getting a homecooked meal from Miss Clarke.

After the incident, Winston and Tiyah continue to date.

Established by Ghostbusters #14 and #16

Death of legendary comic book artist Frank Bancroft, co-creator of "Super Gods" and other popular comics in a career spanning five decades.

A "few months" before Ghostbusters: Con-Volution.

The Ghostbusters take a job in Detroit, catching an entity known as the "Red Gnome". As part of their compensation, Winston receives a signed jersey from the Detroit Red Wings NHL team.

Approximately one year before Ghostbusters #9

"Con-Volution" (XU GBCV 1-01)
July 4. It's Ray's turn to pick the Ghostbusters vacation spot, and he has chosen to drag his three Ghostbusting pals to an Independence Day comic book convention! The other three guys are less than thrilled, especially when Venkman gets into a verbal sparring match with some guys wearing Ghostbuster outfits and prop proton packs.

The demon D'Orka shows up and begins mentally dominating the comic book nerds, including Ray. Venkman and Winston have to grovel to the prop-wearers to get their gear, and try to bluff D'Orka. It's ruined when the prop neutrona wand Venkman brandishes literally falls apart in his hands.

Egon, meanwhile, follows a paranormal reading to the table dedicated to recently deceased Golden Age great Frank Bancroft, and summons his help by pretending to insult him. Bancroft proceeds to kick D'Orka's butt and disperses peacefully--leaving behind one last drawing, one of Ray in Ghostbuster uniform.

Frank Bancroft is clearly based on real Golden Age artist Jack Kirby, co-creator of Captain America, the New Gods, and most of Marvel's Silver Age heroes. The mention of his "feud" with Karl Miller is probably a satire of Kirby's collaborations with Joe Simon in the Golden Age, and Stan Lee in the Silver

FBI Agent Jim Savage is shot in the line of duty. He becomes obsessed with aliens, the Roswell, New Mexico incident of 1947 in particular, as part of a coping mechanism.

Ghostbusters #11. Ortiz mentions Savage was shot "Last year"

Labor Day. The Ghostbusters have a case involving a Filipino dragon soul avatar.

Mentioned in passing in Ghostbusters #3

October. Winston Zeddemore goes on vacation.

Shortly before "What The Sam Hain Just Happened?"

"What The Sam Hain Just Happened?" (XU GBWTSJH 1)
October 31. Slimebag TV producer Artie Lester tries to hire the Ghostbusters to take care of a problem at his mansion. Sensing a Halloween ratings ploy, the Ghostbuster tell him to get lost but Janine, disgruntled by her lack of a raise and the $50,000 check Lester was offering, takes him up on the offer and investigates it without the other Ghostbusters' knowledge.

Janine discovers that, yes indeed, there is an authentic ghost in Lester's house--a ghost with a pumpkin head and antlers.

Ray, having second thoughts, checks old records and discovers the existance of Lester's old business partner, Samuel Hain, who had just been declared legally dead. At the same time, a call arrives from Lester. Egon takes the call, and dismisses Lester's new plea for help--until he finds out Janine is in danger, at which time he orders the rest of the team into action.

The pumpkin headed spirit tries to draw Janine into the nether worlds with him, apparently out of loneliness (and good taste in women). The three non-vacationing Ghostbusters arrive and pull her to safety as Halloween ends and the doorway is shut.

Shortly afterward, the Ghostbusters give Hain's mortal remains a proper burial, and believe he will now rest in peace.

As part of their attempt to expand and franchise the Ghostbusters operation, the Ghostbusters invite three prospective Ghostbusters International franchisees--Maddie Collins, Chad Fuller, and Bryan Welch--to New York to undergo training and evaluation.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game. The three characters are from different versions of the game, with Collins and Fuller from the PS2/PSP/Wii version, and Welch being "The Rookie" from the PS3/XBox360/PC version. Their names are given in Ghostbusters #4

"Guess What’s Coming To Dinner?" (XU GBHH 1-05)
During the Thanksgiving holiday, the Ghostbusters are called to the apartment of Mr. Fairless. Ray is in the holiday spirit, unlike Peter, and is more than thrilled to tell everyone what he's thankful for. Egon is perplexed when he detects strong spectral activity that suddenly vanishes. The team finds out the spirit is actually haunting the stuffing and is using a cooked turkey as a shield. Unable to use their equipment, they are faced with a unique but messy dilemma. But it's all in a Thanksgiving day's work.

Description from the Ghostbusters Wiki

Ghostbusters: The Video Game (GBVG)

Fall. The Ghostbusters find themselves under the watchful eye of their old "buddy", former EPA hatchet man Walter Peck, now working for New York City under the auspices of the Paranormal Contract Oversight Commission (PCOC).
After some seemingly random jobs, things start to get rolling when one enemy the Ghostbusters never expected to see again appears: the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Selwyn, it turns out, is being stalked by the Marshmallow Man. After the Ghostbusters stop it, investigations of Selwyn and the recent events uncover a conspiracy nearly a century in the making:

The ghost of Ivo Shandor is posessing Mayor Mulligan; the hiring of Peck was expressly designed to harass and slow the Ghostbusters from uncovering what's going on. The plot involves a new River of (black) Slime, a Mandala of power set up by Shandor during his living days, and Selwyn--his biological descendant.

Which means it's all up the Ghostbusters to stop Shandor's mad plan to claim the power of Gozer the Gozarian.

The game's placement in 1991 is assumed from promotional material. Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn is voiced by Alyssa Milano. All of the original cast has been reunited save for Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis; William Atherton even returns as Walter Peck. Bill Murray's brother Brian Doyle-Murray voices Mulligan.

After the Shandor incident, Maddie Collins, Chad Fuller, and Bryan Welch leave New York. Welch becomes the founder of a GBI franchise in Chicago, to mixed success; Collins and Fuller's activities after this point are unknown.

Welch's activities after Ghostbusters: The Video Game are established in Ghostbusters #13

The events of the Ghostbusters: Infestation miniseries have been placed after the Video Game, as GBVG takes place around Thanksgiving 1991, which wouldn't leave much time for "Infestation" to occur between it and "What The Sam Hain Just Happened?", and keep the IDW comics in publication order. IDW is playing somewhat loose with the time progression, with references placing some things later on up to two years later than they are here (IE Vol.2 #13 includes an implication of it happening in February 1996 instead of 1994), while at the same time they're not trying to hard to be "in period"; for the moment, since this isn't an official reference anyway, I'm going to play it by ear.

The Ghostbusters trap a number of poltergeists with unusual properties, which keeps the Containment Unit from "digesting" them properly. The ECU springs a leak, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man escapes, though at this time the Ghostbusters are unaware of it.

Some time before Ghostbusters: Infestation #1

Egon and Ray develop an experimental "proton pistol". Winston carries the prototype on a number of occassions, because he's the best shot.

Some time before Ghostbusters: Infestation #1

In a parallel dimension, the vampire known only as Britt is posessed by a zombie hive mind. She sends zombie infestations to four different dimensions, including that of the Ghostbusters.

Fuller details are in IDW's Infestation mini-series and tie-ins devoted to Star Trek (the original continuity, some time after Star Trek: The Motion Picture), Transformers, and GI Joe. The licensed properties do not actually cross over; only the material pertinent to the Ghostbusters is mentioned here

"Infestation, Part One" (XU GBINF 1)
The Ghostbusters deal with the poltergeist problem, and find themselves with a new situation: zombies. That's the bad news. The good news is that the particular extradimensional vibration of the zombie ectoplasm "fixes" that of the recent poltergeist manifestations, making them containable. But there's more bad news: Ray realizes that it's Mister Stay Puft that has escaped the ECU.

"Infestation, Part Two" (XU GBINF 2)
Britt appears at GBCentral, and with a few clever half-truths convinces the Ghostbusters to go after Stay Puft while she steals a ghost trap.
The zombies attack Stay Puft; what happens next is a gigantic mess as the Ghostbusters release the rest of the unusual poltergeists, leading to a fight between Stay Puft and Zombie Stay Puft, then a massive explosion that disperses the energy from the zombies, the poltergiests, and Stay Puft into the ectosphere.

Britt gets what she wants, though, trapping a portion of Stay Puft's Gozer-derived energies in the trap. She leaves to carry out her nefarious schemes, but not before leaving the seeds of another potential zombie outbreak in Newark.

Britt's plan, and whatever purpose Gozer's fragment holds in it, are detailed in Infestation #2

Janine meets a literature professor named Roger Baugh. They hit it off and begin dating. Around this time, she also changes her hairstyle again

Roger is first mentioned in Ghostbusters #1, sending Janine flowers and mentioned as her "new boyfriend", and seen for the first time in Ghostbusters #8. His occupation is mentioned in Ghostbusters#13. As he's a dead ringer for Egon from Extreme Ghostbusters no wonder they hit it off so well. Janine is seen with a hairstyle resembling her GB2 one as recently as "Infestation, Part Two", while in GBIDW#1 she's adopted more more reminiscent of the 1986 season of The Real Ghostbusters

Egon Spengler invents a computer program designed to generate an almost random pattern of words that positively stimulate the female brain. Ray is the only one informs of this "experiment" because, as Ray would later put it, letting Venkman have access to such a program would be a very bad idea.

Ghostbusters #6. Why Egon has done this is still unrevealed, but the timing compared to the previous item is quite interesting, isn't it?

(XU GBIDW 1-02)
Walter Peck is rehired by the New York City mayor's office, and PCOC is reactivated.

This was the backup feature of GBIDW#1, but is marked as "Days Ago". A headline in the story suggests that it could be taking place as late as 1993 or even 1994; for the moment, until some of the contexts become clearer, the Omnibus Timeline will treat this as apocryphal. We of course reserve the right to change our minds later as always.

"The Man From The Mirror, Part One" (XU GBIDW 1-01)
Ray has a dream, where he sees the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and a man resembling John Belushi warns him about "The Third". Egon notices Ray's brain patterns are a little off after that, and theorizes Ray may have had a precognitive episode.

Jim Silver, an executive with FZ Foods, the parent company of Stay Puft Marshmallows, is dragged into his bathroom mirror.

Alan Crendall, the nephew of Janosz Poha, comes to the Ghostbusters with a problem: a ghost is in his apartment building. Winston and Venkman investigate, and the ghost turns out to be Slimer!

The story title is not in the comic itself, but comes from the Trade Paperback collection

"The Man From The Mirror, Part Two" (XU GBIDW 2-01)
Venkman and Winston try to catch Slimer, but he proves to be more difficult than anticipated. They succeed, however, and Egon places the green Class 5 in a special glass containment tank to study him.

Egon's studies reveal that Slimer has been supercharged by a shift in the PKE fields. As the Ghostbusters process this, they are called downstairs by a visit from Jim Silver. Silver threatens to sue the Ghostbusters for trademark infringement unless Ray comes with him immediately; Winston, knowing enough from his own law classes that Silver doesn't have a leg to stand on, tells him to take a hike.

As the Ghostbusters go to a job in Queens, Egon notes that Silver's PKE trace was off. He begins to suspect that Silver namedropping Gozer was not a coincidence.

In Queens, the Ghostbusters discover that the haunted house they were called to deal with is the Wander Hills Orphanage, which had burned down in 1920. Ray and Egon surmise that the entity behind the incident is the Headmistress, Ellen Gold, and they're right. Gold, like Slimer, is supercharged, but the four Ghostbuster together are able to trap her.

Silver goes to the observation deck of the Empire State Building, and begins talking out loud to "The Traveller". Then he has an idea; and the statue in front of Bear Stearns comes to life and beings attacking tourists.

"The Man From The Mirror, Part Three" (XU GBIDW 3-01)
After dealing with a flat tire, the Ghostbusters get back to the firehouse to find Peck angry because they haven't dealt with the "Terror Bear" yet; Peck and Venkman argue, then Janine tells Peck off and the PCOC director slinks off with his tail between his legs.

Elsewhere, a man named Ron Alexander talks with his friend Jimmy. Ron plots to steal Ghostbuster technology and start up his own rival operation to make lots and lots of city money.

Ray completes a prototype improved ghost trap to help with the Terror Bear. Egon, meanwhile, has been researching Gozarian lore and discovered a page about "The Third" is literally growing out of his copy of the Spates Catalog of Nameless Horror

The ghost trap ready, and Egon armed with an experimental proton pack upgrade, the Ghostbusters manage to stop the Terror Bear and render it inert, at which time it crumbles to dust. Bujt before they can celebrate, an image of Jim Silver appears in the ECTO-1's rear window, and sucks Ray in. ("Egon, you told me our car didn't eat people" Venkman quips)

Ray awakens, strapped to a table, inside a Gozarian temple--apparently on top of the Shandor Building. Silver is there, but he's beginning to change. He introduces himself as Idulnas, Third Minion of Gozer, created out of the psychic detrius of Gozer's former manifestations to attempt to force Ray to give the next manifestation of Gozer a more powerful and dangerous form than the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Back at GBCentral, Egon has discovered the growing Idulnas page now sports a new image: four men who look suspiciously like the Ghostbusters being impaled.

"The Man From The Mirror, Part Four" (XU GBIDW 4-01)
Idulnas continues to gloat as Ray is once again visited by his John Belushi "guardian spirit".

The rest of the Ghostbusters arrive on a helicopter, dropped off by one of Egon's friends. They are armed with more experimental packs, the new trap, and an assortment of proton grenades (aka "ghost bombs"). They aren't quick enough to have stopped the return of the Destructor--but the distraction they provided to Idulnas enabled Ray to re-select the form of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Idulnas, fuming and shouting that he will return to try again "as many times as it takes" cuts and runs. Stay Puft starts to climb the Shandor Building. Ray grabs the "megatrap" and sets it in place in Apartment 2206. The trap draws in the Destructor's energy, but it's marshmallow form explodes, inundating the city in a six-inch-deep sticky mess for square mile around.

Peck is livid, and in revenge imposes new physical fitness standards on the team. Until they meet them, they're shut down.

In part of the ongoing subplot, Venkman notes Egon has been getting "snippy" lately.

A sample of Egon's computer-generated book is printed in Newer York Magazine. Before long, female readers of the article are, as planned, "Stimulated" by it.

Ghostbusters #6; the article was published "last month". Makes one wonder what it would do to a female brain that's had a history of being "stimulated" by Egon...make them more "Aggressive" maybe?

Ray, Egon, and Winston, perhaps making use of their idle time, begin converting an RV into a "Mobile Containment Unit"

Ghostbusters #7's backup feature.

"The Most Magical Place On Earth, Part One" (XU GBIDW 5-01)
The Whittington family (Jeremy, Cindy, and their son Scotty) are visiting Fantasy Land outside of Schenectady (Schenectady...Schenectady...heh heh heh) when one of the clowns on the midway starts throwing up green glowy bats. And then Scotty's eyes start glowing and his face takes on a rough, zombified appearance.

Back in New York, Venkman and Egon are doing a workout at Delgado's Gym, next to the Casey J's (you don't want to mess with their bouncer, the guy in the hockey mask). Venkman grouses about the new physical fitness requirements that have kept them benched for a month. He grouses even more when, upon leaving the Gym, Egon is approached by some enthusiastic fangirls. Venkman asks what that was about, and Egon refuses to tell him.

Egon suddenly has a jolt of his own: for only a second, he thinks he sees someone who he knows to be dead.

Ray is at Ray's Occult Books pestering Kylie Griffin to help him find a loophole in their city contract when Janine calls him--Peck wants to see the whole group at HQ immediately.

Peck tells the Ghostbusters about the problem at Fantasy Land; at the order of the Governor, he's temporarily restoring their permits. Ray asks Kylie to research the problem as he and the other Ghostbusters are flown to Schenectady

The Ghostbusters arrive at Fantasy Land, finding it covered in a shell of slime. Egon blows a hole in it with a proton grenade, and the park gets pissed.

As with the previous story arc, the story title is not in the book itself, but it taken from solicitations for the trade paperback that will collect it. The names of Scotty's parents, and thus his family name, are conjectural based on the parents' resemblance to Jeremy Whittington and his girlfriend Cindy from the RGB episode "Ragnarok and Roll"

Subplot note: Winston notes Janine being "aggressive" lately. Ray feigns knowing nothing.

"The Most Magical Place On Earth, Part Two" (XU GBIDW 6-01)
Kylie calls the Ghostbusters, now trapped in Fantasy Land--she's found something. An old Indian legend on European settlers, a "hungry manitou" that possesses people and devours their spirits. It's appeared approximately once a generation since 1616, and it's especially attracted to greed. They now know they're dealing with a "Code Regan", and it's going to be a lot harder that just blasting the Manitou when they find it--it has to be separated from it's host first.

Cut to New York. Ron Alexander receives a mysterious package from his friend Harry.

The Ghostbusters split into two teams to do more damage. Venkman takes the opportunity to pull Ray's ears without Egon there to stop him, and finds out about the book Egon's writing. Before Venkman can fume and/or plot some more, they're attacked by animated monkey toys and a statue.

Egon and Winston, meanwhile, are attacked by a stampede of animated carousel horses.

The Ghostbusters manage to find the center of Fantasy Land, and the Manitou-possessed Scotty Whittington. The Manitou is impressed by their show of force, and agrees to listen to their efforts to convince him to leave. Winston offers himself as a replacement host, but the Manitou scoffs--Winston's too selfless, and Ray and Egon too "bland". Oh, but Venkman, all that lovely orange-glowing greed...

The Manitou leaves Scotty. Egon quickly opens a ghost trap. Scotty is all right (except his teeth hurting, but that should be expected from being zombified. Zombies have lousy teeth) and the entity is contained...

Except it isn't, because now Venkman's eyes are glowing and his face is all zombie-like. Uh-oh.

"The Most Magical Place On Earth, Part Three" (XU GBIDW 7-01)
The Ghostbusters realize that the Manitou has possessed Venkman, and race to try to get the Whittingtons and the other park visitors to safety--while trying to come up with a way of freeing their friend from the monster. Without blasting him.

Venkman, meanwhile, finds himself trapped in his own mindscape, which takes the form of his old office at Columbia's Weaver Hall. The Manitou is there, and they chat. Venkman tries to talk sports, but the Manitou doesn't care. The critter is wondering why Venkman isn't scared, since, you know, the Manitou is about to eat his soul and his friends are about to die blah blah blah.

The Manitou sneers. It thinks it knows why Venkman isn't scared: it pulls the "You've lost what you care about most anyway, right?" card and conjures up the image of a woman playing a cello.

Venkman turns the tables, and tells the Manitou he's figured it out: he has to be freaked out before the critter can get about to the "devouring his soul" part. It pulled every trick in the book--the familiar locations, the old lost love ploy, even card tricks...and Venkman didn't crack.

The Manitou freaks, doffing it's zombie Venkman form and revealing itself as a giant brain bug. About this same time, the Ghostbusters have scored a proton hit on the possessed body, causing the Manitou to take on the form of a giant clown. Of course, just about then Venkman shakes off the brain bug, and the other Ghostbusters pull the plug on it by trapping it for real this time.

As an epilogue, Janine visits Venkman in the hospital. We find out as an aftereffect of the possession, he's actually in better shape than before...aside from the whole cracked ribs, broken arm, and appendectomy thing...and got to rub Peck's "physical requirements" thing in his face. Janine turns to leave as Venkman opens his gift from Ray...a stuffed monkey from the Theme Park From Hell. She gets a satisfied smirk as he starts screaming invective.

"The Man Who Holds The Hands of Death" (XU GBIDW 8-01)
We start off with what seems like a routine bust at a nursing home. A somewhat sympathetic old lady who goes off the deep end when Egon and Winston say they're not her son--she's not on the Other Side because he never came to visit her. Then things get a bit scary--remember how Slimer was hard to catch a month or so back? Yeah. It happens again with the old lady. Egon can't take his hands off the thrower to set the trap--fortunately, Ray and Venkman show up just in time for Ray to finish the job.

Winston is a little sad ("If her son had shown up, she'd a been at peace."), Venkman continues criticizing the decor, and Egon is brooding: with Idulnas gone, this PKE surge shouldn't be happening. But it is. Ray asks why. And then Egon Spengler says the one thing you don't want Egon Spengler saying: "I don't know"

Intent on finding out, Egon works himself raw with little sleep over the next three days (fortunately, his "polyphasic schedule" is helping). Finally admitting he's at a dead end, he goes to the gym at Delgado's Gym (You'll recall it's next to the Casey J's, who's bouncer you really really don't want to mess with), and he steps out just in time for Janine to stride by.

Oh, yeah. With Roger Baugh, her new love interest. Who even has given Janine the cutesy nickname "Twinkle"

Egon's so stressed and raw from the whole paranormal situation he just blurts out "I don't have time for this" and withdraws. Roger is confused, and Janine seems a little wistful and upset by it.

Egon realizes that it was at this corner that he saw Eugene Visitor, a college friend who died when he was hit by a car nearly twenty years ago--then literally vanished. Egon muses that it was one of the incidents that awakened his interest in the paranormal. Egon scans again. He seems to find something, and goes back to GBCentral, declaring "I need to get to New Jersey!" Venkman snaps out "I don't think anyone really needs to get to Jersey" Before explaining any further, Egon hops in the ECTO-1 and drives to Belleville, New Jersey. Alone.

Egon finds Eugene's father there, and sure enough, there's Eugene. Eugene explains what happened: when he got hit by the car, he saw a vision of Death itself. Remembering an old Russian folk tale, he orders the spirit of Death to get into his bag; he's had Death in his bag every since, but it's disjointed him in time. Egon's horrified by the implications of this. While it hasn't stopped people from dying (if nobody died anywhere for twenty years, everybody'd notice) Egon realizes it's probably a spirit that syphons abnormal levels of PKE from the Earth plane's ectosphere. Without that siphoning, PKE builds up. Which is bad.

Egon tries to grab the sack and open it, but it doesn't work--Eugene is the only one can open it. Eugene doesn't care what Egon thinks--because if he lets "Death" out he's, well, dead; besides, he thinks Egon aught to thank him because it has to be good for the Ghostbusting business, right? Yeah, except for that whole "The proton guns stop working on them they're so overcharged" thing, sure.

Having had a long day full of setbacks of both personal and professional natures, Egon slinks off in defeat. It's a problem he can't solve. Yet.

Roger is first mentioned in Ghostbusters #1, sending Janine flowers and mentioned as her "new boyfriend", and seen for the first time in Ghostbusters #8. As he's a dead ringer for Egon from Extreme Ghostbusters no wonder they hit it off so well.

Walter Peck is contacted by a number of cities, asking for the service of the Ghostbusters. Peck approves their requests, and the Ghostbusters set off for their first destination, Detroit, in the ECTO-1 and ECTO-9 (the aforementioned RV/portable Containment Unit).

Prior to Ghostbusters #9; the Ghostbusters leave for Detroit two days before the story begins

"Haunted America, Part One" (XU GBIDW 9-01)
After catching a Crybaby Bridge Manifestation in Ohio, the Ghostbusters arrive in Detroit, and are contracted to deal with the ghost army haunting Fort Wayne

Back in New York, Ron Alexander has constructed a prototype proton gun of his own. The first test doesn't go so well.

The ghost army at Fort Wayne is being led by the spirit of General Anthony Wayne, for whom the Fort was named. He's restless because he was shipped back to Pennsylvania for burial, but some of the pieces got lost in shipping. After giving up, he's decided to invade Canada.

Venkman starts spinning a pitch about a snake oil product called "Ahgotcha Juice" to lure the soldiers into ghost traps, but it doesn't work on Wayne himself. Winston, former military man himself, convinces Wayne to accept being contained.

"Haunted America, Part Two" (XU GBIDW 10-01)
The ECTO-9 arrives in Nawleans 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.

Their destination is a mansion in the Garden District, where they meet their client, Mister Thibodeaux. Thibodeaux has brought them here on behalf of someone else: famous voodoo queen Marie Laveau. 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 who fell to evil, 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?

Before the Ghostbusters leave 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.

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. 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.

Marie Junior makes her entrance and, of course, she's pissed at Ray for stopping Thriller Time. She grabs Ray; 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.

Later, back at Thibodeaux's mansion 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.

"Haunted America, Part Three" (XU GBIDW 11-01)
The Ghostbusters visit Roswell, New Mexico, sight of the famous 1947 incident that, depending on who you listen to, either bug eyed baggy-skinned aliens or a weather balloon crashed. Either way, it started the modern era of UFO sightings and speculation. As they're scanning, federal agents Jim Savage and Melanie Ortiz appear, and start arguing about jurisdiction and whether the readings the Ghostbusters are getting are from ghosts or aliens.

And of course Egon's skeptical about aliens; he and Savage get into a shouting match, and Venkman thinks it's cute ("Aw, look, Egon's found his own personal Peck") but not nearly as cute as Ortiz. Just about then, as Ray points out, Egon and Savage could both be right: bug eyed baggy skinned green-glowing entities appear. Alien ghosts! The alien ghosts swirl around, mutter some stuff, attack Savage, and then just disappear before the Ghostbusters can blast them.

Egon and Ray throw themselves into researching the matter, and Ray calls New York to get Kylie's help on the case. And Venkman keeps trying to score with Ortiz. Ray's getting an idea from the research, when the doctors make note of the bite marks on Savage being very...human looking. The Ghostbusters head back out to the site, and Winston teases Venkman about striking out with Ortiz. "It was a solid bunt" he retorts. Then Egon of all people says "Bunts are for cowards".

Anyway, turns out Ray's right and the ghosts aren't aliens--they're soldiers who were stationed in the area around the time of the original crash and couldn't let what they'd experienced there go. At that point, they become normal Class 3 ghosts and are zapped and trapped.

Venkman has one last meeting with Ortiz at Beldar's Cafe, which is no doubt a French chain. He announced to her that he's getting away from the others for a few days or "there will be a felony". She gives him directions to Vegas and he leaves alone in the ECTO-1; Ray, Egon, and Winston proceed to Seattle aboard ECTO-9.

Venkman's adventure separate from the other Ghostbusters is detailed in the "Who Killed Laura Parr?" backup feature that ran in issues #9-13, before he rejoins the others in the main feature of #12.

"Who Killed Laura Parr?" (XU GBIDW 9-02)(XU GBIDW 10-02)(XU GBIDW 11-02)(XU GBIDW 12-02)(XU GBIDW 13-02)
Venkman, having lost his way, stops at a diner near Matheson, Colorado. After getting gas and directions, 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. Then picks up a hitchhiker named Laura Parr. Venkman warns her that playing with the Ghost Trap could make her go blind (Egon might dispute that).

As Laura and Venkman talk, he's surprised to learn she has no idea who he is, but even more surprised when the PKE Meter gets a new reading. Death Truck shows up and starts chasing the ECTO-1. Venkman tries to shoot it with his proton pack, but Death Truck isn't buying that any more than Ortiz did his pick-up lines. As the chapter ends, he's getting a new idea as he spots a Slime Blower in the back of the car. He fires and it...sticks Death Truck to the road, causing it to flip over.. At this point, zapping and trapping the gremlin driving Death Truck is another "zap zap in the trap".

Later, the ECTO-1 arrives at Laura's mother's house. Laura goes inside; but when Venkman knocks on the door, Parr's mother appears--and tells him Laura died in a car accident twenty years before.

"Haunted America, Part Four" (XU GBIDW 12-01)
Ray, Egon, Winston, and the ECTO-9 have arrived in Seattle, home of whiny grunge music and overpriced foofy coffee, where they're investigating a Pequod's coffee shop that's burned down. This means that patrons will have to walk all the way to the other Pequod's across the street. The cop on the scene mentions that the shop used to be a club. Egon wonders if it's the same place that rocker Dante Barnes spontaneously combusted on-stage on; it isn't, but the cop admits he may have played here. Best idea, the cop says, is to check on one of Barnes' old bandmates, who now is a DJ at KBIB.

Venkman and the ECTO-1, meanwhile, have arrived in Seattle and he's arguing with a cop who clearly isn't impressed by him. The ticket the cop is writing suddenly bursts into flames, and a flaming guitar appears in midair. Venkman tries to blast it, but it doesn't work. Nevertheless, the cop who thought Venkman isn't all that hot is proven wrong as Venkman's flight suit starts to burn all on it's own.

We switch to a little while later as the Ghostbusters are reunited while Venkman is looked over by an EMT. Lacking any other idea, they go to KBIB. The Ghostbusters interview Dante Barnes' former drummer, who tells them about Barnes' death and his suspicions that Barnes' girlfriend Shelly was a witch who killed him.

The ECTO-1 drives around town looking for signs of Barnes, but failing. Winston comes up with the idea of instead of PKE looking for sonic signatures; the Ghostbusters finally find Barnes in Pioneer Square. They aren't doing real well until Ray and Venkman realize that the ghost's guitar is the focus of his manifestation; after that, it's kind of a quick "zap zap in the trap" ending.

The next day, the Ghostbusters are at City Hall and meet Mayor Norm Rice. Rice is kinda mad at them for all the fire damage, but the publicity made up for it. Venkman manifests his usual ability to not get along well with politicians, probably because they're too much like him, and tells Egon to gouge Seattle if they ever have to come back.

Ron Alexander opens his rival paranormal investigation company--Ghostsmashers--for business. Alexander hires three women--Lou Kamaka, Jenny Moran, and Dani Shpak--to serve as his fellow Ghostsmashers. His weapondry features a modified design that discorporates ghosts, meaning he has no need to trap them.

One week before the main story of Ghostbusters #13; apparently not long enough for the Ghostsmashers to have attracted much attention, as even Janine didn't know about them until their "public debut" in #13

"Who Ya Gonna Call? Part One" (XU GBIDW 13-01)
The Ghostbusters stop in Chicago and help GBI franchisee Bryan Welch will a case. Afterward, they finally return to New York City.

Three days pass without any calls. Roger shows up to take Janine on a date, and gets hazed by Venkman and Ray. Janine and Roger go to the opera Don Giovani; Roger says it's because he thought she'd be amused by the fact it involved a ghost; Janine's not so sure because she has to deal with ghosts at her job.

Then a real ghost shows up; Roger is skeptical at first, but then his Not-Egon instincts kick in and he even says the very very Egon line "I concur that we should run". Janine's called Ray, but it sure looks like the Ghostbusters aren't going to make it in time to stop it...

A proton shot rings out. But it's not the Ghostbusters. It's three women and their ringleader, who introduces himself as Ron Alexander, and his team are the Ghostsmashers. And their guns are better--forget about catching the ghosts, they just blow them into nothingness!

Egon and Ray show up just after the show ends, and Ron sneers. Trapping versus obliterating the ghosts? "What do you think they'll pick?" Egon's suddenly very worried. All that energy has to go somewhere. Ron dismisses his concerns, but I think we all know how this is gonna go...

"Who Ya Gonna Call? Part Two" (XU GBIDW 14-01)
Ray dreams once again of his "guardian angel", the same one he saw at the beginning of the Idulnas case. The "angel" warns Ray that while Gozer is not coming back, there's still bad stuff coming down the pike

The next morning Egon is experimenting on Slimer, basically blowing him up and timing how long it takes for him to reconstitute--he's figured out what the Ghostsmashers' gear is doing and is getting a really good idea on how much time--or how little--it's going to take for all the ghosts Ron and company have been blowing up to come back together and raise hell. Venkman just likes the idea of Slimer getting blown up again and again.

Venkman goes and hassles Peck. Peck admits he thinks the Ghostsmashers are even worse than Venkman and the others; at least the Ghostbusters try to get along with the city. Peck would rather shut Alexander's outfit down, but he doesn't have the authority; and all the Ghostbusters have are suspicions about their equipment which, until they have more, could look like nothing more than sour grapes.

Egon is running equipment on the roof, and Janine brings him coffee. Egon asks her flat out if she's trying to make him jealous, pointing out a cycle of her flirting with him, then turning her attention to men who "superficially" resemble him", then getting bored and flirting with Egon again. She gets mad and storms off. She doesn't hear him admit that her relationship with Roger is making him jealous.

We catch up with Venkman again, sharing a hot dog with Ray. Then a ghost goat appears in the park, and the Ghostsmashers fail to blow it up. Fortunately, Venkman and Ray were in the area, and manage to suck the goat into a trap. Ray tries to ask Ron about his equipment but Ron gets pissed and shoves him down, provoking sympathetic looks to Ray from the blonde Ghostsmasher, Jenny Moran.

Final scene has the entire team back at GBCentral. Appropriately enough, there's a little tiny Robo-Buster toy on the table as Egon confirms "Yes. The city is screwed."

"Who Ya Gonna Call? Part Three" (XU GBIDW 15-01)
We go to Sandy Van Sanders of 20/40/60 and our supernatural disaster already in progress: Giant monster is tearing up the streets of New York. Eugene Visitor is watching the ABS coverage and tells his Dad that maybe it's time he let it out.

We flash back to a few hours earlier, as both Venkman and Ron are getting their asses chewed out by Peck. More Ron, of course, since it's his dematerializers that made the monster, but Peck doesn't miss an opportunity to smack down "Mister Venkman" too.

Ray, meanwhile, gets hit on by Jenny Moran; Ray's really impressed when she mentions his occult book store. After that, Ray offers to take her for a whirl.

...

In his helicopter, as the ECTO-2 mini-helicopter makes it's debut.

As Venkman and Winston set up an array of ghost traps Egon is in his pilot buddy's helicopter with the other Ghostsmashers. Egon's normal state is logical and under control, but he's ready to throttle Ron after one jerkass remark too many before his pilot friend calms things down. Give Egon a break, between the Ghostsmasher created monster, the woman he loves getting Rogered, and that spirit of death that should be on the loose but isn't, Egon's had a lot to worry about lately.

The monster is surrounding the Empire State Building; Egon, the two Ghostsmasher women with him, and Jenny on the ECTO-2 open fire; Venkman and Winston spring the traps.

But it's not enough. Not even with that souped-up super trap they brought. The traps blow and monster escapes, except now it's like he's hopped up on Red Bull. Because it's turned into a giant, demonic red thing with bull horns.

As Egon might say with his usual gift for dry understatement, this is "Not good."

Then another giant ghost shows up. The Ghostbusters and Ghostsmashers are crapping their pants, until the second ghost takes down Red Bull and then just fades away.

The ghost of Eugene Visitor appears, and tells Egon the second ghost was the death spirit he had in his bag. The supernatural world will now be back in balance, though, yeah, time for Eugene to go to the Other Side. Which means that, with Red Bull gone and the death spirit back to its appointed rounds, all Egon's got to worry about now is the Roger thing.

More than one commentator noted that "Who Ya Gonna Call?" bore some resemblance to two RGB stories, "Ghosts R Us" and "Robo-Buster", both featuring would-be competitors to the Ghostbusters. The latter even featured similar themes of "blowing up ghosts instead of catching them" turning out to be a really bad idea.

Ron Alexander is convicted of negligence, reckless endangerment of others, and theft of intellectual properties in the aftermath of recent incidents. Ghostsmashers is disbanded, and Alexander is sentenced to a minimum security prison.

The exact crimes are conjecture, but him being put in the minimum security slammer is established in Ghostbusters V2#1

"I Want You Dead, Zeddemore" (XU GBIDW 16)
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, whom he's been dating for some time (since Valentines Day 1991, in fact).

Back at GBCentral, Janine is squeeing for Tiyah and Winston like she was an internet fan. After some of Venkman's subdued reaction, 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, 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--a "Kid who watches TV too much".

Winston goes into the house first, and the PKE reading spikes--a force field appears, cutting him off from the others. An ominous voice calling his name; The ghost is Staff Sergeant Adams, who trained Winston in Marine boot camp. Winston gets into the ghost's head in a performance worthy of Venkman and the Manitou case; 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.

Later, 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.

Idulnas possesses Janosz Poha, and uses Poha's sanity as his "payment" in his deal with the entities known as The Collectors.

February. Melanie Ortiz is visiting Venkman in New York when the Collectors strike; in short order, they abduct Venkman, Ray, Egon, and Winston, and confine them in a time-disjointed limbo. Lacking any other options, Janine forms an ad hoc new team with Mel and Kylie Griffin to deal with ghost problems until the original Ghostbusters are found or return. Mel stays with a friend or relative named Mark.

Ghostbusters V2#1; Mark is mentioned in V2#3

"The New Ghostbusters, Part One" (XU GBIDW2 1-01)
May. Janine, Mel, and Kylie have just (somewhat sloppily) finished a bust when they are taken into custody by Walter Peck; the three are not officially authorized to work as Ghostbusters. Peck however, arranges with the Mayor to receive that authorization--Janine is the only one able to access the Containment Unit, Kylie was vetted by PCOC, and Ortiz is a Federal agent. Plus the Ghostsmashers--which featured three leggy women busting ghosts--were massively popular. There's just one catch--they need someone qualified to maintain the equipment, and unfortunately the only person still in Earth's dimension capable of doing so is Ron Alexander. And worse, they'll have a new PCOC liason.

In limbo, the original Ghostbusters come to consciousness.

"The New Ghostbusters, Part Two" (XU GBIDW2 2-01)
The new PCOC liason is Peck's spiritual successor, Jack Hardemeyer, who immediately has the female Ghostbusters wear new uniforms with short pants. Ron also arrives, and gets a full flight suit. After a photo-op with Boris Meeley (on loan from Random Choice, I guess) they get a case: a ghost in the park that claims "you'll never find them". The New Ghostbusters are disappointed to discover the ghost doesn't have anything to do with the original Ghostbusters' disappearance--it's serial killer Gareth DiBello. After catching DeBello, Janine...impresses on Hardemeyer to get the regular flight suits back.

Kylie gets a call from Dr. Cleese at Parkview, while Janine visits Tiyah, Winston's fiance. Tiyah has just about given up hope at this point.

She shouldn't, because back in limbo the Ghostbusters have a plan: blow up Ray's proton pack, which will either bring them back into phase with Earth, or cause universal calamity. You know, business as usual for the Ghostbusters.

The uniforms the New Ghostbusters wear in this issue, and on the cover of #1, are in the colors of the Real Ghostbusters flight suits: Janine in Venkman's (probably because of "Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster"); Kylie in Ray's; Mel in Winston's; and Ron in Egon's. Only Ron wears his multicolor uniform after this. Switching the colors for Janine and Ron would have matched the personalities better, but they didn't ask me.

"The New Ghostbusters, Part Three" (XU GBIDW2 3-01)
A glowy Viking appears to Janine, telling her that she will be "tested" by "Grendel". Janine, Mel, and Ron have to battle Grendel as Kylie is dealing with Janosz; Janine manages to catch Grendel by standing up to it, but the Vikings are pissed--she enlisted the aid of others, and thus failed the test. (To be fair, they never told her any conditions). The glowy Viking is about to attack, but a dimensional portal opens up right on top of him and the original Ghostbusters return. Janine, overcome with relief and other emotions, gives Egon a great big kiss. The Ghostbusters are surprised to discover they've been gone for months; from their perspective, they've only been gone for a few hours. Kylie calls for help in dealing with Janosz.

"The New Ghostbusters, Part Four" (XU GBIDW2 4-01)
The group of seven Ghostbusters--four original and three New--converge on Parkview, and confront the Collectors. Kylie realizes that Poha is being possessed, and succeeds in reaching Janosz and getting him to change the spell--the Collectors change into mockeries of Idulnas, pull him out of Janosz, and drag the would-be revivor of Gozer away.
Now one question: what to do with eight Ghostbusters?

With the return of the original Ghostbusters, Melanie Ortiz is reassigned back to New Mexico, and Ron Alexander is transferred to the Chicago GBI office run by Bryan Welch. Janine returns to her post as secretary, while Kylie stays on as a reserve Ghostbuster.

Ghostbusters Vol.2#5

"No Sleep Til Brooklyn" (XU GBIDW2 5-03)
Kylie encounters a Sandman; he attempts to put her to sleep, but she's too hopped up on caffeine for his sleep dust to work on her.

I put this before "Trains" because there's a fairly continuous storyline that begins there, and figure this "one-off" takes place either before or after that story.

Winston Zeddemore accepts a contract from The Olive hotel in Las Vegas, to deal with a "benign" ghost in exchange for a free stay for him and Tiyah

Ghostbusters Vol.2 #7 and #8

"Trains" (XU GBIDW2 5-01)
Ray dates former Ghostsmasher Jenny Moran.

Venkman and Kylie encounter a spectral train in Mamaroneck, New York. Venkman defeats the train with an experimental ecto-bazooka.

Peck fires Jack Hardemeyer from PCOC.

Janine and Roger are watching "Zealous Ladies" when she suddenly starts glowing yellow and floating. Roger goes to GBCentral for help, but Egon is the only one there. Egon and Roger go back to Canarsie, and Egon attempts to use the slime blower, but it fails. They drag her back to GBCentral, and Egon tries the gris-gris he received from Madame LaVeau; it doesn't free her, but it does cause three glowy Vikings to appear.

"Blah Blah Blob" (XU GBIDW2 5-02)
Welch and Alexander go on their first busts.

"Brains" (XU GBIDW2 6)
Ice starts to appear off of Montauk, Long Island. A voice moans "Leave"

Egon and Roger are confronted with the glowy Vikings, kinsmen of the ones that previously "tested" Janine. They explain that she disrupted their sacred rite, the "testing" of their bloodline by Grendel, and send the two of them into her mind. After passing through scenes of her birth, childhood, and early life, they reach the more recent pass, and Roger finds out why Janine talks about Egon so much. Then he finds out about the recent kiss, which really gets him mad.

They reach the center of her mind, and Egon tries to talk the Vikings out of killing her. They fail, and duck into one of Janine's memories to hide; unfortunately for their stomachs (and ours) it's December 30, 1989. Egon realizes where he is, and tells Roger that he definitely does not want to see what's going on on the other side of Venkman's couch. Egon doesn't want to see it either. Still, Egon notices that he can feel the couch and the World of the Psychic pen. They need to flee to a better memory. That part isn't the difficult one--practically any memory in her head would be better than this one--but he has something specific in mind. Sure enough, when they return to Janine, Egon is armed with a big honking ecto bazooka, kind of like the one Venkman used in Mamaroneck. When the glowy Vikings show up to continue their sacrifice, Egon is able to show them some pain, and they relent. He traps the Vikings using a hidden trap assembly, and leaves Janine and Roger to talk.

"Ghostly Remains, Part One" (XU GBIDW2 7-01)
The Governor of New York contacts Peck, and Peck gets the Ghostbusters onto the Montauk case. Ray, Venkman, and Kylie go to the site of the disturbances in the ECTO-8, and discover the spectral image of the John Milton.

Winston and Tiyah arrive at The Olive hotel in Las Vegas. Winston discovers that the entity he'd been contracted to catch isn't so "benign".

"Ghostly Remains, Part Two" (XU GBIDW2 7-01)
Winston catches the ghost in Vegas, and once more proves why he'll be a much better lawyer than that loser Louis ever will be: the hotel manager threatens to sue Winston and GBI for all the damage he caused, Winston counters that the manager didn't give him true and factual statements as to the nature and danger of the haunting. The manager folds like a cheap umbrella and Winston goes on to enjoy the rest of his vacation with his fiancee.

Venkman, Ray, and Kylie find the source of the haunting, Francis Harding, the son of the John Milton's captain. They catch the ghost, and take it to Ephram Harding's grave; the ghost disperses peacefully, and the ghost ship flies off into the ether.

"Visitation" (XU GBIDW2 7-02)(XU GBIDW2 8-02)
Bryan Welch and Ron Alexander give a talk at Nevermore Elementary, District 299. Ron talks about the Boogeyman, gets into an argument with the kids, and throws a chair at one, leading to his arrest.

"The Time Terror" (XU GBIDW2 10-02)
Walter Peck convinces the FBI's Agent Norris to assign Melanie Ortiz back to New York and the Ghostbusters.

"Happy Horror Days, Part One: Devil's Night" (XU GBIDW2 9)
October 29. Melanie Ortiz returns to New York and active duty with the Ghostbusters. The cloudless New York skies are broken by a single crack of red lightning.

The Ghostbusters are called by the FDNY to deal with a blaze that is not responding to the usual methods. There, the Ghostbusters encounter Stingy Jack, a legendary spirit associated with Halloween. Jack uses Winston's ghost trap to basically catch himself and thus, in his eyes, using a loophole in his old deal with the Devil and find rest. Jack's discarded turnip is snatched away by a demonic hand.

"Happy Horror Days, Part Two: Day of the Dead" (XU GBIDW2 10-01)
Ray, Egon, and Mel are at the El Dia De Los Muertos ("Day of the Dead")--in progress in one of the Hispanic sections of New York City, much to the delight of Ortiz, as it reminds her of the celebrations from the Southwest, where she hails from. Ray's employee Eduardo Rivera is also present, but doesn't interact with the Ghostbusters. The festival is interrupted by the arrival of a distinctly non-"benign" spirit; even when Venkman and Kylie arrive to help, they arent' able to stop the entity until they find the anchor point--a little girl's possessed doll.

Eduardo is seen in the crowd at the Day of the Dead, though his official introduction isn't until V2#11

"Happy Horror Days, Part Three: Sinterklaas" (XU GBIDW2 11-01)
December. A kid is being menaced by goblins in Rhinebeck, New York, which is nowhere near as fun to say as "Schenectady". Fortunately, the cops knew who to call, and Egon, Venkman, and Mel are getting to spend a lovely fifteen degree day looking for ghosts. In brief, they fight what turns out to be the ghost of a firefighter who role played as Sinterklaas ever year and after he died came back to get revenge on all the brats who wanted Red Rider BB-guns, no matter how many times he told them they'd shoot their eyes out. Ray and Kylie, cross-referencing with other recent events (including Welch and Ron in Chicago) deduce that something big is about to happen.

"Mass Hysteria Prelude One: The Old Days" (XU GBIDW2 11-02)
Keeping watch over Ray's Occult in the absence of Ray and Kylie is one Latino smartass named Eduardo Rivera. Eduardo signs for a weird package and, giving into curiosity, opens it and finds himself transported to an ancient temple, where cultists are worshiping a goddess with a scaly body and big snakes coming out of her head. She tells him to pass the word along--she's become interested in his world because her "brother" was defeated there...

Eduardo wakes up to Kylie and Ray; the book is gone, but he remembers one word that he tell them:

"Tiamat."

"Happy Horror Days, Part Four: The Closing Of The Year" (XU GBIDW2 12-01)
December 31. The Ghostbusters identify their enemy: the Rodefhiri, the first Boogeyman ever recorded. Soon enough, it shows up to join the New Year's festivities, and there's an immediate problem: it's powerful enough that it can even affect adults who look straight at it. Ray, Egon, and Venkman do, and are stopped by terrifying illusions: Venkman sees a giant cockroach; Ray sees himself being possessed by Vigo. And Egon sees a different sort of Boogeyman, one with a giant head and a gaping grinning maw. Winston manages a little better, before being caught in an illusion of Tiyah being dead; he shakes it off, and he and Mel start to trap it. The Rodefhiri starts to drain more energy from nearby kids, but the distraction lets the other Ghostbusters shake it off and they also throw traps--the combined power of a half dozen (more or less) traps succeeds in ending the threat.