Review – Ghostbusters #9

Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Erik Burnham
Artist: Dan Schoening
Release Date: 6th November 2013

This intriguing new story throws the Ghostbusters into the middle of a feud between a classic Halloween villain and the devil himself. It’s a fun read with a lot of clever ideas packed into relatively few words. The dialogue is taught, full of character and strikes a great balance of exposition and humour. This comic is very deftly done.

The art is the same; it’s full of great little details such as the Halloween décor outside the Ghostbusters HQ and that painting of Vigo the Carpathian (Why would they keep that thing??) The characters look like caricatures of their actor counterparts which allows for greater expression. Their faces never sit still and each character stands out from the page. Like the dialogue, Shoening and Delgado can show Egon’s seriousness or Venkman’s sarcasm effortlessly. It’s this level of character that allows Burnham to have such a succinct script; it would be entirely possible for this team to do tell an engaging story without a single line of dialogue.

It’s very encouraging to see this team in charge of the Ghostbusters’ future. Needless to say, I was quite impressed with this comic. It’s perhaps pitched to a younger crowd but when it’s done this well it’s always worth a read.