I know I said that the cover was going to be my first goal, but I’ve found an actual reference article to build, so I’ll still work on the cover, and in the next week, have something, but for now I have artifacts to focus on.
My biggest fear was that the reference portions were going to be committing existing information to hardcopy. It turns out THERE’S STILL WORK TO BE DONE!
Case in point, The Real Ghostbusters Magazine – not to be confused with the UK RGB Magazine, which was a weekly/bi-weekly/released at a ridiculous pace publication that was larger than a comic, but featured a lot of of comic tales with a few text stories and articles. This US publication was quarterly, slightly fancier, with a slick print cover, and the ratio of comics to articles was reversed. Generally speaking.
I have a bunch, and I thought, given there weren’t a lot of them, and that I was missing some, this would be a nice test article. A quick search to see if anyone else had any information turned up a GB Wiki listing that said there were five issues. This was based on a listing at GBI, which had scanned and posted five issues, but never claimed there were only five. However, this information was parroted on some other sites. But here’s the thing… I have six issues myself, and one of the five listed at GBI, I don’t have. This means that while the common wisdom is that there are five issues, mine plus the odd-man-out at GBI means there are at least seven.
This is fantastic! It means that not everything about Ghostbusters is known and my work towards a book isn’t just compiling existing information online, but it will feed new information back into the community. And that makes me happy.
But down to business; Here’s pics of the issues I know of, the first one from GBI, the rest I own. And I’m listing them chronologically – there are no gaps. Which means that unless we can find a Spring 1991, this is the entire run of the magazine. And given that The Real Ghostbusters went off the air in 1991, I doubt it. But, this is the point of the reference book – I’m going to now lay out a reference page on this magazine. I will share the PDF online while work on the rest of the book continues. If more are found along the way, or even after the first edition is put to bed, I’ll update.
Summer 1989
Fall 1989
Winter 1990
Spring 1990
Summer 1990
Fall 1990
Winter 1991
Winter 1991
Fall 1990
Summer 1990
Spring 1990
Winter 1990
Fall 1989
Summer 1989 - First Issue
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I never got the first one, so I didn’t know about it. Also http://www.ghostbustersinternational.com/rgbmag.htm Ghostbusters International site had the same five I was aware of.
I’d enjoy reading the pdf if you post it.
I have the Fall 89 Issue. I got it at a Salvation Army for a quarter.
I have the winter 91, summer 90, and the fall 89 shown here.
all the others vanished some how at some point. I’ve thought about scanning and posting some of them here:
http://www.geocities.com/zerothdegree/ghostbusters/trgb_comix1.html
I would love to see some of the other issues. I had a subscription back in the day but I haven’t seen those other issues in quite a long time.
It’s scary that I check the site several times a day. And yet, that speaks to the amount of GM news and info out there. I don’t think you’ll have a problem filling those pages with new and old info. Just don’t spoil it ALL for us while we wait in line to purchase our copy!
Fantastic artwork! I had never seen these before.
I had tonnes and tonnes of stuff a few years ago. many of the things i owned were books, comics and magazines.
The collection included a series of six Real ghostbusters paperback books. I don’t know who they were published by. I just remember that the cover to one of the books had a picture of janine sitting at her desk being tangled in the phone line and being attacked by loads of minature stay puft marshmellow men. each book was an original story. These may have only been released in england.
There was the collection of books published by carnival based on episodes of the real ghostbusters.
i also owned all of the Real Ghostbsuters hardback annuals which consisted various storys from the marvel comic series.
I had loads of marvel comics.
There was also a collection of three books in blue with a silver ghost on each cover. ghosts r us, janines genie…don’t remember the third.
There was another two novel type books in blue. one based on troll bridge.. the other i dont remember. i may still have it somewhere.
I had another real ghostbusters paperbackbook which had the ghost from the logo ringing a doorbell on the front.
I remember that there were also a set of three storybook/cassette tape packages. each also came with a set of stickers. I only had one of them. the one i had was based on the episode cold cash and hot water. the episode where slimer multiplies.
i had verious ghostbusters and ghostbusters 2 storybooks as well.
ohh..i had tonnes of stuff but I’m afraid all i can give is details from memory sinse i gave it all away.
I also had various real ghostbusters colouring books, puzzle books and the panini sticker album.
I do know that Ken Steacy had drawn the covers for these issues, as he was the go to rgb artist then, and his newer stuff can be seen in the Cereal Geeks that had some Rgb stuff in them, along with Dapper Dan’s artwork. i also have the Spring 1990 issue, and they are awesome. These were out the same time the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles magazines came out, with the really cool covers and same layout on the inside with articles and comics.
Wow, I have all of these too. They were pretty child-oriented if I recall. Does anyone else have the Real Ghostbusters Boardgame? “A 3D game of tricks and traps”. It still holds up as a very original boardgame concept.
Interesting. I still own all of these, except that I did not know that the last one existed (Winter 1991). Will have to look into that. I did have plans on doing a Ghostbusters Collecting Book years ago, but nothing came of it. If you need help on anything, feel free to drop me a line.
I’m pretty much burned out on Ghostbusters these days (I have Tourette Syndrome with Obsessive Compulsive), so my 1980′s years were overly obsessive with GB. I used to spend my every dime on the latest paper cups at Hallmark, or figure at Toys R Us. Now that I’m older, I wish I’d bothered to have a life. I’ve gotten rid of tons of GB items in the past 20 years, but still have one amazing collection! (large Circle K stand-ups and storewide banners, rare original 1984 items, unlicensed 1984 extreme rarities, etc.). If I ever get a room to display it, I’ll send you guys the pics. I may still even do the book one day.
Forever Young – well, you’ve brought up a question then. My plan was to share the book as it came together. At first individually laid-out PDFs, like chapters. Then later, as a fully compiled book, which people could grab as a PDF or buy hardcopy. This isn’t to spoil it for you, but rather to involve the community. Is this a bad thing? Should I only share certain articles? There are some where it will be critical to get everyone’s help, like for collectibles. I own a lot, but no-where near all the collectibles out there.
So, should I be pulling the curtain back like this or not? Or can I pull it back and those that want a surprise can wait?
I don’t think it’s a problem to show it all to us as it comes together. I went to a display at my church, of pages of a book that is touring the world. It was finally turned into a physical book, of which I purchased two (which I would likely do of Print Is Dead). The interesting thing is, as your layout comes together, and you’re showing us stuff, you’ll probably alter the layout a number of times throughout the progression of the book. I am not sure what I would do in this situation, but it’d probably include some form of revision releases.
P.S. I have the Spring 1990 issue. I think I got in trouble for buying it, because I went to 7-11 to buy a slurpee, saw it there, told my mom they raised the prices so I could have a little more money, and bought that instead.
I was a sneaky 9-year-old… or so I thought.
i had a subscription to the RGB magazine as a kid… but the only thing i really remember from it was a freebie blue/white GB2 hat that i got in the mail. oh, happy day!
Don’t know if you’ll see this comment here or not, but I have a somewhat unimportant idea for the book: explain pseudo-scientifically how the equipment is supposed to work, especially the proton pack. Because I still don’t really understand it. I think there should be something explaining that somewhere if it hasn’t yet.
I say pull back the curtain and those who aren’t helping with the book can wait. People helping out can’t be left in the dark.
Boyer – I was thinking about that. I’ve been wondering how many of my physics friends would let me pick their brains.
As for making the book parts public as it goes along, I was mostly asking just to see what people thought – as you said, I have to, if people are going to be part of the endeavor.
Derek – I think I’ve seen that hat! That’s awesome to know – see, that’s the kind of info I like.
I have a few of these mags. The first issue for sure, and I bought two or three others a few years ago. I can’t get to them right now to see what those others are, but they’re probably already covered in the list above.
FUN FACT – Someone told me years ago that the RGB magazine was stopped in favor of a TMNT magazine, and that when the RGB mag ended, subscription holders were sent letters giving them the option to carry over the unused portion of their subscription to the new TMNT mag.
@Nev – The Real Ghostbusters board game actually wasn’t an original board game concept. It was a rebranding of a game from the 1970s called Which Witch (or some similar title). It was a good game, though.