Dark Horse grabs the Ghostbusters comic book license for a sequel to Afterlife

Dark Horse Comics will produce an official, in canon comic book follow up for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which will bridge the gap between the film and its upcoming just-announced film sequel which has been nicknamed 'Firehouse.'

The still untitled comic book was announced during Sony's Ghostbusters Day festivities, which take place annually on June 8, the day in 1984 on which the original Ghostbusters was released to theaters.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife director Jason Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan will work with Dark Horse to create the comic book, though no actual creative team for the title has been announced. During the course of the Ghostbusters Day announcements, the official Ghostbusters Twitter account tweeted that the comic book will be released at the end of 2023. Dark Horse Comics followed this up by tweeting there are "more details to come."

Ghostbusters: Afterlife functions as a direct sequel to Ghostbusters 2, following the family of original Ghostbuster Egon Spengler as they attempt to unpack Egon's legacy and find their own place as Ghostbusters.

The just-announced sequel, codenamed 'Firehouse,' will move the action from the family farm setting of Ghostbusters: Afterlife back to New York City, and, as the working title implies, to the iconic firehouse that was the Ghostbusters' headquarters in the original films.

Unspoken in the announcement of the Ghostbusters: Afterlife comic book sequel, but notable nonetheless, is the apparent move of at least part of the Ghostbusters comic book license to Dark Horse Comics. It was announced in January that longtime Ghostbusters comic book license holders IDW Publishing were set to lose the license. Now it seems Dark Horse has taken up the baton for the Afterlife comic book sequel.

Ghostbusters may be a bit more fun than scary, but the new title may find a place among the best horror comics of all time.