Post by /\/\att on Jun 16, 2009 10:37:15 GMT -5
Hey Ghostheads! Please don't forget to visit our homepage at www.gbcollector.com and cast your vote in our poll to show DST that we want the REAL Ghostubusters Minimates!
We here at 'Ghostbusters Collector' feel that the impossible MUST be done for Ghostheads. We're giving you an interview with the elusive author of the even more elusive novel, Ghostbusters: The Return, Sholly Fisch! If you're not familiar with the novel (though you probably are) it can sell for anywhere between $75-$200 on the secondary market! Ahhh!
Well, www.GBCollector.com and Sholly Fisch have joined forces to bring you a giveaway that will blow your MIND! In honor of the Ghostbusters 25th Anniversary we are having a huge giveaway..and our grand prize will be an autographed copy of Ghostbusters: the Return, provided to us by Sholly himself!
Enjoy the interview below and watch the website for updates and details on the giveaway! (it would be wise to join the forum and start posting too!)
GBCollector.com: How did writing Ghostbusters: the Return come about?
Sholly: Much as I’d like to say it required a fearless battle against supernatural forces, it was actually a lot simpler than that. The publisher, iBooks, had bought the rights to do Ghostbusters novels, and needed someone to write them (yes, “them” – I’ll come back to that in a bit). Why me? Well, there were a few reasons. At that point, I’d already written a novel and a few short stories for iBooks, so I was on their radar. On top of that, the book’s editor, Steve Roman, and I had been friends for more years than I can count, and he knew that I shared his love of the GB movies. But the clincher was probably the fact that they needed someone who could write both horror and humor. Since my writing credits in comics ran the gamut from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser to Looney Tunes, there weren’t a whole lot of other people who fit my particular niche.
Oh, and it didn’t hurt that, since I really wanted to write a Ghostbusters novel, I was willing to work cheap.
GBCollector.com: Were you a fan of the franchise at the time?
Sholly: I adored (and still love) the first movie. I enjoyed the second movie too, but I continue to think the first one’s better.
I never really saw the cartoon series -- so, once the book came out, I had to chuckle when I’d see an online fan or two complain that I “obviously” based my characterization on the cartoons instead of the movies. (However, those few complaints were more than balanced out by all the people who said they could “hear” the movie actors saying my dialogue in their heads, which was very gratifying. Overall, it was great to see how many people enjoyed the book.)
GBCollector.com: What was the process that you went through in writing the book? Did you revisit the films or the cartoons at all for inspiration?
Sholly: The plot for the novel came from me, although the folks at iBooks supplied the initial thought that it would be good to do “something with urban legends.” I did indeed re-watch the movies a bunch of times while working on the manuscript. First, I screened them both, just to refresh myself on everything, because it had been a while since I’d watched them. Then, I went through them more carefully, to pick up speech patterns, details, etc. Fortunately, Steve Roman is a huge GB fan, so he lent me his trade paperback of the annotated script from the first movie, and Sony supplied novelizations of the two films. Since iBooks’ license from Sony only extended to the movies and novelizations (not the cartoons, etc.), that gave me most of what I needed. Finally, Steve also passed along the last piece of the puzzle: an encyclopedic document assembled by some GB fans that was invaluable in making sure that I knew the difference between things like a class 3 and class 4! manifestation.
Even with all of that help, though, the “process” eventually came down to the same thing as always: lots of very late nights in front of a laptop while my wife and kids were sleeping.
GBCollector.com: If you have to pick a favorite Ghostbusters from the four guys, which one would it be, and why?
Sholly: Slimer, of course. He’s such a classic romantic leading man…
Seriously, it’s hard to pick just one of the guys. There are aspects of all of them that I like: Peter’s smarmy humor, Ray’s good-guy steadfastness, Egon’s over-the-top geekiness… and even though I suspect people often think of Winston as the “other” Ghostbuster, I gained a lot of appreciation for him while writing the novel. There’s a lot to be said for Louis, Janine, Dana, and the rest of their supporting cast, too.
For me, it’s not so much a question of which one is my favorite. It’s really more of a group thing based on their mutual chemistry, where the sum is greater than the parts.
GBCollector.com: Would you ever be interested in re-visiting the franchise and writing for the Ghostbusters again?
Sholly: Sure! In fact, if everything had gone as planned, there would be several books already. iBooks originally intended to publish a set of three books, and maybe more if the sales were good enough. The idea was that the books would carry on the GB story, much like the Star Wars or Star Trek series of novels.
But, alas, it was not to be. The first major pitfall came when Barnes & Noble decided that Ghostbusters was a “dead property”; they didn’t think a novel based on a 20-year-old movie would sell. As a result, they decided to sell the novel through their Web site, but not shelve it in their stores – and, considering how much of the market Barnes & Noble controls, that was pretty much the kiss of death for book sales.
As bad as that was, the next pitfall was far more tragic: Byron Preiss, the owner and publisher of iBooks, was killed in a car accident. Without Byron, the company soon went under, along with the GB license and the backstock of books that were sitting in a warehouse someplace. That’s why the novel is so hard to find now. The Barnes & Noble issue kept the print run low, and because iBooks went out of business, I’m pretty sure a whole bunch of the printed copies never got distributed at all.
Still, there’s always the possibility that someone else might pick up the book license again in the future. If anyone out there does, I still have the plot for a pretty good sequel in the back of my head…
GBCollector.com: What project(s) are you currently involved in?
Sholly: Oh, lots of stuff. I have my own research and consulting business that works with companies around the world to create educational media for kids – TV shows, Web sites, etc. For example, I recently finished a research study to see what kids in four countries learn from a multimedia project about global citizenship, and I’m in the middle of another major study about math for the PBS series Cyberchase. Any day now, I’m also scheduled to start developing educational outreach materials to accompany a new PBS series about The Cat in the Hat.
Meanwhile, for the past several years, I’ve been writing lots of stories for DC Comics’ line of kid-oriented comics. These days, I’m writing a monthly Super Friends series (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc.), as well as bunches of stories about Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, and other assorted cartoon characters. No novels at the moment -- Ghostbusters or otherwise – but it’s hard to complain about getting paid to work with Batman, Bugs Bunny, and the Cat in the Hat.
That’s the thing that was so great about writing the Ghostbusters novel, too. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to take characters whom I’ve loved for years, and play with them in my own personal sandbox. It’s enormous fun for me – and hopefully, the end product winds up being fun for other people too.
A HUGE thanks to Sholly Fisch for taking the time to speak with us. He's a REALLY nice guy and a great writer! Watch for a DC comics-themed interview with him over at our Batman website www.LegionsOfGotham.org
We here at 'Ghostbusters Collector' feel that the impossible MUST be done for Ghostheads. We're giving you an interview with the elusive author of the even more elusive novel, Ghostbusters: The Return, Sholly Fisch! If you're not familiar with the novel (though you probably are) it can sell for anywhere between $75-$200 on the secondary market! Ahhh!
Well, www.GBCollector.com and Sholly Fisch have joined forces to bring you a giveaway that will blow your MIND! In honor of the Ghostbusters 25th Anniversary we are having a huge giveaway..and our grand prize will be an autographed copy of Ghostbusters: the Return, provided to us by Sholly himself!
Enjoy the interview below and watch the website for updates and details on the giveaway! (it would be wise to join the forum and start posting too!)
GBCollector.com: How did writing Ghostbusters: the Return come about?
Sholly: Much as I’d like to say it required a fearless battle against supernatural forces, it was actually a lot simpler than that. The publisher, iBooks, had bought the rights to do Ghostbusters novels, and needed someone to write them (yes, “them” – I’ll come back to that in a bit). Why me? Well, there were a few reasons. At that point, I’d already written a novel and a few short stories for iBooks, so I was on their radar. On top of that, the book’s editor, Steve Roman, and I had been friends for more years than I can count, and he knew that I shared his love of the GB movies. But the clincher was probably the fact that they needed someone who could write both horror and humor. Since my writing credits in comics ran the gamut from Clive Barker’s Hellraiser to Looney Tunes, there weren’t a whole lot of other people who fit my particular niche.
Oh, and it didn’t hurt that, since I really wanted to write a Ghostbusters novel, I was willing to work cheap.
GBCollector.com: Were you a fan of the franchise at the time?
Sholly: I adored (and still love) the first movie. I enjoyed the second movie too, but I continue to think the first one’s better.
I never really saw the cartoon series -- so, once the book came out, I had to chuckle when I’d see an online fan or two complain that I “obviously” based my characterization on the cartoons instead of the movies. (However, those few complaints were more than balanced out by all the people who said they could “hear” the movie actors saying my dialogue in their heads, which was very gratifying. Overall, it was great to see how many people enjoyed the book.)
GBCollector.com: What was the process that you went through in writing the book? Did you revisit the films or the cartoons at all for inspiration?
Sholly: The plot for the novel came from me, although the folks at iBooks supplied the initial thought that it would be good to do “something with urban legends.” I did indeed re-watch the movies a bunch of times while working on the manuscript. First, I screened them both, just to refresh myself on everything, because it had been a while since I’d watched them. Then, I went through them more carefully, to pick up speech patterns, details, etc. Fortunately, Steve Roman is a huge GB fan, so he lent me his trade paperback of the annotated script from the first movie, and Sony supplied novelizations of the two films. Since iBooks’ license from Sony only extended to the movies and novelizations (not the cartoons, etc.), that gave me most of what I needed. Finally, Steve also passed along the last piece of the puzzle: an encyclopedic document assembled by some GB fans that was invaluable in making sure that I knew the difference between things like a class 3 and class 4! manifestation.
Even with all of that help, though, the “process” eventually came down to the same thing as always: lots of very late nights in front of a laptop while my wife and kids were sleeping.
GBCollector.com: If you have to pick a favorite Ghostbusters from the four guys, which one would it be, and why?
Sholly: Slimer, of course. He’s such a classic romantic leading man…
Seriously, it’s hard to pick just one of the guys. There are aspects of all of them that I like: Peter’s smarmy humor, Ray’s good-guy steadfastness, Egon’s over-the-top geekiness… and even though I suspect people often think of Winston as the “other” Ghostbuster, I gained a lot of appreciation for him while writing the novel. There’s a lot to be said for Louis, Janine, Dana, and the rest of their supporting cast, too.
For me, it’s not so much a question of which one is my favorite. It’s really more of a group thing based on their mutual chemistry, where the sum is greater than the parts.
GBCollector.com: Would you ever be interested in re-visiting the franchise and writing for the Ghostbusters again?
Sholly: Sure! In fact, if everything had gone as planned, there would be several books already. iBooks originally intended to publish a set of three books, and maybe more if the sales were good enough. The idea was that the books would carry on the GB story, much like the Star Wars or Star Trek series of novels.
But, alas, it was not to be. The first major pitfall came when Barnes & Noble decided that Ghostbusters was a “dead property”; they didn’t think a novel based on a 20-year-old movie would sell. As a result, they decided to sell the novel through their Web site, but not shelve it in their stores – and, considering how much of the market Barnes & Noble controls, that was pretty much the kiss of death for book sales.
As bad as that was, the next pitfall was far more tragic: Byron Preiss, the owner and publisher of iBooks, was killed in a car accident. Without Byron, the company soon went under, along with the GB license and the backstock of books that were sitting in a warehouse someplace. That’s why the novel is so hard to find now. The Barnes & Noble issue kept the print run low, and because iBooks went out of business, I’m pretty sure a whole bunch of the printed copies never got distributed at all.
Still, there’s always the possibility that someone else might pick up the book license again in the future. If anyone out there does, I still have the plot for a pretty good sequel in the back of my head…
GBCollector.com: What project(s) are you currently involved in?
Sholly: Oh, lots of stuff. I have my own research and consulting business that works with companies around the world to create educational media for kids – TV shows, Web sites, etc. For example, I recently finished a research study to see what kids in four countries learn from a multimedia project about global citizenship, and I’m in the middle of another major study about math for the PBS series Cyberchase. Any day now, I’m also scheduled to start developing educational outreach materials to accompany a new PBS series about The Cat in the Hat.
Meanwhile, for the past several years, I’ve been writing lots of stories for DC Comics’ line of kid-oriented comics. These days, I’m writing a monthly Super Friends series (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc.), as well as bunches of stories about Bugs Bunny, Scooby-Doo, and other assorted cartoon characters. No novels at the moment -- Ghostbusters or otherwise – but it’s hard to complain about getting paid to work with Batman, Bugs Bunny, and the Cat in the Hat.
That’s the thing that was so great about writing the Ghostbusters novel, too. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to take characters whom I’ve loved for years, and play with them in my own personal sandbox. It’s enormous fun for me – and hopefully, the end product winds up being fun for other people too.
A HUGE thanks to Sholly Fisch for taking the time to speak with us. He's a REALLY nice guy and a great writer! Watch for a DC comics-themed interview with him over at our Batman website www.LegionsOfGotham.org
