Shel Dorf, founder of San Diego Comic-Con, artist, letterer, and a fixture in comic fan circles for decades, passed away on Tuesday at Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego after a long hospitalization for complications of diabetes. 

Dorf moved to San Diego from Detroit, where he organized the Detroit Triple Fan Fair, and led the group that organized first the Golden State Comic-Minicon in April of 1970; and then the first Golden State Comic-Con, which became San Diego Comic-Con, in August of that year.  Bob Sourk and Richard Alf were the co-chairmen of that first mini-con, and Ken Krueger the chairman of the first full Comic-Con, but Dorf is credited with founding the show that has dramatically influenced pop culture in America. 

From the beginning, it had a broad emphasis on pop culture, focusing not only on comics but also on film and science fiction.  That breadth of focus and appeal is what has made San Diego Comic-Con the largest pop culture festival in North America, and one of the largest in the world.