In 1988, Topps released a 90 card, 11 sticker set entitled Fright Flicks. Each card featured a photograph from one of 14 horror movies of the previous 10 years, with a humorous caption beneath it. The card backs featured frightening "Did It Ever Happen?" urban legends, which told a Twilight Zone-like tale in 100 words or less. The stickers poked similar fun, with puzzle pieces on their backs. The set was a "modern" version of Topps' Creature Features set from 1973, which featured Universal movie monster film stills with funny and punny captions below them. The template for both of these sets goes back to 1959 with the Funny Monsters set, which featured drawings of monsters in various situations with a joke caption underneath.

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Next year is the 35th anniversary of Ghostbusters, and I suspect we'll get new Blu-ray releases of both original films in honor of the event (each including one new bonus feature to justify the re-purchase, like the recently-discovered Fort Detmerring scene footage). Hopefully, Sony will also see fit to finally release the entire series of Extreme Ghostbusters on DVD. Are you listening, Sony? Well, we may have gotten a look at the new master used for the Ghostbusters II Blu-ray.

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Insight Editions has been releasing high-quality collector's-worthy Ghostbusters books for the past few years, and last year we got two. Ghostbusters: Ectomobile Owner's Workshop Manual (reviewed here) was the obviously release, but Totally Awesome: The Greatest Cartoons of the Eighties was another, and it likely slipped under the radar for most. This 160-page hardcover tome was written by Andrew Farago (curator of San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum), with a foreword by legendary voice artist Russi Taylor (Minnie Mouse, the kids in DuckTales, Baby Gonzo in Muppet Babies, etc.). Coming in at a nice size of 9.5" x 11.5" closed, in full color print on high-quality paper, the book comes factory-sealed, so you'll know that you're getting a new, clean, untouched copy.

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Since switching to a new server a few weeks ago, Spook Central and subsite The Corner Penthouse had been having severe issues with the blog software. The blog provides Spook Central with its main page, and runs the entirety of The Corner Penthouse. After a few days of having to disable the blog while we worked on the problem, we have managed to restore it, while at the same time upgrading it to the latest version. Unfortunately, that created a new set of problems because all of the skins and plugins from the old version were not compatible with the new version.

Right now, we have managed to get both sites back to 95% visual accuracy with (near) 100% functionality. Raffaele and I... well, mostly Raffaele, will continue to work on getting things back to 100% all around. Meanwhile, everything functions well enough that I will be able to write the reviews and articles that I have had to put off since all of this started.

We used this upgrade as an opportunity to make the site fully HTTPS-compliant, so you'll have a secure connection here. Not that we're providing any sort of sensitive information, but it seems like everyone loves secure this and secure that, so why not provide that as well.

Thanks to everyone for their patience.

-- Paul

Way back in August 2011, I had some special Spook Central 15th Anniversary patches made to honor the site's milestone. I thought they were all gone, so I never sent any to Ghost Corps when they started collecting patches from the various franchises a few years ago. Recently, I found that I still had a few in my secret stash. I sent it to the Ghost Corps crew along with a nice letter on my translucent slime green stationary. Thanks to Eric Reich for the photo of one of the last remaining Spook Central patches in their display case. I bet mine is one of the only patches they have from a website!

Ghostbusters: Answer The Call (2016). Just the mere mention of the name can cause some people to froth at the mouth. No movie has ever been as polarizing as Paul Feig's disasterpiece. Hell, not even The Phantom Menace - with its "Mannequin" Skywalker, Jar Jar Binks, and Midichlorians - divided its fanbase as much as the "all-female Ghostbusters". If I'm being completely honest, and as objective as possible, I can sum up Feig's film in one word: disappointing. In spite of the way it treats its audience, and especially the loyal Ghostbusters fanbase, I frequently saw glimmers of potential in the film. Of course, the film then (literally) vomited upon those glimmers mere seconds later, several times over. I always felt that if the characters were put in the hands of competent writers, especially ones who love Ghostbusters, that maybe - just maybe - the potential that was there could be realized.

IDW's Ghostbusters 101 trade paperback, which collects all six issues of the same-named comic book series that was released earlier this year, lets us see if my theory is correct, or if the nerd will be keeping the five bucks. Written by Erik Burnham, its a story about the original Ghostbusters (herein referred to as the "Prime Ghostbusters") and their new trainees (the titular "101 Class"), who are visited upon by the the 2016 team (whom Sony wants deemed, the "Answer The Call Ghostbusters"). As is already apparent, this book "corrects" one of the biggest faux pas of the 2016 film - it puts all of the teams together!

Artwork is handled by fan favorite Dan Schoening, with colors by Luis Antonio Delgado and Anna Chher, letters by Neil Uyetake and Shawn Lee, and edits by Tom Waltz. Although I am going to try my best to keep spoilers to a minimum, I will not be afraid to go into detail as necessary. With that in mind, here is your pre-requisite SPOILER WARNING if you read any further.

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Welcome to a new feature here on Spook Central, the Ghostbusters Cast Spotlight. Each entry in this series will showcase a cast member of the Ghostbusters franchise - Ghostbusters 1 & 2, The Real Ghostbusters, Slimer!, Extreme Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and maybe even Ghostbusters 2016 - in a role that you may not be familiar with. Maybe it will be from a long-forgotten movie, a television appearance before they were a Buster, or some really weird bit part that I'm sure they no longer include on their resume! There is a HUGE SPOILER WARNING if you read this article, as I am highly likely to go into plot details. This first Ghostbusters Cast Spotlight will be a double-length double feature focusing on the two late-1990s Sabrina The Teenage Witch TV movies featuring Tara Charendoff (voice of Kylie Griffin in Extreme Ghostbusters) as "Jellybean Queen" Gwen.

This article is dedicated to Doreen Mulman, one of my best friends, and the creator of the original TOTS: The Official Tara Strong website. Writing about these two movies takes me back to that great period of time in the late 1990s when we first met. Extreme Ghostbusters is what brought us together, but it was our shared loves of animation, voice actors, and horror movies - gotta love any woman that "gets" Elvira! - that made us friends. We would constantly tell each other about the latest appearance of Frank Welker or Tara Charendoff on TV, not least of which was because she ran both of their official websites, which I loved to help with. After Sabrina Goes To Rome aired back in 1998, I actually did two dozen VHS framegrabs and a few audio samples for The Sights and Sounds of Tara section we worked on together. (I never did get around to doing multimedia from Sabrina Down Under, which this article you're reading will rectify.) Doreen gave me the nickname Tiger, which I guess makes me Shiva to her Queen Ezekiel. An appropriate analogy given that we both loved The Walking Dead, and Ezekiel is portrayed by a voice actor (Khary Payton, aka Cyborg on Teen Titans - which also stars Tara).

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Last month, Loot Crate, the subscription box service that provides monthly boxes of geek and gaming related merchandise, had lots of exclusive Ghostbusters items. The kind folks at Loot Crate sent me a few of the items, which I will document in this "unboxing" article.

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For the past few years, Insight Editions has been publishing deluxe collector's quality hardcover Ghostbusters books. It started with Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History (reviewed here) in 2015, continued with Tobin's Spirit Guide: Official Ghostbusters Edition last year, and continues once more with the recently-released Ghostbusters: Ectomobile Owner's Workshop Manual. This 144-page tome was written by Troy Benjamin and Marc Sumerak, with illustrations by Ian Moores. Longtime members of the Ghostbusters Online Community (trademark pending) will remember Troy as the webmaster of Ghostbusters Headquarters (old school mode). Coming in at a nice size of 8.5" x 11" closed, with full color print on high-quality semi-glossy thick paper, the first two-thirds of the book deals with the original Ghostbusters, while the remaining one-third is about the 2016 film, and the last page is credits.

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This year's Halloween Treat will be a musical feature, showcasing ten unusual or unique (or just plain weird) Ghostbusters songs. Some songs will be good, some will be bad, some will in the middle, and some will be "so bad they're good". There is no criteria for quality here. Just what I find "interesting". No songs will be taken from any official Ghostbusters albums. I'll call this "Volume 1" because there will likely be more in a future Halloween Treat post.

Bob Baldwin - On Our Own (1990)

A smooth jazz near-instrumental cover of the Bobby Brown hit. From the album Rejoice. Check out the CD Single Artwork.

Peter Breiner - Ghostbusters (1991)

An orchestral version of Ghostbusters performed with Peter on the piano. From the album Peter Breiner & His Symphonic Pop Orchestra - Unchained Melody.

The Broadway Kids - Ghostbusters (1997)

It's as if the Junior Ghostbusters sang the song, only WAY better and with sound effects. Definitely a great rendition and kinda adorable. From the album The Broadway Kids - At The Movies (alt url). Performed by Ariel Harris Osumenya, Christopher Mark Petrizzo, Erin Rakow, Pierce Cravens, Amy Braverman, Travis Jordan Greisler, Ashley Pettet, Nicholas Gould, Christy Carlson Romano (later to star in Even Stevens & Kim Possible), Michael Zeidman, Jack Ingram, and Eden Reigel (later to star in The Young and the Restless); with "Broadway Guests" Ashley Tisdale (later to star in High School Musical & Suite Life of Zack and Cody), Kelly Mady, Jackie Angelescu, Brandon Ngai, Kristen Pettet, Jacy DeFillipo, Laurissa Auble, Renee Braithwaite, Kai Braithwaite, Olivia Oguma, Chris Truesdale, Alexis Kalehoff, Craig Lawlor, Alex Strange, and Kenji Miyata. CD liner notes (exactly as is written in the CD booklet, spelling and grammatical errors intact): "In addition to the opening and closing credits, Ray Parker, Jr.'s Oscar nominated song GHOSTBUSTERS covers a long and amusing montage. We see the exploits of Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Ackroyd), and Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) as they battle a sudden outbreak of ghouls and goblins. The tune is just one of the reasons that this Ivan Reitman's 1984 film was such a smash."

Unknown - Ghostbusters (1998)

Without a doubt, this is the second worst rendition of Ghostbusters ever commercially released. From the album My Favorite Lullabies: To Sir With Love. Yes, you read that right. Ghostbusters is on a CD entitled "My Favorite Lullabies" even though it is clearly NOT a lullaby. Heck, eleven of the twelve songs on the CD are not lullabies: 01. To Sir With Love, 02. Wouldn't It Be Lovely, 03. Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?, 04. The Ballad Of Davy Crockett, 05. Shake Your Paw, 06. Do The Bartman, 07. Ninja Rap, 08. Batdance, 09. Here Comes Garfield, 10. Ghostbusters, 11. A Spoonful Of Sugar, 12. Rock A Bye Baby.

The Hit Crew - Ghostbusters (2003)

Absolutely horrible. It should come as no surprise that it's from the album Drew's Famous: Kids Halloween Movie Themes, which is one of those lame party CDs that come out every year around Halloween time.

Bowling For Soup - Ghostbusters (2005)

A rockin' cover from the Just Like Heaven soundtrack album. Mp3 provided by Demon Lord Etna.

Mistah F.A.B. - Ghost Ride It (2007)

This controversial rap from the album Yellow Bus Rydah (later Crack Baby Anthem) samples "Ghostbusters" The Director's Cut music video (alt url) features an Ecto-1 replica and Slimer drawn on the back of a jacket. It's also in the TV Version. Check out some Behind The Scenes information. For more information, check out Proton Charging. Columbia Pictures threatened legal action against Mistah F.A.B. for the use of the Ghostbusters car and logo in the music video, and the song samples. I don't know what the outcome of the matter was. More info on it can be found here and here.

Dave Thomas - EctoMix (Ghostbusters Remix) (2008)

A super-cool fan remix of Ghostbusters dialog samples backed with a syncopated beat. Be sure to watch the music video (alt url).

Jon Herchert - Ghostbusters (2008)

A decent cover, though nothing remarkable. From the album Monster Mash: Party Songs For Kids.

J-Mi - Scared On His Own (Who's He Gonna Call) (2014)

An awesome mash-up of "Ghostbusters", "On Our Own", and movie samples over Bruce Arntson and Kirby Shelstad's theme to Ernest Scared Stupid (1991). Be sure to watch the movie's cool opening title sequence, then buy it on Blu-ray and DVD (and triple and quadruple feature DVDs).

For more Ghostbusters covers, check out Proton Charging.

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For the complete list of Spook Central's Halloween Treat posts from years past, click here. Thanks to Miss Kate for the "Halloween Treat" title banner that appears at the top of this post.