Comments on: What San Diego was like in 1982

By: Rick Taylor

Rick Taylor — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 17:20:00 +0000

The ‘unknown’ person on the women in comics panel sitting next to Trina Robbins is Jan Duursema.

By: Shawn Granger

Shawn Granger — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 00:28:50 +0000

Wow…I was still too young to go to anything further than the mall cons in Kansas City at the time. That looks great. Everyone seems so relaxed.

Thanks SO much for the pictures. I can’t stop looking through them.

By: Frank Beaton

Frank Beaton — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 23:31:56 +0000

>>>The sign Frank Miller put up, after he looked at Byrne’s sign and smiled, said he would draw ANY X-Men, except for Kitty, and I think he even undercut John’s price, but I can’t be sure.

Wait a minute. Frank Miller SMILED??

I think your whole story just fell apart there, Ed.

By: Alan Light

Alan Light — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:26:06 +0000

Michael, I tried to scan the negatives myself but results weren’t so hot, so would you believe… I took them to TARGET! They made prints for 20 cents each and put 100 pictures per CD for $1.99. I agree they did a great job.

By: Michael Grabois

Michael Grabois — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:53:42 +0000

Alan – what did you use to scan the negatives? They look as good as digital camera pictures.

By: Ed Brubaker

Ed Brubaker — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:06:44 +0000

Yeah, Paul Smith was there that year, too, and I got to watch him and Byrne talk about drawing the X-Men for a while.

By: ~chris

~chris — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 20:00:34 +0000

Actually, it all makes sense now, knowing that Bryne had left X-Men in 1981.

By: ~chris

~chris — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:35:25 +0000

If that’s the case, then I love John Byrne’s sign and Frank Miller’s sign. :)
But not John’s sense of humor.

By: Alan Light

Alan Light — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:09:28 +0000

PS Some photos from the TBG and DynaPubs days can also be found on flickr here:
http://flickr.com/photos/alan-light/sets/72157594258122660/

By: Alan Light

Alan Light — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:06:32 +0000

Guy, unfortunately all other photos were destroyed, including a couple of Frank Frazetta from 1971. I went to MetroCon in Washington DC in 1971 and my friend John Fantucchio invited me over to his house for a pizza. When I showed up, I found out he had also invited Frank and Ellie Frazetta. It was just the 5 of us – the Frazettas, the Fantucchios, and me. I remember being incredibliy awestruck and hardly saying a peep but a couple of pictures were taken. I wish I still had them. As for Wrightson, Kaluta, Jeff Jones – yes, I had photos of them to, and many others. The only existing copies of those photographs would be found in old printed copies of TBG (now CBG), on yellowing newsprint.

By: Culpable y Perdedor » Blast from the past: fotos de la San Diego Comic Con de 1982

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 16:57:29 +0000

[...] ACTUALIZACIÓN: El gran Pepo me dirige, en un comentario, a la resolución (vía Brubaker, ni más ni menos) del “misterio del cartelito”… Ed Brubaker explica aquí lo del cartelito, que lo puso Byrne. Brubaker dice que tenía 16 años, pero estaba allí y se acuerda de lo que pasó. [...]

By: Russ Maheras

Russ Maheras — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:11:37 +0000

CBrown wrote: “I’ve never been to San Diego, always wanted to go. I wish I’d been able to swing it 15 years ago when I was in college; I’m hoping to actually go next year but from everything I read it seems like maybe it’s more of a hassle than fun to go.”

I’ve been a comics fan since 1967, but never made the trek to San Diego until 2005. Not only did I not regret it, I went last year and this year as well. I had a great time! This year alone, I finally met about a dozen people I’ve corresponded or worked with over the years but never actually met. I also bumped into old comics pals, such as Don Rosa and Bob Ingersoll.

If one has the time and the funds to go, I highly recommend going at least once in one’s life — after all, it is like a Mecca for comics fans.

Hey, Alan — Thanks for sharing these cool pics. I wish I’d gone to San Diego when so many of my creator heroes were still around.

By: Joe Crawford

Joe Crawford — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:59:10 +0000

Alan has done a great service posting these, for the nostalgia factor (sure) and the hero-watching (Barks! Miller! Kirby!).

As for me, I was practically looking for myself in the crowd scenes, but I would not attend until 1985 when I was 15 years old and was getting back into comics as a teen after having abandoned them as a youngster. I have all my badges from my attendance in the 1980s and 1990s glued into a scrapbook.

Indeed, there were lots of movies on offer, at least at my first con, movies and animation rooms — there was always something novel going on at Comic Con. Great photos.

By: guy bristow

guy bristow — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:53:22 +0000

Alan,

Thanks so much for sharing these photos! Man, Caniff, Eisner, Hogarth,… Any appearances of Frazetta, Wrightson, Kaluta, or Jeff Jones in your collection?

By: Alan Light

Alan Light — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:56:40 +0000

I’m glad so many people are pleased with the pictures. I was very surprised to stumble across the negatives the other day in an old box. I thought they had been destroyed. You’re going to cringe (I certainly do every time I think about it) when I tell you that virtually all pre-1983 photo negatives related to fandom were burned in a big barrel outside my folks’ rural home along with various papers and records, shortly after my business was sold to Krause Publications. Stupid, stupid. I am glad these survived. Thank heaven they got misplaced and so were saved by being in a different place.

At the same time, in the same box, I found 25 negatives from the 1982 Minneapolis comic-con. There are several shots of C. C. Beck, including a pretty nice one of him holding a lightning bolt in front of him a la Captain Marvel. Here is the link to those photos, or you can click on my name above, in red, I think, if the website box in this comment area works properly.

http://flickr.com/photos/alan-light/sets/72157601417578722/