May 2010

I recently scanned over two hundred of Shel’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 photos show Shelf posing as an action hero. They were in poor condition but are fun to see and are posted below.

Alan Light has previously written about how he and Shel attended the 60th Academy Awards ceremony in 1988 together using tickets that originated with Bette Davis. However, Shel had at least one additional, earlier connection to Bette Davis. Having been a great fan of Bette Davis for years, Shel wrote her a fan letter in 1987 and received a grateful reply. Retyped versions of these letters follow (with some typos corrected) with scans of the originals thereafter along with a 1948 sketch by Shel that looks a bit like Bette Davis.