I have enjoyed movies and television shows based on comic book characters for years. I end up seeing most of the movies based on comic books even when I really don't know much about the characters. I've picked up some books like Batman: The Ultimate Guide to the Dark Knight, Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel, and Ultimate X-Men that have helped me learn more about the various characters. I've been interested in seeing Ghost Rider even though I know absolutely nothing about the character or the comics. I decided to pick up Ghost Rider Visual Guide by Andrew Darling when I saw it in the bookstore.

Ghost Rider Visual Guide, published by Dorling Kindersley, didn’t have an actual plot or story line. Instead the book contained information about the character of Ghost Rider, other characters in the comic, and briefly talked about some of the more important story lines from the run of the Marvel comic that started in the early 1970's. Information was shared about each subject over one or two pages. I’m guessing the subjects that had the two page spreads were supposed to be more important, though from the things I read in the book, it seemed like a few of the characters that only received one page were important and should have had more information about them. There were also some comic book style illustrations on the pages that were connected to the subject in some way. Some of the information was provided as captions to illustrations. The illustrations looked like they had been pulled out of issues of the comic books, especially the ones that included dialogue or a few panels. There really wasn’t a lot of information about any of the characters or subjects that were discussed in the book.

Ghost Rider Visual Guide was divided into four chapters that focused on different time periods for the comics. Before the first chapter, there was a two page forward written by Roy Thomas, one of the men that had been involved in starting the Ghost Rider comic in the 1970's. He did briefly mention a few short lived previous comic books that had the name of Ghost Rider. He then went on to discuss how he and a few other men developed the new Ghost Rider in 1972. I did think the information he shared was interesting. There was a full two page illustration before the beginning of each chapter. The first page of each chapter shared the title of the chapter and gave a brief overview of what the chapter would deal with along with another large illustration. Many times I noticed that a bit of information that had been previously shared would be shared again, sometimes only a page or two later. That did get a little old as I continued reading the book.

The first chapter covered the origins of Ghost Rider. The first two pages of the chapter contained a brief time line that showed some of the major events in the history of Ghost Rider. The short chapter ended by discussing Zarathos and Mephisto, rival demons that had been battling. Their fight was linked to a powerful medallion and eventually led to the curse of the Ghost Rider. The information in this chapter provided a lot of back story for the character and was interesting.

The second chapter focused on Johnny Blaze and how he became a ghost rider. There was very little information about his childhood and life before he became a ghost rider. There was a little bit of information about Johnny’s adoptive father Crash Simpson and his daughter Roxanne. She and Johnny shared a somewhat complicated relationship. There really was very little shared about Roxanne considering how important she was to Johnny. I would have thought that there would have been more about her and her connection to Johnny. There was information about Johnny’s powers, his motorcycle, a few important events, other superheroes he worked with and enemies he faced.

The third chapter dealt with Dan Ketch, the man who became a ghost rider after Johnny. Dan had connections to Johnny and the curse of the Ghost Rider that weren’t immediately clear. There was some information about Noble Kale, the very first Ghost Rider, and how the curse was started. Some of that was information that had already been shared earlier in the book, though there were more details this time. Dan also rode a motorcycle and had powers similar to Johnny’s as Ghost Rider though there were some differences. Characters that Dan interacted with were briefly discussed. He worked with other superheroes like Wolverine and Spider-Man. Dan faced several enemies as Ghost Rider. There were more enemies in this chapter than there had been in the one about Johnny. There was a small amount of information on a group called the Midnight Sons that had been reformed to battle a few specific demons. Another Marvel character, Blade, was also part of that group.

The fourth chapter was called The Ghost Rider Journeys On. I think the events discussed in that chapter were more recent in the history of the comic book. There were new enemies that were discussed. The chapter also revisited some events that had been discussed earlier in the book. There was another comic book started called Ghost Rider 2099 and a little bit of information was shared about that and how the character was changed to fit in a futuristic setting. This chapter also included four pages of information about the movie. There were some pictures included in those pages that came from the movie. The information shared about the movie did seem to be a bit of a plot summary and I think a few things that were mentioned could be spoilers for the movie. From what was in the book about the movie, some things were changed. There wasn’t that much information about the movie included, but I’m glad that the movie was discussed however briefly.

After the fourth chapter there was a section called The Comics that was a brief time line of some of the events that happened in the comics. There were pictures of the covers of several issues and a tiny bit of information on when those issues were released. There was also a little bit of information shared about some of the artists and writers that worked on the comics. It was interesting to see some of the different covers and how the artwork changed for the comic. I would have liked it if the time line was more complete and detailed since that would have made it easier to keep track of the order of some events.

For the most part, I think the information shared in Ghost Rider Visual Companion was arranged in chronological order. The chapters themselves followed in sequence of how events played out, starting with the origins of Ghost Rider and then going on to discuss Johnny, Dan, and then more recent things. Within each chapter, I’m not sure that the information was always shared in chronological order. There were times when it seemed like the author jumped ahead to share some bit of information and then returned to the a previous time. For some other events, I wasn’t sure on the exact order they happened because of the way the book kept repeating some of the information. There wasn’t even a comprehensive time line anywhere in the book that I could check for the exact order of some events like there has been in the other guides to superheroes that I have. The organization of the information could have been better to make it clearer on the exact order some things happened.

It didn’t take me long to read Ghost Rider Visual Guide since there really wasn’t much text on any of the pages. The foreword contained more text than any other two page section in the book. What was shared in the foreword was very interesting. The information in the chapters was shared in very short paragraphs that only had a sentence or two. That didn’t allow for there to be in depth information about anything. I did think the information in the book was interesting and it helped me better understand the character. I do feel like I’ll have a better idea of what is going on in the movie when I am able to see it since I’ve read this book. I would have liked it more if there had been more information and details about the characters and event included in the book.

I enjoyed Ghost Rider Visual Guide and am glad I decided to get it. I did learn a lot about the character. The book could have been organized a bit better and have had more information but it is still worth checking out. Ghost Rider is one of the darker comics that Marvel has published, so it may not be for everyone.

Ghost Rider Reviews
Ghost Rider ~

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Batman ~ Batman Returns ~ Batman Forever ~ Batman & Robin ~ Batman Begins ~ Batman: The Ultimate Guide to The Dark Knight ~ Elektra ~ Fantastic Four ~ Flash Gordon ~ The Incredibles ~ The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete First Season ~ Lois & Clark: The Complete Second Season ~ My Super Ex-Girlfriend ~ Sky High ~ Spider-Man ~ Spider-Man 2 ~ Superman Returns ~ Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel ~ X-Men ~ X2: X-Men United ~ X-Men: The Last Stand ~ X-Men: The Legend of Wolverine ~ Ultimate X-Men ~ V for Vendetta ~ Zoom ~

Recommended: Yes