Richard Alf, whose obit ran on this site early last month, was one of the founding members of the get-together we now know as the Comic-Con International in San Diego. Another was Mike Towry. Mike has written a tribute to his friend Richard which doubles as a history of the early days of that convention. (By the way: I took the photo you'll see there of the 1972 convention committee in a stairwell at the El Cortez Hotel. Hard to believe that was almost 40 years ago.)