Talk about the your favorite Ghostbusters Collectibles from Mattel, Kenner, and more.
#4944466
Does anyone know what the difference between the Mcweeny version & the Wallace version of this book is?

Drew Mcweeny use to do a podcast called “‘80s all over again” and he mentioned this ghostbusters book during the episode about June 1984. Sounds like it wasn’t a good experience. Apparently they just took his research & published it with another writer credited. They wouldn’t give him more time to finish the book.
#4944487
There was a prototype of the book which apparently featured Drew's content at BookExpo America 2014, though no idea how different the written content was.

Chris Prince said in an email to Spook Central webmaster Paul Rudoff:
Drew was originally going to write the book but had to leave the project due to personal reasons. The black spreads are an early prototype version created for book trade shows.
-Source
#4944489
As it happens, I was penpals with author Daniel Wallace from a long time ago. I knew about his first writing job for Star Wars when it was still just a possibility.

He contacted me as soon as the Ghostbusters Ultimate Visual History assignment was handed to him, saying only cryptically that he had something in the works that might interest me. I didn't know at the time that the book had started off with another writer, but I know he went three months between that initial contact and sending me his rough draft, during which time he was gathering and organizing the info.

From the point that he sent me that draft in December 2014, inviting both corrections and suggestions, we exchanged emails all throughout December, then January 2015, and halfway through February 2015. I would mention esoteric facts, and if he thought anything was worth including, I'd have to go dig up the source to double-check the wording and be able to cite the works. (It was actually very instructive in that it showed me that what I *thought* I knew was not always exactly as I'd remembered it. I had conflated and confused a number of things over the years, which is why my YouTube videos since then always show the sources for any claim that I make.)

I've got no clue as to how much of the content might've been from a previous author's draft, but I can vouch for the fact that Dan spent months going through every factoid making sure it was all verifiable from legitimate sources, and in subsequent drafts I would see how he had incorporated some of the facts and TV interview quotes that I had suggested.

Alex
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#4944534
Kingpin wrote: January 18th, 2021, 12:28 pm There was a prototype of the book which apparently featured Drew's content at BookExpo America 2014, though no idea how different the written content was.

Chris Prince said in an email to Spook Central webmaster Paul Rudoff:
Drew was originally going to write the book but had to leave the project due to personal reasons. The black spreads are an early prototype version created for book trade shows.
-Source
Sounds like it was a little more complicated than that. From what I understand Mcweeny wanted to continue on with the project but the publisher or whoever was in charge wouldn’t give him anymore time. Listening to the podcast...he sounds extremely frustrated with how things went down. The quote from Chris Prince makes it seem like it was Drew’s call to back out while Drew claims the publisher(or whoever was in charge) took all his research & interviews & gave it to this other author after refusing to extend the deadline.

Regardless it sounds like there’s another version of this book out there, finished or not. Was that book with the green slime at the Expo a finished prototype or just a mock up? I wonder if those pages are actually what the book would’ve been. Obviously Drew still had work left to do but I wonder where that prototype is.
#4944617
I used to read McWeeny when he wrote for AICN back in the day. I sincerely doubt his version of the GB book was anywhere finished. The displayed "prototype" was a probably a few sample pages from Drew and the layout artist at Insight Editions.

I wonder if McWeeny getting canned had anything to do with Aykroyd hanging up on him during their interview. Either way, the Visual History book turned out really cool, but it's still not the JW Rinzler-esque tome that the film deserves.

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