Paul Howley (at left) and Rex Trailer pose for a photo at an event on 12/10/06.
After he got married in 1973, Howley began buying and selling comic books for the first time at comic book conventions in Boston, and for the next three years continued to do business at conventions in Boston and New York. In 1976 he relocated to Tennessee to help open and manage a store for a comic book retailer, then shortly afterward went to work for another comic book retailer in Ohio, traveling around the country to comic book conventions. Eventually, the arduous convention travel schedule conflicted with Howley’s desire to settle down, and he opened That’s Entertainment in Worcester MA in 1980. In 1992, he moved his store to Park Avenue, where it is currently operated. Howley also has a smaller location in Fitchburg MA.[2]
Howley credits his wife for initially encouraging the rebirth of his childhood passion for comics (which had begun at age five), and for supporting his subsequent career path. "My wife was important," Howley said, "mostly because she trusted me to take the risks necessary to open a store."[3]
Howley published officially licensed The Man From U.N.C.L.E. comic books in 1987 and 1988, under the name "Entertainment Publishing".[4] Howley also published the first and several subsequent issues of Mark Marderosian'sDelta Tenncomic book series (1987–88),[5] as well as Insect Man‘s 25th Anniversary Special in 1991. [6] Howley's Insect Man had been around since 1965 as a photocopied amateur press offering.[7] This first nationally distributed and professionally printed issue marked the character’s 25th anniversary, and included art by Rick Veitch and Kevin Eastman. In 2016 Howley published another standard-sized issue for the 50th anniversary of Insect Man. The comic featured a cover Gene Colan had penciled several years before his death; the cover was inked by Tom Palmer in the year prior to the issue's publication.[8]
With Brian Paquette, he co-authored The Toys from U.N.C.L.E., an authoritative price and identification guide for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. toys.[9] Howley, Paquette and Marderosian also produced a set of Classic Toys Trading Cards.
William Erwin Eisner was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series The Spirit (1940–1952) was noted for its experiments in content and form. In 1978, he popularized the term "graphic novel" with the publication of his book A Contract with God. He was an early contributor to formal comics studies with his book Comics and Sequential Art (1985). The Eisner Award was named in his honor and is given to recognize achievements each year in the comics medium; he was one of the three inaugural inductees to the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.
Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon, comic book shops known as Pegasus Books and founded in 1980.
Image Comics is an American comic-book publisher and is the third-largest direct-market comic-book and graphic-novel publisher in the industry by market share.
The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that were discontinued in 1987.
Nelson Alexander Ross is an American comic book writer and artist known primarily for his painted interiors, covers, and design work. He first became known with the 1994 miniseries Marvels, on which he collaborated with writer Kurt Busiek for Marvel Comics. He has since done a variety of projects for both Marvel and DC Comics, such as the 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come, which Ross co-wrote. Since then he has done covers and character designs for Busiek's series Astro City, and various projects for Dynamite Entertainment. His feature film work includes concept and narrative art for Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004), and DVD packaging art for the M. Night Shyamalan film Unbreakable (2000). He has done covers for TV Guide, promotional artwork for the Academy Awards, posters and packaging design for video games, and his renditions of superheroes have been merchandised as action figures.
Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to attract new readers to independent comic book stores. It usually takes place on the first Saturday of May and is often cross-promoted with the release of a superhero film. Over two thousand participating stores give away millions of comic books annually. The event was proposed by Joe Field in the August 2001 issue of Comics & Games Retailer magazine and Free Comic Book Day was launched in 2002, coordinated by the industry's single large distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors. FCBD has become an official Children's Book Week event and has inspired similar events for German- and Dutch-language comics industries. The twenty-first edition of FCBD was held on May 6, 2023.
Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. is an American comic book distributor serving retailers in North America and worldwide. They transport comic books and graphic novels, as well as other popular culture products such as toys, games, and apparel from comic book publishers or suppliers to retailers.
Kitchen Sink Press was a comic book publishing company founded by Denis Kitchen in 1970. Kitchen Sink Press was a pioneering publisher of underground comics, and was also responsible for numerous republications of classic comic strips in hardcover and softcover volumes. One of their best-known products was the first full reprint of Will Eisner's The Spirit—first in magazine format, then in standard comic book format. The company closed in 1999.
The Comic Art Convention (CAC) was an American comic book fan convention held annually New York City, New York, over Independence Day weekend from 1968 through 1983, except for 1977, when it was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and 1978 to 1979, when editions of the convention were held in both New York and Philadelphia. The first large-scale comics convention, and one of the largest gatherings of its kind until the Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, it grew into a major trade and fan convention. It was founded by Phil Seuling, a Brooklyn, New York City, teacher, who later developed the concept of comic-book direct marketing, which led to the rise to the modern comic book store.
STAPLE! The Independent Media Expo is an annual convention in Austin, Texas, United States, for alternative comics, minicomics, webcomics, zines, underground comics, and graphic arts. Chris Nicholas founded the conference as a gathering place for professional artists and amateur creators, "a showcase for the folks who publish comics and zines and possible literary masterworks out of their own apartments."
Strange Adventures is a comic book retail chain with three stores, all located in Canada's Maritime Provinces. All three are owned by Calum Johnston and named after a comics series published by DC from 1950 through 1973.
That's Entertainment is a comics and collectibles store in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Heroes Convention, or HeroesCon, is a comic book convention that takes place in June in Charlotte, North Carolina. The convention has been held since 1982 and is one of the oldest and largest independent comic book conventions in the United States. The convention has a history of charitable work, donating to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and the Charlotte Firefighters Burned Children's Fund. HeroesCon is organized by Shelton Drum, owner of Heroes Aren't Hard To Find, a comic book retailer just southeast of downtown Charlotte.
Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker. His son Boris Kousemaker has been the owner since 2007. From 1968 to 2015, it was located in the Kerkstraat, but in November 2015, the store moved to Koningsstraat 27. As of 2018, Lambiek is the oldest comics store in Europe, and the oldest worldwide still in existence.
Mark Marderosian is a prolific cartoonist, animator and children's book illustrator, a comic book artist and noted toy designer.
Fan Expo Chicago, is a comic book convention held during the summer in Rosemont, Illinois, United States, at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. It was traditionally a three-day event, but in 2006, it expanded to four days. It was founded in 1972 as Nostalgia '72, Chicago Comic Con and later as the Chicago Comic and Nostalgia Convention by a local dealer named Nancy Warner.
The Beguiling is a comic shop in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It specializes in underground and alternative comics, classic comic strip reprints, and foreign comics. It has built an international reputation for focusing on and promoting non-superhero comics in the superhero-dominated North American comic book market.
ACME Comics & Collectibles is a comics and collectibles store in Sioux City, Iowa. The store was awarded the 2004 "Spirit of Comics Retailer Award" at the Eisner Awards.
A comic book convention or comic con is a fan convention with a primary focus on comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels, or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activities and panels, with a larger number of attendees participating in cosplay than most other types of fan conventions. Comic book conventions are also used as a vehicle for industry, in which publishers, distributors, and retailers represent their comic-related releases. Comic book conventions may be considered derivatives of science-fiction conventions, which began in the late 1930s.
Comikaza is the first brick and mortar comic book store in Israel. In 2016 it was nominated for the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award.
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