Jerry 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.

Jerry Gwin Bails (June 26, 1933 – November 23, 2006) was an American popular culturist.

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 avid 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)."

A student teacher by 1953, he gained his Ph.D. in Natural science c. 1959, and in 1960 moved to Detroit with his wife Sondra "to become Assistant Professor of Natural Science at Wayne State University."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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."

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.

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:

"'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.'"

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.