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David A. Kaler (b. 1936) is an American writer. He was a primary force in establishing 1960s comic book fandom, particularly through the form of the comics convention. Later, he had a short-lived career as a comics writer for such publishers as Charlton Comics, DC Comics, and Warren Publishing.

Biography

Fandom

In 1965, Kaler was living in New York City, sharing an East Village apartment with burgeoning comics writers Dennis O'Neil and Roy Thomas. Employed as a market researcher, Kaler had a collection of between 4,000 and 5,000 comics.

By that point, Kaler was Executive Secretary of the Academy of Comic-Book Fans and Collectors (ACBFC), "... a fandom organization that would ... perpetuate the concept of comics as an art form." The group's charter included the formation of the Alley Awards, the publication of the comic news fanzine The Comic Reader, and the creation of "a directory of comic fans" to assist in establishing a yearly comics convention and to endorse a "code of fair practice in the selling and trading of comic books."

Under Kaler's leadership, the academy produced three successful conventions in New York City during the summers of 1965–1967, and attracting industry professionals such as Otto Binder, Bill Finger, Gardner Fox, Mort Weisinger, James Warren, Roy Thomas, Gil Kane, Stan Lee, Bill Everett, Carmine Infantino, Julius Schwartz, Frank Frazetta, Roy Krenkel, and Stephen Hickman. Kaler was given the 1965 Alley Award for Best Fan Project for his production of the first so-called "Academy Con".

In the summer of 1966, Kaler was the guest of honor at the first Southwesterncon, the first comics convention held in Texas.

During this period, Kaler also wrote the "What's News" column for the comics news fanzine The Comic Reader. For this work, he was twice selected for Alley Awards.

In early 1968, Kaler left the ACBFC to pursue his professional comics writing. Nonetheless, he planned another Academy Con for the 1968 Thanksgiving weekend, but it never came to pass, possibly because of the successful first iteration of Phil Seuling's Comic Art Convention (a.k.a. the "International Convention of Comic Book Art"), which took place in New York City in the summer of 1968. By this point, comics fandom had become well established, with annual conventions being held in New York, Detroit, St. Louis, and the Southwest, and the academy's mission had been essentially fulfilled. Academy member Maggie Thompson declared the ACBFC "moribund" and the group had disbanded by 1970.

Comics writing

In 1966, Kaler's former roommate Roy Thomas got Kaler in the door at Charlton Comics, as Kaler began a short-lived stint as a professional comics writer, often writing horror comics. He started out on Charlton's superhero title Captain Atom (shortly before the title was canceled). With Steve Ditko, he co-created Nightshade in Captain Atom #82 (September 1966). Kaler's other writing for Charlton included on such titles as Ghostly Tales (1966–1968), The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves (1967), Sarge Steel, Marine War Heroes (1967), Outlaws of the West (1967), and Tiffany Sinn (1967).

After his stint at Charlton, Kaler moved to Warren Publishing's horror title Eerie, where he wrote some stories in 1968.

In the period 1969–1971, Kaler wrote for the DC Comics' horror anthology The Witching Hour, also contributing a Wonder Woman story (written in 1968 but not published until 1974). He left comics writing in 1971.

In 1977, Kaler edited Vol. 3 ("Escapes to Arboria") of the Flash Gordon comic strip collection edited and published by Woody Gelman/Nostalgia Press.

Awards

• 1965 Alley Award for Best Fan Project — New York Comicon
• 1966 Alley Award for Best Regular Fan Column — "What's News" (for On the Drawing Board section of The Comic Reader)
• 1967 Alley Award for Best Regular Fan Column — "What's News"

References

Notes

1. ^ Zinman, David (November 4, 1965). "Comicdom's Cult of Collectors". Newsday.
2. ^ Schelly, Bill (June 2003). "Jerry Bails' Ten Building Blocks of Fandom". Alter Ego. Vol. 3, no. 25. pp. 5–8.
3. Schelly, "Introduction," Founders of Comic Fandom, p. 8.
4. ^ Schelly, Bill (January 2007). "The Kaler Con: Two Views: Bigger and Better than the Benson Con Just Three Weeks Before?? (Part VIII of '1966: The Year Of (Nearly) Three New York Comics Conventions'". Alter-Ego. No. 64.
5. Thomas, Roy (2006). "Splitting the Atom: More Than You Could Possibly Want to Know About the Creation of the Silver Age Mighty Mite!". The Alter Ego Collection. Vol. 1. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 99.
6. "Academy Con report". Rocket's Blast and the Comicollector. No. 52. James Van Hise. 1967.
7. Gabilliet, Jean-Paul (2010). Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books. University of Mississippi Press. p. 265.
8. Nolte, Robert (9 May 1965). "Latest Collecting Fad: Funny Thing Happened to Comics --They're Arty". Chicago Tribune.
9. Feiffer, Jules (21 August 1965). "Comicon". The New Yorker. Vol. 41. pp. 23–24.
10. ^ "1965 Alley Awards". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved December 8, 2020.
11. Schelly Founders of Comic Fandom, p. 60.
12. "Who Ever Heard of Jay Scott Pike!?! ". Teen Titans. Vol. 1, no. 19. DC Comics. January–February 1969. Although all previous Comicons sponsored by the Academy of Comic Art Fans and Collectors have been traditionally held during the summer months, this year's function has been scheduled to coincide with the Thanksgiving Holiday. The 1968 Academy Con will commence on November 29th and continue thru the first of December.... For further details, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Dave Kaler....
13. Thompson, Maggie (February 1968). "Academy Moribund". Newfangles. No. 7.
14. Barnhardt, Adam (November 2, 2021). "Marvel Legend Roy Thomas on His Storied Comics Career, the Future of Comic Book Movies, and More". ComicBook.com. So I helped other people, Dave Kaler and later Gary Friedrich and Denny O'Neil get into Charlton and everything, through Dick Giordano who would become the editor there.
15. Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 217. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
16. ^ "Kaler entry". Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928–1999. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
17. Hahn, Joel (ed.). "1967 Alley Awards". Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved January 3, 2015.

Sources

• Schelly, Bill (2010). Founders of Comic Fandom: Profiles of 90 Publishers, Dealers, Collectors, Writers, Artists and Other Luminaries of the 1950s and 1960s. McFarland.

• 1936 births
• American comics writers
• American magazine editors
• Comics fandom
• Comics critics
• Living people