Mood:
caffeinatedTopic: Comic Cons
Last week I blogged about the passing of Shel(don) Dorf, the Founder of the San Diego Comic Con.... Of course I wasn't the only one... there were many blog posts, and several TV segments about the man who passed away at the age of 76 after an extended hospital stay. Shel was also mentioned as being 'involved' in the Detroit Triple Fan Fair before coming out to the San Diego area. Below are paragraphs from earlier blog posts I published after meeting Rick Murphy out here in Carlsbad of all places back in February of 2008. Rick had moved out here temporarily and he noticed my comic book t-shirt I was wearing while out on errands one day. He struck up a conversation with me, and said he had a mini-warehouse of personal effects. We went over the items that he had in his personal collection, and I helped him sell a few at that the time. Since then Rick has moved on to the Las Vegas area. My thanks again for the info that he was able to share with me before leaving the SoCal area! The illustration shown at the top right of this post is a reproduction of the 1st appearance of the Detroit Triple Fan Fair (DTFF). One item in Rick's collection was one of these 14" x 22" poster boards that was used to promote the 1st Triple Fan Fair! However Dan's original was discolored with age. Data on the DTFF is scarce... The Michigan State Universities, Special Collections Division, has either Progress Reports or Program Books dating from 1969 to 1977 from the Detroit Triple Fan Fair history, but they are Sstill not accessible online (click here for call numbers). At the time of this posting there is a copy of the 1973 program book for sale @ $30.00 in 'Fine' grade online. The first Detroit Triple Fan Fair, (DTFF), was held at the Embassy Hotel on Cadillac Square during July 24th thru 25th, 1965. Admission Charge was only $2.00 for BOTH Days! Compare that to the Comic Con International held in San Diego, (SDCC), where it now costs a minimum of $100.00 for a Four Day Pass with or without Preview Night included for the 2010 Con! Dan Murphy told me that he was only 13 when the first Detroit Triple Fan Fair, (DTFF), was promoted in 1965. For those of you that are not from that area, Detroit held one of the earliest 'Comic Cons' in the USA, tying New York City for the earliest! When researching further for my earlier blog posts I found that the DTFF was actually the first multimedia convention ever held, for comics, movies, and science fiction in 1965! At the time Dan was looking for a collector or museum that would like to purchase it to add it their collection. I am no longer selling those items for Dan, so you would have to contact him directly... Dan remembered Rich Buckler, Greg Theakston, Shel Dorf, and Larry Larson among others that were working on the Fair during the early years. I didn't get a chance to ask Dan abut Jerry Bails, who was also on the 'organizing committee' for the first DTFF. Matter of fact, the Poster Board that Dan has, actually contains art by Larry Larson and Shel Dorf! It would appear that while Shel was in Detroit, he had joined the art staff of the Detroit Free Press. It was there that he did photo retouching and some cartooning, thus picking up the skills he used at the DTFF and later at the SDCC. Shel was also listed as 'Chairman' in the promotional literature for that con. Shel actually continued in several capacities there until the fall of 1969. That's when he moved to San Diego where his parents had retired. It was there in San Diego that Shel preliminarily designed the first logo for the San Diego Comic Con, which was very similar to his design for the Detroit Triple Fan Fair, (which is in the top right of the above mentioned poster). Rich Buckler went as a fan the first year, but ending up running things with Robert Brosch as co-chairmen of the Fair. Rich went on to develope Deathlok for Marvel, Reagan's Raiders for Solson, and other projects. Initially the committee on the Triple Fan Fair were all sci-fi fans, which is how many of the early comic cons were modeled on! The committee's nickname was 'The Misfits' for Michigan Science Fiction Society. Shel Dorf then moved to San Diego, where he was the Founder of the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) that has been blogged about so much here. This blog post is just added today to fill in some more back history on Shel and the DTFF, which is the experience he gained and used to help guide the younger members of the early SDCC when getting it off the ground floor in 1969. Thanks again to Dan who filled me in with what he remembered about the early years of the DTFF, and Shel's activities there! AND... Thanks again to all of YOU reading our current and archived blog posts! We do blog daily on comic book creators, comic book reviews, comic cons, and other pop culture news and events including some TV shows and theatrical films as they are shown! PLUS... Welcome to ALL of You that were reading the eBay Version of our Blog prior to eBay closing 'their eBay blogs platform'. That version of our Blog had 1.37 MILLION page views before the closure... However, This Blog version is the same Blog that has been published at the same time the eBay version was being published. I've been publishing this version since September 2007, so it has the same Fun Stuff You are used to on the eBay version you were reading! Speaking of eBay... Be sure to check out our new listings of comics, graphic novels, Comic Con exclusives and more pop culture items for sale in our online eBay Featured Store that our blogs are based on! It's due to sales at this online store that keep us going with the ability to post blogs like the one you have read here today! ~ Michael @ ComicBookCollectorsBlog.com
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COMIC CON PHOTOS FEATURETTE: It is due to Shel Dorf and other co-founders of the SDCC that Make It So Marketing Inc. even exists today, as the 'roots' of this company go back to when I first started selling comics at the 1972 SDCC while in college! 
