Richard Dey

The second Detroit Triple Fan Fair of fantasy literature, films, and comic art convenes the weekend of June 17 and 18 at the Park Shelton Hotel, Woodward at East Kirby.

The convention attracts not only Camp followers, but of Fandom, i.e. dedicated enthusiasts of the imaginative popular arts.

Fandom itself is comprised of individuals and loosely — knit tribal groups who collect, preserve, and discuss the artifacts, artists, and history of each genre. Fans also keep abreast of the current scene critically and, creatively, and engage in two major activities to promote the Cause: the production and consumption of an underground torrent of Fanzines, and Conventions.

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“Like nineteenth century capitalism, Mass Culture is a dynamic, revolutionary force, breaking down the old barriers of class, tradition, taste, and dissolving all cultural distinctions.”

—Dwight Macdonald

The tribal psychedelic rock culture is today the ripest fruit on the tree of the popular arts, and its roots grope deeply into the much-plowed soil of mass culture. In the Beginning (almost), there was folk art, oral, inconographic, mythic. Industrialism and its inevitably mechanistic culture trampled down the past, creating an urban atmosphere in which the folk arts could not survive.

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Attendance at the 2^nd Detroit Triple Fan Fair the weekend of June 17 and 18 peaked at approximately 150 and audience enthusiasm burned with a hard, gem-like flame, despite program changes and setbacks.

Buck Rogers comics were among many at convention

The purpose of the Fair was succinctly set forth: “To preserve rare material and to further the appreciation of Comic Strips, Films, and Fantasy Literature as genuine Art Forms.” Many fans at the Park Shelton Convention were therefore rather testy about the illustration from former EC artist Wally Wood’s Witzend, which accompanied my earlier pre-Fair article in a recent Fifth Estate. The panel depicted Wood’s Animan defrocking a stacked lovely. When I mentioned that he had drawn the pornographic centerfold (Orgy at Disneyland) in the current Realist, Wood’s stock sank even lower at the dealer tables.

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