Category: Comic Books

Special Guest Post: Paul Howley on TV

Coming up on Saturday, October 25th, 48 Hours|Mystery will feature the unsolved murder of Dr. Linda Goudey. As explained a while ago, Carol and I helped CBS News with the background research. Paul Howley has that beat. He’s going to appear on a TV show:

We’ve had an interesting and fun few days with our daughter, Cassy. Cassy got a phone call from one of her agents, offering her a job, acting in an “infomercial.” For those who don’t watch much television, an infomercial is a commercial that is disguised as an actual entertainment program that contains a sales-pitch for some product…in this case it was for a hair straightening appliance.

Cassy accepted the assignment and thanked the agent for the job. Cassy mentioned that she hoped this was just the beginning of a good relationship with this agent. The agent expressed surprise that her office hadn’t gotten her any other jobs before and promised to be thinking of Cassy a bit more when possible acting jobs came up. About two minutes later, another employee from the same agency called and offered Cassy a job as an “extra” on the hit TV show “Burn Notice.” (“Burn Notice” is an action-adventure-spy show that stars Jeffrey Donovan and Bruce Campbell, broadcast on USA Network at 9 pm on Thursdays.) This show was filming in Miami on Monday and the infomercial was going to be filmed in Coral Springs the next day.

Since Cassy was required to be at the filming location (a public park in Miami) by 6:30 in the morning (and we live about 2 hours away) we decided that we’d book a hotel about one mile away from the location and after Cassy got out of work (she works at a restaurant) at 8pm on Sunday, we drove to Miami. Cassy’s husband, Tom, was happy that we could go with Cassy because he couldn’t get time off from his job to go with her.

When we arrived, Cassy checked in with the production guy. Mal and I explained to him that we reaaally enjoyed “Burn Notice” and we had hoped that we’d be allowed to watch as Cassy worked on the set. He told us to wait around for a few minutes and when he returned he asked if Mal and I would be interested in being “extras” also. We’d each get paid $100 and we’d be right in the same area as Cassy, so we agreed to do it. We certainly had no intention of asking to be hired as an “extra” so we wore our normal clothes. Mal looked nice (as usual) but I was wearing a dark t-shirt and blue jeans (also as usual). The wardrobe supervisor approved of Mal’s clothes but there was a definite restriction…no blue jeans or dark colored t-shirts. Since the TV show takes place in Miami, the producers want “Florida” colors. She sent me to the wardrobe trailer to get more a more appropriate shirt. She’d make an exception for me so I could wear my blue-jeans. They gave me a hideous, faded yellow t-shirt with a Jamaica Yacht Club logo and palm trees on it. Really not my style.

Continue reading Special Guest Post: Paul Howley on TV

Paul Howley’s Life In Comics

The comments by “paul” you sometimes see here on DogRat are from Paul Howley, the owner of That’s Entertainment, the biggest and best comic book store in Massachusetts. In fact, Paul has twice won the Eisner Award for excellence in comics retailing.

That\'s Entertainment, Worcester, MA

Paul HowleyI met Paul Howley when I was in college, but not as a fellow comic book fan and collector. It was during the time in my life when I considered myself to be a Born Again Christian.

Paul was a member of The Freedom Farm in Bolton, MA, a meeting place for young Christians, and that was where we were introduced, during my freshman year of college. A friend who knew about my hobby pulled me over and said, “You’ve got to meet Paul. He’s really into comic books too.” Paul has no recollection of this, but that’s perfectly understandable, as he and his wife were regulars — they even lived there for a while — and I was just one of a lot of new faces.

Paul and I graduated from our respective high schools the same year, but we took very different paths in life. My entire focus after high school was to put myself through college in four straight years, and that was what I did. When Paul got out of high school he married his girlfriend, and with a loan from his parents he bought a house! Talk about getting a jump start on real life. I didn’t buy my first house until I was 32.

While in high school, on my own I started attending a Lutheran church. In college I hooked up with the Christian fellowship group, which was dominated by Campus Crusade for Christ. CCC was, and I assume still is, a very conservative group. I was even told that the “competing” campus organization, Intervarsity, represented at another school, was too liberal.

A student leader, representing the interests of Campus Crusade, visited me in my dorm room, and he spotted my comic books. One title in particular caught his attention — Tomb of Dracula, illustrated by one of my favorite artists, Gene Colan. This panel, from issue #16, concerned him.

Tomb of Dracula #16, page 23

“This is of Satan,” I was told. “You must give up comic books.” Good thing I didn’t have any EC horror comics from the 50’s in my room! Gene Colan’s corpse was rather tame compared to a ghastly Graham Ingels drawing.

I’m so opinionated and pig-headed, it’s difficult for me to comprehend how I could have been so impressionable and easily influenced back then, but I was. So I gave up buying comics. I was busy with many other things in my life, and money was short anyway, but in fact I was worried that I was under the influence of Satan. And then I met Paul.

At one of the Freedom Farm get-togethers I told Paul what I’d been told about comics by the Campus Crusade guy. Paul did a double take, and with an expression that can best be described as the way Seinfeld looks when hearing something incredibly stupid, he said the idea that comic books were of Satan was ridiculous. Paul saw absolutely no conflict between being a Christian and being a comic book fan. That was exactly what I needed to hear, and I went back to reading and buying comic books. Soon afterward I starting hanging out with my best pal, D.F. Rogers, and that was that.

Many years later, ten years ago, Paul brought Gene Colan to That’s Entertainment, and I was able to meet Gene and his wife Adrienne. I was unable to attend their next visit, because I was recovering from my eye surgeries for a detached retina. A few years ago, Eric met his favorite comic strip cartoonist at That’s Entertainment — Bill Griffith, who does Zippy the Pinhead.

Paul Howley is an entrepreneur who has succeeded doing something he enjoys. I admire that greatly. Being an independent businessman, Paul is, understandably, a Republican, while I’m a high tech salaryman Democrat. We’ve both had our ups and downs in life, but Paul and his wife have suffered the loss of their son, and my heart goes out to them.

Paul’s autobiography, told with honesty and candor, is available on his eBay blog. The earliest entry is part 9, but the first eight parts can be found on the store’s Web site. It may not be apparent, because I write mostly about my interests, and not much about my personal life, but reading “Paul Howley’s Life in Comics” was a big influence on my decision to start blogging two years ago, so that’s another reason for me to thank him.

Coming up next: Paul Howley’s TV Adventure!

McCloud Computing

Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud, creator of the independent comic book series ZOT! and author of the book Understanding Comics, has created an online comic book for Google, explaining the new Chrome browser.

Chrome sounds interesting, mostly because of its independent tabs, but I’ll wait a bit before jumping on it. Computerworld’s review of Chrome is very good. Ever have a page in one tab lock up, resulting in a crash of the whole browser, or forcing you to crash it? Sure you have, so if you have at least a gig of memory you will like independent tabs.

McCloud, who grew up in Massachusetts, changed the spelling of his name from McLeod when he started working in comics. I know this because his mother’s apartment happens to be around the corner from my mother-in-law, in the retirement community where they live. I assume Scott wanted to avoid confusion with comic book artist Bob McLeod, who was already established in the business at the time McCloud came on the scene.