Ghostbusters

But that doesn't mean there wasn't room for a sequel. This week, Cryptozoic has launched another campaign for Ghostbusters II: The Board Game, and reached their initial funding goal of $250,000 in under two hours. To find out more, we spoke to game designer Mataio Wilson about the process of creating the first game, how the second is adding to the formula they've already set, and why the Ghostbusters are really just a very funny D&D party, right down to the dungeons.

IDW is unleashing a wave of "Deviations" this month, taking some of its best known comics and telling stories set in worlds that deviate dramatically from the source material in order to see how fan-favorite characters would respond to a drastically changed landscape. The featured series include The X-Files, Transformers, and G.I. Joe, while the creative team of writer Kelly Thompson and artist Nelson Daniel get to introduce readers to an alternate reality Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters: Deviations imagines a world where the team did not cross streams at the end of the movie, meaning that Gozer --- in the form of the Staypuft Marshmallow Man --- was victorious in their climactic battle. It's a sugar-spewn apocalypse, with our four heroes stuck right in the middle. ComicsAlliance spoke to Thompson and Daniel to find out what it means for the Ghostbusters to be trapped in the fluffiest end-times imaginable. IDW also provided us with the first-look preview of the lettered pages for issue #1, which you can check out below.

Last year's Kickstarter campaign to fund Cryptozoic's Ghostbusters board game was one of the biggest crowdfunding successes in recent memory, racking up over 1.5 million dollars from backers hungry for tabletop Ghostbusting action. With numbers like that, it's no surprise that they'd want to follow it up, and today, Cryptozoic announced plans to do just that with Ghostbusters II, a sequel to the first game that's set to launch its own campaign in April.

Less than a week after the first full Ghostbusters trailer, there’s now a second trailer. An international trailer! All the characters speak exotic languages! (Okay, not really, they all speak English.) But, hey there’s a lot more Chris Hemsworth in this trailer! He’s from Australia! That’s international! (Or Asgard, which would technically make this the intergalactic trailer.)

Last fall we learned that Sony is plotting an animated Ghostbusters project separate from Paul Feig’s upcoming movie — similar to the studio’s plans for an animated Spider-Man movie that will exist separate from their reboot collaboration with Marvel. Franchise wizards Phil Lord and Chris Miller have been attached to the animated Spidey project for a while, and it appears that Sony has finally secured a director for the animated Ghostbusters film, which also reminds us that Sony is working on an animated Ghostbusters film.

Ever since the Ghostbusters reboot has been announced (with an all-female cast) the film has been harshly judged, sight unseen. Today, director Paul Feig has officially revealed the Ghostbusters trailer, so now we can judge the film on its own merits. And? It actually looks pretty good!

With a new Ghostbusters film on the horizon, the fearless foursome will once again return to the mass market courtesy of Mattel. Though Mattel previously tried to resurrect the Ghostbusters franchise as action figures back in 2009, the line was fraught with issues. Other companies, like Diamond Select, have stepped up in recent years to fill the void for figures based on the 1984 classic, but outside of specialty shops, Ghostbusters toys have been few and far between since the Real Ghostbusters line ended all those years ago. Depending on how invested you were in the Matty Collector Ghostbusters line, even bringing it up might recall a particularly sour taste for fans who were burned the last time this license was making the rounds. After seeing the new figures in person for the first time this weekend at Toy Fair, I hope this wave can find the audience and success the previous batch just couldn't maintain. Given all the excitement for the female-led film, that doesn't seem like it should be a problem. Even if the figures aren't all that great.

We were promised by Ghostbusters director Paul Feig there would be plenty of toy presence for the all-female remake of the classic supernatural comedy. To this point though, only the core Mattel action figures had been shown. Now, just a week before Toy Fair 2016 kicks off, Lego has lifted the spooky sheet off its planned Ghostbusters set, and it's a doozy. The Ghostbusters Ecto-1 and Ecto-2 set will feature all four of the leading ladies as minifigures, along with a daemon (this film's version of ghosts, I assume) and a itty-bitty Chris Hemsworth. Of course the set is built around the iconic transport of the spectre-hunting team, and will include a the retooled 1984 Cadillac Superior Hearse as the main building attraction.

Unless you stockpiled up on Real Ghostbusters toys back in the '80s when the cartoon first ran, it's been a challenge to lock down Ghostbuster toys. Mattel's efforts to celebrate the 30th anniversary with a new line was a great idea in theory, but the execution was supremely lacking. It was impossible to find most of the figures made available, and Mattel's subscription service to get the figures out wasn't exactly met with open arms by the masses. Other companies have jumped in to the fill the void for the classic film, but there was reason to be concerned about Mattel's plans for the all-female Ghostbusters reboot/remake arriving later this year. That's why it came as such a surprise when director Paul Feig intimated there would indeed be action figures coming. It was even more of a surprise when he dropped the first picture of the four leading ladies rocking proton packs this week on Twitter. At a time when there's a bit of unease between consumers and manufacturers over the way female figures are made available and sold at retail, seeing this kind of support for Ghostbusters months in advance of the film's release bodes well. That is, if Mattel can actually deliver consistently this time around.

I'm not sure that anyone has ever looked at Ghostbusters and thought, "hey, you know what would make this better? Horrifying eye trauma!", but this being the Internet, I'm sure there's at least a few of you out there. If so, good news! It seems that Erik Burnham and Dan Schoening agree with you! That, at least, is the impression that I'm getting from the handful of preview pages that we have for this week's Ghostbusters Annual 2015, in which the team's reconstruction of their firehouse headquarters is interrupted by the reappearance of the Sandman and... well, let's just say that if you have an "Eye Thing" like I do, you may want to skip page 2. Otherwise, check out a preview below!