Tobin's Spirit Guide: Official Ghostbusters Edition

I've been excited for this book since it was first announced and I instantly pre-ordered it. Ghostbusters, much like many my age (and older), is an important part of my childhood, but I also consider it an important part of my adult life. Thanks to comic book publisher IDW we have had an amazing ongoing Ghostbusters series for years as well as several miniseries. This book is another amazing addition to that and its something I think any Ghostbusters fan, be they fans of the movies, cartoons, or comics, will enjoy. Tobin's Spirit Guide is something Ghostbusters fan will be familiar with. When Ray or Egon needed information on a particular nasty spirit, or a class of ghost, one of the books they would refer to was Tobin's Spirit Guide. This book is more as if Tobin's Spirit Guide was written in modern day and has descriptions of the baddies the Ghostbusters have faced in the movies, cartoon, and both films. That's a minor complaint of mine. I would have loved in the book were full of stuff we've not seen before and then the end of the book was an addition by Ray and Egon of the stuff they've faced. Again, minor complaint as there around 100 pages in this book. The writer, Erik Burnham (who currently writes IDW's Ghostbusters book as well as Back to the Future), does a great job with the descriptions of the different baddies in the book and writing in character as either Ray or Egon. Artist Kyle Hotz does an AMAZING job of bringing the ghosts, demons, and demigods to life through his drawings. That's one of the surprising things is the art style for the ghosts is much more vivid and realistic than I expected and it was a great surprise. Character's like Samhain, Vigo, Slimer, and Zuul look terrifying. Dan Schoening has drawn most of the Ghostbusters comics for IDW and he has become one of my favorite artists...I assumed he would be pulled in for this project, but I was wrong. When I saw he wasn't going to be the artist I was really bummed but Hotz on me over. As you can tell from this short review I liked the book. My only real complaint was the one above as the actual writing, art, and presentation is fantastic. The book might seem short but there's plenty of content there. I really do wish it was larger, but this could be 300 pages and I'd say the same. If you like the Ghostbusters comics, movies, or the Real Ghostbusters cartoon then you should do yourself a favor and grab this book. I'd also say I wish it was more like the actual Tobin's Spirit Guide and written from his perspective with Ray and Egon's notes scattered throughout along with all the content we have here. I can't give the book a bad review for not doing that; its just something I wish we got. Also, the logo on the front of the book is an amazing play on the "no ghost" logo.

This is a nice book for going nostalgic. With a pretty decent encyclopedia of ghosts, demons, metaspectres (read the book for more info) and other creepy crawlers that go bump in the night, and that the guys have gone up against at least once each. As an "abridged" version of the original book, which Dr. Stanz described as weighing around thirty five pounds, it includes names, classes and even back stories as best as Dr.'s Stanz and Spengler could piece them together and contains information on ghosts and demons from the movies, cartoons and video games of the Ghostbusters' past. In all this is a really cool book and I have it on my bookshelf along with the rest of my collection of (real) books on the subject of ghosts and the paranormal, quite a fun addition, however it does have it's faults. For one thing, I noticed that a few of the ghosts that I fondly remember aren't included, namely the Middle Ghost (video game on SEGA Genesis) the Sleeping Ghost (from The Real Ghostbusters, trapped on the set in Hollywood where the first movie was filmed), the Jersey Devil (Extreme Ghostbusters. Magnetic entity covered in layers of metallic objects, destroyed in a town outside of Atlantic City by reversing it's polarity) and the Bermuda Triangle (Extreme Ghostbusters. Trapped by all eight Ghostbusters (including the originals) with a giant ghost trap that was built into the back of a dump truck). I also noticed that the back stories of three of the creatures that I remember are not written here as I remember them, they were Sandman, Bogeyman and Samhein, apparently they were reintroduced into the IDW comic book and those stories were used instead and also the demi gods are listed as class VII when they were at least powerful enough to be listed as class IX. All together this is a really fun book and I even got a few laughs out of it upon my fond nostalgic memories of some, if not most, of these creatures. Highly recommended for any fan of Ghostbusters and those who might want to add a good conversation piece to there library of paranormal books (like I did). : ) I do kind of hope for a second volume with more ghosts and creatures added into the mix later however.

I purchased this one over the green nerdblock version of this because it was hardcover. After getting this one and seeing how good it was, I couldn't pass up on the Nerdblock edition, even if there wasn't any differences other than the covers. It's a good quality hard cover. Unlike the poorly written version of the Tobin's Spirit guide with the brown cover, this one is very well written and I didn't note an grammar errors. Every entity has an outstanding black and white illustration for it. Some being single page pieces and some being nice two page spreads. The artwork is all based on either the movie versions or the art in the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. These are not cartoon like illustrations though, they are all high quality illustrations with tons of details. There may be a few pieces that are completely original for the book. If you are a fan of everything that is Ghostbusters you will feel right at home paging through the book. They chose what I feel are the most popular of ghosts and spirits from the cartoons and movies. Comparing this one to the green Nerdblock version, this one has slightly lighter background printing of the paper. That is the aged paper and slight blood stain effect. This is extremely minor and so small that people could likely find some hard cover books with a darker printing that the softcover. I've only got my two copies to compare, but I felt it worth pointing out. All said and done a worthy addition to your Ghostbusters collection.

SUPER BUCH , gut geschrieben, für FANS / SAMMLER genau das rechte, nur halt in ENGLISCH , aber das stört nicht, frischt DIE SPRACHE AUF

Bel libro per gli appassionati dei Ghostbusters anni '80. Bellissimi disegni e descrizioni. Molto divertente vedere i mostri descritti nel libro sullo schermo durante il film, ti fà sentire un esperto di fantasmi. Un ottimo prodotto per appassionati.

Haste me temblaron las manos en el momento de abrir y leer por primera vez esta magnífica guía de los cazafantasmas. Partiendo de la original mencionada por Ray y Egon en las películas, adapta los contenidos (EN INGLÉS) al universo cinematografico y de los dibujos animados. Crecí viendo en la televisión todos estos monstruos y fantasmas, por lo que verlos en unas ilustraciones preciosas y con su explicación es genial.

Excelente calidad y Magnificas ilustraciones

Présentant une large gamme des fantômes de la licence culte, cet ouvrage est un indispensable à toute collection autour de SOS Fantômes / Ghostbusters qui se respecte ! La qualité globale du livre, comme celle de son contenu, est excellent et on prend un grand plaisir à (re)découvrir ces sales bêtes de revenants en tout genre. Il contient des petites pointes d'humour, des textes inspirés et des illustrations magnifiques, à la hauteur de la couverture. Attention aux anglophobes : ce livre n'existe qu'en Anglais.