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.
I thought I’d start off this year’s countdown with one of my favorite new acquisitions (animation cel-wise.) This double crossing pooch comes from episode 80, “It’s a Jungle Out There”…
Basically the episode revolves around an escaped ancient animal spirit that takes the form of a minotaur that has the ability to anthropomorphize animals imbuing them with more human characteristics so that they can rise up against their human oppressors. This evil stray mutt was actually the first victim of the spirit who coincidentally showed up at the Ghostbuster’s firehouse headquarters at the same time that the gang is watching an episode of Lassie and talking about getting a dog for the place. Slimer and Janine hear him scratching at the door and the group decide to take him in.
Of course, within moments he’s butting heads with Slimer, stealing his Scooby Doo-sized sandwich, and threatening Peter with physical violence (then again who wouldn’t!)
I really dig this cel because it features a “villain” swiping a proton pack, and I also love the sort of 4th-wall-breaking aspect to the pose. Besides, it’s a dog with an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back. How often do we see that?
Come back each day this month for another Real Ghostbusters monster, ghost, or creep!
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…
