The following video is from the Shel Dorf Archives and was kindly made available by Charlie Roberts. The interview was originally videotaped by Tom French, who ran the San Diego Comic-Con dealers room for many years. At the time of the interview, Shel was the letterer for Caniff’s comic strip Steve Canyon. The interview is divided into eleven parts and there is a description of the highlights of each part following the video player.
January 2010
I (Mike Towry) have been scanning some of Shel Dorf’s old film negatives and came across two great pictures of Shel with guests at the 1973 San Diego Comic-Con, which was held at the Sheraton Harbor Island Hotel. Pictured with Shel are voice actress June Foray and D.C. comics artist and editor Carmine Infantino.
At the ComicConMemories.com web site, you can listen to audio recordings of many committe members and guest speakers from the first San Diego’s Golden State Comic-Con, which was held August 1st thru 3rd, 1970 in the U.S. Grant Hotel. The list of those recorded includes the following: Shel Dorf, Ken Krueger, Barry Alfonso, Greg Bear, Ray Bradbury, Roger Freedman, Mark Hanerfeld, Earl Kemp, Jack Kirby, Scott Shaw!, and Morrie Turner.
The new online, Fall 2009 edition of the Comic-Con Magazine is available from http://www.comic-con.org/common/cc_magazine.shtml. It features very nice articles on San Diego Comic-Con International Founder Shel Dorf (pages 4-5) and Chairman of Comic-Con #1 Ken Krueger (page 6). There is also a great picture of Ken with some of the original Comic-Con crew at the 2009 Comic-Con on page 36.
Jack Kirby (left) and Shel Dorf — Nov. 9, 1969