Detroit Triple Fan Fair
Encyclopedia
The Detroit Triple Fan Fair (DTFF) was a multigenre convention held annually in Detroit, Michigan
, from 1965 to 1978. It is credited as being the first regularly held convention featuring comic books as a major component. The Triple Fan Fair also gave balanced coverage to historic film showings (often running all night long for the convention's duration) and science-fiction literature, in a manner that provided a template for many future convention organizers — most of which have yet to attain the same level of equal service to this sort of linked fan base.
, Robert Brusch organized a Detroit-based convention for fans of the comic book medium. Jerry Bails
, the "father of comics fandom," was on the organizing committee, along with members of the Michigan Science Fiction Society (the so-called "Misfits.") The next year
Bails and local comics enthusiast Shel Dorf
took over the event, christening it the "Detroit Triple Fan Fair" (referring to fantasy literature, fantasy films, and comic art) and organizing it as an annual event. The first official DTFF took place July 24–25th, 1965, at the Embassy Hotel in Detroit. Admission charge was $2.00 for both days.
In what soon became a trend, aspiring local comic book creators flocked to the early events, and often became involved with organizing the annual show. For instance, the then-18-year-old Carl Lundgren
was co-chairman of the 1965 DTFF, and Rich Buckler
also attended the initial shows as a teenager, eventually "running things" along with originator Robert Brosch. Co-founder Dorf left Detroit and the DTFF for Southern California in 1970
, where he immediately founded what became the San Diego Comic-Con. Local artist Greg Theakston
became a major player in the DTFF from 1970 to 1978, coming to "own" it after working on a dozen shows.
Letterer Ken Bruzenak
attended the 1969
convention, where he met his hero Jim Steranko
, and also crossed paths with future collaborator Howard Chaykin
for the first time. Arvell Jones
recalls many members of the so-called "Detroit Mob" making appearances at various shows, including Buckler, Theakston, Tom Orzechowski
, Keith Pollard
, Jim Starlin
, Mike Vosburg
, Al Milgrom
, Terry Austin
, and Michael Netzer (Nasser).
The 1972 convention featured guests Gene Roddenberry
and Majel Barrett
. The 1973 DTFF was held over Memorial Day
weekend.
Other guests included Barry Smith
(then Conan the Barbarian
artist), The Shadow
artist Mike Kaluta, film special effects creator Ray Harryhausen
, film animation artist and director Chuck Jones
, and film director George A. Romero
.
There was a Triple Fan Fair held in the late 1980s at the now-defunct Troy Hilton in Troy, Michigan
. The guest of honor at that event was Jack Kirby
.
The newly established Detroit Fanfare's website openly acknowledges its debt to the Detroit Triple Fan Fair:
program was dedicated to Jack Kirby
. It has a Western-themed cover by Jim Steranko
and interior art pages by Neal Adams
and Bernie Wrightson
. The 1974 program featured a cover illustration of The Spirit by Will Eisner
.
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, from 1965 to 1978. It is credited as being the first regularly held convention featuring comic books as a major component. The Triple Fan Fair also gave balanced coverage to historic film showings (often running all night long for the convention's duration) and science-fiction literature, in a manner that provided a template for many future convention organizers — most of which have yet to attain the same level of equal service to this sort of linked fan base.
History
In 19641964 in comics
See also:1963 in comics,other events of 1964,1965 in comics,1960s in comics and thelist of years in comicsPublications: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December-January:...
, Robert Brusch organized a Detroit-based convention for fans of the comic book medium. Jerry Bails
Jerry Bails
Jerry Gwin Bails was an American popular culturist. Known as the "Father of Comic Book Fandom", he was one of the first to approach the comic book field as a subject worthy of academic study, and was a primary force in establishing 1960s comics fandom.- Early life :Jerry G. Bails was born June...
, the "father of comics fandom," was on the organizing committee, along with members of the Michigan Science Fiction Society (the so-called "Misfits.") The next year
1965 in comics
See also:1964 in comics,other events of 1965,1966 in comics,1960s in comics and thelist of years in comicsPublications: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December-January:...
Bails and local comics enthusiast Shel Dorf
Shel Dorf
Sheldon "Shel" Dorf was an American comic-strip letterer and freelance artist and the founder of the San Diego Comic-Con International...
took over the event, christening it the "Detroit Triple Fan Fair" (referring to fantasy literature, fantasy films, and comic art) and organizing it as an annual event. The first official DTFF took place July 24–25th, 1965, at the Embassy Hotel in Detroit. Admission charge was $2.00 for both days.
In what soon became a trend, aspiring local comic book creators flocked to the early events, and often became involved with organizing the annual show. For instance, the then-18-year-old Carl Lundgren
Carl Lundgren (illustrator)
Carl Lundgren is an American artist and illustrator, primarily known for his 1960s-era rock posters and fantasy art.-Career:...
was co-chairman of the 1965 DTFF, and Rich Buckler
Rich Buckler
Rich Buckler is an American comic book artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Fantastic Four in the mid-1970s and, with writer Doug Moench, co-creating the character Deathlok in Astonishing Tales #25...
also attended the initial shows as a teenager, eventually "running things" along with originator Robert Brosch. Co-founder Dorf left Detroit and the DTFF for Southern California in 1970
1970 in comics
This is a list of comics-related events in 1970.- Events and publications :* Denis Kitchen founds Kitchen Sink Press in Princeton, Wisconsin-January:...
, where he immediately founded what became the San Diego Comic-Con. Local artist Greg Theakston
Greg Theakston
Greg Allen Theakston is an American comics artist and illustrator who has worked for numerous publishers. In addition to his many contributions to books and magazines, he is known for developing the Theakstonizing process used in comics restoration. He has used the pseudonym Earl P...
became a major player in the DTFF from 1970 to 1978, coming to "own" it after working on a dozen shows.
Letterer Ken Bruzenak
Ken Bruzenak
Ken Bruzenak is an award-winning American comic book letterer, primarily known for his work on Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! Bruzenak's lettering and logowork was integral to the comic's futuristic, trademark-littered ambiance...
attended the 1969
1969 in comics
This is a list of comics-related events in 1969.- Year overall :* Paragon Publications established in Longwood, Florida, by Bill Black.* George Klein, long-time Superman inker, dies in his fifties from cirrhosis of the liver, six months after getting married.-February:* The Golden Age character...
convention, where he met his hero Jim Steranko
Jim Steranko
James F. Steranko is an American graphic artist, comic book writer-artist-historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator....
, and also crossed paths with future collaborator Howard Chaykin
Howard Chaykin
Howard Victor Chaykin is an American comic book writer and artist famous for his innovative storytelling and sometimes controversial material...
for the first time. Arvell Jones
Arvell Jones
Arvell Jones is an American comic book illustrator best known for his work for Marvel Comics, and for DC Comics and its imprint Milestone Media.-Biography:...
recalls many members of the so-called "Detroit Mob" making appearances at various shows, including Buckler, Theakston, Tom Orzechowski
Tom Orzechowski
Tom Orzechowski is an award-winning comic book letterer, primarily known for his work on Uncanny X-Men. Over the course of Orzechowski's career, he has lettered something on the order of 6,000 pages of Chris Claremont's scripts.-Early career:In 1968, when Orzechowski was 15, he met a group of...
, Keith Pollard
Keith Pollard
Keith Pollard is an American comic book artist. Originally from the Detroit area, Pollard is best known for his simultaneous work on the Marvel Comics titles Fantastic Four, Thor, and The Amazing Spider-Man in the late 1970s-early 1980s.Pollard made his professional comics debut in 1974 with...
, Jim Starlin
Jim Starlin
James P. "Jim" Starlin is an American comic book writer and artist. With a career dating back to the early 1970s, he is best known for "cosmic" tales and space opera; for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock; and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters...
, Mike Vosburg
Mike Vosburg
Mike Vosburg is an American comic book artist primarily known for his work on the Tales from the Crypt TV series.-Biography:...
, Al Milgrom
Al Milgrom
Allen "Al" Milgrom is an American comic book writer, penciller, inker and editor, primarily for Marvel Comics. He is known for his 10-year run as editor of Marvel Fanfare; his long involvement as writer, penciler, and inker on Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man; his four-year tenure as West...
, Terry Austin
Terry Austin (comics)
Terry Austin is an American comic book artist, working primarily as an inker. He is best known for his work embellishing John Byrne's pencils on The Uncanny X-Men from 1977–1981.-Early life and career:...
, and Michael Netzer (Nasser).
The 1972 convention featured guests Gene Roddenberry
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...
and Majel Barrett
Majel Barrett
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry was an American actress and producer. She is perhaps best known for her role as Nurse Christine Chapel in the original Star Trek series, Lwaxana Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and for being the voice of most onboard computer interfaces throughout the series...
. The 1973 DTFF was held over Memorial Day
Memorial Day
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War...
weekend.
Other guests included Barry Smith
Barry Smith
Barry Smith may refer to:*Barry Smith , ontologist at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York*Barry Smith , preacher from New Zealand...
(then Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian (comics)
Conan the Barbarian was a Marvel Comics title starring the sword-and-sorcery character created by Robert E. Howard. It debuted in Oct. 1970 and ran for 275 issues until Dec...
artist), The Shadow
The Shadow
The Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally in pulp magazines, then on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of the title character, a crime-fighting vigilante in the pulps, which carried over to the airwaves as a "wealthy, young man about town"...
artist Mike Kaluta, film special effects creator Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
, film animation artist and director Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones
Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio...
, and film director George A. Romero
George A. Romero
George Andrew Romero is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and editor, best known for his gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He is nicknamed "Godfather of all Zombies." -Life and career:...
.
Demise and legacy
The DTFF would continue sporadically through the 1970s; late in the decade new organizers took over the show, and it was eventually reformulated as a for-profit endeavor called the Motor City Comic Con.There was a Triple Fan Fair held in the late 1980s at the now-defunct Troy Hilton in Troy, Michigan
Troy, Michigan
Troy is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan, and is a suburb of Detroit. The population was 80,980 at the 2010 census, making it the 11th-largest city in Michigan by population, and the largest city in Oakland County...
. The guest of honor at that event was Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
.
The newly established Detroit Fanfare's website openly acknowledges its debt to the Detroit Triple Fan Fair:
Program booklets
The 19701970 in comics
This is a list of comics-related events in 1970.- Events and publications :* Denis Kitchen founds Kitchen Sink Press in Princeton, Wisconsin-January:...
program was dedicated to Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby
Jack Kirby , born Jacob Kurtzberg, was an American comic book artist, writer and editor regarded by historians and fans as one of the major innovators and most influential creators in the comic book medium....
. It has a Western-themed cover by Jim Steranko
Jim Steranko
James F. Steranko is an American graphic artist, comic book writer-artist-historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator....
and interior art pages by Neal Adams
Neal Adams
Neal Adams is an American comic book and commercial artist known for helping to create some of the definitive modern imagery of the DC Comics characters Superman, Batman, and Green Arrow; as the co-founder of the graphic design studio Continuity Associates; and as a creators-rights advocate who...
and Bernie Wrightson
Bernie Wrightson
Bernie "Berni" Wrightson is an American artist known for his horror illustrations and comic books.-Biography:...
. The 1974 program featured a cover illustration of The Spirit by Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
.