I reached a new level a geekdom. Luckily for me, it’s a healthy dose (no pun intended, of course).

Late in the summer, I purchased a vintage Raleigh 10 speed bicycle off of Craigslist. This was the end of a long search. You see, I am 6′ 7″ and an XL bike frame isn’t easy to find… let alone a used one! And to find one that is in good shape and not ugly as sin is nearly impossible! Yet fate dealt me a good hand and I found a bike that was the right size, in great condition and a fun color scheme of white, red and chrome.

It’s that color palette that first caught my attention. It reminded me of the Ecto-1. After a little research, I also discovered that the bike was made in 1984, the same year Ghostbusters was released. With that in mind, I had no choice but to flush out the Ghostbusters theme and turn this old 10 speed into an Ecto-10 Speed.

I purchased a pair of vintage WW2 khaki bicycle saddle bags off of ebay for cheap, as well as a Ghosbusters logo and Venkman name tag patch to sew on the bags. I mounted the saddle bags to a chrome rear wheel rack (to match the chrome fork in front) with a glossy red wood shelf down the center that I added (to add extra support for the saddle bags and continue the color scheme).

With some khaki handlebar tape, and a hand sewn top tube pad to bridge the color gap between the front and back of the bike, I now have an Ecto-10 Speed.

If you combine Ghostbusters and Bicycling, the official colors would be red, white and green!

Whether I riding in the city streets, or on bike trails, I am always representing the Ghostbusters community on two wheels.

I have always been fascinated by the transition Ghostbusters took from the movies to the cartoon. The character designs for each character are so radically different from their movie origins, yet they work. Egon has blond hair and a rat tail….yet we accept it! Why? I will attempt to explain that in a Ghostbusters.net blog series I like to call From Real To “Real”

I have been doing character design and 3D animation for years now, and with those years of experience came a new appreciation for the character designs used in Real Ghostbusters. Successful character designs from film to cartoon only work when the artist visually captures a character’s personality, not the actor’s likeness. The great thing about actors is they can change their personalities when acting. This is why we can accept the same face as different characters in different films. But in animation, if a character begins to look too much like the actor that played them, it gets to be too destracting because in most cases, they never look quite right.

Look at this art from the talented Dapper Dan.

While very skilled and well done, the characters are a bit distracting because they look like the actors…but at the same time don’t. And by focusing more on the actors likeness and less on the character traits, the spirit is gone. Venkman lost his charm and charisma and now looks weathered and unfriendly.  Stantz lost his boyish nature and pure heart. Winston no longer has the down to Earth, everyman sensability. Egon is the most accurate, if only because he is the most stylized.

An actor gets an entire movie to define their character. But in TV animation, you get a limited amount of time. Not to mention you don’t get the subtle changes in personality that a real actor can provide. So in animation you have to cut to the chase and define the character instantly with their visual appearance. That is where animation is at it’s most powerful. Each characteristic from body shape, colors, hair styles, etc has to define their personality. Plus these various characteristics have to be instantly recognizable. What is the main test to see if a character is designed well? The silhouette test! You should be able to instantly recognize a character even if it is totally in shadow.

Each of these characters are classic and each are readable in silhouette. Sometimes you have to defy reality to achieve this, but that is why animation is animation! Now if the designers simply tried to copy the actors from the movie, they would fail this test. Here is an example of the movie characters in silloute along side the animated characters. Which is more readable to the eye?

At best Bill Murray is readable due to his hair. But you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis. Below is another example using Janine.

Clearly the movie version doesn’t read nearly as well and has no place in a cartoon. But don’t feel bad for her, someone with her qualifications would have no trouble finding a top-flight job in either the food service or housekeeping industries.

Designing characters for animation isn’t easy. But the artists behind Real Ghostbusters got it right! In the next chapters, I will go into more detail behind the designs of the four main characters.

Too Zuul For School

Hey all! I thought I would share with you one of my favorite Ghostbusters experiences. This was about 2 and a half years ago. I was taking a Ninjitsu class in Capital Hill, Seattle. I don’t take the class anymore as there was some political infighting that caused the class to self destruct. Sadly, I was not able to witness the final class. From what I hear, it ended with a 102 year old master going super Saiyan on everyone’s asses leaving a wake of destruction only rivaled by Chuck Norris.

Anyway, I digress. The Dojo in which the class was held, was used by many different classes and the Ninjitsu class was the final one of the evening. The Akihito class before us, hands over the keys to the building so that we can lock up. My chum, Sean, was in charge of all that. The Akihito instructor, a woman in her late 30’s, asks our group who is in charge of locking up. Sean was in the back getting dressed so I took it upon myself to answer on his behalf. It went a little something like this:

He’s in the back, getting changed. You see, he is the keymaster. I am the gatekeeper.

She just stood there, looking at me and didn’t say a word. She didn’t have to, her face said it all. Her expression either said “I have no idea what you are talking about, you are such a dork” or it said “Oh, a Ghostbusters fan, what a dork!” She could have killed me with one touch…and I am sure she contemplated it for a moment. But either way, I was the grand champion that night!

Too Zuul For School

Well would you look at that!…Ghostbusters.net is back! Funny how things come full circle. In this case, it’s a full circle with a slash through it!

I remember when Chad Paulson first brought my attention to GBN. It was the early 00’s. The Y2K scare was over, those bomb shelters were converted into game rooms, and Puff Daddy was all the rage, which directly led to my brilliant screen name “Stay Puft Daddy”. Please accept my humble apology for merging the world of Ghostbusters with such a lame rapper. He’s no “Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew” I can assure you!

Spirit, some people hear it, some people fear it
Spirit, some people just won’t go near it
Sho’ as I’m me and the skies are blue
The Ghostbusters are back and all brand new

Sorry, I digress. During this time, GBN was at it’s peak. Chad was rolling out a new design and I was creating flash cartoons for the homepage. It was a full on geek orgy and we were crossing the streams! But college soon approached, and the world of animation came calling. Before I knew it, my time was monopolized and I dissappeared from the GB world. But I assure you, my heart never left.

Here it is, 2008, and once again I am called upon to contribute to GBN. This time it is the random and chaotic thoughts in my mind that are in demand. So here I am, back in the heart of the Ghostbusters community blogging for GBN. What will I blog about? Well, whatever tickles my fancy. I’ll share fun situations where Ghostbusters comes up in my life. I’ll post art from time to time. More importantly, I will pepper in a different perspective to the GBN blog.

We’re back in business!

Stay-Puft Daddy Too Zuul For School