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.Don and Maggie Thompson, "'It was Comics Time!' (Fandom Origins Part Two)" in Richard Howell and Carol Kalish (ed.s) Comics Feature #8 (New Media Publishing, January 1981) 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)."Letter from Jerry Bails to Roy Thomas, November 24, 1960. Excerpted in Roy Thomas' "Jerry, You're The Bestest!" editorial, Alter Ego Vol. 3 Issue #25 (June 2003) 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. In the letters column of Fantastic Four #22 (cover-dated Jan. 1964) the editor refers to him as "one of fandom's most articulate critics."
Education As a young man, he "sent samples of his art to EC ("and Al Feldstein was nice enough to respond with advice.")," before attending the University of Kansas City, from which he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, and then his Master's degree in Math. A student teacher by 1953,Michael T. Gilbert (ed.) "The Jerry Bails/Gardner Fox Letters" in Alter Ego Vol. 3 Issue #25 (June 2003), pp. 9-13 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."Roy Thomas, "Jerry, You're The Bestest!" editorial, Alter Ego Vol. 3 Issue #25 (June 2003)
Comics fandom Roots In 1953, Bails wrote to DC (c/o Julius Schwartz) to inquire about issues of All-Star Comics. His letter was forwarded to former Justice Society writer Gardner Fox, and from Fox's reply of July 9, 1953, the two corresponded regularly. Bails was working steadily toward re-building his personal collection of the early issues of All Star Comics, and was finally able to convince Fox in early 1959 to sell him Fox's personal bound copies of All-Star Comics #1-24.
In November 1960, a letter from young comics fan Roy Thomas to Julius Schwartz similarly inquiring about back issues of All-Star Comics led to Schwartz also putting Thomas in contact with All-Star writer Gardner Fox. Fox informed Thomas that "he had sold his bound volumes [of All-Star Comics] to a gent named Jerry Bails", and put Thomas in touch with the Detroit-based Bails. Bails and Thomas would go on to "exchange . . . 100 pages' worth of letters in less than five months" starting from the end of November 1960, and forge a friendship which in Thomas' words "set in motion a chain of events which led to Alter Ego, organized comics fandom, the Alley Awards, and maybe a bit more." Excerpted online as /ref>
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. He soon bombarded the DC offices with suggestions for new superhero revivals. For instance, in Justice League of America #4, the letters page is filled with missives from Bails under different pen names. He did everything he could to fool editor Julius Schwartz, including mailing the letters from all across the country.
In particular, Bails petitioned for the monthly publication of the JLA, and a year later for the revival of the Golden Age Atom as an all-new "6"-high" hero (to better reflect the name), which "whether as a result of Jerry's prodding DC or by mere coincidence" revival occurred in January 1961.
Fanzines
Largely unbeknownst to Bails and Thomas, comics fandom had been underway for years in a variety of comics fanzines, beginning with Ted White's The Facts Behind Superman, James Taurasi's Fantasy Comics and Bhob Stewart's The EC Fan Bulletin in 1953-54. These were followed by Ron Parker's Hoohah, Dick and Pat Lupoff's Xero and Don and Maggie Thompson's Comic Art. Xero presented essays about comics ultimately collected in a 1970 book, All in Color for a Dime, published in hardcover by Arlington House and by Ace in paperback. Although Bails' innovative ideas changed the shape of comics fandom, and arguably shaped it anew, Xero had a significant role to play in Bails' work.
Bill Schelly writes that, while important building blocks, the science fiction fanzines should be considered in the context of comics fandom. He notes that Don and Maggie Thompson's Comic Art and Xero were published by double-fans [science fiction and comics] and were read mainly by sf fans who generally had little interest in (or disdain for) new comics, even the Schwartz revivals. The Thompsons' interest was in just about every aspect of comic art but the superhero comics of 1961.
Helped in large part to the efforts of DC editor Julius Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox, Bails would play a pivotal role in the fledgling field of comics fandom, which he called "panelology" (the study of comics).
Bails was the founding editor of Alter-Ego, one of the very earliest superhero comics fanzines. "On January 26, 1961," wrote Roy Thomas in 2003, "I received a letter from Jerry mentioning his idea for a "JLA newsletter" . . . [to which he was intending] to try to enlist Julie Schwartz's cooperation" in February 1961. The projected title and scope of The JLA Subscriber "gave way to something more ambitious" and, returning from visiting the DC offices in New York, Bails:
Schwartz had, indeed, given Bails copies of Xero #1-3, as well as personal advice and memories based on his own involvement in the earliest science fiction fandom of the 1930s, in which Schwartz played an important — perhaps even integral — role. Working with Thomas and in conjunction with Schwartz, Bails contacted other comic book letter writers and invited them to subscribe to and participate in Alter Ego. Thomas was named co-editor, and asked to contribute "a Mad-style parody, "The Bestest League of America." By March 28, Bails had prepared the ditto masters, and shortly thereafter "200 or more" copies of the first issue of the 21-page Alter-Ego #1 (now with a capital "E") were posted to Bails' ever-growing list of fans. The issue featured a "Bestest League" cover by Thomas and Bails, in homage to Mike Sekowsky's cover for The Brave and the Bold #29. The finished article became "an amateur journal devoted to the revivals of the costumed heroes at DC and elsewhere, as well as historical studies of what Bails deemed 'The First Heroic Age of Comics.'"
The original run of Alter Ego lasted 11 issues, spread over a total of 17 years. Ten issues were released between 1961 and 1969, with issue #11 following nine years later, in 1978. Bails edited and published the first four issues of Alter-Ego, before turning it over to fan-artist Ronn Foss (and, initially, Foss' wife, plus his friend "Grass" Green) who edited issues #5-6. Roy Thomas edited a further four issues solo, and issue #11 almost a decade later in collaboration with Mike Friedrich.Roy Thomas, "The Altered Ego: An editorial of sorts" in Alter Ego: The Comic Book Artist Collection (TwoMorrows, 2001), p. 7
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. A third, standalone volume was launched as a separate magazine (with similarly revived fanzine the Fawcett Collectors of America as a section) in 1999, and continues to 2011.
Shortly after the launch of Alter-Ego, Bails founded The Comicollector, which launched in September 1961.Bails, Jerry G., "America's Four-color Pastime..." in The Guidebook to Comics Fandom (Bill Spicer, Summer 1965).
The major motivating force behind comics fandom "was to bring fans together for the purpose of adding to their comic book collections." Inspired in part by the science-fiction fanzine/"adzine" The Fantasy Collector, comics fandom had "a need for a publication devoted primarily to the field" rather than the occasional advertisements of comics for sale that appeared in The Fantasy Collector.
Bails' initial thought was "to run such ads in each issue of A/E, but it soon became clear that it couldn't be published often enough." Accordingly, in September 1961, the first issue of the 20-page Bails-published The Comicollector, the self-styled "companion to ALTER-EGO" (as the masthead declared it), and "first comics advertising fanzine." Included among adverts from the "stalwarts of fandom" (including Bails, John McGeehan and Ronn Foss among others) was a review of the first issue of The Fantastic Four by Roy Thomas, originally destined for the pages of Alter-Ego.
After publishing The Comicollector for a year, Bails passed it on to Ronn Foss, and in 1964 it merged with G. B. Love's fanzine The Rocket's Blast to form The Rocket's Blast and the ComiCollector.Yutko, Nick. "1961," Absolute Elsewhere, Oct. 3, 1998. Retrieved July 16, 2008.
A month after the debut of The Comicollector, in October 1961, Bails also founded and published On the Drawing Board, the forerunner to the long-running news-zine The Comic Reader, designed to showcase the latest comic news.
Spinning-off from Alter-Ego after appearing for three issues as a column within that publication, Bails' On the Drawing Board "was devoted to blurbs and news items pertaining to upcoming events in pro comics." Thanks to the links forged, and respect gained, by Bails with various key individuals involved in the creation of comics — and in particular, DC Comics' major editorial force Julius Schwartz — he was able to gain advanced knowledge and news of upcoming comics events, launches and the creators behind them. Released in standalone form as "a single-page news-sheet," On the Drawing Board #4 (#1-3 being applied to the columns appearing in those issues of A/E) debuted on October 7, 1961. Bill Schelly described, in 2003, its impact:
In March 1962, issue #8 of On the Drawing Board was retitled The Comic Reader, and the (generally) monthly title became "a mainstay of fandom." With issue #25 Bails ceded his editorial duties, first to Glen Johnson, and later individuals, including Mark Hanerfeld. New York teenager Paul Levitz revived The Comic Reader in 1971, and it continued until 1984.
The Academy of Comic-Book Fans and Collectors
Established in large part solely to deal with the Alley Awards (below), and inspired by Roy Thomas' thoughts on a comics-industry version of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the name and workings of the Academy of Comic-Book Fans and Collectors became a way "to emphasize the seriousness of comics fans about their hobby." Bails further liked "the idea of a fandom organization that would not only perpetuate the concept of comics as an art form, but would also act as a sort of umbrella for all his ideas and projects, and those of others." The ACBFC's charter, "enthusiastically endorsed by members of fandom" detailed the Academy's intentions: formation of the Alley Awards, publication of The Comic Reader and "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."