Here’s the fifth 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.
Convention Guests/Participants
Artist Matt Lorentz (who co-produced the AfterCon art show to benefit the Shel Dorf New Talent Encouragement Fund during Comic-Con 2010) just sent us the above picture. Here’s what he wrote about it.
If a year were to be chosen for the founding of comic fandom, 1961 is the best choice, that 2011 will be the 50th anniversary of that founding – without which there would be no comic cons – and that this would make a great and appropriate theme for Comic-Con International 2011. Now I know that with Comic-Con International 2010 little more than a month in the past and the APE and Wondercon conventions looming ahead, the Comic-Con staff and board members are probably not particularly anxious to start programming for CCI 2011, but I think the best possible guest of honor to invite would be Roy Thomas and that Jerry Bails – who passed away in 2006 – should receive recognition as a posthumous guest of honor in spirit. I think it would also be very cool if Dick and Pat Lupoff and Maggie Thompson were invited as special guests in connection with the anniversary theme. Anyone else agree?
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.
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.
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.
I’ve scanned another batch of some of San Diego Comic-Con Founder Shel Dorf’s old film negatives. (I received the negatives from Shel’s friend and cartooning partner Charlie Roberts and I’ve got another 200 to 300 still left to scan from the 1973 and 1974 Comic-Cons.) Below you will find a batch of his black-and-white pictures from the 1973 Comic-Con. I’ve identified people in photos where I was reasonably certain of their identities.
