My work on Ghostbusters comic books was the result of literally being in the right place at the right time. In this case, "the right place at the right time" was the San Diego Comic Con convention floor in 2009, as packed an area as you can imagine. Amidst the throng of (cosplay) humanity, I bumped into longtime friend, Tom Waltz, then editor for IDW publishing who held the publishing rights to Ghostbusters. After a quick hello, he said, "Hey! I need pitches for Ghostbusters comic book stories!" On the spot, I looked around the madding crowd and said, "The Ghostbusters go to San Diego Comic Con for a vacation and run into a demon, but because they are on vacation, they left their Ghostbusting equipment at home. Now they have to figure out a way to defeat the demon without it."  Tom loved it! He directed me to write that up when I got home along with a half a dozen other pitches. Once I got home, though, I was stumped. I couldn't think of any other story premises for a Ghostbusters story. So I reached out to a different longtime friend, Jim Beard, who I knew was a BIG Ghostbusters fan. With his help, we brainstormed six other pitches and sent them on to Tom. As fate would have it, Tom picked the pitch I conceived right there on the San Diego Comic Con floor rather than one of the premises Jim and I spent days putting together. Creative inspiration can be a funny thing.

Anyway, the story that Jim and I then fleshed out was that the Ghostbusters go to San Diego Comic Con and run into a demon AND WITH THE HELP OF THE GHOST OF JACK KIRBY end up defeating the demon without their equipment.  I even remember proposing that the comic book can be a San Diego Comic Con exclusive.  Tom loved the expanded premise and passed it on to SONY (the Ghostbusters copyright holders). Before long, SONY approved our pitch but stipulated that the story couldn't take place in San Diego Comic Con. Instead, it had to take place at a fictitious comic book convention. Also, we couldn't use Jack Kirby as a character. The ghost of the dead comic book artist had to be fictitious as well. (We were told that SONY knew Kirby's real name was Jacob Kurtzberg, so we shouldn't get any bright ideas.)

Sidenote: SONY also stipulated that none of the Ghostbusters could drink, smoke, or "make dick jokes." My response: Has anyone at SONY actually WATCHED Ghostbusters?

GHOSTBUSTERS: CON-VOLUTION debuted in June 2010, NOT as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive but in advance of that year's show so that Jim and I got to do a few signings there and even got interviewed for a television show!

Fast forward to 2018 when Tom told me that IDW was going to publish a Ghostbusters "event" in 2019 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the original movie. He asked me if Jim and I would be interested in collaborating on a comic book that featured the EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS.  I said, "Sure, Tom!  Always willing to write more Ghostbusters stories!  I have one question though: Who are the "Extreme Ghostbusters"?"  Turns out, the Extreme Ghostbusters was an animated television series that debuted in 1997 and only lasted one season but featured an entirely new cast of Ghostbusters. Once I watched the series, I fell in love with the characters!  Fun group!  Once again, Jim and I put together a half dozen pitches, but this time around, IDW accepted one of Jim's ideas.

GHOSTBUSTERS 35TH ANNIVERSARY: EXTREME was published in April 2019 (with absolutely wonderful artwork by Tim Lattie) and to this day, it is the ONLY comic book to feature the Extreme Ghostbusters.