Ghost (Dark Horse Comics)


Ghost is the fictional superhero of an eponymous comic book published by American company Dark Horse Comics. The character appeared in specials and monthly titles detailing the afterlife of Elisa Cameron and her search for the truth surrounding her death.
Ghost first appeared in Comics' Greatest World, week three, in 1993. After a popular special in 1994, a monthly title devoted to the character began publication in 1995. It ran for 36 issues, followed by a six-month break and a second series of 22 issues. The second series was a continuation of the first with a number of changes, including new details about Ghost's origin. The stories in both series were based in the city of Arcadia, in a self-contained fictional universe outlined in Dark Horse's Comics' Greatest World.
Ghost continued appearing in her own titles into the 2000s, including several crossovers unrelated to Comics' Greatest World. Most notable among these were a two-issue crossover with Dark Horse's Hellboy, and a four-issue crossover with DC Comics' Batgirl.

Premise

The series takes place in Arcadia, which is intended to be a grim, yet Art Deco city, as reflected in the artwork of the early issues. The body of protagonist Elisa Cameron contains nanomites which give her spectral powers. She becomes an assassin and her memories are erased. Now having few memories, she believes she is an actual ghost and adopts the alias of "the Ghost" in order to carry out investigations.

List of appearances

Comics' Greatest World week 3 Ghost Special
  • Series 1: Issues #1-36 Ghost Special 2
  • Series 2: Issues #1-4Ghost Special 3
  • Series 3: Issues #5-22Ghost HandbookX #8 Ghost Omnibus Vol. 1 Ghost Omnibus Vol. 2 Dark Horse Presents #13 "Resurrection Mary" Ghost - In The Smoke And Din: 4-issue mini-series Ghost Omnibus Vol. 3
  • ''Ghost Omnibus Vol. 4''

Collaborations

Ghost & The Shadow: Doug Moench, H. M. Baker, Bernard Kolle, Matt Haley and Tom Simmons ; one-issue special Ghost/Hellboy: Mike Mignola, Scott Benefiel, Jason Rodriguez ; two issues Ghost/Batgirl: The Resurrection Machine: Four issues

Characters

  • Elisa Cameron

Family

  • Earl Cameron
  • Margo Cameron
  • Dan Deerlane
  • June Deerlane-Cameron

Friends and allies

  • The Furies :
  • * Focus
  • * Frenzy
  • * Kinetic
  • * Mindgame
  • The Goblins
  • Hob
  • Concordia Leveche
  • Peter Neville
  • Nicola Provenzano
  • Jennifer Reading

Crossover characters

Villains

  • Crux
  • Fear Demons
  • Ghost Hunters
  • Ghost Killers
  • Hunger
  • The Incubi
  • Krasher
  • James MacCready
  • Miasma
  • Cameron Nemo
  • Doctor October
  • Mr. Borazzon
  • Mr. Park
  • Archibald Scythe
  • Shades
  • Silhouette
  • Snake
  • Szothstromael Family
  • The Trio:
  • * Towering Chris
  • * Malcolm Greymater
  • * Coral King
  • Trouvaille
  • Joe Yimbo

Series information

Volume one

Creators

The first key series and the first special were written by Eric Luke. Below is a list of issues and their art teams; if a team repeats, only last names will be used.
Covers for the series were rarely by the same artist as the issue itself. The following is a list of who did which covers; as above, full names will be used only at the first occurrence.
The series largely adopted a two- and four-issue story-arc structure for its final year.

Storylines

Special, X #8, #1–12: Reporter Elisa Cameron is dead. She gradually reconciles with her sister Margo, and moves in with her and their newly-sober parents. Her parents are later murdered by a shadowy psionic to dissuade her from a news story she was investigating. Elisa has a fondness for jade, which prevents her from "ghosting". She can teleport, but must pass a hellish region to do so. Elisa faces a number of psionics led by Dr. October, a woman who wanted to eliminate Elisa for her beauty even in death. She also must deal with a demon, who escapes from her "hell", before King Tiger helps her defeat him. Elisa learns that her jumps, her hell and Nemo are figments of her imagination. She slowly introduces herself to Peter, a man she sees visiting the graveyard. Elisa's alliance with Barb Wire results in her receiving a warning that Archibald Scythe is coming for her. Margo falls under Scythe's spell, while an all-female paranormal team joins with Elisa to defeat him. Margo, driven by rage, summons up strange "shade-like" tears which defeat Scythe.#13-25: Crux tries to remove Elisa, causing a panic in the underworld and seriously injuring Peter. Shortly afterwards Cameron Nemo escapes from hell and takes over Scythe's body, becoming a lurking presence in her afterlife. Aided by X, King Tiger and Focus, Elisa discovers a tape with evidence of her death. Tracing the tape to Crux, Elisa and her companions help the Goblins by defeating Crux. Just before his death, Crux admits that he caused everything—from her parents' murders to the psionic hunters and Elisa's death. Elisa then becomes Sentinel of Arcadia.#26-36: Dr. October resurfaces, but is quickly defeated. Peter and Elisa slowly develop a relationship while Elisa, aided by the Goblins, tries to protect the city. She encounters Dr. Trouvaille, who experiments with the spirits of his victims; he calls her "the failed one", hinting that he knows secrets unrevealed by Crux. Margo, somehow alive and possessed by a being known as Silhouette, tries to destroy Arcadia but is saved by Elisa.

Volume two

Creators

The series was re-launched in the fall of 1998 with a new creative staff. An attempt was made to make the artwork sleeker, sexier and more beautiful than the previous series. Like the first series, the second adapted a mini-series approach. The following is a list of the staff; when repeated, only the surname will be used:
  • 1–6: Chris Warner, Christian Zanier, Steve Moncuse, Ryan Benjamin
  • 7–10 : Warner and Mike Kennedy, Zanier, Moncuse, Benjamin
  • 11–15 : Warner, Benjamin
  • 16–17: Kennedy, Francisco Ruiz Valesco and Benjamin
  • 18–19: Kennedy, Benjamin, Denis Beauvais
  • 20: Kennedy, Benjamin
  • 21: Kennedy, Benjamin, Beauvais
  • 22: Kennedy, Benjamin and Lucas Marangnon, Moncuse and Mike Henry, Benjamin

Storylines

#1–6: Elisa learns from the mysterious Concordia Leveche that she is not really dead. Instead, her "death" is linked to Scythe and Trouvaille. Trouvaille captures Elisa, and shows her the tape. From it, she learns that she killed Crux. Trouvaille, aided by Scythe, tries ripping Elisa's soul from her body, but during the procedure Cameron Nemo briefly appears. Elisa then vanishes. Silhouette is back in control of Margo's body while Margo's soul awaits rendering. Elisa escapes and fights Silhouette, who escapes. Elisa then kills Trouvaille. She has learned that Focus was in league with Trouvaille, and soon discovers the same is true of Peter. She suggests that he commit suicide, while Focus informs Elisa that she had been one of the Furies. Soon, she finds Cameron Scythe. Nemo is returned to Elisa's hell. Margo appears and shoots Scythe through the skull, killing him.#7–15: Elisa, Concordia and Margo go to Hoyo Grande to ask King Tiger for help. Instead, they help a depressed Tiger regain his energy and battle the shape-shifting Szothstromael clan. Elisa has a revelatory encounter with the man from the vortex, who "reboots" her brain. This enables her to remember that her biological father was shot by her adoptive father before her eyes when she was very young; the pain deadened her to that of others, leading to her life as a Fury assassin. Silhouette returns, using Trouvaille's technology to transfer more beings into the bodies of Scythe's remaining followers. Sent as ghost-hunters, they attack Elisa and her friends. Failing that, Trouvaille joins them to defeat Elisa and complete his experiments. They take Margo and Concordia, but Peter returns to aid Elisa in her battle. Margo's body is recovered, Silhouette is defeated, and Trouvaille and the hunters appear to be eliminated. Giving Peter the brush-off, Elisa leaves with her newly revived sister.

Special issues

Two special issues were published after Eric Luke's series ended, written by writers who did not contribute to the regular series:Ghost Special 2 : Written by Martin Lodewyk, pencils by H. M. Baker, inks by Bernard Kolle, cover by Dave Stewart. Set some time after Silhouette appears, the Goblins have yet to return to Arcadia and a worried Elisa must rescue Barb Wire from a South American businessman.Ghost Special 3 : "Mayfly" written by Tom Sneigoski, "Secrets" written by Lee Swank. Both sections have pencils by H. M. Baker and inks by Bernard Kolle; cover by Baker and Kolle. In "Mayfly", Elisa battles large insect-like creatures controlled by a woman who wants revenge for an accident during her youth. In "Secrets", Elisa reflects on the secrets of people in Arcadia. A man she calls "Bookworm", while seemingly innocuous in breaking into the library to read ancient books every evening, is really planning to raise a demon.

''Resurrection Mary''

Ghost was revived as part of Dark Horse's Project Black Sky with a new storyline entitled "Resurrection Mary", which launched the third series in Dark Horse Presents #13 cover-dated June 2012. In the three-part serialized story, Elisa's spirit is revived when two investigators from a Ghost Hunters-like TV series, armed with an experimental piece of paranormal technology, investigate a cemetery where a woman in white has been spotted. Eliza appears to have lost her memory; she and the paranormal investigators she befriends cover up her self-defence killing and resolve to solve the mystery of her identity. A notable change for this reboot is that the traditional setting of Arcadia was replaced by Chicago, Illinois. The serial concluded with DHP #15, after which Dark Horse published Ghost #0 in September 2012; this reprinted the three DHP chapters as a prelude to a new series, Ghost: In the Smoke and Din.

Volume Three (''In the Smoke and Din'')

Creators

Dark Horse launched a third series, In the Smoke and Din, consisting of four issues published from September 2012. The writer was Kelly Sue DeConnick with art by Phil Noto.

Volume Four

Creators

Kelly Sue DeConnick returned in 2013 to write a second series for Dark Horse, ending in 2015 with issue #12. This series was collected as Ghost Volume 1–4. The following is a list of the staff; when repeated, only the surname will be used:

Collections

Ghost Stories, Vol. 1, Ghost Omnibus, Volume 1 Ghost Omnibus, Volume 2 Ghost/Batgirl: The Resurrection Machine Ghost/Hellboy Special Ghost Omnibus, Volume 3 Ghost Omnibus, Volume 4 Ghost Omnibus, Volume 5 Ghost Volume 1: In the Smoke and Din Ghost Volume 2: The White City Butcher Ghost Volume 3: Against the Wilderness
  • ''Ghost Volume 4: A Death in the Family''

Compendium Editions

Ghost Compendium, volume 1, Ghost Compendium, volume 2,

Adaptations

A duology of dramatised audio adaptations was produced by American audiobook company GraphicAudio in 2021.

Reception

Ghost was ranked 15th on the Comics Buyer's Guide's "100 Sexiest Women in Comics" list.