18 days after Sheldon Dorf, another San Diego Comic-Con founder, passed away, one of his partner’s in crime Ken Krueger has passed away as well.  Krueger, co-founder of the show now known as San Diego Comic-Con International, died of a heart attack Saturday, November 21, in Lockport, N.Y. He was 83.

Sign On San Diego has a nice obituary detailing his life and accomplishments.

“Back then, as today, we consider ourselves very lucky to have had Ken serve as the first chairperson of our event,” David Glanzer, a Comic-Con spokesman, said in a statement issued yesterday. “He, along with Shel Dorf, may no longer be with us but the love they had for comic art lives on in the organization they helped to create.”

Krueger was from my child hood stomping grounds of Western New York.   He was a driving force in the formation of the convention that would today be known as the San Diego Comic-Con which attracts roughly 125,000 people annually.  In the 1960s and ’70s, Krueger’s Ocean Beach bookstore was a hangout for the Woodchucks, a band of teenage sci-fi fans. Dorf, who moved to San Diego in 1970, met Krueger there. Within weeks, the two men, the Woodchucks and a gang of young comic book dealers were planning the Golden State Comic-Con. Krueger, the 1970 event’s chairman, served on the board in various capacities for roughly a decade.

Ken Krueger moved back to the Buffalo region in 2002, but visited San Diego for this summer’s Comic-Con, where he was hailed as a founding father.

He is survived by eight children. There will be no funeral services.