Detroit Triple Fan Fair

Detroit Triple Fan Fair
Shel Dorf's design for the DTFF logo.
Status	Defunct
Genre	Comics, fantasy books, and science fiction movies
Venue	Pick-Fort Shelby Hotel (1968, 1972, 1973) Howard Johnson's New Center Motor Lodge (1969–1970) Detroit Hilton (1973–1974)
Location(s)	Detroit, Michigan
Country	United States
Inaugurated	1965
Most recent	1977
Organized by	Detroit Triple Fan Fair Productions
Filing status	Nonprofit.

The Detroit Triple Fan Fair (DTFF) was a multigenre convention generally held annually in Detroit, Michigan, from 1965 to 1977. It is credited as being the first regularly held convention featuring comic books as a major component. The Triple Fan Fair also gave balanced coverage to historic film showings and science-fiction literature, in a manner that provided a template for many future convention organizers — most of which have yet to attain the same level of equal service to this sort of linked fan base.

In addition to the typical convention features like a dealer room and panel-led discussions, the Detroit Triple Fan Fair featured a costume contest, and "films till dawn" (often running all night long for the convention's duration). From 1967 to at least 1969, the show presented the Nova Award to that year's guest of honor. In later years, the DTFF also sponsored an amateur film contest.

On May 24, 1964, at the Hotel Tuller, teenagers Robert Brosch and Dave Szurek organized a Detroit-based convention for about 80 fans of the comic book medium. Jerry Bails, the "father of comics fandom," was on the organizing committee, along with members of the Michigan Science Fiction Society (the so-called "Misfits.")

The next year Bails and local comics enthusiast Shel Dorf took over the event, christening it the Detroit Triple Fan Fair (referring to fantasy literature, fantasy films, and comic art) and organizing it as an annual event (although no show was held in 1966). The board of the initial official Detroit Triple Fan Fair consisted of Bails, Carl Lundgren, Tom Altschuler, Ed April, Noel Cooper, Gary Crowdus, Howard Devore, Marvin Giles, Dennis Kowicki, Larry Larson, and Eugene Seeger. Robert Brosch, an authority on horror films, also stayed involved with the DTFF in various capacities at least through 1970.

The first official DTFF took place July 24–25, 1965, at the Embassy Hotel in Detroit. Film showings included Lon Chaney's Phantom of the Opera and admission charge was $2.00 for both days.