Founders of Comic Fandom: A Biographical Who’s Who of Publishers, Dealers, Collectors, Writers, Artists, and Other Luminaries of the 1950s and 1960s - Softcover

In the Beginning

Imagine a time of no email, no internet, no Amazon. You had a phone, but it cost a fortune to call long distance. You bought your comics at the corner drugstore. Were there other comic book fans, somewhere? Sure, but good luck finding them. Then Jerry Bails said: let there be fandom.

Comic book historian Bill Schelly begins his story of comic fandom in the early 1960s, when enterprising pioneers like Bails, Dick and Pat Lupoff, Don and Maggie Thompson, and Roy Thomas pooled their talents to birth a fast-growing community of kindred spirits.

Schelly chronicles the lives of every major indexer, dealer, fanzine publisher, convention organizer, writer, artist, collector, and professional—over 90 in all—who played a role in the nascent fan community. Vintage photos enliven each biography.

For comic book fans of today, spoiled by mega conventions, billion-dollar movies, and endless merchandising, Founders of Comic Fandom is a nostalgic, enlightening trip back to the not-so-long-ago, when a dime bought adventure and the fun had just begun.