‘Space Ghost Vol. 1: With Only Ghosts to Comfort Us’ (review)

Written by David Pepose 
Art by Jonathan Lau
Published by Dynamite Entertainment

I’m on record as saying 1966 was my favorite pop culture year.

In fact, I have a whole blog about 1966! One of the many, many reasons that year was so memorable was its Fall Saturday morning cartoon lineup, and one of the reasons that lineup was so memorable was the debut of Space Ghost!

With his teenage sidekicks Jan and Jace, and space monkey Blip, the sleek and mysterious Space Ghost—a kind of Batman in space—flew around in his Phantom Cruiser fighting evil aliens and destructive monsters.

That was it, too.

No origin stories, no character backgrounds.

We were never given the slightest indication of who any of these people were or why they were in space doing what they were doing.

They just were…and it worked!

Deejay and future Laugh-In co-star Gary Owens lent his imperious voice to the sleek space hero designed by comic book veteran Alex Toth. Tim Matheson (also Jonny Quest) and Ginny Tyler voiced the kids, and Don (Scooby-Doo) Messick chittered away as the masked and costumed Blip.

There weren’t that many episodes made, actually, but they were the best sci-fi and super hero cartoons Hanna-Barbera ever produced and anyone who caught them at the right age was stunned.

Surprisingly, there weren’t a lot of comic book stories, even though the concept seemed ideal for that medium. A few in the ‘60s Gold Key anthology books, one solo issue with Dan Spiegle artwork in 1967, some UK only stories, one or two short stories when Marvel had the H-B rights, a gorgeous one-shot by Steve Rude and Mark Evanier in 1987 from Comico, and an ambitious but disappointing run from DC in the early 2000s.

Before that last series, somebody got the bright idea to make fun of the character and created Space Ghost Coast to Coast, which inexplicably ran 109 episodes over 11 seasons beginning in 1994. Essentially a redo of the 1980s Max Headroom, Space Ghost Coast to Coast was a weird little parody of talk shows hosted by our ditzy, clueless hero, interviewing live guests appearing on a screen. As oddly popular as it became, those of us who loved SG were not amused.

We were heartened when our hero popped up in the pre-credits mini-episode of a Brave and the Bold episode, teamed with Batman, of all things! Now THAT was Space Ghost! And that’s more or less the Space Ghost one gets in the current Dynamite series, of which the first collection is out!

Written by David Pepose and with art by Jonathan Lau, this latest version of Space Ghost is just good old-fashioned superhero science fiction action at its best. Plotwise, it’s a fresh start, and even attempts to present an origin of sorts, for SG himself, as well as for his team.

We meet Jan and Jace as much younger versions of their original cartoon selves, with Jan clearly the smarter, tougher of the two, yet also still written well as a child. They reminded me of a slightly older Sugar and Spike…in spaaaaace.

When their father’s lab is destroyed, they rescue Blip, his pet project (no pun intended) and fight aliens to get away, only to be rescued by Space Ghost, who appoints himself their protector…and they need protecting!

Without giving too much away, the dialogue is good, the art impressive, and several familiar enemies from the classic cartoon series return. At this late date, I’m not sure we really needed all the background info as the mysteriousness of the whole concept had always worked for me, but if we must, at least it’s done very well indeed.

This new Space Ghost may not quite be the classic version…but it’s way better than Space Ghost Coast to Coast!

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