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The C-list Ghosts of The Real Ghostbusters

During its run of a hundred and forty seven episodes, the animated series The Real Ghostbusters pitted our
four heroic Spectral Exterminators against innumerable ghouls and goblins. Some were starring villains, like
the terrifying Boogieman or Grundel, but many of the strangest, most inventive monsters were given roles so
minor they were never even named, populating episodes that simply crawled with lesser spooks from every
corner of the netherworld. Seeing so many varied monsters in one place was my single greatest thrill as a
child, and watching cartoons like these would ignite my imagination for years to come. Paying tribute to these
grisly hordes is a thought I'd entertained since the very beginning of this website in 2002, but it would be eight
years before technology granted me access to high-quality footage.

First, let's meet the artists:

Nearly all ghosts in the series were drawn by two people: Everett Peck and Fil Barlow. Barlow's monsters
were easily identifiable by their resemblance to biological but truly alien organisms, often bristling with
tentacles, barbs and indefinable orifices. These two horrors from the episode "Partners in Slime" are probably
his doing, with his trademark fleshy wrinkles. Barlow would completely take over monster duty for the later
Extreme Ghostbusters, also designing creeps and weirdos for the 1990's cartoon adaptations of Men In Black,
Godzilla, Evolution, Big Guy & Rusty, and many more.

Peck, on the other hand, was distinguished by a more dream-like and whimsical esthetic, spawning creatures
almost mind-bendingly absurd even within the context of supernatural entities. He designed virtually all of the
series ghosts for the original pilot and earlier episodes, while only growing weirder as he went along. These
two ghosts are from the episode "Slimer, Come Home," and are both pretty fascinating concepts, though I find
the wheel-tongue guy to be the cooler and creepier. Why would "ghosts" have artificial-looking wheels? What
are these even the ghosts of, if anything? It's doubtful he ever had any answers in mind, and his designs are
all the more endearing for it.

Compiling every ghost of the series would be an unreasonably daunting task for anyone to undertake, but well
over a hundred can be seen across the galleries below, with a bit of my own stupid commentary on the most
perplexing. If you're among the ever-growing, unlucky ranks who have never seen this classic series, I cannot
recommend it enough. Though heavily toned down and mediocre in its later seasons, the show is never
unbearably bad, and takes itself quite seriously when compared to other cartoons of its era. For at least its
first three seasons, The Real Ghostbusters holds up beautifully in terms of solid, surprisingly mature writing,
vivid art direction, and sometimes truly terrifying tales of the supernatural.