Comic Book / Ghostopolis

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Ghostopolis is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Doug TenNapel. Clocking in at 272 pages, it ties with Earthboy Jacobus for being his longest book. Unlike most of his comics, this one is published by Scholastic's Graphix imprint rather than by Image Comics. Along with Gear and Solomon Fix, it's one of his few comics that's been printed in color and the first one that was not initially published in black and white.

Basically, it tells the story of a young, terminally-ill boy named Garth Hale, a cynical paranormal investigator named Frank Gallows, and the fateful day their lives intertwined... and the madcap adventure that resulted.

Apparently, Hugh Jackman is either a fan of TenNapel's or got an advanced copy because, before the book was even released, it was reported that he'll be producing and starring in a feature-length adaptation. If this is true, he'll almost certainly be playing Garth.

Despite the similar title, it should not — in any way — be confused with Ghost World, nor should it be confused with the tropes Ghost Town or Ghost City.

Ghostopolis contains examples of:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: Aside from the government having the technology to make round-trip expeditions into the afterlife, Garth and Frank's world really isn't anymore different or advanced than our own.
• The Alcoholic: It's brought up that Garth's grampa Cecil, a fighter pilot, was one. Cecil even admits it, but not much is said about it.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Vaugner's anthropomorphic insects, which he summoned from the underworld to be his minions.
• The Antichrist: Vaugner, the charismatic and sinister leader who promised the ghost world unity under his rule and also serves as the Big Bad of the story.
• The Atoner: Cecil Hale, Garth's grampa, who caused his daughter to run away because he threw away some expensive earrings she bought for her birthday, leading to him wanting to make peace with her. He succeeds, thanks to Garth, who makes him return one of the earrings to her, and she finally forgives him.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Claire becomes the new ruler of the afterlife (or rather, the interim version of the afterlife that comes between Earth and Heaven).
• Berserk Button:
  • Claire's werewolf uncle is very proud of his tea. When Frank refuses the tea and says he likes coffee better, Claire's uncle flies into a rage and threatens to eat him. He only calms down after Frank relents and drinks the tea.
  • The Bone King's knights get furious after Garth brings up his "master" Vaugner, lunging at him with their swords. It's a good thing that the King blocked them with his scepter, before he revealed the truth.
• Big Bad: Vaugner, the corrupt leader of Ghostopolis who manipulated his way to the top and now seeks to capture Garth.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Vaugner has an army of anthropomorphic, human-sized insects, particularly his second in command Lockjaw. He also has an enormous firefly which provides electric power for Ghostopolis.
• Bittersweet Ending: In his gigantic form and with the help of Frank, Garth defeats the giant Vaugner, but at the cost of Frank's own life, making him a ghost. However, now Frank can stick around with his ghost girlfriend, Claire, who takes over the late Bone King's role as the new Lord of the Afterlife. Also, it turns out Garth will be cured of his incurable disease, according to his future son, so he can return home for now.
• Black Market: A very unique one is mentioned that trades information on the living world, as Garth's grampa Cecil explains. It's how he learnt about his daughter and Garth, but knew very little about Garth's father.
• Break Her Heart to Save Her: According to her uncle, this is why Frank left Claire; he was afraid his bosses would find out and banish her back to Ghostopolis.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: Discussed between Garth and his grampa Cecil, when they talk about Garth's missing father. Cecil, who had gotten rid of some expensive earrings that his daughter bought on her birthday, admits that as a parent, anyone can make mistakes. Garth tells that he doesn't want to have kids of his own, afraid of making the same mistakes that his father and grampa made. Cecil points out that mistakes don't have to be repeated, reminding Garth that if he avoided being a bad father by not being a father at all, his mother, and in turn him, wouldn't exist. When Garth meets his son from the future, he asks if he was a good father, he answers that yes, he was, and tells him to not doubt himself.
• Les Collaborateurs: While most of the leaders of the afterlife's territories are this to Vaugner, the Bone King turns out to be a subversion: when Garth confronts him over this, he takes him to a region near the "farthest end of the afterlife", where many unfortunate humans, the infirm, widowed and old, are trafficked. Of course, it's within very much noble intentions, as he's actually working for Joe the Tuskegee airman, who has been healing them and sending him to what's implied to be Heaven, where they reunite with their loved ones. In the end, after Vaugner has been killed, they all choose Claire Voyant, Dean's ex-flame, as their new leader.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Three major characters use magic throughout the story. Each one has a unique color for almost all of their spells, and their colors symbolize something about their personality or role in the story:
  • Garth: Yellow, symbolizing his childish innocence.
  • Frank: Light blue, symbolizing his heroism. Notably, the nicer and less self-centered he becomes throughout the story, the more he uses his powers.
  • Vaugner: Lime green, symbolizing his sinister and duplicitous nature.
• Constructed World: The afterlife, which is divided into locations populated by various monsters, like skeletons, mummies, specters, wisps, and more.
• Creator Provincialism: Lockjaw and Cecil Hale, when transporting themselves out the afterlife, end up in Glendale, California, Doug TenNapel's hometown.
• Creator Thumbprint: Like many TenNapel yarns, this one's got monsters, Christian undertones, a speechless, heavily silhouetted final page and the obligatory scene with a cat.
• Creepy Cockroach: Lockjaw, The Dragon, is an anthropomorphic, human-sized cockroach.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: Joe, a mysterious Tuskegee pilot rumored to have built Ghostopolis. He constructed everything, including the apparent natural features like mountains and forests along with the city, has stigmata wounds, can heal the sick and is also about twelve feet tall.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Most of the inhabitants of the afterlife may come in all kinds, but many of them are shown to be normal people living their lives like humans. Even Joe, who despite being a Scary Black Man in appearance, is well intentioned, wanting a better afterlife for ghosts.
• Dead All Along: Inverted, as Vaugner is presumed to be dead, but turns out to have been alive all along.
• Deader than Dead: It's possible for a ghost to be disintegrated by immense energy or the rayguns Vaunger's forces use. This is treated like a second death, which happens to the Bone King. Vaugner later suffers this fate, thanks to Garth and Frank, who use all of their power to blow him up.
• De-aged in Death: Ghosts can appear whatever age they want, literally only as old as they feel. Garth meets his grandfather who initially takes the form of a child, but after meeting him undergoes Rapid Aging until realizing his true age in the end.
• Disappeared Dad: Garth mentions how his dad ran away. He started another family in Florida, but Garth believes he left them as well.
• The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: Garth's "incurable disease", full stop. Considering that by the time the story starts, it's the fifth doctor he has visited, it's most likely some form of cancer. Thankfully, near the end of the story, Garth meets his son from the future, who lets him know that he'll be cured, which is the arguably the only reason why his son is around.
• Do Not Go Gentle: In the Final Battle between Vaugner and Garth, who have assimilated Ghostopolis's buildings and become giant versions of themselves, Garth begins losing his power, leading to his building mech falling apart, with Frank Gallows doing whatever he can to keep them together, and just before Garth's building mech falls apart completely, he releases a small wisp of energy, which apporaches Vaugner. Dean is pretty unimpressed, but the little spark suddenly grows to a massive size, much to Vaugner's shock, and it explodes, permanently killing Vaugner for good.
• The Dragon: Lockjaw is Vaugner's top enforcer and seemingly the most intelligent of Vaugner's bug minions.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: It turns out that Garth will be cured of his incurable disease and will raise a son in the future. For now, he returns home back to his mother to spend whatever time he has left, and is able to set things right between her and her father Cecil.
• Eldritch Abomination: Any still-living person who winds up in Ghostopolis has the potential to be this, not that they all do, though.
• Engineered Heroics: How Vaugner came to power across the afterlife; he manipulated various sides, such as the specters and wisps, and the skeletons and mummies, to fight each other. Then he came along, with the intentions of making peace and uniting the various territories, but lately, his power has been used to open portals to the Underworld for an army of insect creatures.
• Expressive Skull: Many of the skeletal members of the Bone Kingdom have them, with their eye sockets moving like eyes, and jawbones shaping like lips and mouths.
• Eye Scream: Frank inflicts one on Lockjaw's co-pilot by poking him, in order to make him let go of Garth, whom they were kidnapping.
• Fallen Hero: Vaugner claims to Garth that when he was around his age, he had good intentions, wanting to make Ghostopolis a better place with his powers, but fell from grace, deciding to just take over.
• Fisher Kingdom: Ghosts from the afterlife are intangible and can fly in the mortal, human world, but are completely normal in the afterlife. Humans in the afterlife can become intangible or fly, with the power of their imagination, but are powerless upon death.
• Foreign Queasine: More like dead cuisine, as the afterlife has, with Garth and his grampa Cecil eating cooked tarantulas, which taste like chicken covered in burnt hair, as Garth can attest. And also mummified elephant poop, being sold by the mummies. Oh, and hissing cockroaches, apparently, which are kept in bucketloads.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Garth meets his grandfather Cecil in the afterlife, who was very rarely spoken about by his daughter, Garth's mother. He explains that when his mother was around fifteen, she bought some expensive earrings for her birthday, which he threw away, marking the end of their family. Fortunately, by the end, Cecil makes sure Garth gives one of them back to his mother, and she is able to forgive him after all.
  • Vaugner accidentally ended up a living person in the afterlife as a child, away from all his family, for over twenty years. After mastering his powers, he set himself up as sole ruler of Ghostopolis, never really growing up in the process.
• Gentle Giant: Joe, the Tuskegee airman who built Ghostopolis, is much larger than any person and is said to be twelve feet tall.
• The Good King: The Bone King, who serves as a trusted ally of Garth, being the only member of Vaugner's circle who is actively opposing him. He is working with Joe the Tuskegee airman, sending souls to a better place. He gets killed by Vaugner for his treachery, and he chooses Claire as his successor.
• Healing Hands: Joe has these powers, which he uses to heal the infirm, before leading them to Heaven. He is also able to detect Garth's "incurable disease", whatever it is.
• Healthy in Heaven: Ghosts can retain their physical impairments in the afterlife, but before being shepherded to what's heavily implied to be Heaven, all travelers are healed before entering.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Benedict Arnold first appears as an antagonistic ghost that Frank must catch. He later helps the heroes by pretending to lead Vaugner and his army to Garth, only to lead them away. But Benedict later comes back and betrays the heroes' location to Vaugner for real. Benedict claims it's "in his nature" to be a traitor.
• Heroic Bystander: Defied, as a young mummy wants to help Garth as he's getting kidnapped by Lockjaw, only for his father to escort him home.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Frank, who helps Garth keep himself together during the final battle with Vaugner, perishes in the wreckage of buildings. Claire had attempted one by standing between Vaugner and Garth, but she avoids this when the firefly powering Ghostopolis explodes, leaving Vaugner powerless.
• Historical Domain Character: Benedict Arnold is a recurring character in the story, though his personality is exaggerated to give him a Chronic Backstabbing Disorder.
• Humongous Mecha: During the climax, both Vaugner and Garth transform into giant versions of themselves, built from Ghostopolis's architecture, fighting it out.
• Hypocritical Heartwarming: When Frank gets punched away into some cockroaches by an angry specter he accidentally insulted, Claire arrives to punch back the specter, saying, "nobody punches Frank but me!"
• I Choose to Stay: Happens to Frank Gallows, as he is now a ghost after his Heroic Sacrifice, so that he can be forever with his ghost girlfriend Claire.
• Identical Grandson: It runs in Garth's family, apparently, based on his son from the future's description. Garth mistakes his son for his grampa Cecil, until he clarifies.
• I Hate Past Me: Cecil feels this way about himself, having disposed of some expensive earrings that Garth's mother bought for her birthday, which led to her running away from him, and upon death, he entered the afterlife as a child, his mentality at the time of death. Thankfully, he makes amends with his daughter, having Garth return one of the earrings to her, and she forgives him.
• In the Back: Vaugner kills the Bone King this way, shooting him with his plasma raygun, turning him into dust.
• Is This Thing On?: Briefly, when Vaugner tries to use his spectral dish to track Garth's plasma levels, but it doesn't turn on, to which Lockjaw tells him to disable the safety switch first, which he does.
• It Was with You All Along: Garth and Frank, who are both mortals, have special powers based on their imagination. Frank, being a ghost hunting detective, requires special equipment, such as a plasmapod or plasma cuffs, which can transport the intangible to either realm, as a one-way ride. In the end, Garth meets his son from the future, who reveals that due to his powers, he can imagine a way back home, which he succeeds in.
• Kid from the Future: Near the end of the story, Garth meets his son, from the distant future, who looks a lot like his grampa Cecil, who informs him that his "incurable disease" will be cured after all, and even tells him that he can go home if he wanted to, by imagining a way back.
• Kid Hero: Garth looks to be around 10 or 11.
• Lean and Mean: Vaugner, the Big Bad, is an unnaturally tall and skinny man.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Vaugner pulled this off with the various inhabitants and races of the afterlife, manipulating their leaders into fighting each other, such as the specters and will o' the wisps, and the skeletons and mummies. He then arrived with the intentions of making peace, uniting all the leaders and their territories, but this was part of his plan of seizing complete power over the afterlife.
• Littlest Cancer Patient: Garth is a young boy who is dying of an unspecified terminal illness. Fortunately it turns out that a cure will be discovered before it kills him, and he'll go on to start a family.
• Magical Girlfriend: Claire Voyant, to Frank. She initially is one in the human world, being a ghost and all, but it's inverted in the afterlife, where her powers are nullified. They both become ghosts in the end, after Frank dies.
• Meaningful Name: Frank Gallows is a ghost hunter. He later dies and becomes a ghost himself.
• Messianic Archetype: The architect of Ghostopolis, Joe, is implied to be Jesus Christ, what with his carpentry skills to construct the entirety of Ghostopolis, his stigmata wounds and healing infirmed souls before shepherding them into what's implied to be Heaven.
• Monochromatic Eyes: Vaugner and Joe both have pupil-less white eyes. While Vaugner has them as an artistic choice (which hides the twist that he's actually alive), Joe's are glowing Prophet Eyes.
• Moody Mount: It's implied that Skinny, who belongs to the Bone King, is one, as he says that he is "untamable", having spent over two hundred years trying to get him to heel. The Bone King is quite impressed with Garth's ability, and is willing to offer Garth to keep him.
• Mr. Exposition: Cecil Hale, Garth's grampa, who reveals the history of Ghostopolis. First, he talks about the Tuskegee airman, Joe, who built Ghostopolis, being seen as a mysterious messianic figure. Later, after they arrive in Ghostopolis to see the state of it, he then talks about how Dean Vaugner, who spread lies to get the various races to turn against each other, then arrived to make "peace" by unifying the territories, but lately has been ruining the land by bringing in insects from the Underworld.
• Narnia Time: Time is stated to be all kinds of messed up in the world of Ghostopolis, because of it being a sort of dimension between Heaven and the Underworld. For instance, it's not really known just how long it took for Joe, a Tuskegee airman, to build Ghostopolis, from its mountains to buildings. Some say it took him six weeks, others say it took him a billion years. For these reasons, Garth's son from the future arrives to meet him, letting him know that he'll be cured of his disease.
• No Endor Holocaust: A good number of buildings are used during Garth and Vaugner's final battle, and they all get destroyed, but by the end, it's implied that very few inhabitants perished permanently.
• The Nose Knows: Claire's werewolf uncle, who has a great sense of smell, despite his blindness, which enables him to track down Garth's exact location in Ghostopolis.
• Older Than They Look: Cecil looks approximately 10 years old, despite being the ghost of a 60-to-70-year old man. He gradually realizes his true age over the course of the story.
• One-Winged Angel: In the climax, Vaugner assimilates the buildings of Ghostopolis into the form of a giant version of himself. Garth does the same to fight back.
• One-Word Title
• Our Ghosts Are Different: On one hand, they behave exactly like they do in the living world, being intangible and can float, but can touch anything tangible, such as Skinny trapping Garth in his ribcage, and Claire being able to use tools when working on her own transport to the afterlife. Humans on the other hand, have these features in the afterlife, while ghosts function like normal flesh and blood. Then there's various, for a lack of better terms, subspecies of ghosts, which does include normal humans like Claire Voyant and Cecil Hale, but living skeletal creatures, Egyptian mummies, specters, will o' the wisps, and zombies and boogeymen.
• The Place: The book is named after the titular city.
• The Power of Hate: The source of Vaugner's immense strength during his fight against Garth.
• Psycho Poodle: Played for Laughs. When Frank breaks into a house to catch a ghost, he is attacked by a rather large poodle with the temperament of an Angry Guard Dog. It bites him on the nose.
• Punny Name: Claire Voyant. No prizes for guessing what it sounds like.
• Red Right Hand: Vaugner, who appears to lack pupils, despite being a "ghost". He then turns his arms into tentacles, revealing that he is alive.
• Redemption Rejection: When Vaugner decides to kidnap Lieutenant Brock, who identifies him as the one who trapped him in the afterlife over twenty years ago, when he was a child, the Lieutenant identifies him and frantically apologizes, offering him a second chance. Dean tells him that it's far to late, wanting to stay, and tries to kill him.
• The Reveal:
  • It starts as if Vaugner is dead. He isn't dead, but actually alive, having been trapped in the afterlife for over 20 years.
  • A minor one occurs near the beginning. When Claire first appears, it isn't immediately clear that Claire is actually a ghost... until she suddenly starts floating.
• Revenge Before Reason: Vaugner wants to kill Garth, regardless of whether or not he's an actual threat, because that's the best way he knows of to hurt Claire for "betraying" him by breaking up with him.
• Rule of Three: Frank, during one of his regular days at the office, finds Benedict Arnold, revealing it's the third time he'd dealt with him, saying it's his final strike.
• Satellite Love Interest: Not much is ever revealed about Claire's personality other than that she has conflicting feelings for Frank.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Frank and Claire, who get annoyed when the Bone King refers to them as "the two lovebirds", when he gets a chariot for the two of them. Ironically, after Frank's death, he sticks around with Claire, as her consort.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Skinny starts out as Garth's sole companion, but then gets pushed to the sidelines until the end of the story.
• Sickly Green Glow: Vaugner, the Big Bad, is frequently associated with the color lime green. It's the color of his magic, as well as the energy at his power plant.
• Soap Opera Disease: Garth's "incurable disease", which is stated to be deadly, but is not really revealed. Fortunately, it will be cured, as Garth's son from the future assures.
• Together in Death: Frank Gallows, who dies from helping Garth destroy Dean Vaugner, but this enables him to return as a ghost like his girlfriend Claire, and they decide to stay together. Lieutenant Brock acknowledges his efforts and commends him before leaving with Garth.
• Tom the Dark Lord: The main Big Bad of the story is a human named Dean Vaugner, who has an unassuming name.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: When Vaugner tries to use his spectral dish to track Garth's plasma levels, pointing at his holographic pool, he notices that his plasma readings are fairly high. But then, he notices very large spikes coming from him, thinking it's his "spectral array", the spikes grow extremely large, nearly hurting Lockjaw, Vaugner's cockroach assistant, and at their largest, they form a brief image of Joe, the mysterious Tuskegee airman who built Ghostopolis, which leads to Vaugner's spectral dish exploding in a bright green light.
• To Serve Man: Lockjaw, Vaugner's cockroach assistant, who craves eating Garth, a human child.
• Uncertain Doom: Lockjaw is last seen getting transported to Earth, with the Plasmapod that brought him there crashing onto a golfer's cart in California. It's unclear what happened to him after this, but considering that he's a human-sized cockroach, it's unlikely that people are going to react too kindly to him.
• Wonderful Werewolf: Claire's uncle is a werewolf who works as a fortune teller in Ghostopolis. While he does briefly threaten violence when Frank presses his Berserk Button, he never actually harms anyone. Instead, he's just a nice old man who cares about his niece.
• Wrench Wench: Claire haunts a garage and built her own Plasmapod.
• You Are in Command Now: The Bone King dies because of Vaugner, and before he disintegrates, he gives his crown to Claire, asking her to finish his work. By the end, she gets elected by the afterlife's leaders as the new Lord of the Afterlife, with Frank as her consort.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Garth, recalling how his grampa Cecil caused his mother to run away, and also how his father left him, doesn't want to have kids of his own. He also feels resigned to his fate because of this, knowing that he'll eventually die of his "incurable disease", even though his mother doesn't believe it. Garth later meets his son from the distant future, who lets him know that he'll be having a family of his own, but on a happier note, it means that his disease will be cured.
• Your Days Are Numbered: The story opens with Garth's mom visiting a fifth doctor to be told his condition is terminal.