| abstract
| - Erik Burnham, co-writer for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Ghostbusters mini-series, writer of the Ghostbusters Get Real mini-series, writer of the Ghostbusters Annual 2015, and writer of the upcoming Ghostbusters ongoing series Volume 3 from IDW Publishing Comics and the upcoming Ghostbusters: Tobin's Spirit Guide from Insight Editions, has spoken with the Ghostbusters Wiki about the two 4 issue miniseries, the annual and provides some hints about what to expect from the upcoming third volume of the ongoing series and Tobin's Spirit Guide out next year. Check out "Ghostbusters International Issue #1" scheduled to release on January 27, 2016. (Interview Conducted by Mrmichaelt) ERIK BURNHAM: A major concern, yes, was in making sure that the crossover mattered to both franchises. That it "counted" -- this was something that was important to Tom and I to include, but it also made it harder to have some of the fun and games, the stuff Tom & I most love; characters just sitting around and talking. Coordination wasn't a problem; we're very much on the same page from years of working together, and editor Bobby Curnow knew how to make magic happen if and when we needed another perspective. ERIK BURNHAM: We initially cooked up the skeleton of the crossover in 2012; at that time, it was going to be much more of an Egon and Donatello story… but a couple of years of stories changed the character dynamics. ERIK BURNHAM: Enveloped the young man inside of an adaptable ectoplasmic casing that allowed for finely tuned manipulation of the corporeal form. ERIK BURNHAM: At best, capable entities would notice a rift in the multiverse -- but they can't really enter in if the channel isn't already open. Could an evil something use the door if it was open? Yes. Could they force it open if their particular dimension wasn't already dialed in? No. ERIK BURNHAM: We picked that one because it had a story wherein the guys were shunted away. That was a perfect point of divergence, and allowed for a different avenue to the IDWverse than the way the TMNT used. And yeah, the XGB and SOS sections were purely there to give a longer story count, though we surely loved being able to play with those toys for a couple of pages and the fans of those specific iterations of the property… it wasn't a lengthy process though. When we had the space and the existence of multiple dimensions, those appearances were practically a foregone conclusion. ERIK BURNHAM: As fun as it might have been, I think it would've clashed with Peter hating Peter. ERIK BURNHAM: Yes. It had to be done! ERIK BURNHAM: PCOC isn't responsible for those repairs, no. Tough luck, guys, it's out of pocket! But at least they can remodel a little bit. Maybe they could improve the foundations on the southeast corner, I don't know. ERIK BURNHAM: Well sure. And as we all know, the future is always near. ERIK BURNHAM: Pretty much. I hadn't actually started scripting anything by that point, so I was just throwing things I expected to use on out there. ERIK BURNHAM: That one was, honestly, just a fun gag to end the comic. So no follow-ups (in the near term, anyway!) ERIK BURNHAM: Egon's not immune to hyperbolic statements. The Firehouse isn't going to go anywhere -- but this gives Dan license to redesign the interiors some, if he wants, and it also addresses the point that it isn't logical to keep all their eggs in one basket, as it were, if they don't have to. It just opens up some additional possibilities. But yeah, like I said, the Firehouse isn't going anywhere. ERIK BURNHAM: Right now I kind of like him just being a mysterious helper. There's no origin or explanation that would satisfy everyone -- but at one time, we did have an idea for a story wherein the spirit guide was helping as an act of good faith to get the Ghostbusters' trust, and then, eventually, their help. We may do that story one day yet. ERIK BURNHAM: In this case, it was a simple matter of IDW deciding to do an annual very close to the wire of the deadline for Diamond Catalog listings. Tom called me up and said "I need an idea today." So… the Sandman. He seemed like a great choice for an expanded story -- and even so I wish Dans schedule had allowed for us to do a longer story! I went through several iterations of the story, rewrote it in full three times. Initially, as the solicit stated, it was going to be more straight up reminiscing and then the Ghostbusters would eventually realize they were in a dream world. But when Dan and I started researching, other ideas occurred -- like what became the opening scene. We also came up with a great "casting" for The Sandman. I wanted to make him more talkative because of the actor's voice… but still. Maybe we'll see him again. (: ERIK BURNHAM: Heh. I'll leave it vague. Winston is taking a smartphone selfie in the Sean Galloway story, after all. Haha. As for the timing, they were meant to be windows into ANY time. World of the Psychic is obviously occurring around the events of GBII, so it wouldn't take place after the Sandman story, chronologically. And the Slimer story could be decades before the formation of the Ghostbusters, or ten minutes before Janine got the call. There's a lot of leeway in these -- they're just meant to be bits of fun. ERIK BURNHAM: The bulk of them were chosen by me (and/or Dan) seeing them at SDCC this year and asking if they wanted in. I also emailed Matthew Dow Smith and Evan Shaner (who was initially in, before his busy schedule sadly made it impossible to take part -- these things happen. We'll work together again, unless his meteoric rise to success prevents it!) Dan was behind Sean Galloway and Tom Bancroft. (Tom wanted to write his own, and I had thought he was doing a Mel story -- or I would've!) Everyone else just picked the character they wanted to do a story for and I wrote accordingly. ERIK BURNHAM: We only used Samhain because Alex Deligiannis REALLY wanted to draw him! But yeah, I was seeding a future threat. We'll get to him eventually. And whether it's a version from the RGB universe or a native-to-IDWverse version, I want to make sure he's a nice, big threat. ERIK BURNHAM: It'll bounce around. Issue 1 is purely NYC. #2 is split between NYC and Venice. We'll bounce back and forth between places… there are things to see to in New York, too. As for the backups, here's what happened: Corin Howell is doing variant covers. Tom wanted a theme, and after a few suggestions, we landed on shots of places Mel has investigated (as per the tag in Vol.2 #20.) The first cover was so much fun I thought it'd be neat to explore, but we're a 20 page book, and that's all Dan. So I mocked up an FBI Incident Report form for Mel to fill out that goes along with the cover, and we'll put both of those in the back. As we go on, I hope to evolve them a little bit, and make them better… and Mel will return in the main book proper, so this won't really shortchange her too much. ERIK BURNHAM: Jenny and Janine will talk about red tape in #1. As for the rest -- there's nothing I can really tease. I have one in mind; any more than that will have to happen organically. So I don't know how many. At least one! And he or she will likely be an original character, not someone plucked from the cartoons or games. ERIK BURNHAM: Well, as far as it goes… I'm just wrapping up my involvement on Back to the Future, and blazing forward on the ongoing Ghostbusters International…. the Spirit Guide is, as we speak, waiting to go through its next round of revisions, but it's looking GREAT! Kyle's art is exactly what you'd expect it to be -- wonderfully atmospheric, and very creepy. I can't say too much more about it... but I will say that we have a great cross-section of ghosts from the movies, the cartoons (Real and Extreme), both modern video games, and the IDW comics… and again, Kyle's artwork is gonna be worth the price of admission all by its lonesome. I can't wait to have a copy in my hands to flip through! (And I would be remiss if I didn't mention how much editor Chris Prince has brought to the process -- he's the heart of this book!) Other projects… still working on some creator owned stuff. I'm also going to be starting a Patreon (in January, knock wood, but later if need be) to help relaunch a comic strip. We'll see. And you never know when a new project will come knocking!
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)