For all of those joining me for the first time, welcome to the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown here at Branded in the 80s! I had a blast last year, so again I’m counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. All of these monsters come straight from my vintage animation cel collection, and my wife and I tried our best to put them in a not-so-scary to really-freaking-creepy kind of order with the creepiest falling on All Hallows Eve.
Today’s ghost is only half as scary as he appears, and I’m pretty sure no chains, locks, or boxes could hold him. This creepily floating harpy of a man is actually the ghost of the great Harry Houdini!
I hadn’t seen this episode when I picked up the cel originally, but when I laid eyes on it I couldn’t help but be seriously creeped out. There’s just something unsettling about a crazy looking dude in an unbound-straight jacket that also appears to be screaming bloody murder. This is the kind of ghost I fear bumping into one day. I’d never be so lucky to get a calm, quiet free-roaming repeater. No I’d get a Library Ghost (from the 1st Ghostbusters flick) or something…
Anyway, in this episode, #63 the Cabinet of Calamari, the Ghostbusters are given free passes to a magic show in the hopes that they’ll be able to take care of a pesky ghost that’s been haunting the current act. Suspicions of foul play start to run as the guys are attacked by animated hand saws and swords (Winston sure picked a horrible hiding spot from the swords!)
After some investigation, the gang realizes that the ghost they’ve been hired to bust is actually Harry Houdini who is just trying to get his secrets and diary back from the evil Calamari…
Come back tomorrow for another Real Ghostbusters monster animation cel as I count down towards one of my favorite on Halloween day!
Also, if you feel inclined, I would love everyone to spread the word about the Return of the 31 Days of Monsters countdown, so hit up those social networks and tell a friend (my twitter handle is smurfwreck, and I’m on the Facebook as well.) If you’d like to read more Halloween-y goodness, you can also click on the Halloween Archive link to the left (the banner with King Kong), as well as heading on over to the Countdown to Halloween to check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year’s Halloween blogging event…
