A tribute to Shel Dorf, founder of San Diego's Comic-Con International
From the category archives:
On February 20, 2010, the Glendale, California specialty bookstore Mystery and Imagination Bookshop hosted a signing for the new anthology of new and/or previously unpublished weird stories The Bleeding Edge. Authors in attendance included Ray Bradbury, George Clayton Johnson, and many more. At the signing, Bradbury was happy to receive from Greg Koudoulian his very own, personalized Shel Dorf Fan Club Badge.
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Greg Koudoulian organized another gathering of the Shel Dorf Fan Club and George Clayton Johnson Entourage in remembrance of Shel Dorf and the early years of Comic-Con. This latest event was on February 13, 2010 and was attended by Wendy All and Greg Koudoulian from the Los Angeles area, Clayton Moore from Victorville, and Richard Alf, Anthony Keith, Alan Scrivener, Mike Rossi, and Mike Towry from San Diego.
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Artist Matt Lorentz sent in the following two new pictures of the giant greeting card that he took around Comic-Con 2009 so that many artist friends and admirers of Shel could sketch on it for him. (See previous article “Artist Matt Lorentz Remembers Shel Dorf”.)
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Inside Comics #2, August 1974 (published by Galaxy News Service) featured a Mark Evanier article titled “The Mini-Cons That Attacked Southern California!” The article focused on one-day mini-conventions, in particular Greg Koudoulian’s First Sunday Club and the Super Sunday convention produced by David Alexander and Terry Stroud. One other small convention that was featured was the King Kon put on by Comic-Con International’s own Shel Dorf and Ken Krueger. The following is an excerpt from that article reprinted with the author’s permission.
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Ken Krueger passed away on Saturday, November 21, 2009. He will be sorely missed by family and friends. As a teenager, Ken Krueger attended the first-ever science fiction convention, the 1939 Worldcon. As an adult, thirty years later, he helped create what has become the premier comics and pop-culture convention, Comic-Con International, for which he served as chairman of the first full convention in August, 1970. In the intervening and subsequent years, Ken was active as a mail-order book seller, book store owner, small-press publisher, periodical distributor and distributor’s rep, and all-around friend to fans and fandom, serving as mentor and life coach to many young fans and aspiring professionals.
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Artist Matt Lorentz remembers Shel Dorf as the great connector, bringing together artists and fostering careers. Matt accompanied Shel on many of his legendary field trips, including visits with Chuck Jones, Mel Lazarus, and Forry Ackerman. At Comic-Con 2009, Matt Lorentz took a poster-sized greeting card around for many artists to draw on for Shel.
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Picture of Shel Dorf and his brother, Michael Dorf, with Chester Gould in 1949 taken outside the Gould family farmhouse. The picture is accompanied by an audio clip of Michael Dorf telling the story of the Dorf-family visit to see Chester Gould in Woodstock, Illinois. (A transcript of the recording is included.)
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On Sunday, November 9, 1969, Shel Dorf led a group of San Diego comic fans on their first pilgrimage to the home of Jack Kirby, who had recently moved from New York to Irvine in Orange County, California. Travelling with Shel were the rest of the first Comic-Con committee – Richard Alf, Barry Alfonso, Dan Stewart, Bob Sourk, and Mike Towry – a young friend of Barry’s named Wayne Kincaid, and Barry’s mother, Sylvia Alfonso. We all piled into a rented station wagon and Shel drove us to our rendezvous with destiny.
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Audio link to recording of Comic-Con 2009 Secret Origins panel with Comic-Con #1 committee members Richard Alf, Barry Alfonso, Greg Bear, Dave Clark, Roger Freedman, Ken Krueger, Bill Lund, Scott Shaw!, and Mike Towry. Includes transcript of Richard’s account of Shel Dorf’s early guidance as Comic-Con founder.
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On April 11, 1988, Shel Dorf attended the 60th Anniversary Academy Awards (Oscars) ceremony in the company of Alan Light and friends. Their tickets originated with famed actress Bette Davis.
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Jack Kirby (left) and Shel Dorf — November 9, 1969