Bill Schelly

Bill Schelly
Born William Carl Schelly[1]
(1951-11-02) November 2, 1951
Walla Walla, Washington, United States
Education University of Idaho, B.S., education[1]
Occupation Popular culturist
Website http://www.billschelly.net

Bill Schelly (born November 2, 1951, Walla Walla, Washington, United States) is an author primarily known as a historian of cinema, comic books, and comics fandom.[2] He is also a portrait and comic book artist.

Bill Schelly has been a comic book enthusiast since 1960.[3] He was living in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he heard about comics fandom in 1964. Upon seeing his first amateur publication about comics, a mimeographed fanzine called Batmania, Schelly decided to become a fanzine publisher himself. He launched Super-Heroes Anonymous in February 1965, the first in a string of magazines he edited and published until 1972.

It was for his fanzine Sense of Wonder that Schelly became known to the comics community.[1] Begun while living in Pittsburgh, but mostly published after he moved to Lewiston, Idaho, in 1967, it began as a collection of amateur comic strips and stories. In 1970, while attending the University of Idaho, Schelly changed the format of Sense of Wonder to a "general fanzine" made up of articles and artwork about the history of comic books. By the end of its 12-issue run, Sense of Wonder had presented the first attempt to chronicle the whole career of comics innovator Will Eisner, as well as work by Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta and Stanley Pitt. It was discontinued after he graduated from college in 1973.

Schelly's first published book was Harry Langdon, a biography of the silent film comedian, published by Scarecrow Press in 1982. Schelly played a part in a revival of interest in silent cinema in Seattle at the time, and lectured on the subject at the University of Washington. The Journal of Popular Film & Television said of Harry Langdon, "William Schelly's remarkable first book ... should be relished by anyone who appreciates screen comedy and Langdon's unique approach to it."

In 1990, Schelly began researching the history of the classic era of comic book fandom. Eventually, his research culminated in a book-length manuscript called The Golden Age of Comic Fandom It was well-received, quickly sold out, and was nominated for a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award.[1] A revised and expanded edition was published in 1998, and another printing was done in 2003. Schelly followed The Golden Age of Comic Fandom with a series of self-published books on the history of comic book fandom which were distributed by Diamond Comics as well as sold directly from the publisher.

In 1997, Schelly organized a reunion of old-time comics fans during the Chicago Comicon, which drew 33 people including Jerry Bails, Howard Keltner, Maggie Thompson and Jay Lynch. Discussions at this comicon led to a decision to bring back Alter Ego in TwoMorrows Publishing's Comic Book Artist magazine. Schelly became associate editor of the endeavor, which proved so successful that it became its own magazine in 1999. He has contributed a series of Comic Fandom Archive articles to most issues. (Alter Ego passed its 150th issue in 2018, and has received an Eisner Award along the way.) TwoMorrows also published Schelly's own memoir of his time in fandom of the 1960s called Sense of Wonder: A Life in Comic Fandom (2001).

Schelly wrote and published the biography Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder (2003), about the principal writer of The Marvel Family and many Superman comics of the 1950s and 1960s. This book began the author's historical research and writing on the history of comics in general. (It was re-issued in revised form in 2016 by North Atlantic Books, with a new title Otto Binder, The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary.) Subsequently, he wrote a dozen introductions for DC Archives books.

In 2004, Schelly visited Joe Kubert and The Kubert School in Dover, New Jersey, and wrote Man of Rock, a biography of Kubert. It was published in 2008, and was followed in 2011 by the publication of The Art of Joe Kubert, a coffee table book consisting of examples of Kubert's best work from his 70-plus year career. Both were published by Fantagraphics Books. Schelly's revised and expanded biography of Harry Langdon, Harry Langdon - His Life and Films, appeared in 2008, this time published by McFarland.

When Comic-Con International established 2011 as the 50th anniversary of comics fandom, and made it a theme of their annual event in San Diego that year, Schelly was the catalyst for the fandom reunion which ended up being sponsored by the convention. Reunion 2011 drew some 140-plus members of fandom's past. He appeared on three panels: Founders of Comic Fandom, Fanzines of Fandom's Golden Age, and Spotlight on Bill Schelly. He received an Inkpot Award at Comic-Con 2011 for his efforts on behalf of fandom over the years.

Recent books have been Weird Tales and Daring Adventures (2012), Alter Ego: The Best of the Classic Fanzine, Vol. 2 (2013) in collaboration with Roy Thomas, and the American Comic Book Chronicles: The 50's (2013), which was nominated for a Harvey Award. His latest is Harvey Kurtzman, The Man Who Created Mad (2015), a biography of the originator of Mad (both the comic book and the magazine), Two-Fisted Tales, Frontline Combat, Trump, Humbug, and Help!, as well as Little Annie Fanny for Playboy. It won the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for Best Comics-Related Book of 2015.

In May 2017, Fantagraphics Books published Schelly's John Stanley, Giving Life to Little Lulu, a combined biography and coffee table book dedicated to Stanley's stellar work in comic books from 1942 to 1970. North Atlantic Books published the author's memoir Sense of Wonder, My Life in Comic Fandom - The Whole Story in April 2018. It is made up of a re-written version of his 2001 book with almost the same title, and adds a brand new Part 2 of equal length, continuing the story of the original book to the present day.

In 2018, several books reprinting earlier works by Schelly were published by Pulp Hero Press. They include a re-issue of the book Founders of Comic Fandom, and two volumes of Bill Schelly Talks with the Founders of Comic Fandom, which mainly consist of his past interviews from Alter Ego magazine. A third volume will be published, as well as The Bill Schelly Reader, which will reprint his prose articles on comic books and comic fandom. Fantagraphics Books will publish Schelly's biography James Warren, Empire of Monsters in January 2019.

Bibliography

  • Harry Langdon (Scarecrow Press, 1982)
  • The Golden Age of Comic Fandom (Hamster Press, 1995)
  • (with Roy Thomas) Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine (Hamster Press, 1997; re-issued by TwoMorrows Publishing in 2008)
  • Fandom's Finest Comics Vol. 1 (Hamster Press, 1997)
  • Fandom's Finest Comics Vol. 2 (Hamster Press, 1998)
  • Giant Labors of Love (Hamster Press, 2000)
  • Sense of Wonder: A Life in Comic Fandom (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2001)
  • Comic Fandom Reader (Hamster Press, 2002)
  • The Best of Star-Studded Comics (Hamster Press, 2005)
  • Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder (Hamster Press, 2003)
  • Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert (Fantagraphics, 2008)
  • Founders of Comic Fandom: Profiles of 90 Publishers, Dealers, Collectors, Writers, Artists and Other Luminaries of the 1950s and 1960s (McFarland Books, 2010)
  • The Art of Joe Kubert (Fantagraphics, 2011)
  • Weird Horrors and Daring Adventures (Fantagraphics, 2012)
  • (with Roy Thomas) The Best of Alter Ego, Vol. 2 (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2013)
  • American Comic Book Chronicles: The 50's (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2013)
  • Harvey Kurtzman: The Man Who Created Mad and Revolutionized Humor in America (Fantagraphics, 2015)
  • Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary (North Atlantic Books, 2016)
  • John Stanley: Giving Life To Little Lulu (Fantagraphics, 2017)
  • Sense of Wonder, My Life in Comic Fandom--The Whole Story (North Atlantic Books, 2018)
  • Bill Schelly Talks with the Founders of comic Fandom, Vol. 1 (Pulp Hero Press)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Schelly entry, Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999]. Accessed Dec. 9, 2016.
  2. ↑ Weisberg, Lori (27 October 2010). "Much-coveted Comic-Con passes go on sale Monday". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
  3. ↑ Heller, Steven. "The Man Who Changed Humor in America Forever: Before it was a magazine, MAD was a satirical comic that ran under the inimitable leadership of Harvey Kurtzman," The Atlantic (APR 30, 2015).
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