Updated on December 31, 2012

Hi Everyone

Good news! My family and I are no longer living at the Red Cross emergency shelter at Nassau Community College. We spent six grueling weeks there, and we left nearly exactly to the day and time we arrived. We entered on Monday October 29th at 11:00-11:30 AM, and we left on Monday December 10th at roughly 11:00 AM.

We're now living in a small two-family house in Valley Stream - which is just two towns away from East Rockaway. The house is surrounded by parking lots - there's no front yard, no backyard, no grass to be seen anywhere! It's the only house on the block. On the other side of the block are the backs of the houses from the condominium complex on the next block over.

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Last updated on December 8, 2012

For previous updates, please see the "Spook Central On Hiatus / Making Ghostbusters PDF eBook Preserved" blog post.

This blog post contains the next set of updates. The last blog got way too crowded and so I got approval to start a second blog post. To keep things simple and to the point, I'll be simply copying and relaying Paul Rudoff's comments and news here on this blog post. - Matthew Jordan

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Last updated on November 11, 2012. Please check the blog post "Updates on Paul since November 16th and onward" for further updates.

Spook Central On Hiatus
Hey Everyone. Paul here writing in from the Red Cross emergency shelter at Nassau Community College on storm-ravaged Long Island, New York. If you're not already aware, my family was evacuated from our little house in East Rockaway on the morning of October 29th when the water from the canal across the street was already up to the top step on the porch... and the storm hadn't even come yet!

With the help of my friends, and new Spook Central staff members, Doreen Mulman, Raffaele Ruffaldi, and Matthew Jordan, I have been working on getting the site to be somewhat updated in my absence. I can only do so much from a tiny little iPod Touch. The special Halloween treat is now on the site, and I'm working on getting Matt to continue updating the Spook Central Facebook page, so that we can continue to bring you some new Ghostbusters news and multimedia. It'll be a while before I'll have a permanent place to live again and personal belongings again (the flood waters destroyed damn near everything, including my desktop computer) so this will be the last Spook Central blog post for a while. Keep following Spook Central on Facebook for updates (hopefully).

Now here's new Spook Central staff member Matthew Jordan (aka DevilManOzzy from the Ghostbusters Wiki) to tell you more about what I've been going through, and to give you the link to the special Halloween treat...

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Updates on Paul
Filling in today on Paul's behalf is Matthew Jordan. We have some good news and some bad news.


The Bad News
The bad news came in the form of Hurricane Sandy, which flooded Paul's house. The image above shows the waters coming up to his steps on the 29th. Here is the timeline of events from Paul's postings on Facebook:

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Shadowland Magazine, a print publication that covers the best in horror, sci-fi & fantasy entertainment, is featuring Ghostbusters in the latest issue. Besides a Slimer cover drawn by Dwayne Pinkney, which is also available in a glow-in-the-dark variant, there's a nice five-page retrospective on the entire Ghostbusters franchise. That's in addition to all of the other horror, sci-fi & fantasy content filling the rest of the 100 pages, including articles on the history of horror video games (21-pages long!), an interview with the Angry Video Game Nerd, a look back at the legacy of Dr. Moreau in the Philippines, the life and films of '80s ninja star Sho Kosugi, Spider-Man on television, and much more.

Editor Andrew Parietti was kind enough to send me a complimentary copy, and it was a really good read. It feels like a cross between Fangoria/Starlog and Cereal Geek...and that's definitely a very good thing! The Ghostbusters franchise retrospective, "But The Kids Love Us! - A Look At The Ghostbusters Franchise" by Flynn Cook, is an excellent detailed overview of the franchise after the first film. The Real Ghostbusters is touched upon briefly, but it's with Ghostbusters II that the article starts getting into details. The film is given an ample amount of affection, along with some valid reasons that I never considered before as to why it's a good film. The underrated Extreme Ghostbusters series is also shown some appreciation.

When talk of the 2009 video game is brought up, Flynn mentions that the "game's script was tightened by series writers Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis", instead of regurgitating the marketing hype of Dan and Harold having written the script themselves. I was very happy to read this, as would the game's writers John Zuur Platten and Flint Dille. Before going into detail on the IDW series of Ghostbusters comic books, Flynn briefly mentions the 88MPH "Legion" series, and specifically the "foolish cad" of an owner who "ran off with people's preorder money for a collected book of 'Legion' and his company went under." I'm glad that this little detail did not get left out. It would have been very easy to overlook the "Legion" series and the preorder debacle.

The only thing I can see that wasn't mention in the article was the 2008 release of The Real Ghostbusters: Complete Collection DVD box set. The 2009 video game is credited with reviving the franchise, but I'd say the 2008 DVD set was a big help. Oh, and thankfully the only real grammar error of note is that Ray Parker lost his "Junior" status. Dan Aykroyd's last name is always spelled correctly, and that makes me happy. It's a pet peeve of mine when I see his last name misspelled. It's not like it's a hard name to spell. They should try spelling "Straczynski".

Here's what the retrospective pages look like. No, they can't be enlarged. You want to read it, buy the magazine.


Although this is the primarily coverage of Ghostbusters in the magazine, it isn't the only coverage. The Ghostbusters NES video game gets two photos and a paragraph in the "Virtual Fear: A History of Horror Video Games" article by Frank Warden (on page 15).


On page 36 we see the box cover for the Which Witch? board game in the "Horror Board Games" pictorial. Which Witch? was the 1970s Milton-Bradley game on which The Real Ghostbusters board game was based. (Fun Fact: The game was re-released in the 1990s as Ghost Castle, but was only available outside of the United States.) Interestingly, The Real Ghostbusters board game isn't included in the pictorial.

In the "By The Numbers" feature on page 75, a small Real Ghostbusters promo photo is shown along with the trivia tidbit "147 - Episodes produced of The Real Ghostbusters". The 147 number is derived from the total number of episodes included in the Time-Life DVD box set, including the Slimer! episodes. That includes episodes that feature two or three stories.

If I want to be complete, I could mention that in the Middle Earth Collectibles advertisement on page 94 is the Ghostbusters: The Other Side trade paperback cover and the It's A Trap shirt, both of which are available for sale on the site - along with the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors 1986 VHS shown on page 96 (Nora from the Ghostbusters Fan Forum appears on this tape as both herself and as Freddy Krueger).

Of course, that's just everything Ghostbusters in the magazine. There's lots of other stuff too. You can read about all of the contents on the Shadowland Magazine website. While you're there, pick up issue #5 (Summer 2012) for only $9.95. The limited edition glow-in-the-dark Slimer cover is the same price.

[UPDATE - 10/18/2022]
As it is now 10 years later, and the magazine is surely out of print, I am providing a PDF copy of all Ghostbusters articles from it. Click on the cover below to download it.

I have just completed several small, but significant multimedia updates to the site. On the Ghostbusters Multimedia page I added the Ghostbusters Pay-Per-View Trailer (1985) in the video playlist and a link to the original source. On The Real Ghostbusters: Halloween Door page I added a two-minute video of some promos and bumpers that aired the evening of Sunday October 29, 1989 during the primetime airing of the episode. I added screenshots from the music videos: "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr, "On Our Own" by Bobby Brown, "Magic" by Mick Smiley, and "Cleanin' Up The Town" by The Bus Boys.

Most significantly of all, on the "Ghostbusters" by RUN-D.M.C. page I added the complete unaltered copy of the music video and lots of screen shots. It is the RUN-D.M.C. music video that is the subject of today's Shot On Site article. Normally I wouldn't cover an entire music video in one of these articles, but since I had done the detective work for my own personal interest, and it's only a small amount of shots, I figured... why not?

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It now exists! Into this world was born the very first (and so far only) piece of officially-licensed Ghostbusters Spook Central merchandise! The Spook Central patches were the first piece of Spook Central merchandise (not counting the Spook Central stickers which I produced as a giveaway for the site's 14th anniversary in August 2010), but they weren't officially-licensed by Sony and didn't carry the official Ghostbusters name :-)

For IDW's Ghostbusters #9 comic book, artist Tristan Jones (who designed all of the "Spook Central" title images you see atop the pages of this site) is hand-drawing many one-of-a-kind covers for various comic shops and distributors across the globe. 250 covers were intended, that there were only enough orders for 56 covers to be produced - with Spook Central's being #37. Yes, Spook Central is getting one of these super special covers. Today, Tristan uploaded the Spook Central cover, and it's a thing of beauty... (click it for supersize)


That beautiful cover features an assemblage of concepts that I should probably explain, though some of them are obvious.

Right at the top in green slimy letters is the original retro "Spook Central" title, as seen below. It's in the same Courier New font as it was back in 1997 when Bill Emkow presented me with it, only this time Slimer has slime-written it himself like he did of his name at the end of the Slimer and The Real Ghostbusters intro. Slimer was a part of the original Spook Central logo, so of course he'd be up there on the cover.


Underneath "Spook Central" and Slimer it says "Long Island, New York". The Spook Central website has eminated from Long Island since it was born in August 1996. Yours truly has eminated from Long Island since he was born in June 1977. What? You thought Zack Ryder started the Ghostbusters/Long Island connection? Puhleese! Spook Central and The Long Island Ghostbusters were reppin' L.I. long before Zack started vacationing at the Jersey shore!

If you're not familiar with this part of the world, I should tell you that Long Island, which is part of New York, is not a town. It's both the name given to the actual fish-shaped island, and the counties of Nassau and Suffolk that make up the right-half of the island. The left-half of the island is comprised of Queens and Brooklyn, which are part of New York City in spite of physically being on Long Island.

Long Island has been featured in Ghostbusters lore. The Extreme Ghostbusters came out here in the episode "Fallout". The South Shore Nuclear Power Plant that they visited isn't a real place, but it's obviously meant to represent the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant. In the episode "Till Death Do Us Start", their client Leonard Bates was "a tax accountant from Long Island". In "Darkness At Noon" (Part 2), wheelchair-bound Garrett Miller lobbed an insult at us and Jackie Chan fans by saying that "Jackie Chan's for whimps ... and people from Long Island." And, of course, the IDW Ghostbusters visited the Long Island town of Massapequa in Issue #8. I don't live in Massapequa, but my friends used to. They lived on the same block as the wrestler Taz, so there's another wrestling connection for you :-)

Speaking of Extreme Ghostbusters, that lovely young goth girl there on the left is the one and only Kylie Griffin. You might remember her as the Eight Grade Cheerleader Of The Year! Quite an accomplishment, Ms. Griffin. She's joined by first season Real Ghostbusters Janine Melnitz, whose trying to keep some nasty ghoulie with a wandering tongue under the hood of her Volkswagen Beetle (which was also the basis for Kenner's Highway Haunter toy). The car has the same "GB1 ZUL" license plate as Janine's car in IDW's "What in Samhain Just Happened?!" comic book. The license plate, of course, is comprised of the fan abbreviation for "Ghostbusters" and an abbreviation of "Zuul".

Hiding behind all of the other ghouls giving Kylie and Janine and hard time is the No Ghost logo ghost. Buster, as he's affectionally known by some, is there on the right. He's also appeared on the two Ghostbusters Fans covers in both his day job as a logo and his night job as a peoplebuster. With Buster appearing on all three Ghostbusters website covers, there's a nice connection between them all; like he's our secret mascot :-)

Remember how I said that the Extreme Ghostbusters came to Long Island in the episode "Fallout"? They were here to battle the giant Radioactive Ghost you see looming behind Janine and her car. The tentacles sticking out from the hood may be an homage to Ulyoth from The Real Ghostbusters episode "Short Stuff" since he appeared in a similar fashion under Ecto-1's hood.

All of the other creatures on the cover aren't direct references to anything, but rather creations of Tristan Jones' own twisted imagination! I got that on good authority from Tristan himself, so I can stop racking my brain trying to figure out references that aren't there :-)

This isn't Spook Central's first "appearance" in the IDW Ghostbusters comic series. Artist, and dapper gentleman, Dan Schoening gave me the honor of being in the Ghostbusters universe by drawing me into issue #11 wearing a Spook Central t-shirt. No, Spook Central t-shirts are still not available for sale, though maybe one day they will be if there's enough interest. And, no, THIS ONE-OF-A-KIND TRISTAN JONES SPOOK CENTRAL COVER IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR SALE either.

[UPDATE - 9/12/2012]
The Spook Central cover arrived in the mail today...after the United States Postal Service mis-shipped it to Brooklyn! Even though my address was typed on the computer-printed mailing label, was 100% correct, and included the correct +4 zip code, the postal service still decided that what is clearly a "5" in my zip code was a "2" and sent it to Brooklyn. Had they processed it correctly, I think I would have gotten it two days ago. At least it finally arrived, even with taking the scenic route through Brooklyn (and not bringing back a Nathan's hot dog). Here's a photo of my ugly, unshaven mug with the Spook Central cover and my appearance in issue #11 (my left hand is pointing to myself in the book).

Welcome to Spook Central's special "Shot On Site Summer" event. Throughout the Summer, I've been posting Shot On Site articles on Spook Central detailing newly-discovered Ghostbusters filming locations. Click here to view the current schedule. Please note that this post is going to be very image-intensive. Today's Ghostbusters II location was identified by Matthew Jordan. Let's see what it is, shall we...

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Welcome to Spook Central's special "Shot On Site Summer" event. Throughout the Summer, I've been posting Shot On Site articles on Spook Central detailing newly-discovered Ghostbusters filming locations. Click here to view the current schedule.

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Welcome to Spook Central's special "Shot On Site Summer" event. All throughout the month of July, and possibly the rest of the Summer, I will be posting Shot On Site articles on Spook Central detailing newly-discovered Ghostbusters filming locations. Click here to view the current schedule.

Here we are again with another Ghostbusters filming location that seems near-impossible to identify, yet Matthew Jordan managed to identify it. Let's see what it is, shall we...

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A nice vintage children's book has been preserved this time around. On The Real Ghostbusters Books page you can now find a PDF ebook of The Real Ghostbusters in Haunted House Mystery by Peter Mandel. This small 6x6 inch book was one of many of the same size published by the Antioch Publishing Company in the 1980s. Most of their children's books of this size were advertised as having "12 Collector Stickers Inside". Haunted House Mystery is no exception, though my copy lacked the stickers, so you won't find them in the eBook. What makes this book special is that, in spite of the generic name, it's actually an adaptation of an episode of the animated series: Mrs. Roger's Neighborhood. Don't expect for it to follow the episode plot 100% as it's only a 24 page book (including the title page), in which half of those pages are images, and the other half has large print text. The plot had to be shortened down considerably to fit the format. That said, it's still a good read and worthy of being preserved.