UPDATED: The real Ghostbusters - collected comics

Update 11th Sep 2026 - I've added a cover for the Winter Special (from November 1989)

I'm not a collector of Marvel UK's 'The Real Ghostbusters' comic but I've seen that the collected editions seem to be quite expensive so I thought I'd see if I could identify how many there are.

Ideally I'd love to be able to tell you what stories they reprinted (and from which issues) and which issue of the comic the cover has come from but, sadly, I can't. 

Instead if you can help me fill the gaps in the covers gallery below (#8 and #10) and confirm if the series went beyond #11 that would be very helpful!

Enjoy!  

UPDATE: I've now identified that there was an issue 13 - so I've added that to the gallery.

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 1

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 2

from 1989

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 3

from July 1990

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 4

1991 Summer special

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 5

from February 1992

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 6

from May 1992; the cover had been originally used on issue #90

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 7

from December 1992

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 8
image not to hand


The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 9

Holiday special 1993

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 10

image not to hand - can you help?

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 11

produced in 1994

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 12

image not to hand - can you help?

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 13

image c/o here

and there was this too

There was also a Winter special - no image of that to hand

and here's what that Winter special looks like

Chaos City comics - AIDS awareness

I've looked before (here to be precise) about some rare Martha Washington goes to war variants that were produced by Chaos City comics (in St Albans). Turns out these weren't the only comics they produced...

Next up is an AIDS awareness comic that was produced at the end of 1993. It looks like this...

(just search "chaos city comics" on ebay and you'll find a few examples for sale - this issue is for sale here). This, according to an article on page 15 of the November 1993 issue of Comics International was limited to a print run of 10,000 copies and retailed for £4.95 - cover is by Simon Bisley.

There was also a limited edition version available - limited to just 1,000 copies that retailed for £24.95 - the cover artist is uncredited.

There was also a 'gold' variant. Original price and print run are unknown to me. This seems easier to get hold of than the above issue. This copy for sale here 

The list of contributors includes Dave Gibbons, Simon Bisley, David Leach, Bryam Hitch, Henry Flint, Liam Sharp, Charlie Adlard, Dave Taylor, John Ridgway, Elitta Fell and plenty more!

  

UPDATED: The real Ghostbusters - collected comics

I'm not a collector of Marvel UK's 'The Real Ghostbusters' comic but I've seen that the collected editions seem to be quite expensive so I thought I'd see if I could identify how many there are.

Ideally I'd love to be able to tell you what stories they reprinted (and from which issues) and which issue of the comic the cover has come from but, sadly, I can't. 

Instead if you can help me fill the gaps in the covers gallery below (#8 and #10) and confirm if the series went beyond #11 that would be very helpful!

Enjoy!  

UPDATE: I've now identified that there was an issue 13 - so I've added that to the gallery.

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 1

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 2

from 1989

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 3

from July 1990

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 4

1991 Summer special

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 5

from February 1992

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 6

from May 1992; the cover had been originally used on issue #90

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 7

from December 1992

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 8
image not to hand


The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 9

Holiday special 1993

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 10

image not to hand - can you help?

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 11

produced in 1994

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 12

image not to hand - can you help?

The real Ghostbusters, Marvel UK - collected comics number 13

image c/o here

and there was this too

There was also a Winter special - no image of that to hand

UPDATED: Cosmic magazine

The other day (here) I looked at Take a Break spin-off magazine - "Cosmic - the BEST kids' magazine in the universe" - this starred Captain Cosmic (who has his own annual here). I've now identified further issues of Cosmic and present them here...

Contributors are as follows:

Scripts: Guy Campbell

Pencils: Paul Moran

Inks: Simon Ecob

Colour: James McAlister

Plus for the final issue (red cover, dated 11-24 February 1999) there's also...

Glenn Dakin providing the script for the Taliska story, Adrian Salmon providing the pencils & Bambos Georgiou the inks. David Leach also get a shout out.

Updated issues are shown in red - thanks to "3DEB" who sent me some images; 3DEB entered (and won!) some of the competitions and is still the proud owner of a Captain Cosmic ruler and pencil sharpener.

UPDATE for this post - 4 covers, thanks to friend of the blog John Freeman

Volume 1

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 0, July 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 1, August 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 2, September 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 3, October 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 4, November 1997

Cosmic magazine - volume 1, issue 5, December 1997

Volume 1 is thought to last 5 issues (so Aug-97 to Dec-97)

Volume 2

Volume 2 is 13 issues long; monthly dated issues from Jan-98 to Dec-98 and then up to at least issue 13 (which is dated 26 November - 9 December 1998). So I suppose there could be an issue 14, which would be dated 10 December 1998 - 23 December 1998, which seems an odd date to finish the year on. I suspect there were only 13 issues as these could have been published 4-weekly with then a 'Christmas' issue to make up the gap between publishing monthly and publishing every 4 weeks.

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 1, January 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 2, February 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 3, March 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 4, April 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 5, May 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 6, June 1998

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 7, July 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 8, August 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 9, September 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 10, October 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 11, November 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 12, December 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 13

This is dated 26 November 1998 - 9 December 1998

Cosmic magazine - volume 2, issue 14

This is dated 10 December 1998 - 29 December 1998

Volume 3

Cosmic magazine - issue 4

The dating of issue 4 as 11 Feb - 24 Feb means that previous issues are presumably dated as follows:

Issue 3 = 28 Jan - 10 Feb 1999

Issue 2 = 14 Jan - 27 Jan 1999

Issue 1 = 30 Dec - 13 Jan 1999

so Cosmic has moved from being published "monthly" to being published every fortnight

Cosmic magazine - issue 5, 25 February - 10 March 1999

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - issue 6, 11 March - 24 March 1999

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - issue 7, 25 March -7 April 1999

image not to hand - can you help?

Cosmic magazine - issue 8, 8-21 April 1999

Cosmic magazine - issue 9, 22 April - 5 May 1999

Sadly I've no idea how many further issues / volumes there were - if you know (or can fill in any of the gaps above) do just get in touch.

The format is consistent throughout...52 pages, plenty of comics, quizzes, competitions, posters, information, reviews - all that sort of stuff really that kids love. Issues have a Captain Cosmic strip at the start followed by Taliska's travels in time strip.

Further details have come to light since that first post...