Sheldon Dorf, who founded San Diego's world-famous Comic-Con international comics festival, has died at the age of 76.

Dorf died of kidney failure in a San Diego hospital on Tuesday after battling diabetes and spending about a year in hospital, according to longtime friend Greg Koudoulian.

A funeral was held on Wednesday.

Dorf, a freelance commercial artist and comic strip letterer born in Detroit, helped found a comics convention in Michigan. When he moved to the West Coast in 1970, he established a new one — Comic-Con — with the help of industry friends including notable artists such as Jack Kirby.

That year, the inaugural Golden State Comic Book Convention drew about 300 fans.

In mid-1980s Dorf decided to step down from running his ever-growing event, telling the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper that the festival had become "an ordeal … It's become too much of a success."

Indeed, the convention — which moved to its current home, the San Diego Convention Centre in the 1990s — has become a four-day extravaganza and expanded to encompass not only comic artists and the comic book industry but also related books, television shows and movies.

The latest edition, which took place in July, attracted more than 125,000 people from around the globe.

A statement from the event's current board of directors praised Dorf, saying that it was his "appreciation of this art form and his keen foresight that helped to create what is Comic-Con. It is with a heavy heart that we … mourn the passing of our dear friend."

Dorf is survived by his brother, Michael Dorf.