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 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)." 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