The Ectozone: The Ghostbusters Universe At Your Fingertips

Let's do one of those Isotropic.org entries on the day I started the place:

Gregorian: Tuesday, 13 May 2003
Mayan: Long count = 12.19.10.4.10; tzolkin = 4 Oc; haab = 18 Uo
French: 24 Floréal an 211 de la Révolution
Islamic: 11 Rabi I 1424
Hebrew: 11 Iyar 5763
Julian: 30 April 2003
ISO: Day 2 of week 20 of 2003
Persian: 23 Ordibehest 1382
Ethiopic: 5 Genbot 1995
Coptic: 5 Bashans 1719
Chinese: Cycle 78, year 20 (Gui-Wei), month 4 (Ding-Si), day 13 (Bing-Xu)
Julian day: 2452773
Day of year: Day 133 of 2003; 232 days remaining in the year
Discordian: Pungenday, Discord 60, Year of Our Lady of Discord 3169
Order of Hermes: XXIII Day of Taurus, XIII Age of Aquarius

(The last one isn't Isotropics, it's mine)

I created this site originally to showcase my Ghostbusters Omnibus Timeline, which in the intervening years has become three Timelines (and really I should have started more by now); the closing of that time's version of Ghostbusters.net in July 2003 quickly caused the transition of the Ectozone into the main venue of inflicting my crap on the Internet.

This place (and its sister site, GBWC.net) have grown and changed as I got better with programming. I mean, I could barely use html tags when I started! In 2004 I discovered how to do tables and then in 2006 I improved the functionality with Javascript and CSS, which in turn led to the exodus from Angelfire to GoDaddy, and the availability of .php codes and, of course, my very own message board.

Wow, though. Two freakin' decades.

I came into the Ghostbusters community at an exciting time--88MPH studios was teasing their comic book revival project, the first new Ghostbusters material since 1997. I timidly unleashed my first Ghostbusters fan fic on Ghostbusters.net...and with a positive reaction, more came. Eventually a lot more.

Indeed, it's slightly embarrassing to me to realize that almost 2/3 of my entire output--100 out of 160 fan fics to date--came in the first five years. I've slowed down considerably, though never quite stopped, and sometimes I wonder why.

Some of it was undoubtedly my own fault.

I didn't deal well with the news about the 2009 video game, and when I read some of the posts I made on the Ectozone forum during the years leading up to the game and the aftermath I really cringe. I sometimes think about locking that whole forum up in the Containment Unit, but that would be dishonest--I need to leave it out there to keep me humble.

I no doubt lost a lot of readers and potential readers from that. And by sticking to my guns and continuing to write in a continuity that took the first movie, the early years of RGB, and EGB as its foundation, I was basically setting myself up to be left behind by the audience, and I guess it's what I deserved. Ghostbusters: Legion was fit into the Ectozone continuity (timeline 8932) with only a bit of modification--it actually helped "set" a few pieces of larger Ectozone canon (ie when 8932 Venkman and Dana broke up after the first movie). I may not use everything from the video game, but I finally made peace with saying that some version of it did happen in "my" world. IDW eventually made its way in with mentions of Melanie Ortiz and, of course, how could I not put my own spin on Roger Baugh?!?! I found ways to make use of Answer The Call too.

And then the big one was Ghostbusters: Afterlife. I just can't reconcile their depiction of Egon Spengler with the way I've seen him for most of my lifetime, but even then, I couldn't help but acknowledge it and basically leave the door open to make use of Gary Grooberson, and that there's people of some significance named "Trever" and "Phoebe" in 8932's history somewhere.

As I mentioned two years ago, it's still a little wierd that the "future" Ghostbusters I first unleashed on the world twenty years ago are now the "present day" team of the Ectozone universe. To be certain, there's not much resemblance to the official Ghostbusters of the 2020's, but it's been a fun group to write thus far. I hope you'll be patient with me; I have some big plans for this group over the next few years.

More than anything, I want to thank everybody who's stuck with me all these years. I know I haven't always been easy to deal with, and haven't been as fast as I used to be--and wish I still was--but I hope I can make it somewhere close to worth it.

Thanks for two great decades, fellow Ghostheads, and here's to many more years!

--Fritz V. Baugh

My own take on the Ghostbusters. Some of my own creations aren't this much fun to write! Click HERE to see the stuff...

Five newest stories (newest on top)

Ghostbusters 2022: When The Zephyr Lilies Bloom
October 2022--Timeline Year Forty
Eric Stantz is confused by his mysterious connection to the magic cat Panther-Panther, and reaches out the one person who may be able to shed some light on origin of that strange bond: the wizard Lady Enlightenment. Or ask Eric knows her, "Mom."
(First Posted December 13, 2022)

Ghostbusters 2022: Panther-Panther Burning Bright
September 2022--Timeline Year Forty
With two of their teammates in France, it would seem that Eric, John, and Eden would seem to be having an easy time of it. Yeah, but with a rap concert attended by a mummy and a mysterious magical cat, that's not gonna last.
(First Posted October 31, 2022)

Tales From The Ectozone: Deek's Report
2022--Timeline Year Forty
It's hard to shock the Chronicler of Realities and a Chronomancer, but recent events in timeline 681 have done just that.
(First Posted May 13, 2022)

Ghostbusters International: The Werewolf of Notre-Dame, Part Three
September 2022--Timeline Year Forty
Well, the ad hoc GBI team's found the werewolf. Now the big question is--can they survive long enough to find out why it's terrorizing Notre-Dame?
(First Posted December 21, 2021)

Ghostbusters: When I'm Sixty-Four
November 21, 2021--Timeline Year Thirty-Nine
A song on the radio inspires Professor Egon Spengler to muse about his life on the occasion of his sixty-fourth birthday.
(First Posted November 21, 2021)