Tobin’s Spirit Guide

TITLE: Tobin’s Spirit Guide
AUTHOR:John Horace Tobin
ORIGIN:Ghostbusters (movie, 1984, directed by Ivan Reitman)
EDITION:Ghostbusters, Volume 2, Issue 8 (comic book, 2013, published by IDW Publishing)

Considered the standard reference guide to known ghosts, goblins, spooks, specters, demons, and other supernatural entities. While the origins of the Guide are murky—Tobin was either an Oxford graduate who traveled extensively to research the supernatural, a Cambridge graduate who exposed fraudulent mediums, or the chronicler for a group of ageless beings from the beginning of time)—and it is unknown how Tobin managed to gain information on so many extremely dangerous creatures, it is generally agreed that it was researched in the early 1900s and first published in the 1920s, and its information is almost unfailingly accurate. Since then, despite its niche appeal it has been republished many times including leather-bound, hardcover, paperback, pocket, and very expensive electronic editions. The information it contains has occasionally been of use in saving the world.

I.Reference — Encyclopedias — The occult and supernatural
II.Reference — Bestiaries — Spirits and demons
III.Plot navigators — Tomes of exposition — So what are we dealing with here

While Tobin’s Spirit Guide is first mentioned in the original movie, it doesn’t actually show up on the big screen until Ghostbusters: Afterlife in 2021. It has, however, showed up in a variety of other material, starting with The Real Ghostbusters cartoon [1986-1991] and including several comics series, board games, video games, RPGs, and even an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As I’m sure you can imagine the designs were rarely consistent, even those from a single source like the cartoon, but this one is fairly representative.

Screenshot from the cartoon:

Comic cover that was my primary design source: