A long time ago, Warren Ellis posted a remake/remodel thread on a Ghost Exterminator: The theme said: “The Ghost Exterminator was created by Gelett Burgess and appeared in Cosmopolitan and possibly a few other magazines from 1904 through 1906.
The Exterminator is Hoku Tamanochi, a Japanese San Franciscan who uses an ancient Japanese formula and his family’s traditional skills to exorcise the ghosts of San Francisco. Hoku sprays the ghosts with an ancient Japanese powder when he finds them; this turns them semi-solid, and he then uses a bellows to capture them. He then seals them in bottles, thus permanently trapping them.
Hoku is (unwillingly, at first) teamed up with the nameless narrator, who is Hoku’s friend. The narrator analyzes the powder and creates a special compound of his own that does the same thing. He then begins stealing Hoku’s business (some friend, eh?) and making an additional profit by selling the ghosts, which he can reconstitute with the help of radium. The narrator eventually fumbles things and Hoku is forced to save him. The Exterminator stories follow this pattern: the narrator gets greedy and is initially successful in using Hoku’s ideas and methods, but eventually something goes wrong and Hoku is forced to ride in at the last minute and save the day.”
So it took me a while and a bit of research on Japanese History and culture, since I didn’t want to mix facts and dates. For this story, I wanted to use another aspect of webcomics, the scroll down reading.
Mar 9 2012
Webcomics: The Ghost Exterminator
A long time ago, Warren Ellis posted a remake/remodel thread on a Ghost Exterminator: The theme said: “The Ghost Exterminator was created by Gelett Burgess and appeared in Cosmopolitan and possibly a few other magazines from 1904 through 1906.
The Exterminator is Hoku Tamanochi, a Japanese San Franciscan who uses an ancient Japanese formula and his family’s traditional skills to exorcise the ghosts of San Francisco. Hoku sprays the ghosts with an ancient Japanese powder when he finds them; this turns them semi-solid, and he then uses a bellows to capture them. He then seals them in bottles, thus permanently trapping them.
Hoku is (unwillingly, at first) teamed up with the nameless narrator, who is Hoku’s friend. The narrator analyzes the powder and creates a special compound of his own that does the same thing. He then begins stealing Hoku’s business (some friend, eh?) and making an additional profit by selling the ghosts, which he can reconstitute with the help of radium. The narrator eventually fumbles things and Hoku is forced to save him. The Exterminator stories follow this pattern: the narrator gets greedy and is initially successful in using Hoku’s ideas and methods, but eventually something goes wrong and Hoku is forced to ride in at the last minute and save the day.”
So it took me a while and a bit of research on Japanese History and culture, since I didn’t want to mix facts and dates. For this story, I wanted to use another aspect of webcomics, the scroll down reading.
By RonnieMunter • Galleries, Webcomics • 0 • Tags: Brian le Golem, Ghost exterminator, Japan, Remake, remodel, samurai, Warren Ellis