The Countdown Begins....

What made me think of this was my lunch yesterday with Ken Krueger. I first met Ken in 1974. I had driven into San Diego in a 1963 Chevy Impala I had borrowed from my mother. I was nineteen years old, 1,000 miles from home, and completely alone. I arrived in town a day before the convention began, and I grabbed the phone book to look for listings of stores that might carry comics. In this way I wandered into a seedy bookstore in the older part of downtown San Diego where this crazy old (40!) guy smoking a cigar showed me some boxes of vintage comics. I honestly don't remember if I bought anything that day. I do remember quite vividly, however, how this man made me feel like I had a friend from the first moment I met him.

Ken was then, and still is, a person you have to accept on his own terms, or walk away from. He doesn't give a damn what anyone else thinks of him, speaks his mind willingly (even when doing so is quite costly...), and is as honest a person as has ever walked the planet. He isn't an angel, and like all of us his had in his lifetime his moments of weakness and poor judgement, but Ken is one of the best people I have ever known. The fact that he's been in the comics world since day one makes it just all the better.

Earlier this year I had a conversation with Maggie Thompson, editor of COMICS BUYERS GUIDE. I asked her if she had heard from Ken lately, as the last time I saw him he was in very ill health (at the 1998 Comic-con). The phone number I had for him in my file no longer worked, and I was genuinely concerned that he might have passed away. We both worked to reach Ken, but to no avail.

Imagine my pleasure on Tuesday when I saw Ken slowly limping down the aisle to our booth. He walks with a cane now, and takes more medicine than you can imagine to keep going, but he actually is in better health than he was two years ago. More importantly, he hasn't lost one bit of his caustic wit. The man is still outrageously funny when he tells his stories of days gone by (such as Jack Kirby meeting Georgina Splevin ( the porn star...)at an early Comic-Con.

How does this all specifically relate to the San Diego comics convention? Well, Ken started it all. Back in the days, when all the rest of us were too young, Ken was able to arrange for a hall. He was in his prime then, had already been in Science fiction fandom since the early 1940's, and was very fond of comics. So he put things together for the first San Diego convention. Later mythology has it that Shel Dorf was the founder of the convention, but trust me, Ken Krueger was the man who first got it all started. Shel contributed greatly, as did many others, but Ken was the main man behind it all.

Just for old times sake, Ken and I walked out of the back of the huge convention center yesterday, and bought a great plate of macha (shredded beef...) and eggs from the lunch wagon that feeds the convention center dock workers. We sat in the shade in a small grassy area and traded stories for over an hour. During that time Ken revealed to me that he intends for this to be his last visit ever to the convention. He feels he's too old, and too ill, to make the trip from LA. He'll be leaving this morning for his home in Azusa, never to return.

I cannot even express to you how much this tears me up inside. I am writing this with great difficulty, as even now I am emotionally unable to even consider the San Diego convention without Ken. He's the man I always hoped I could grow up to be. Tough, caustic, hardworking, and as honest as the day is long. I don't know if I'll ever be the man he is, but he will always be my role model. He's a good man, and very quietly, he did some great things for all of us in the world of comics. He will be greatly missed by all. None, however, will miss him than I will. He is my friend.