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Comic Book Guy: Ghostwriter - Into the Comics By: PoisonRamune, the Apathetic Lizardman I have a few Ghostwriter story arc commentaries I’d like to do in the near future. However, I felt this one is something that our general reader base can get into as it deals with the archetypical nerd interest of comic books and superheroes (and yes, I will be doing the marijuana story arc at a later time). In this story arc the team uses Ghostwriter’s help to find out who’s trying to thwart them from winning a citywide comic book contest. I find it very clever of the writers to show that Ghostwriter doesn’t help the team at all with the actual contest, despite the fact that most of the game is based on deduction through reading and word puzzles such as rebuses. However, I guess cheating is just something Ghostwriter was simply too cool for. Included here is the link to the beginning of the story (with subsequent episodes listed in the related videos), so you can watch along with us (though it shouldn’t take you 2 hours to read this article, unless you’re Hector from the Ghostwriter team) or if you simply want to watch the arc after you’ve read about it. Also note that I am going to spoil the episodes (and probably pretty early on). However, this shouldn’t be an issue at all since we’re dealing with a 15 year old show. Episode 1 - Slap Me Some Skin ‘Cuz I’m Still Gonna Win
The episode opens with a shot of a crowded art filled studio apartment (or some decent sized office/bedroom), an insane young man that sounds a bit like a young Eddie Murphy sits at a writing desk talking to himself while stroking a previously finished comic with a capped pen. It’s evident that the man was driven to madness by his blatant love for comic book paraphernalia and probably the fact that he’s not getting any sex, since having a room teeming with clutter is a tell tale sign of a sexual dry spell (believe me, I was there before). The crazed man continues his rant he begins to accost a poster announcing a Hoodman comic book contest, further showing that this guy has severely lost his grip on reality. The scene then cuts to Lenni who’s either trying to make 19th century farming attire trendy or had just spent the morning tending to her hippy father’s “herb and grass garden.” Being that she’s so excited about the Hoodman contest (and not insane) she decides against kicking the living crap out of the Hoodman poster in her room; and instead chooses to call a rally to tell the rest of the team about the contest. The kids then spend (literally) the next 5-6 minutes making their way to Lenni’s house, which I guess is understandable when they’re all coming from various parts of Brooklyn. Plus, the rally “filler” sequences were always a good time to go get a snack or take a leak, as public broadcasting television shows have no commercial breaks.
When the gang finally does arrive at Lenni’s they’re a bit disappointed to see that there’s no crime or mystery to tackle, but rather some obscure superhero scavenger hunt that she signed them all up for. I must say that the Ghostwriter team has got to be the most supportive group of friends I’ve ever seen, since they go from thinking that contest is the stupidest idea they ever heard to being totally psyched about winning it within a matter of seconds. Even Rob who was still sort of on the fence with helping out the Ghostwriter team enthusiastically yells “Yeah, we can totally do this;” however, in their defense Lenni did mention that the first place team would be drawn into a panel of the next issue of Hoodman (which honestly seems kind of like a cop out prize. But when you’re 11-13 years old; I suppose that’s like the closest to famous you can come without actually possessing talent). The team then tries to solve the first puzzle in the form of a page from a Hoodman comic (which is basically Superman for urban youths) with certain words bolded to show that they’re clues. After getting the clues totally wrong they head over to the local boat house where they find that not only they, but several other participants (including the mad black artist from the beginning of the show in a ridiculous “disguise”) have shown up with the wrong clues as well. The team then regroups and discovers that the correct location which the clues were trying to lead them was actually at an old Revolutionary War memorial site.
At this point we’re treated to a special guest appearance by Spike Lee playing one of the contest “agents.” After Spike recites a poignant poem about the martyrs who died for American freedom, the kids venture back to their homes. Upon arriving at home, Lenni hears shuffling foot steps from outside her house and someone then slides a comic with a threatening message and images on it. I’d like to point out that the team could have ended most of the drama in this story arc had Lenni opened her door as someone was sliding the note through, which would have avoided the entire “Whodunnit” portion of this story. However, I guess Ghostwriter needed some part in this arc, since it would be painstakingly frustrating watching these kids simply try to work through this scavenger hunt with their low level deductive reasoning.
Episode 2 - Today I Met a Homeless Poet Leading from the end of episode 1, Lenni shows the threatening note to the rest of the team asking if they want to continue competing or allow the cartoonist crook to edge them out of the contest. The team draws inspiration from “the real Hoodman” and decides that the bully should not only be exposed, but also beaten in the contest to prove that they won’t be intimidated. After the team receives that new found feeling of heroic empowerment, the show switches focus to the B story involving Rob, his father and a local homeless man that reads poetry at the downtown community center.
Allow me to meander off into a tangent here, since the homeless poet, Double T (or Luther from The Warriors) is without a doubt my favorite side character in the Ghostwriter universe. While he’s pretty much the stereotypical shell shocked schizophrenic war veteran that’s featured in many “very special episodes” of TV series, he’s also fleshed out in a very real way. The writers gave Double T so much depth in him telling of his history serving in Vietnam (and shown further in the To the Light arc) and his decent into mental illness trying to deal with life after war. It’s amazing that they were able to do this in a way that kids could understand without being preachy about war or outright disturbing/frightening. Also, Double T’s poetry shows that the writers actually cared about this show and its production since even that was well written, despite being a run of “throw away lines.” “And yet the emperor of the sidewalk doesn’t go home when you do... Instead, he stares down the night in a shelter or a park while darkness dances in his eyes and strives to swallow up his heart. And pointed patterns of his past weave textured tapestries of home. Sweet smells of wondrous meals, caressing comfort of his own bed... No! Because the emperor of the sidewalk’s true kingdom is only mapped out in his head.”
Later that day the team continues on trying to solve the second comic book page’s riddle following the same pattern of looking out for the bold words. Surprisingly, the kids are able to figure this puzzle out in less than 10 minutes (which is like a Ghostwriter company record) and they head off to Coney Island. While at Coney Island the team runs into the Eddie Murphy/David Alan Grieresque character, Stoopdude (still just the mad artist in a weird had and bright orange sweater). Stoopdude seemingly needs all the help he can get in winning this contest as he’s apparently way older than the 16 year old age limit, but is barely keeping ahead of the Ghostwriter team (which I’ll remind you, consists of 11-13 year olds). In his desperation to win, Stoopdude pulls the old “lead the victims in the opposite direction of the goal” in order to trip the team and several other kids up. After some filler scenes of the kids fruitlessly wandering around the amusement park, the team finally gets the third page and is back on the case. As the team was working on figuring out the riddles to their comic panels, Rob was faced with solving one of the toughest riddles of his young life. It seems Rob and his father have one of those stereotypical manly dad and dorky son relationships, where Rob’s father feels like his son isn’t a man if he’s not on a sports team and Rob is simply one of those losers who doesn’t even want to give sports a try (even for the sake of shutting his father up, which is something I used to do). And by the homeless Double T’s urging, Rob does the classic Ghostwriter special and writes his dad a heartfelt and poignant letter in the form of a poem. After reading how his son sees writing a poem in the same light as scoring a point in sports, his father understands that his son cannot be helped and sadly waits for the day when he comes home with a boyfriend and a poem about how he’s coming out.
During the last few minutes of the show, Ghostwriter makes an important discovery and gives the team a crucial clue as to who drew the sinister comic (in the form of text on an old graduation sweater of the perpetrator). Using an old yearbook from Tina’s brother’s high school Jamal and Tina begin some good old fashioned detective work. Through the two’s searching we’re taught the invaluable life skills lesson that people in name listings (such as a phone book or high school yearbook) are normally sorted by surname as opposed to first name (hence, why the dolts couldn’t find Manny in their cursory search). Jamal and Tina then make the shocking discovery that the insane comic artist is a 22 year old loser named Manfred “Manny” Gite (who they have never met before or have they). As the show comes to a close, the camera cuts to a “chilling scene” of Manfred/Man-E having a weird BDSM moment with a treasure troll figurine (gawd, I only wish I was making this up) as he’s tying it up and announcing that all his enemies eventually get bound and gagged.
Episode 3 - I am not YELLING! The episode opens with Jamal and Tina talking about how they’ll be trying to contact Manny by telephone, though I’m not really sure what they’re planning to accomplish by doing so (did they think they could just politely ask the guy to stop harassing them?). The show then abruptly cuts to a scene with Alex and Gabby walking in on their parents having an argument about buying a used truck (which actually is something Mr. Fernandez should have listened to his wife about, since that truck is the main plot point in the Get the Message story arc). The show follows that cliché sitcom plot device where the children fear their parents are divorcing and thus make an exemplary attempt at behaving in an effort to keep their parents together.
Later that day/while Alex and Gabby are still trying to figure out how to keep their parents from fighting, Lenni and Rob work together in solving the third page’s riddle. I really like this scene for a couple reasons. First of all Lenni is wearing these pants that are sort of a mix between equestrian riding pants and leggings which really show off her nice, developing butt (it’s amazing how fast these kids are growing up between story arcs). And second of all there’s this small hint of a budding relationship between Rob and Lenni that’s also shown in later arcs, but ultimately never came to anything due to Rob leaving the show early (though I’m sure if he didn’t, they would have been another “boyfriend/girlfriend” couple on the team). Finally, Rob states that he was having personal issues which I guess is kind of true in the context of being 13. But seriously, all the kid did was go to the Recreation Center and subsequently tell his dad he’d rather go to the Writer’s Workshop than play baseball.
So Rob and Lenni are either the smartest members on the team or they’ve simply discovered a pattern and rhythm to the panels’ puzzles, since they managed to solve this one within a couple of minutes. Following the clues in the comic book page, the two make their way to the aquarium. At the aquarium a deranged Stoopdude assaults and kidnaps the agent waiting to hand out the fourth page in a very humorous way (by literally tying the man’s shoelaces together and dragging him behind a partition); and then dons the agent’s outfit in an effort to mislead the other contestants. Back at Lenni’s house, Rob and Lenni immediately begin to decipher the final page; however, they soon discover many things wrong with it. Along with none of the clues making sense, the two discover many continuity problems in the comic such as Hoodman not wearing his hood while he fights crime. I find this a bit unbelievable, considering that Rob barely cared about Hoodman, let alone knew about this obscure comic character no more than 2 days earlier. But he is now seemingly some sort of expert on Hoodman’s backstory, as they realize the fourth page is a forgery. Lenni and Rob then rush back to the aquarium to get to the bottom of the phony page and to possibly confront and call out the suspicious agent that was manning the station. Upon their arrival they hear the kidnapped agent struggling from behind the partition with the imposter nowhere to be found. After rescuing the agent, Lenni and Rob (along with some other contestants) are given their official final pages with the agent calling into Hoodman contest headquarters to report the fake agent (note the first generation flip phone the agent uses to call with). Cutting back to the Fernandez’s bodega, we see Gabby and Alex going above and beyond what was asked of them in a very blatant way. At this point their mother becomes suspicious of their behavior and begins to press them regarding their good deeds. I’d like to point out the fact that many parents do this in real life is probably a contributing factor as to why kids are a bunch of layabouts. I mean, if the kids aren’t doing enough chores, they get hassled; and surprisingly if they’re doing too much, they get hassled for that as well. So it’s easy to see why kids are lazy punks there’s no incentive to do well, since they’re going to get the third degree regardless of what they do (or not do).
Mr. Fernandez then storms into the scene angry as hell, accusing Mrs. Fernandez of hiding his finance records in an attempt to keep him from buying the truck. The ensuing argument is too much for both Gabby and Alex to take as they tell off their parents before leaving to their room. Shortly after Mrs. Fernandez gives a very poignant and real, but somewhat scary speech about how if a couple really wants to divorce, then there’s genuinely nothing their kids can do about it. However, to soften the blow the Fernandez’s do assure the kids that they’re just worried about spending money they don’t have on a car and have no intentions of separating. Also, note that Mrs. Fernandez basically says “Mr. Fernandez is a bit of a dick, but I kind of like him for that” so I guess that means even the likes of me may have a chance at being married one day (wait, I’m basing this point on something from a children’s television show). With the new page in their possession Rob and Lenni then call a rally to share their latest findings about the contest with the rest of the team. Well, actually Lenni calls a rally while Rob passively makes a comment about the whole concept of rallying being a bit lame. The team goes over their theories of who Stoopdude is as well as the identity of the phony agent. They employ the help of Ghostwriter to see if there’s also a connection between the two characters and the mad cartoonist Manny Gite/Man-E and his possible whereabouts (again what were they going to do with that information?). Shortly after the team leaves Lenni’s house for the night Ghostwriter comes back with startling information, Man-E is in the Fernandez’s bodega (and by the suspenseful music they play, you’d think Man-E was about to kill them). As Lenni rushes downstairs to catch up to him, she bumps into a goofy looking black guy. Looking up to apologize to him, Lenni notices that he’s wearing the graduation sweatshirt Ghostwriter found earlier. As Lenni mumbles the name “Manny Gite” both characters have a look of being shot and the episode fades out. Seriously? I mean, I understand Lenni being shocked that she ran into Man-E; however, Man-E obviously knew who the entire Ghostwriter team was/what they looked like since he drew them out in the threatening comic, so why was he so surprised that he was finally found out? And why did he allow himself to be so easily discovered in the first place by shopping at the corner store that’s right under Lenni’s house?
Episode 4 - Hanging with the Hoodman Because he’s socially awkward and kind of stupid (as proven by the fact that he’s participating AND losing in a children’s scavenger hunt) Manny Gite goes dashing away from Lenni upon being discovered. I mean, I would have at least had to foresight to try to discredit some kid calling me out by immediately saying “Who?” right after they called me by name. After the shocked Man-E goes running off into the distance, Lenni finds some very peculiar clues dropped by the frantic Manny.
The clues come in the form of a small letter sized manila envelope that’s labeled “NEW STUFF” containing handmade Mardi Gras masks and animal cut outs. Now I need to stop the summary here and ask a couple questions about this story point (since it becomes a huge contributing factor in busting Manny). First, why is Manny walking around town carrying incriminating evidence as he does errands for his aunt? And second, what do poorly made paper cut out figures and masks have to do with terrorizing a group of (rather ungifted) kids and winning some sort promotional contest? Lenni then decides to gather her thoughts and take in all the facts and happenings so far, which actually serves nothing more as a brief recap (in the form of a conversation with Ghostwriter) of the events from the first 3 episodes in this story arc for those who missed one (or for those who are very, very slow). The following day, the team gets together in an effort to not only finish the contest (which some other team should have done by now, considering how much time the Ghostwriter team has wasted so far), but to also figure out who Stoopdude is and what connection he has with Manny (if any). The team finds Manny’s mailing information on the back of one of the paper masks with some key information missing from the eye and mouth holes. Using context and common vocabulary from the theme of the letter (ie: __mics most likely being “comics’), they discover that Manny, Man-E, and Stoopdude are all the same people; and that he had recently submitted drawings to Cosmic Comics (the publishers of the Hoodman comic line) which were subsequently rejected. I love the team’s preliminary correlating evidence that that they used to link Manny to Stoopdude, “They kinda look the same. Same height, both black...” Coming from a 12 year olds’ mouth, it’s totally harmless and an innocent way to link how 2 characters could be one in the same; however, coming from an adult and it’s considered racial profiling. As the children now definitively know how to contact Manny, they decide to give him a call. Manny answers Jamal’s call and immediately pulls the old “shut up, listen for a few seconds and roughly hang the phone up” trick, seeing as a black kid with a voice that hasn’t fully matured has Manny completely spooked. Assuming that a 22 year old man that’s afraid of a small group of young teens is a total push over, Jamal decides it would be best to meet up with him face to face to put an end to Manny’s game. Note, Alex pulling a “Fred” from Scooby-Doo by volunteering him and Tina as Jamal’s back-up (smooth guy), no wonder why he ended up with her in the next story arc. And seeing as the contest is still going on (which was the original motivation for going through this entire rigmarole) Rob, Lenni and Gaby stay behind in order to solve the last page’s riddle. As the three try to follow the clue pattern from the first 3 comic book pages, they’re shocked to find that the final page has no bolded clues. However, Rob, the smartest of the slow discovers a cryptic clue at the edge of the page telling the contestants to go back and review all of the previous panels for the final clue. If you’re watching along and you don’t suffer from brain damage or haven’t had your brain totally ravaged by hard drugs, then you’ll know that the clue is in the random sky writing written somewhere on each page. You’ll also probably know that the letters spell out “boathouse” (one of the two final locations) when you put them together. Maybe it was because I had played a lot of RPGs by this time and many of them had cryptic “remember this” puzzles scattered throughout them; however, I had figured out the final puzzle way before the Ghostwriter team when I had first seen this story arc at age 11 (in fact, this arc as a whole didn’t do much for me academically, but I was always really interested in honing my pen sketching skills to surpass Manny’s).
Shortly after the three solve the puzzle, Manny is seen in his room discovering the secret to the comics as well. However, just as Manny is about to leave for the final agent’s booth, he gets a knock at his door. Standing outside his (aunt’s) apartment are Jamal, Tina and Alex poised to politely put Manny in his place. Though instead of Manny, his aunt Wilhelmina comes to answer the door. Aunt Wilhelmina is a terrific character. It’s almost like she’s a proto Madea (of Tyler Perry fame), with the weird “Excuse me?” attitude seen in older female black archetypes in media. I love the fact that she pulls that “I’mma done whip that boy’s ass” (in a much more rated G, but still hilarious way) when the kids show her the threatening comic he sent to them. As Lenni, Gabby and Rob arrive at the boathouse it seems that the booth area has been refitted with a large finish line and winner’s circle. As Lenni runs towards the goal, another contest begins running behind her in a desperate attempt to catch up. The crowd cheers Lenni, Rob and Gabby on as they cross the finish line and become the winners of the Hoodman comic scavenger hunt. Again, let’s stop for a couple of questions. First, how the hell did the cheering section and the judges/agents know to be at the finish line at that exact time? Were they all waiting there around the same time everyday, hoping one of the teams would be finishing then? I figure the agents could use their magic flip phones to alert each other that a contestant had successfully reached their checkpoint, but that only leaves a relative gauge of time as to when the teams might reach the next point. And still, it tells me nothing as to how 20 kids magically knew when to show up to see the teams cross the finish lines. Finally, why did this contest seem so small in scale? I mean, if a decent sized publishing company was setting up a comic book contest across the entire Brooklyn area, don’t you think more people would be participating? Like maybe having more than one or two other teams (Manny not included) racing against the Ghostwriter team; and how about more than 20 people there to watch the end of the contest and the award ceremony? Though, I guess, that’s just a budget restraint much like how they had they gave Lana Barnes her lifetime achievement award in some hotel foyer full of extras as opposed to a full auditorium (in the Who’s Who story arc).
There to personally congratulate the Ghostwriter team are the owner/CEO of Cosmic Comics, the creator of Hoodman (who looks like a poor man’s version of Prince), and “Hoodman” himself. Just as the three go down to shake the team’s hands, Manny dressed as Stoopdude enters the area obviously angry over his defeat. As Manny makes a mad dash towards the officials (to do what? I’m not sure, since the contest was officially over before he even appeared here) Jamal begins to chase him through the finish line area in a borderline slapstick way. Adding to the comedic situation, Aunt Wilhelmina comes in running far behind Jamal while yelling for Manny to stop and give himself up. After spinning around a lightpole in a very cartoonish manner to make distance between him and Jamal, Manny then goes after Hoodman and the wishing stone (which is a seemingly a large piece of pyrite). Manny steals the wishing stone, but is half tackled (read: pushed) by Jamal shortly after. The wishing stone floats in the air in slow motion (a cliché cinematography technique used in the late 80’s and early 90’s) as various characters look upon it with expressions of exaggerated surprise and concern. Hoodman catches the wishing stone (rather effortlessly) and Manny is brought to “justice” (merely getting escorted off the grounds when he should actually be arrested for the things he pulled). As the team receives their trophy and accolades, Rob steps away from the group for a bit still feeling as if he doesn’t belong with them. However, after Lenni gives him a sort of demure look implying “we couldn’t have done this without you,” Rob then joins the team for a group photo and is shown to be included in the next Hoodman issue along with the rest of the team. The episode wraps up at Lenni’s with the rest of the team sitting around while waiting for Rob. In a somewhat cheesy, but heartfelt moment as all 5 of the kids ask Rob to become an official Ghostwriter team member. I found this a great resolve to the story arc, since Rob actually does join a group of friends and discovers that team spirit his father was trying to push on him (but in his own way). Rob completes his initiation by receiving his own Ghostwriter pen (too bad he won’t be grabbing at Lenni’s chest to use hers anymore) and writing a short message to Ghostwriter. The show ends with Lenni singing a song she wrote called “Hanging with the Hoodman” with the rest of the kids dancing along to it (note: Rob’s super white dance moves).
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