1984: GHOSTBUSTERS IN STARBURST MAGAZINE (MARVEL UK)

From December 1984: STARBURST, from Marvel UK, covers the making of the original GHOSTBUSTERS movie in a special issue of the title's regular run. Marvel even threw in (literally, it was loosely inserted in the magazine and easily lost) a free GB logo sticker (did they get a license for that?).

I saw the new GB movie at the weekend and I have to say I thought it was jolly good. It certainly surpassed my expectations. Even if, I times, I thought I was watching history's most expensive FRENCH AND SAUNDERS sketch.

Forget about the hopeless trailer (which made it look like a beat-for-beat rehash of the first flick) and go with an open mind. I'm pretty confident you will enjoy it. There is already talk of the inevitable sequel. I hope it's better than the original sequel.

This issue inadvertently started a long and prosperous relationship between the British Bullpen and the franchise. THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS animated series became a cash machine for the Annex Of Ideas, spreading out from their own title to numerous annuals, specials, spin-offs, a SLIMER solo title, a strip in comedy horror weekly IT'S WICKED and a residency in the anthology MARVEL BUMPER COMIC.

1985: MAKING GHOSTBUSTERS

From 1985: The official MAKING OF GHOSTBUSTERS book.

Even through I was an early fan of the movie (I read the paperback adaptation at school) I have no recollection of seeing this at the time the movie (which suggests that it had little or no mainstream booktrade distribution in the UK at the time... or I wasn't looking on the right shelves in the bookshops) but I found a copy in a secondhand store last year. 

I've not read it cover-to-cover but it looks to be a really nice, and very comprehensive, guide to the film (including the full script with detailed annotations) and a great of-the-time companion to last year's look back, by Titan, to the whole movie franchise.  

1990: GHOSTBUSTERS II MOVIE MAGAZINE (Marvel UK)

From January 1990, and hot-on-the-heels of the latest (in a long succession) of announcements regarding the NEXT movie, here's a MARVEL UK House Ad for their GHOSTBUSTERS II movie tie-in magazine.

The observant will spot that this FANTASY ZONE magazine spin-off (the logo of the short-lived monthly genre mag in the STARBURST tradition is hidden under the "Out now!" splash) looks very similar to the US one-shot from Starlog Press.  Sure enough, like Marvel's STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER tie-in, this is indeed a rebadged edition of the US original.  

Top marks to the Annex of Ideas at having such a concerted stab at making Fantasy Zone into a franchise… if only it had lasted a bit longer.  Unlike the spin-offs, it did at least feature all-new material.  

The British Bullpen were, of course, also publishing THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS during this period, a cash-cow that stretched way beyond their own comic and also spawned (or, at least, appeared in) MARVEL BUMPER COMIC, IT'S WICKED, BLIMEY, IT'S SLIMER and the obligatory annuals, specials, Collected Comics and books.  

1984: GHOSTBUSTERS JUMPSUIT ADVERT (Starlog)

Here's something that WILL scare you!  The price of the GHOSTBUSTERS JUMPSUIT in this December 1984 STARLOG MAGAZINE advert: $85!

I'm not an expert in jumpsuits, or the US cost of living in 1984, but this does sound pretty extortionate to me.  I love the way that they've given the (ugly) guy a non-GB ray gun... just to give him something to do so that it doesn't look like he's pissing up the wall.