Image: IDW. Ghostbusters: Crossing Over #1 Variant art by Dan Schoening.

Over the last year, the Ghostbusters comics have started to slowly connect a whole multiverse of supernatural-hunting scientific heroes. At first with team-ups between the classic team and the ghostbustin’ class of 2016, but now it’s getting even bigger, and every Ghostbuster is coming along for the ride.




io9 can exclusively reveal that IDW’s next Ghostbusters miniseries will be the aptly titled Ghostbusters: Crossing Over. Written by Erik Burnham and with art by Dan Schoening, Crossing Over will be set in the wake of previous team-ups between the original Ghostbuster team of the first two movies and the all-female team of the 2016 reboot. Those team-ups were facilitated by the original team accidentally creating their own interdimensional portal (as they’re wont to do)... technology the team has yet to share with other members of the ghostbusting multiverse.

Ghostbusters: Crossing Over #1 Variant art by Dan Schoening.


Naturally, this makes Jillian Holtzmann and Ron Alexander (of the Chicago branch of the Ghostbusters introduced in IDW’s second volume of comics) jealous, so they build a portal of their own—one that inadvertently unleashes every ghost ever contained in their containment units, so it’s a good thing they now have two portals with which to connect every Ghostbuster team ever, from the comics to the video games to the cartoon series, to help collect the ghostly threats.

Yes, they do mean every one , with the Extreme Ghostbusters, the Real Ghostbusters, the New Ghostbusters, all the comics additions and every other iteration coming along for the ride. “There are so many potential characters—good, bad, and ectoplasmic—that it’s been a challenge to figure out ways to give everyone a little page time,” Burnham said in a statement provided to io9. “Some ghosts didn’t make the cut, and others have been given beefed-up roles due to fan requests. Either way, there’s a lot on the page to sort out and realize—but don’t worry, Dan Schoening and I have been practicing getting out of straightjackets , just in case!”



Ghostbusters: Crossing Over #1 Retailer Incentive Cover by Tim Lattie.

What that means isn’t just bringing in all these disparate teams of Ghostbusters, however, but also emulating the various art styles that they originated in—something that’s a bit of a wild challenge for Schoening. “The biggest challenges from an artistic perspective is emulating the styles of the Real Ghostbusters, Extreme Ghostbusters, Sanctum of Slime and any other teams that may pop up,” Schoening told us. “Not only do we want to honor the distinct look of the characters, but also the backgrounds and ghouls. Luckily and gratefully, we have already had a chance to play with many of those characters in previous books. With that in mind, we just want to jump into this big event with our nuclear accelerators on and have fun telling an exciting and character driven story. I’ve gotten pretty good at drawing with the straightjacket on, as you’ll see, you need one when there’s over 20 characters (in different styles) to illustrate in an issue!”


The first issue of Ghostbusters: Crossing Over will hit shelves March 28.







