Today in Comics History, June 26: Happy birthday, Jerry Bails!

Born on this day in 1933: Jerry Bails, the father of comics fandom and creator of the influential (if not the first) comics fanzine, Alter Ego, as well as developing and writing for many other fandom publications and founding fan organizations, awards, and events!


from Fifty Who Made DC Great one-shot (DC, 1985)



No less a comics name than Lan Stee (wait...strike that...reverse it) praises jerry as
one of fandom's most articulate writers" in this lettercolumn piece from FF #22. Jerry's definitely right about Avengers and he's...not entirely wrong about the 1963 X-Men book, one of the more lackluster series from Marvel at its beginning. Don't worry, Jerry, ity'll get more uncanny!


from letter column of Fantastic Four (1961 series) #22 (Marvel, January 1964
Jerry (and fellow uber-fan Roy Thomas) were honored in the pages of an early JLA as the composite character "Jerry Thomas," who developed a way to defeat the Justice League. Luckily, he was a good guy.



from "The Cavern of Deadly Spheres!" in Justice League of America (1960 series) #16 (DC/National, December 1962), script by Gardner Fox, pencils by Mike Sekowsky, inks by Bernard Sachs, letters by Gaspar Saladino
However, I am not buying that "Snapper" Carr's artwork is as good at Mike Sekowsky's. Uh uh, no way.


Happy birthday, Jerry!