Alter Ego (magazine)

Alter Ego

Alter Ego #99 (January 2011)
Editor	Roy Thomas
Frequency	Bimonthly
Year founded	1961
Company	TwoMorrows Publishing
Country	United States
Based in	Raleigh, NC
Language	English

Alter Ego is an American magazine devoted to comic books and comic-book creators of the 1930s to late-1960s periods comprising what fans and historians call the Golden Age and Silver Age of Comic Books.

It was founded as a fanzine by Jerry Bails in 1961, and later taken over by Roy Thomas. Ten issues were released through 1969, with issue #11 following nine years later. In 1999, following a five-issue run the previous years as a flip-book with Comic Book Artist, Alter Ego began regular bimonthly publication as a formal magazine with glossy covers. TwoMorrows Publishing is the owner of the magazine and it is headquartered in Raleigh, NC.

Alter-Ego supported the superhero revivals of the era that Jerry Bails dubbed "The Second Heroic Age of Comics", popularly known as the Silver Age of Comic Books. DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz encouraged Bails and collaborator Roy Thomas, who would eventually become Marvel Comics editor-in-chief.

Bails contacted readers whose letters had appeared in DC's The Brave and the Bold #35, the first comic book to print readers' full mailing addresses in its letter column. Some of those readers were active in other fandoms, and helped spread word-of-mouth about Alter Ego. Schwartz loaned Bails his copies of the comics and science fiction fanzine Xero, and Bails wrote to everyone in their letter column as well. Soon, Bails was receiving two or three responses daily from people interested in subscribing.