Summer shenanigans.

Spider-Man 2  The Hunt For Creature Feature Skip to this  The Josh Sullivan Encounter Skip to this Also....    A note from ED Tucker on Ray Dennis Steckler    1 (one) CURE Tampa concert ticket available

Just as this week's PCR was being "put to bed", word came over the wires that legendary actor Marlon Brando had died at the age of 80. Check next week's PCR for a fuller account on our feelings regarding this man's contributions to motion pictures. --Nolan

I'm a little late getting the front page out this week because I couldn't resist the temptation to see Spider-Man 2. Mike Smith's Review, this week's issue, does an outstanding job of encapsulating the whole movie without any spoilers and I am in agreement that it's a 4-star movie---how many super-hero flicks can assume such bragging rights?

I will add to Mike's comments that it is among the best super-hero movies I have ever seen, possibly the best, and I've never even been the world's biggest Spider-Man fan! If ever there was a comic-to-movie translation that fully captured the best spirit of the Stan Lee originals, this is it.

I'm also late because Scott (my movie companion) and I went to a late lunch, then I had a brief meeting with Sir Terence of Nuzum that couldn't wait. So, please forgive a few indiscretions on my part, but it was just one of those days.

The Dr. Paul Bearer Database Project adds a powerful, yet familiar ally

So Andy Lalino contacts me about a week ago and tells me that one of our oldest correspondents, a Mr. Lonnie Dohlen from St. Petersburg, is meeting us at the St. Pete Public Library to aid in researching our Dr. Paul Bearer Database. I was not sure what to expect, but it wasn't all that much outside of a free trip and maybe lunch.

Lonnie met us at the door, 11:00am sharp (more or less on our part) carrying a manilla envelope packed with papers. After brief introductions were made (it's always a hoot meeting someone in person you've only previously know through emails and such), we went inside to see what Lonnie had and to get started on our project.

Although Lonnie Dohlen looks kind of like an army drill sergeant at first glance, he is soft-spoken in the extreme and seemingly painfully shy. I have a feeling he's very slow to warm to strangers. In any event, he certainly knows his way around the St. Pete Public Library! And, in retrospect, I can think of few, if any, more compulsive Dr. Paul Bearer trivia/newsclips collectors.

Andy and I had been talking about research on "micro-fiche", but it turns out our targeted material was located on good, old-fashioned "micro-film"....the kind that looks like 35mm film images of newsprint and pretty much is. This is familiar territory to Lonnie.

We started by examining a small treasure trove of newspaper clippings and copied repro's of many articles related to Dick Bennick and his alter-ego, Dr. Paul Bearer. These are now in the possession of Mr. Lalino for the purpose of sorting out and cross-referencing.

Lonnie Dohlen, left, and Nolan Canova in the micro-film room at the St. Pete Public Library.

Next, we settled down by the micro-film viewer, which I can best describe as a sort of old-fashioned editing movieola, but rearranged. As the film is wound through, the life-size images of decades-old newsprint play before your eyes. Here and there, retro-ads for department stores, used cars, and of course, old first-run movies are displayed (when's the last time you could see "The Devil and Miss Jones" at the local bijou?) Our target, however, was the Sunday newspaper TV Guides from the early '70s. This would be the start of a research project that would hopefully tell us, chapter and verse, what was on Creature Feature every weekend over the next 20 years! Little did we know, that we would also discover Terminus, Shriek Theater, and Fright Theater as well (I think it's been determined that Shock Theater had already ceased production by the early '70s. Terminus, an old favorite of mine from the '60s I remembered for being more hard-core for some reason was not listed as "Terminus" per se---but Lonnie says it was and I tend to believe him)

One more thing about Lonnie before I turn over the reigns here. I mentioned another character we're doing a feature on soon, a Mr. Jimmy Vestal, also from St. Pete and a collector of sorts. And Lonnie says, "Yes, I remember you mentioning him in issue 168." He remembers it was issue 168 folks---I don't even remember that!!!!

I will leave the rest of this story in the capable hands of Andy Lalino--for his outstanding overview of the Tuesday-that-changed-history, please see this issue's Oddservations.

Pictured above right: Some of the papers Lonnie Dohlen brought with him to the library. Among them are news stories about Bennick's early career from Winston-Salem, NC, to his many Halloween appearances, to his unfortunate death notices.

NOTE: Andy Lalino will be taking over the collating and posting of all Dr. Paul Bearer-related material for the CF database. I am in the process of configuring a special section on my servers for him to have access to. You can send any and all updates to me or to him.--Nolan

Meanwhile in another part of St. Petersburg...

After we left the St. Pete Public Library, I imposed on Andy for one last favor before departing for Tampa: there was someone special I'd been wanting to meet for ages but my every effort thus far had been thwarted, usually due to my currently damnable transportation woes, and once at MegaCon '04 because I simply wasn't paying attention.

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE    They will open in a new window.
Joshua Sullivan behind the counter at the Globe Coffeehouse.
Nolan Canova and Josh Sullivan. The larger book I'm holding is a $7 compendium of Josh's comic art, unfortunately overexposed in this pic.
Josh's bad motor scooter parked behind the Coffeehouse! Adorned with many of his comic characters, it's very personalized.
From "Chauncey", #13
From "Toenails", #1
I found this one on a table on my way out of the Coffeehouse!

Somewhere between one and two years ago, Chris Dumais of Legion Studios sent me the link to a site that in his email was simply labeled as "a cool Tampa Bay-based comics website you should check out" or words to that effect. I was taken to joshcomics.com and what unfolded before me was a huge site built single-handedly by a very young man with huge dreams, huge ambitions, and huge talent. Josh himself, as he would crack with typical self-effacing humor, was not huge, but quite small---a (now) 22-year-old man who looked like a 14 or 15-year-old teenager. While I was entranced by the comics work posted on his website, I found it unfortunate to discover there were virtually no decent pictures of Josh posted anywhere to get a perspective on what he's talking about. I contacted him via email, then we got to IMing occasionally over the past few months. I was alerted to at least three special events he'd arranged and I couldn't make any of 'em. I was determined that if I ever got to St. Pete (Josh's actual base of operations), I'd look him up.

The young man with the impish grin you see in the images at left is Josh Sullivan. (The big, fat funny-looking guy with the grey beard and suspenders is yours truly---duh). Because Andy and I were on such a tight schedule, I was unable to get any but the sketchiest personal facts in a very short time, but really you can get to know Josh from his website. Every pixel oozes with self-expression.

Josh was born and raised in Saginaw, Michigan, and moved to St. Pete with his family in December of 1999. Josh Comics the website went active in May of 2000 (about the same time as Crazed Fanboy, coincidentally enough). A lifelong crazed comics fan, he is particularly enamored of punk culture--in comics, music, art, everything. Most references on his website point in this direction as well. He even has a band he fronts called Can't Do It. Can't Do It is ska--that's all you gotta know---SKA. (I haven't heard them live yet, but I have heard music files---interesting stuff.)

You might think he'd be an arrogant little shit in person, but somehow I knew he wouldn't be and I wasn't disappointed. Josh is amazingly open and friendly and very generous. Like I said his every pore oozes self-expression, and he doesn't mind promoting his friends' art along with his own. The three photographs I've included are from the Globe Coffeehouse, 532 1st Ave. N (on the corner of 1st Ave. N. and 5 St.), downtown St. Pete where Josh has worked 4 of the last 5 years the Coffeehouse has been in existence. I also had the pleasure of meeting his co-worker (boss?) JoEllen, his fiancé Jennifer, and another young man named Matt who I believe is being recruited for Can't Do It. And I promised Josh for the umpteenth time I would somehow get a decent sit-down interview accomplished for The World of Nolan (of course, even as I said that, I was informed another magazine/website was due in to interview him the same afternoon). But at least I can mark this occasion with this feature you're reading now.

The Globe Coffeehouse itself, host to many artist gatherings, is very alive with paintings, sculptures and drawings mounted/stapled/nailed/taped to any available square inch on all four walls. Everyone is very friendly and I simply must make my way back there at night sometime. (I wish I had thought to snap a couple more pics of it--oh well, maybe next time.)

Josh Comics may not be for everybody. The art is punk-primitive/underground, the humor is ribald (that's a polite way of saying profane), like the star of Josh Comics, Chauncey the pig-dog, who has nothing good to say about nearly anything but does so in a hilarious in-your-face fashion. In my opinion. It is also important to note that Josh's artwork has appeared on posters, magazine and CD covers, and much of it is for sale on his site and on eBay---and does pretty well. Start saving up, because I smell cult hero here!

One Ticket available for THE CURE concert for Sunday, July 25, 2004, 5:00pm. Concert is being held at the new Florida Ampitheater (Tampa Fairgrounds) and will also feature Interpol, The Rapture, and Mogwai. The Cure ticket is for section 304, Row P, Seat 36. $40. (Ticket originally was $60.) Please contact Terence Nuzum at CTHULHU05@aol.com.

That's it for this week, folks, outta time! Have a safe and happy Fourth of July! See you next week! --Nolan