Welcome back to my 31 Days of Monsters Halloween countdown! I’m counting down 31 of my favorite monsters from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. These animation cels are culled from my personal 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. It’s day 14 of the countdown, and we’re getting pretty close to the halfway mark. Whew. Today’s Moss Monster digs into that dark recess of fear in my psyche with his multiple sets of arms. To be honest, most of my fears stem from slightly odd irrational places. Sure I have a fear of spiders, an intense one, and it because of all the classic reasons be it the fear of being bitten, crawled on, the sticky clinging webs, their little hairy bodies, the quickness with which they scuttle about, etc. But the overarching issue is with the multiple legs. The idea of multiple appendages just really creeps me the hell out. There are some exceptions; ants for instance don’t do much except make me mad. Well, with Moss Man here, it’s leaning towards the uncomfortable nature of multiple limbs…
It doesn’t help his case that his mouth looks so drippy, and that he has some weirdly spaced teeth. This guy is also a great example of where/when the character designs on the ghosts and the tone of the stories started diverging in the series. The episode that features ol’ Moss Man here is #113b, “Slimer’s Streak”, and it has a pretty silly premise involving a weird train conductor ghost that puts the Ghostbusters in a game world.
This guy, as weird and frightening as he appears (to me at least) is basically a ghost dedicated to the game of tag. You know, Ghosts in the Graveyard, “Tag you’re it!” With a goofy high-pitched, child-like voice and his playful demeanor he comes off very harmless. The eyes should have been a tip off to his more cartoon-y nature, but that mouth and his many limbs still freak me out…
If you’re enjoying these monsters and ghosts, then come back tomorrow for another installment of the 31 Days of Monsters here at Branded in the 80s. Also, you can head on over to the Countdown to Halloween and check out lists of a bunch of other sites participating in this year’s Halloween blogging event…
