Berkeley Sci-fi convention in 1968, comics & pulps 0

[jpepx78]

Part 1

 

In January 2020 I began thinking about the national and international political and health crises but I didn't know the eventual magnitude of the Covid-19 crisis. At that time my mind was filled with thoughts about personal and work concerns but I found my mind drifted into thinking about an upcoming comics only convention and what comics I hope to find and acquire.

Some people might ask why am I thinking of comics when there are so many important things going on? I would say comics are a diversion and they remind me of my happy times as a youngster reading comics. In challenging or difficult times, entertainment can serve as a morale booster or diversion from harsh reality for a short time. I thought about how some people still attended a fan convention during a time of great social upheaval in 1968. As I did research on the 26th World Science Fiction Convention or Baycon 68, a science fiction convention held in Oakland California, I found many photos and documentation about Baycon 68.

The 26th World Science Fiction Convention or Baycon 68 was held in Oakland California August 29-September 2 1968. The World Science Fiction Convention or Worldcon is an annual convention started in 1939 to promote interest in science fiction and the previous 1967 convention was held in New York.

Did anyone here attend Baycon 1968?

 

America in turmoil 1968

The year 1968 was one of the most tumultuous years in world history that was marked by historic achievements, shocking events, an unpopular war and a spirit of rebellion in many countries around the world. In America, the dominant topic was the Vietnam war and the North Vietnamese launched a series of coordinated attacks against Saigon and other key targets in South Vietnam in January during the lunar new year (Tet). The Tet Offensive surprised US and South Korean forces causing heavy casualties and was a turning point in US involvement in the war as media coverage brought the horrors of the war into American homes daily. President Lyndon B Johnson and his administration had become increasingly unpopular and Johnson surprised everyone by stating on March 31st he would not seek a second term in an election year.

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in Memphis and news of his murder sparked rioting in many cities. The assassination of the leading Democratic presidential nominee Robert F Kennedy in Los Angeles left the Democratic Party in a weakened position to challenge the leading nominee Richard Nixon. There were numerous protests and demonstrations by college students against the war and for civil rights in many cities throughout America. Thousands of students, antiwar activists and other protestors poured into the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and were met with a violent police response that injured demonstrators and media personnel. Daily reports of violence and conflict at home and abroad polarized many Americans and widened the generation gap.

Meanwhile North Korea captured the Navy intelligence vessel USS Pueblo and its crew and held them in a POW camp for 11 months before their release could be negotiated. Tommie Smith and John Carlos were thrown off the Olympic team when they bowed their heads and raised their black-gloved fists in a recognized salute to the Black Power movement during the playing of the American national anthem in the summer Olympic awards ceremony in Mexico City.

Three astronauts in the Apollo 8 mission, Jim Lovell, Frank Borman and Bill Anders became the first humans to orbit the moon. The classic sci-fi movie 2001 by Stanley Kubrick was released and it would win a Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1969. The Hugo award is the most prestigious science fiction award voted on by members of the World Science Fiction Convention annually.

 

Worldcon 1968

Worldcon is the principal annual gathering of science fiction fandom and has been held every year since 1939 except 1942-1945 because of WW2. It is the oldest convention with a continuing existence.

Baycon 68 was held at the Claremont Hotel in Oakland near the Berkeley city border which was located less than 2 miles from the UC Berkeley campus which was one of the epicenters of student protests and demonstrations.

The World Science Fiction Society kept detailed records for every convention. There were 1841 attendees where 1338 were registered Society members and several hundred non-registered walk-ins. Photos indicated attendees were older and demographics showed that the attendees were less male oriented than comic book conventions. Registered attendees were 66% male, 30% female, 4% other and 58% were first-time attendees. Baycon 68 had almost the same schedule of events as modern day fan conventions: dealers room, film showings, art show, awards banquet, costume events, fan demonstrations, guest and creator panels. Unfortunately the hotel had no air conditioning and the beginning of the convention coincided with a heat wave which caused some cases of food poisoning from the food buffet.

 

Sci-fi guests

One of the reasons people attend fan conventions is a chance to meet and talk with famous or favorite creators. The guest of honor for Baycon 68 was Philip Jose Farmer and many prominent science fiction figures attended such as Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton, Forrest J Ackerman, Anne Mccaffrey, Leigh Brackett and Lin Carter.

 

Anne Mccaffrey, Leigh Brackett, Blanche Williamson, Edmond Hamilton & Jack Williamson

 

Bradbury signing and fans meeting and talking with Bradbury

 

 

SCA pictures

Several events organized by the Society for Creative Anachorism (SCA) were a Medieval Tourney and medieval party with colorful costumes, medieval music, dancing and free beer.

The SCA is an immersive history group that studied and recreated Medieval European history and culture before the 1700s.

 

 

 

Berkeley riots

Berkeley was the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement (FSM), a massive long-lasting student protest that was the first mass act of civil disobedience to protest against the university's ban of on-campus political activity in 1964. Students wanted to lift the ban of on-campus political activities and acknowledge students rights to free speech and academic freedom. The FSM was influenced by the New Left, related to the Civil Rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement. There was backlash against the protestors by voters and conservative officials. Worldcon took place at the same time as the Democratic National Convention where thousands of protestors converged in Chicago and encountered a violent police response. It is interesting that Baycon attendees were watching simulated armed combat in the Medieval Tourneys here while actual violence was happening a few miles away near the Berkeley campus. Attendees who stayed at two downtown Berkeley hotels were exposed to tear gas dispersed by police to quell protesters. Here are some examples of the situations that people faced during regular demonstrations in Berkeley in 1968.

 

1968 Riot video (no sound)

 

Numerous and larger Berkeley protests arose in 1969 and one protest escalated into a large riot involving up to 6000 people after agitators started throwing projectiles at police on May 15th 1969. The violence between police and protestors resulted in one death, dozens of injuries to police, demonstrators and bystanders. Governor Ronald Reagan sent 2700 National Guard troops to Berkeley and the city was under military occupation for 17 days.

 

1969 riots video

 

 

Costume pictures

The costume contest is always a popular event at conventions and there were many creative costumes compared with professional cosplay of today.

Lin Carter as Elric of Melnibone

 

Dr Strangelove

 

Other participants in the costume contest

 

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by jpepx78

[jpepx78]

Part 2

 

Worldcon guest panels

With amazing foresight the panels at Worldcon were archived on tape by a local radio station KPFA-FM from Pacifica California for future generations to enjoy. The panels contain many interesting stories and insights on overlapping topics of comics and pulps that will be of interest to many forum members.

 

Remembrance of Things Past: HP Lovecraft and the pulps panel

moderator: Alva Rogers, Baycon co-chair

guests: Robert Bloch, Edmond Hamilton, Fritz Leiber, Emil Petaja, E. Hoffman Price & Jack Williamson

 

Several writers talked about their recollections with HP Lovecraft. Price shared colorful stories of HP Lovecraft in New Orleans and he was the only one who met Lovecraft in person. Petaja and Lieber only corresponded with Lovecraft by letter. Rogers, Williamson and Hamilton talked about writing for the pulps. Hamilton said pulp writing was difficult because story payment was marginal and slow but a few writers were paid well. Pulps were a good training ground for many writers. Bloch talked about the early days of pulps, was amazed his works were collectible and considered them as “garbage collection items”.

 

 

Comics panels with Marv Wolfman and Harry Harrison

moderator: Paul Moslander

guests: Marv Wolfman & Harry Harrison

no shows: Mike Friederich, Ted White

 

Wolfman who started that year at DC Comics as a writer gave a contemporary and behind-the-scenes look at the field of comic book writing and the challenges in entering that field. He describes the editorial changes at DC in 1968 were done because DC was trending away from superheroes and all the storylines, artist changes and additional titles were done to compete with Marvel. He said “ we were staying away from superheroes because after 10 years you get sick of it”.

 

Harrison was a former EC artist and currently was a science fiction writer and editor. Harrison talked about his early working days in the comic industry with bad publishers like Fox which had problems paying their staff and sometimes threats of violence were made to get paid. He had cynical memories of the comic industry where kickbacks to editors were made for more work. Artists used swipes and inserted more dialog for less art to meet deadlines. He said “this field is the a55 end of creation inhabited by very good artists, incompetent writers, worse incompetent editors, voluminous incompetent publishers and good printers”. He worked with Wally Wood at EC Comics whom Harrison said was a poor artist initially but improved greatly to surpass him. He describes his days at EC Comics working with Harvey Kurtzman and Al Feldstein whom he said was a bad artist but good editor. An example of Harrison's talent evaluation was when he fired 18 year old Jules Fieffer because he thought Fieffer did a lousy pencilling job on one story. He said EC Comics were “real vomit” with good art but bad stories. He believed most comic artists were lousy and admits he was lousy inker but he was fast and could ink a page in about 18 minutes. The pay was low and about $25 per page. He said Roy Krenkel admitted doing swipes and Joe Orlando was the worst artist. After the Congressional Hearings on Comics devastated the comics industry, he became a science fiction magazine writer, editor and artist.

 

 

 

Dealers rooms

Of course pictures of the dealers room are most interesting because one is able to see what was available then. Baycon photos were taken by Jay Kay Klein who also took photos of many other sci-fi conventions. Pulps, scifi books, art prints and movie posters were available.

 

 

 

Comics were also available from one dealer.

 

This next picture shows the comic dealer Bud Plant as a young kid in glasses with his friends.

“Well, this is quite a shot, entirely new to me. This is from Baycon 1968, the World Science Fiction Convention in Berkeley, from an archive of Jay Kay Klein's photos of almost all SF conventions. This is four of us comic book buddies, from our San Jose days, and all four part of our 1968 store, Seven Sons Comic Shop.

From the left, the tall good looking blond youngster is my good friend Jim Buser; with his back to us is Tom Tallmon, who used to drive me around before I got my license and I roomed with along with first wife LeAnn, with my business downstairs; with black hair and elbow up is John Barrett, co-founder of our seven stores, Comics & Comix, and collecting buddy since I was 13; and the geek next to him with glasses is me, 16 years old. We are checking out original art at Roger Nelson’s table. Roger and his partner Jack from New Orleans took us under their wing and helped watch our table there. We visited them a couple times years later. This was the first show we four had ever attended, we all shared one lone table.”

 

 

 

The next couple of pictures show an intriguing piece of history and some interesting items. As comic fans what sticks out among all those pulps?

 

Who would have thought you could find a copy of Capt America 1 and some original art pages at a sci-fi convention? The original comic art has an intriguing story since Marvel did not sell or usually give away recent art pages especially not anything by Kirby. There have been numerous accounts of theft of thousands of pages of Marvel comic artwork in the 60s to 80s. Original artwork was highly desirable by fanatical collectors but it did not have a large monetary value at that time. John Morrow in the Kirby Collector magazine mentions at a 1969 and 1970 St Louis convention, 2 Marvel staffers showed up with hundreds of pages of stolen art for sale including Kirby Fantastic Four pages from 1963. Those pages sold for $10-15 per page.

 

 

These photos above show a dealer's booth with the following original Kirby art for sale, all of it probably stolen from the Marvel offices according to John Morrow in the Kirby Collector magazine. Here is a look of what that artwork might be worth: “The Return of the Mole Man” page 1 splash Fantastic Four 22, “When a Planet Dies” page 1 splash Strange Tales 97 (sold at Heritage for $7475 in Jan 2006, now for sale at $12500), “The Jaws of the Dragon” page 1 splash Journey into Mystery 123, “While a Universe Trembles” page 1 splash Journey into Mystery 123 (sold at Heritage for $38240 in Feb 2016), “The Mighty Thor vs the Executioner” page 1 splash Journey into Mystery 84 (sold at Heritage for $44812.50 in Nov 2009). The highest sold price for a Kirby original is $167300 for the cover to Tales of Suspense #84 as of summer 2018.

In the mid 1970s Congress revised the laws around copyright, offering longer periods of ownership for copyright holders if the proper paperwork could be provided. In 1978 Marvel began handing out freelancer contracts that guaranteed the company “forever all rights of any kind and nature in and to the work”. In recent years, the availability of Kirby's Marvel art from the 1960s has been limited. About 1900 of the 8000+ pages of Jack Kirby's Marvel original artwork was returned to him in 1987 after a long legal battle. The Kirby estate subsequently battled Marvel/Disney later in 2009 over Jack Kirby's rights to the characters he created or co-created and the details of the legal battles between the Kirby estate and Marvel/Disney can be explained better elsewhere. With the billions Marvel/Disney made off films filled with characters Kirby created, Marvel/Disney might have had to negotiate for millions for each of the characters in the Marvel universe to keep the franchises going. Disney made an undisclosed settlement with the Kirby estate in October 2014 before the case was to be scheduled for the Supreme Court. The settlement retained publisher-friendly precedent to assume that work by non-employees was mere work-for-hire and freelancers did not have a clear claim to their own copyrights.

 

How is this Kirby estate settlement relevant to the limited availability of Kirby 1960s original art and scarcity on dealer sites? Here is a proposed theory. Original Kirby art from the 1960s is worth enormous amounts and there is a question of provenance of who owned the art. Once big money is involved, contention, arguments and lawyers could be involved. Some of Kirby's art pages were legitimately sold but many were likely to be stolen and the chain of ownership would be difficult to prove after many changes of hands. Art dealers don't want to peddle stolen goods and few could afford to give it all back if that became the case. Would you want to be served a letter and have the financial means to deal with the lawyers of the Kirby estate or Marvel if they decide they are interested in the return of original Marvel artwork in your possession? It is probably a good idea to not show what you have and only make deals in private.

 

 

People will find ways to connect with their hobby community and pursue their hobby interests even in changing and difficult times. This Covid-19 crisis will change many things in the comic collecting hobby but many collectors will adapt over time. I miss going to cons, talking with other collectors and perusing the back issues. However I am fortunate there is a virtual community on these forums where I am still able to pursue my comic interests. Hopefully some of you will share some interesting “comic collecting in the Covid-19 era” memories for future generations.

 

 

References

Worldcon Photos

http://www.fanac.org/worldcon/

Worldcon Demographics

https://www.adastrasf.com/report-worldcon-membership-demographics-1961-1980/

Worldcon Reports

http://www.jophan.org/1960s/chapter8.htm

1960s Berkeley protests

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960s_Berkeley_protests

Kirby's missing 1960s artwork

https://www.pipelinecomics.com/the-mystery-of-60s-marvel-jack-kirby-original-artwork/

Kirby original at Baycon 1968

https://books.google.com/books?id=zeeDDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135&dq=stolen+kirby+art+baycon&source=bl&ots=TU4CHO7Qra&sig=ACfU3U08C-uRkX_bXhAwtSWdQvAsbqJ0kQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjSrI7CibzpAhUJDKwKHXX5BtEQ6AEwCnoECBsQAQ#v=onepage&q=stolen kirby art baycon&f=false

Kirby-Marvel/Disney lawsuit

https://ami.org/professional-resources/advocacy/legal-news/318-understanding-the-kirby-case

Kurk Busiek on Kirby-Disney lawsuit

https://www.cbr.com/kurt-busiek-breaks-down-the-marveljack-kirby-legal-battle/

 

 

[Primetime]

fantastic and impressive thread Jeff  That Cap 1 and OA pages are pretty cool to see. 

[Robot Man]

Great post!  We are pretty close in years I suspect. I grew up in LA though. We had cousins who lived in the Bay Area and would visit them in the summer. My cousin would take us to local comic shops like Bud Plant's, Gary Arlington's and Beerbohm's shops where we would buy what comics we could afford at the time. He took us to the Filmore Auditorium a few times. Good times.

I had gone to a couple early SDCC cons and we had small cons at the Hollywood Women's club. Small events but I remember seeing piles of un-bagged GA books stacked on tables. First comic con I ever attended in the Bay Area was the 1974 Berkley Con. I remember finding comics from the San Francisco/Tom Riley collection with those tell tale stamps on the back in piles and boxes. Wasn't a pedigree then but damn, they were pretty.

Was a great time to be a teenager. So exciting and fun. I just wish I knew then what I know now and had a little more money...