Ken Krueger

Ken Krueger (October 7, 1926 – November 21, 2009) was an American publisher and retailer.

Krueger began writing letters to science fiction magazines in 1938, at the age of eleven, and was an attendee of the very first “scientifiction” convention held in 1939, officially making him a member of the elite-if-obscure group known as First Fandom.

As a resident of the New York area, he attended the first World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) on July 2–4, 1939, at age twelve, in New York City, the first science fiction convention ever held.

Already an ardent science fiction fan, by age seventeen Krueger was also a member of the Slan Shack crowd (along with a very young Frank M. Robinson, Jr.).

The Slan Shack, which first appeared at the end of October 1943, was where a batch of active Battle Creek, Michigan, science fiction fans lived for nearly two years.

Here dwelt the Ashley's, Walt Liebscher, and Jack Weidenbeck, and later noted science fiction author E. Everett Evans.

The original Battle Creek Slan Shack opened on October 30, 1943, when the Ashley's bought the eight-room house at 25 Popular Street, and simultaneously held the first Michicon.

The fourth Michicon was held at Slan Shack from June 17 to 19, 1944.

While in attendance, the young Ziff-Davis office boy, Frank Robinson, showed extreme valor by publishing two issues of Fanewscard during the con.

Some 23 fans were there, including travelers Lynn Bridges, of Florida, and a seventeen-year-old Ken Krueger of Buffalo.

In the fall of 1944, over Labor Day weekend, Krueger hosted the first BuffaloCon, in his mother's house.

In attendance were Don Wollheim and Elsia Balter (later Mrs. Wollheim), Damon Knight, and Larry Shaw.

Oliver “Ollie” Saari of Flint, Michigan, a mechanical engineer working for GM, was there.

As well as Frank Robinson, all the way from Chicago.

They all moved en masse on September 7, 1945, to another site on Bixel Street, Los Angeles, cheek by jowl with the LASFS (Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society) clubroom.

In 1945 Grant-Hadley Enterprises published its first, and only, modest effort.

It wasn't a book; rather it was a 26-page pamphlet.

Rhode Island on Lovecraft consisted of five articles on H.P. Lovecraft by Rhode Islanders who had been associated with the writer during his lifetime.

Two editions of this title were printed.

Meeting in a well-known Providence, Rhode Island, landmark, Dana's Old Corner Bookstore, the two science fiction fans decided to publish a small volume about Lovecraft.

After all, the Old Corner Bookstore had purchased H.P. Lovecraft's library from his estate, so what better place, and subject to begin publishing.

The two partners, Donald M. Grant and Thomas G. Hadley, having been bit by the publishing bug, moved on to their next reincarnation as The Buffalo Book Company, with the addition of yet another partner, Kenneth J. Krueger, Jr.

The two initial partners, Grant and Hadley, knew from their dismal experience producing and struggling to distribute the Lovecraft pamphlet that they would have problems distributing any new titles or any new books.

Distribution is the key to any publishing effort, and the two had already failed at it and knew it.

The two men had some ideas about book design, but not what to publish or how to make money from it.

As their business plan expanded they sought the help of Ken Krueger, bringing him on board as the third partner for their newly planned, but not yet started, publishing company.

Krueger was a Buffalo, New York, based member and co-founder of the Buffalo Fantasy League, Bohemia Club, and publisher of the semi-pro Pegasus Publications—most noted for the first appearance of science fiction writer Wilson Tucker’s Prison Planet in Space Trails (Pegasus Publications, Summer 1947).

Krueger later founded Shroud: Publishers, Kenneth J. Krueger: Publisher, Valcour-Krueger, and Fantasy House.

(It was the ground floor of a duplex next door. Its upper floor, “Slan Shack Annex”, was rented occasionally to struggling fen and pros.) The place didn't break up till the building was torn down in March 1948 to make room for an office building.

Krueger began editing his first science fiction fanzine, Abortions, in 1952.

Science fiction writer Rog Phillips reviewed the first issue in his The Club House column in the February 1952 issue of Amazing Stories.

Not content with editing his own fanzine, Krueger was a regular contributor to the Buffalo Fantasy League's official club fanzine, Hyperopia, which was edited by fellow club member, Robert J. Fritz.

Even as far back as July 1952, when the first issue of Hyperopia appeared, readers knew Ken Krueger and held him in very high regard.

In 1952 Krueger was nominated and elected as Progressive Fandom's candidate to the post of president of the National Fantasy Fan Federation.

Alas, in his self-effacing manner, he declined the nomination.

Krueger co-founded and organized the first San Diego Comic-Con International convention, then called "San Diego's Golden State Comic-Con," in 1970.

Krueger co-created the annual convention with a group of San Diego friends, including Shel Dorf, Richard Alf and Mike Towry.

Kenneth J. Krueger, Jr. was born in upstate New York.

Krueger was also an inspiration and focal point for an ambitious group of young comic book fans who planned and hosted the event that became San Diego Comic-Con International, serving as Chairman of the group’s first multi-day event, the San Diego Golden State Comic-Con held August 1–3, 1970.

Frank Robinson, in his memoir, Not So Good a Gay Man (TOR, 2017), writes of "having a crush" on his friend, Ken Krueger, and almost making a pass at him during the Michicon.