Tabby Freeman

Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s been almost 2 months. I’ve been hell of busy. This is the first full week of evenings I’ve had free in a long long time. Anyway, this blog isn’t about me, it’s about the coolest artists on the planet and their drawings of Ghostbusters.

And one of those coolest artists ever is Tabby Freeman. I’ve been following her work for almost a year now – once I decided to get into the whole art scene on twitter. Tabby’s art is so skillfully versatile, which you’ll see below. It can go from innocent and whimsical – almost like The Muppets, all the way to sexy and complex. Her ability to convey subtle emotions is just great. So, when she was opening up slots for commissions I, of course, had no choice but to have her draw me a Ghostbuster.

Jeez, and she drew Louis with Janine? How fucking perfect is that? Everyone always thinks about the 4 main guys, or works up their own idea for a Ghostbuster – which is fine obviously. But, man, I love love love when people give props to Louis.

LDRs are tough, lemme tell ya. But she sums it up pretty sweetly here.

What was your “Ghostbusters” growing up?

My “Ghostbusters” was an anime called “Inu-Yasha” back when I was in 6th grade. The style of it drew me in, that and the fact that my best friend at the time introduced me to it was very impacting on my art. I had always drawn as a kid, but my little ‘noodle’ armed doodles and characters were given more anatomical realism when Inu-Yasha breathed new life into my work. I was mildly obsessed for a while with the show; drawing the characters over and over in my sketchbooks. It’s because of that show, my art is what it is today.

Persona 3 art. Because fuck yeah Persona 3.

What’re you working on now?

I am currently working on a 10 page personal comic as a sort of closure of something that happened near 4 years ago. It is a very hard subject for me to talk about up until recently and I felt that  I was ready to confront it. What better way to do that than through art.

I beg you, check out her [tumblr] and [DA] for even more awesome artwork. Then when you’re done with that, go over to her [twitter] and totally wish her a happy birthday today by telling her that her Louis and Janine drawing is the coolest and that she is a coolest. Happy birthday Tabby!

Dan Jones

In doing this project, I find myself networking with a lot of other illustrators and artists. It’s a sprawling, but close community. Everybody knows everybody else, and they’re all super supportive. It’s great. One of the people in that community is a cat named Dan Jones. I was stoked to stumble upon his work months ago, but when he opened himself up for commissions, I couldn’t pass up the chance. So of course, I had him draw me a Ghostbuster.

Usually when I’m commissioning someone, whether online or in real life, I stay away until the final thing is done. I want the surprise to be as big as possible when it’s all finished and I see it for the first time. I couldn’t keep from peeking this time, though. Jones regularly live streams his art sessions, and on the night I knew he was drawing this, I had to check it out. I was too excited. But man, was I just as excited to receive the final product. It’s a killer illustration. Also, he’s a geek as big as any:

Video games played a huge part in my life: I would say mainly Nintendo games? Anything Zelda and Mario were huge in my childhood, as well as Sonic the Hedgehog once my friends and I discovered Sega [laughs]. Cartoons were definitely the motivating force that led me to become an artist. Growing up I LIVED for Saturday Cartoons and coming home fast from school just to catch the few cartoons they’d run on TV.

Alice from Fallout 3

You should definitely check out more of his work over at his tumblr. Not only is he a great cartoonist and illustrator, but he’s a great digital painter. All of which you can see over there, as well as all kinds of alt-art of video game characters – my bread and butter. Man I love alt-art.

Who’s your favorite Ghostbuster?

My favorite Ghostbuster is definitely Venkman. I love all of them, and 2nd most would probably be Ray – just for his love and fascination with ghosts and the paranormal. Venkman though, is one of those unforgettable characters and pretty much all my favorite moments from the series are created from him.

Check out more of his stuff, including a pretty killer webcomic entitled Scribe. And be sure to follow him on twitter @CauseImDanJones for more art and updates.

Gustav Carlson

Hey cats and kittens. Sorry for the little hiatus I was on. I ended up getting crazy busy. Not in a bad way, for the most part. I just found myself without the time to devote to an article on Sundays. And I wanted to devote some quality time to the post for this drawing.

You see, I’ve known Gustav for going on almost 10 years now, which seems crazy now that I think about it. We were both on a forum for a webcomic, and migrated with a close group of people when the whole thing went to hell and got shut down. From there, all of us found ourselves unpestered on our own plot of land on the internet. Anyway, long story short, we’ve all known each other for some time now.

And all that time, Gustav Carlson has been a cartoonist. So of course, I had him draw me a Ghostbuster.

Man, was I happy when I got this in the mail. He sent it to me along with the first issue from his comic “Eve of the Ozarks.” You see, this man does a lot of his drawing from a cabin in the Arkansas wild. His first comic, Backwood Folk was about the adventures of the people living in the fictional town of Po’Dunk, Arkansas.

As Carlson tells it:

Backwood Folk is a contemporary story about a man returning to his home in Po’Dunk, Arkansas after a long absence. On one hand he has to deal with the holes he left amongst the folks he abandoned. On the other he has to deal with wide-array of haunts, monsters, and impossible things that he only remembered as ghost stories and campfire tales. It’s a sort of sequel to the folktales that are long lost or never told.

Now he spends his days creating the adventures of a little wild girl named Eve.

Eve of the Ozarks is a much brighter story that takes place in the same region in the early 1800’s. When the only folks, in what would become Po’Dunk, are a young child named Eve and her hermit father, Paw Duncan. She’s a rambunctious sort whose best friend is an impossibly old goat named Hieronymus. The two of them find themselves in a constant stream of adventures and excitement as they explore the Ozarks, and fight off all kinds of monsters.

(Please please click these to see them full size. You’ll thank me.)

The adventures he puts her in are taken right from the lore and legends from the area – some familiar, some only known to a modern day mountain man who goes looking for monsters in all the right places.

Today being Father’s Day, I’ll link you to a little conversation Eve has with her Pa about scars. For a comic about a little girl playing in the wild, Carlson sure knows how to pack in the lessons and love in the world around us – much like Bill Watterson did in bringing us Calvin and Hobbes.

Who’s your favorite Ghostbuster?

My favorite Ghostbuster is easily Ray. The wild-eyed excitement is absolutely infectious. And what can I say, Dan Aykroyd’s love of aliens, and crystal skulls filled with vodka is just as fun.

You owe it to yourself to check out his comics, and follow him on twitter @BackwoodGoat.

Jim Mehsling

Hey folks,

Another Sunday means another Ghostbuster. This is the first one I got at this year’s Planet Comicon here in Kansas City. I came back this time with a mission and went hunting. As I was working my way around the hall, I was flipping through different sketch books and print books, and came upon this really killer John Marsten from Red Dead Redemption. It was drawn by a cat named Jim Mehsling. So, of course I had him draw me a Ghostbuster.

No disappointments here, obviously. This guy looks like not only could a bust a ghost, but turn a wrench or two.

Just a while ago, Mehsling won the official Star Wars Fan Movie Award for Best Animated Feature for his short cartoon Bounty Hunter II: Pit of Carkoon.

Right now, he’s the lead animator over at Blogglebeans, a place for grandkids and grandparents to have a place to play and hangout together online. Very cool idea.

You can check out more of his awesome stuff over at his blog, Cartoon Caveman. He’s got great original stuff alongside some really killer fan stuff, too. You can also follow him on twitter @cartooncaveman or at Instagram, where I grabbed this sketch of a photograph near and dear to my heart:

Who’s your favorite Ghostbuster?

My favorite Ghostbuster is Dr. Peter Venkman. The line that always cracks me up is, “What did you do Ray?”

Super Ugly

So, I didn’t put a drawing last Sunday. These past few months I’ve found myself hell of busy with something booked almost every night of the week – not to mention weekends which I was usually doing something from sun up to sun down. Don’t get me wrong, I love it – being busy, that is. I have to keep moving or I die, like a shark. A fat, bearded shark.

A shark that, apparently, when he has down time, it becomes way way down time. Instead of doing something constructive like drawing, or hell, even just catching up on games, I barely moved and just watched conspiracy videos on youtube all weekend. Which, uh… which turns out, isn’t very good to do. That is a weird rabbit hole.

Anyway, back this week with another drawing. This one comes from a pretty cool circumstance. I’ve got a buddy named Cammy. He’s got a site called all about comics called aptly, Cammy’s Comic Corner. You’ve probably even seen his stuff up on Bleeding Cool. When he was at Emerald City Comic-Con last year, he got me a couple drawings. One of them is from an artist who goes by Super Ugly. Cammy, of course, had him draw me a Ghostbuster.

Pretty cool, huh? Since I wasn’t there in person to talk to him, I’ll let the man speak for himself:

I am Super Ugly, and I am an artist who has his hands in many projects. From kids books, toys, illustration, jewelry, etc. I released “Monsters Are Just Like Us,” a kids book, through Action Lab comics last year, which was distributed worldwide, and is now available on Comixology.

I am currently working on another kids book entitled, “Atomic Fred.” It’s a tale told in rhyme about a lonely super hero and how he makes friends. My kid books are geared towards all ages and adults, and I hope it lives in a world with Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss and Mercer Mayer.

Who’s your favorite Ghostbuster?

Ray Stantz. It would be easy to pick Venkman, but Ray created the Ghostbusters. He was the wide eyed innocence that created the idea.

For more of cool art like this, or to listen to some of his tunes, check out his website, or follow him @superugly. He’s also got a high-concept blog like this one, showcasing art on guest checks.

A Little 5-Year-Old Girl

For those of you who don’t know, I’m a preschool teacher. I get to spend my day making crafts and playing ukulele. Not a bad gig. Except for if you take into account the pay. Then it’s the absolute worst gig.

Anyway, I was checking my phone the other day, when from behind me I heard a little voice say, “Hey, that’s Ghostbusters.”

I turned around to see a little bespectacled girl who had just turned 5. I was surprised to hear that anyone younger than 10 had seen these movies, much less 5. Kid’s movies today are so far removed from the ones of my youth. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Wreck-It Ralph. But when I was growing up, kid’s movies had swears and fucked up monsters. Everything today is so PlaySkool and rounded edges and messages about how everyone is special and all that junk. Sometimes I want a movie with a story, not a message.

I’m in charge of the summer program at this school, too. Which means I have kids from kindergarten through 8th grade all day. A couple years ago, we were talking about movies, and it came out that none of them had even heard of Ghostbusters or Back to the Future. I decided on our next scheduled movie day, I was going to remedy this. Well, about 10 minutes into BttF, he utters the “serious shit” line, and I had to quell a sea of “ummmmm’s” and reactions. Then Marty calls the Libyans bastards and I’m freaking out again, knowing I’ll probably be hearing from some parents now.

I was so bummed out, though. I mean, these movies were pillars for my generation growing up. And now I can’t even show them to kids without fear of getting in trouble? And now here we are seeing Lorraine Baines undress down to her bra and panties while George McFly spies on her from a tree branch. Again, another wave of sniggers and “ooohs.” I turn off the movie. “Fine, go play.”

As I touched on in the first post, as a kid, all you’re focused on is the ghosts and marshmallow men. You even know that Venkman is the funny one, even if you don’t get half of his jokes. Only when you get older do the good jokes really come to the surface. Movies from back then are like infinite wells. They evolve and become more complex and unfold in new ways as your brain develops. There aren’t movies like that for kids anymore. I know Pixar movies come close, but only because their stories and characters are so deep. But even at what I think is Pixar’s best, WALL-E, that same feeling isn’t there. I’ll watch Ghostbusters until the day I die, and hopefully keep finding new things to like and laugh about. But can we say the same about our kids? Will they watch Kung Fu Panda or Despicable Me or Monsters Vs. Aliens as they grow older and have new appreciations for more complex emotions?

I think more movies aught to have things that scare kids. Or at least make them feel something. If The NeverEnding Story was made today, I bet you Artax wouldn’t be fucking dead by the end of that movie. But how many of us can say that that scene was a pivotal emotional moment for us growing up? How many of us are terrified of Hexxus to this day? Hell, I remember being terrified of Vigo at the end of Ghostbusters II. But today, studios don’t really treat kids like they can understand emotions. It’s all fucking goofball stuff with a mild suspenseful threat, all wrapped up with a dance number to a 70’s hit – just to make sure you’re leaving the theatre in a good mood so you’re sure to tell other people you liked it. I want animated movies to challenge kids about what they feel – what they’re okay with. The Secret of NIMH was dark as hell, man. Full of death. But it felt real. You felt good about, well, being good. Without really scary, dark stuff, we don’t know what true good is. Like Walt said:

“Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil, and that is what our pictures attempt to do.”

That’s why I think the greats like Walt Disney and Don Bluth and Jim Henson stand the test of time obviously. Dark Crystal wasn’t afraid to tell us its story, no matter how dark it got before it did. Maybe the closest we’ve got to that stuff today are the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. Which almost don’t count being based on something else to begin with. (I know, I know. So was NIMH and NeverEnding Story, but that was back then, and I’m talking about now.) I think if kids are allowed to watch those today, they’ll get even more out of them as adults than if they were just exposed to them when they were older. Good parents let their kids get scared, and then talk to them about why they’re scared or sad or upset. Kids are complex and can handle more than we give them credit for.

So, obviously I had her draw me a Ghostbuster.

There you have it. It’s really gonna be hard to top this one. Here we have all 4 Ghostbusters, standing in the pink slime river. Peter is rolling a purple ghost trap under Slimer, while the other three blast the ghosts with slime. Let’s see any of you other artists match that kind of complexity. Oh and there above Slimer is the Ghostbusters’ logo.

Who’s your favorite Ghostbuster?

The one who says all the funny stuff.

Peter?

*shrug*

Goauchebusters

I had some leftover dried up goauche on my palette, so during lunch today I decided to use it to work up a few ghosts. Happy with some, unhappy with others. But I guess that’s how it goes. Also, the cardstock I was using was shitty and started getting all  warpy and peely. I need to remember to invest in some quality watercolor paper before doing these again. I couldn’t come up with something to do with a couple of these, since I ran out of time. Maybe someone else has an idea. As usual, click to enlarge. (56k be warned.)

Jimmy Grist

I met Jimmy Grist at Planet Comicon 2013 – a whole year after I started collecting drawings. Another Kansas City native, Grist’s booth caught my eye when I saw him drawing a killer rendition of Finn & Jake. Then I saw that the artwork he had on display was all watercolors. I’m a sucker for watercolors – always have been thanks to Bill Watterson and Calvin and Hobbes. So of course, I had him draw me a Ghostbuster. You’ll come to see that for Planet Comicon, 2013 was the year of the female Ghostbuster. Turns out, Jimmy Grist is a big fan of Calvin and Hobbes, too. And it shows in his webcomic, Dinosaur Kid.He’s been making his comic for about almost half a year now.

It’s about a kid who’s a dinosaur, growing up and going to school and trying to do the right thing. The comic is only 5 months old, so a lot of things are still changing and’ll keep changing. But I love making it. As he goes through little adventures with Octopus Kid and learns about existing, I learn about techniques, materials, publicity, and website construction.

Who’s your favorite Ghostbuster?

I’ve always enjoyed Ray’s innocence, I started to appreciate Venkman’s sardonicism a lot more as I got older, and I think Winston is criminally overlooked — but when it comes to a favorite, I gotta go with Egon. I was a kid with glasses. I was Billy the Blue Ranger, Donatello the Ninja Turtle, Chuckie Finster: always the smart kid with weird anxieties. I never went so far as to collect spores, molds, and fungus, but I’ve always understood why a person would.

Check out Dinosaur Kid over at jimmygrist.net or follow him on twitter @jimmygrist.

Levi Hoffmeier

Most of the drawings you’ll see here are commissioned from artists at Planet Comicon here in Kansas City. Meaning, most of the people you’ll see featured are local KC people which is awesome because Kansas City is the best place in America and St. Louis can shove it. One of those local KC people is Levi Hoffmeier. I met Levi at Planet Comicon in 2012. His booth drew me in because he had a lot of artwork featuring stuff from Halo. He’s done work for official Halo and Shadowrun books, and he even made a popular webcomic set in the Halo: Reach universe called A Fist Full of Arrows. So, of course, I had him draw me a Ghostbuster.

This was my first commission of the convention, and I was blown away. I didn’t know what to expect starting this project last year, and this drawing got me pumped to see where else the drawings would take the idea. I could see this guy working right along side Master Chief and he wouldn’t seem out of place.

I caught up with Levi at Planet Comicon 2013 and asked him about his latest projects. He’s just about to launch his newest graphic novel titled “Mayflower,” which comes out later this year.

“Mayflower is an original comic book hearkening back to the golden age of optimistic science fiction from the twentieth century. Though the world the main character, a scientist named Roger, is thrust into might be ruled by an oppressive society, it is still a part of a solar system full of color and innovation. It’s the future, but we’re rewinding back to the ideas that sci-fi takes for granted now: the discovery of faster-than-light travel, of rayguns, and more.”

Who’s your favorite Ghostbuster?

“I’m going to say my favorite Ghostbuster is Winston. It’s actually Venkman, but Winston never gets the credit he deserves!”

True ’nuff. You can find a lot more stuff over at his website or follow him on twitter @Leviwastaken.

No job is too big. No fee is too big.

I’m Patrick. And as far back as I can remember, Ghostbusters has always been my favorite movie. There was even a short period in my youth when I only answered to “Peter.” When I was four or five, I brought my barber an ad for Ghostbusters II I ripped out of a magazine. “Cut it like him,” I said, pointing to Peter Venkman’s thinning and receding hairline.

When I was a kid, they were just goofy movies with cool looking ghosts and fire poles. As I got older though, I began to understand more of the subtle humor. The movies grew up right along side me. The lines I quoted changed. My favorite Ghostbuster changed. But both movies still remained an important part of who I was – comically, creatively, artistically – everything. Which, as I’m writing this, sounds kindof silly to say about a movie with a 110-foot marshmallow man. But everyone has their defining piece of art. Whether it be Abbey Road, or The Iliad, or van Gogh’s Starry Night. Everyone has that one thing that they connect to more than anything else. For me, it’s a couple of movies from the 80’s about 4 guys crackin’ wise and bustin’ ghosts.

Which I guess brings us to the whole point of this thing. As an illustrator and geek, I find myself attending a comic book convention or two. While there, I get the pleasure of meeting a lot of other illustrators and geeks. And while I’m at it, I ask them to draw me a Ghostbuster. (Hey, that’s the name of the site!) I give them no direction or specification other than the initial idea and see where it goes.

Here I’m going to be posting all of the drawings I’ve received. I’ll be talking to the artists about what their “Ghostbusters” are in their lives. About art and influences and what they’re into lately. Talking about their latest project, what they’re working on, or just what they happen to be up to at the moment. I’m really excited to show you what I have so far. I haven’t been disappointed once. I’ll leave you with one I did last month, as an exercise to start getting more into working with markers.

Anyway, thanks for reading all that – and I hope you dig all the stuff I have to show you. Oh, and if you’re an artist, or know an artist that would like to get in on this, you can catch me on twitter @patrickfedo.

– Patrick

(click to enlarge)