Shel Dorf and Ken Krueger to be Honored at Comic-Con 2010

July 11, 2010

Comic-Con Founder Shel Dorf and Chairman of Comic-Con #1 Ken Krueger will be honored at Comic-Con this year. Shel and Ken, who were friends and mutual admirers, both passed away in November 2009. They are truly missed and will be long remembered. In tribute to them, Comic-Con will be presenting the following two panels this year:

Program listing for the Friday, July 23, 2010 Ken Krueger panel:

1:30-2:30 A Tribute to Ken Krueger— He was the “go-to guy” and the “adult in the room” when Comic-Con first started 41 years ago. Ken Krueger was a dynamo who helped launch the country’s largest comics and popular arts convention in 1970. Comic-Con friends and associates pay tribute to the life of this larger-than-life retailer, publisher, and fan in this special panel. Moderated by author Greg Bear (author, Quantico), and featuring fellow early Comic-Con committee members Scott Shaw! (Oddball Comics), Jim Valentino (Shadowhawk), J.M. Towry, Janice Campbell, and Wendy All. Room 3

Program listing for the Saturday, July 24, 2010 Shel Dorf panel:

4:30-6:00 Remembering Shel Dorf— Shel Dorf, who passed away on November 3, 2009, took a group of young comics and science fiction fans and helped mold their ambitions and passions into Comic-Con back in 1970. Shel was a lover of all things pop culture, especially comics and movies, and he helped set the bar early on for Comic-Con to be an event that focuses on a variety of the popular arts. A panel of Shel’s friends — many of whom worked with him on the early Comic-Cons — gather to pay tribute to him, including moderator Mike Towry and Shel’s brother Michael Dorf, along with Richard Alf, William Clausen, George Clayton Johnson, Greg Koudoulian, Matt Lorentz, Clayton Moore, Mike Pasqua, David Scroggy, and Phil Yeh. Room 5AB

This year will also see the first annual AFTERCON 2010 art show and charitable benefit auction in Shel Dorf’s honor. The event will run concurrently with Comic-Con, July 22-24, 2010 (that’s Thursday, Friday, and Saturday), from 8 PM to midnight. (For more information, visit the official AFTERCON web site at http://aftercon.blogspot.com/.)

AFTERCON Co-organizers Matt Lorentz and Mark Richmond have sent in the following images of the AFTERCON flyers:

AFTERCON 2010 Flyer Front

AFTERCON 2010 Flyer Back

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1974 San Diego Comic-Con Photos (Batch 4): Can You Identify People in the Pictures?

June 28, 2010

Here’s the fourth batch of scans from Shel Dorf’s negatives from the 1974 San Diego Comic-Con, which was held at the El Cortez Hotel with Bill Lund as Chairman. (I received the negatives from Shel’s friend and cartooning partner Charlie Roberts. There are over two hundred pictures so I’m going to post them periodically in batches. (You can see the first three batches here, here, and here.

Guests, fans, and committee members pictured include Charles Schulz, Bill Melendez, Ray Bradbury, Dave Stevens, Frank Brunner, Mike Friedrich, Don Glut, Tom Orzechowski, Barry Alfonso, Shel Dorf, Igor Goldkind, John McGeehan, and Bill Schanes.

Where I was uncertain of a name, I just put down a question mark. If you would like to help identify these people in the pictures, so that the question marks can be replaced with names, please leave a comment or send me a message by clicking on the “CONTACT” tab at the top. I’ve numbered the pictures M076-M0115 so you can easily specify which picture(s) you can identify people in.

Update 07/15/10: Thanks to former Comic-Con videographer Scott B. Smith for identifying Mitchell Augustus Walker in picture M083. (And check out Scott’s very cool scans of Comic-Con memorabilia here.)

Update 07/01/10: Thanks to Bill Lund (Chairman of the 1974 Comic-Con) for spotting John McGeehan in picture M101.

Update 07/01/10: Thanks to Mark Evanier and “booksteve” for identifying character animator, film director, producer, and “voice” of Snoopy Bill Melendez in pictures M113 and M114.

(Click on a “thumbnail” image below to view the full-size image. At the bottom of the full-size image will be a caption with some arrows on either side that you can click to view the next or previous image. You might have to scroll the display down a little for the caption and arrows to show. Click on the full-size image to close it. Alternatively, for the maximum view, right-click the thumbnail image, select to view it in a new window, then click on the newly-displayed image to “zoom” to maximum size.)

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Update to Comics Dealer Extraordinaire Robert Beerbohm: In His Own Words

June 24, 2010

Comics and collectible dealer Robert Beerbohm (who has been to every San Diego Comic-Con since the first annual event in August 1970) has sent in the following update to his personal history of his life in comics fandom. (The full article may be read here.)

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1974 San Diego Comic-Con Photos (Batch 3): Can You Identify People in the Pictures?

June 19, 2010

Here’s the third batch of scans from Shel Dorf’s negatives from the 1974 San Diego Comic-Con, which was held at the El Cortez Hotel with Bill Lund as Chairman. (I received the negatives from Shel’s friend and cartooning partner Charlie Roberts. There are over two hundred pictures so I’m going to post them periodically in batches. (You can see the first two batches here and here. Guests, fans, and committee members pictured include Kirk Alyn, Ray Bradbury, Shel Dorf, Ken Krueger, Bjo Trimble, Chairman Bill Lund, Richard Butner, Ed Nizyborski, William Crawford, Bill Schanes, and Eric Hoffman.

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1974 San Diego Comic-Con Photos (Batch 2): Can You Identify People in the Pictures?

June 12, 2010

Here’s the second batch of scans from Shel Dorf’s negatives from the 1974 San Diego Comic-Con, which was held at the El Cortez Hotel with Bill Lund as Chairman. Guests, fans, and committee members pictured include Forry Ackerman, Kirk Alyn, Frank Capra, Mike Friedrich, Jack Kirby, Russ Manning, Roy Thomas, Danton Burroughs, Camille “Caz” Cazedessus, Barry Alfonso, Igor Goldkind, and Eric Hoffman.

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1974 San Diego Comic-Con Photos (Batch 1): Can You Identify People in the Pictures?

May 31, 2010

Here’s the first batch of scans from Shel Dorf’s negatives from the 1974 San Diego Comic-Con, which was held at the El Cortez Hotel with Bill Lund as Chairman. (I received the negatives from Shel’s friend and cartooning partner Charlie Roberts. The first two negatives – which are of Shelf Dorf, action hero – were in poor condition but the rest were in good shape.) There are over two hundred pictures so I’m going to post them periodically in batches. Professional guests pictured include Brad Anderson, Russ Manning, and Roy Thomas. Comic-Con committee members pictured include Barry Alfonso, Shel Dorf, and Igor Goldkind.

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When the Friends of Hobbits were Friends of Comic-Con

May 27, 2010

Alan Scrivener has recently posted online a history of the early days of San Diego Tolkien fandom, particularly the San Diego branch of the Mythopoeic Society known as the Society of the Friends of Hobbits. Alan’s article is titled “Ron Cearns and the Society of Friends of Hobbits (S.O.F.O.H.) OR On the Prehistory of Comic-Con in the Grossmont High School Tolkien Club and Some Other Related Notes.” You can read it at http://www.well.com/user/abs/SOFOH/sofoh.html.

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My Dinner with Timothy Leary

May 11, 2010

I was nineteen and I had a date with The Devil. His name had been on the evening news throughout the 1960’s. His philosophy fit on a lapel button: “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out.” He was infamous – he was notorious. He was Dr. Timothy Leary, a former college professor and psychedelic guru speaking at student protests, marching to his unique beat. It was Comic-Con 1976.

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The Most Important Ads in Comic-Con History

April 21, 2010

In 1969, San Diego comics fan Barry Alfonso and comics dealer Richard Alf placed the ads that led to the creation and early success of Comic-Con.

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Video: Conversations with George Clayton Johnson and Lola Johnson

March 23, 2010

On July 19, 1997, after a long day spent at San Diego’s Comic-Con International, author George Clayton Johnson (Twilight Zone, Star Trek, Logan’s Run, Ocean’s 11, Kung Fu) and his wife, Lola Johnson, sat for a videotaped interview at the San Diego, CA home of Roy L. Dobbs, Jr. The interview features the off-camera voices of Comic-Con’s Founder, Shel Dorf, and the Chairman of Comic-Con #1, Ken Krueger. The video is presented here courtesy of George Clayton Johnson and Greg Koudoulian.

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