Jerry Bails

Jerry Gwin Bails (June 26, 1933 – November 23, 2006) was an American popular culturist. Known as the "Father of Comic Book Fandom," he was one of the first to approach the comic book field as a subject worthy of academic study, and was a primary force in establishing 1960s comics fandom.

Biography

Early life Jerry G. Bails was born on June 26, 1933, in Kansas City, Missouri. A fan of comic books from a very early age, Bails was a particularly a fan of All-Star Comics, and its premiere superteam (the Justice Society of America) of whom he was "a fan since the first Justice Society adventure appeared in All-Star Comics #3 (Winter 1941)." He wrote in 1960 that by 1945, he "began my campaign to collect all the back issues of this magazine [All-Star Comics]," and six years later when the JSA was dropped, started to work towards their revival. he gained his Ph.D. in Natural science , and in 1960 moved to Detroit with his wife Sondra "to become Assistant Professor of Natural Science at Wayne State University."

Comics fandom Roots In 1953, Bails wrote to DC (c/o Julius Schwartz) to inquire about issues of All-Star Comics.

With the debut of the "new Justice Society," the Justice League of America in the pages of The Brave and the Bold #28 (1959), Bails felt his "efforts [had] finally paid off," and his career as an active fan began. and, returning from visiting the DC offices in New York, Bails: "had come up with the name "Alter-ego" for a more ambitious version of a newsletter — a "fanzine," appropriating some of what he had learned from Julie about science-fiction fandom to what he had already planned."

In 1998, Thomas wrote to publisher John Morrow, and shortly after Thomas relaunched the second volume of Alter Ego on the flipside of issues of TwoMorrows Publishing's Comic Book Artist.

The major motivating force behind comics fandom "was to bring fans together for the purpose of adding to their comic book collections."

A month after the debut of The Comicollector,

Despite a 1969 "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" mention noting that the group "holds an annual poll to determine the most popular mags, writers and artists of the preceding year," and directing fans to obtain a ballot from future comics professional Mark Hanerfeld at 42-42 Colden Street in Flushing, New York ...," the Academy waned, "and it was disbanded for lack of interest by the decade's end."

Initially suggested as 'The Alter-Ego Award,' the resulting idea was soon named 'The Alley Award', "named after Alley Oop" by Thomas "because surely a caveman had to be the earliest superhero chronologically."

Between 1963 and 1964, "new fanzines were popping up right and left . . . [as] a lot of fans were infected by the "publishing bug," many of them talented writers and artists." A stroke late in Bails' life affected his vision and cut into his ability to pursue work on Who's Who, but until his death he was still adding hundreds of new records each week and consolidating and revising old records.

Bails also wrote introductions and forewords to a number of collections of Golden Age and Silver Age DC Comics books. In 1985, DC Comics named Bails as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great.

Personal life Bails died in his sleep of a heart attack on November 23, 2006. He was 73 years old.