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“We Were A Wonderful Match!” An Interview With HAMES WARE—Jerry Bails’ Co-Editor Of The 1970s Who’s Who Of American Comic Books Conducted by Jim Amash
Transcribed by Brian K. Morris
H
ames Ware is better known to comics historians than he realizes. Among his many other accomplishments, Hames was the co-editor (with publisher Jerry Bails, of course) of the original fourvolume Who’s Who of American Comic Books. This seminal work has provided comics historians the necessary foundation for much of the work that has followed its original publication. Hames has never been one to toot his own horn; but now, finally, he goes on record to describe the origins of the Who’s Who project. Even though this issue focuses on Jerry Bails, Hames was long overdue for an interview, so we decided to make him talk about himself, too, whether he wanted to or not! It’s a revealing look into his working relationship with Jerry and beyond, so I’ll shut up and let you get to the good stuff. I got him started by asking him about his early interest in comics, and how that led to his involvement with Jerry on the 1970s Who’s Who. —Jim.
Who’s Who’s On First! Jerry Bails (left) and Hames Ware in the summer of ’71, hard at work on the original four-volume edition of The Who’s Who of American Comic Books… flanked by the cover of Airboy Comics, Vol. 9, #10 (Nov. 1952), featuring the work of an artist they nearly missed—Ernie Schroeder, who drew both “Airboy” and “The Heap” during those features’ later years, as well as many other comics stories. Hames even recalls once finding an issue of Airboy lying on a hedge outside a hospital window. Now that’s fate! Photo courtesy of HW, taken by Jean Bails. [Art ©2007 the respective copyright holders.]
HAMES WARE: When I was six years old, my uncle gave me a subscription to Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories. I was excited each month when it appeared in the mailbox, because the work inside was so great. It made me want to read more comics. I got a lot of Dell Comics because they were family comics. That’s pretty much what my family bought when they let us have comic books. My granddad was a doctor. He had a farm, about 350 acres, with a lake on it. I spent most of my summers there. At night, I sat by the fire and read comic books. Comics mostly came into play when it was winter, and I had to stay indoors or if I was sick, so they provided an outlet. A lot of friends’ moms periodically threw out their kids’ comics, which was traditional for the time. Every time I heard that a friend was going to have his comics thrown out, I would collect their comics before they were thrown away. I kind-of got the reputation that, if you had a bunch of old comics to throw away, just give Hames a call—he’ll come and get them. So I began this collection of assorted comic books, though I never did have any ECs or other horror comics. Those just weren’t allowed in my household, but I had a wealthy friend who was allowed to have everything he wanted. And part of what he had were EC Comics, which I read at his house. They were scary and I really didn’t have any desire to buy them, but I was fascinated by them. When my sister was born, somebody threw a comic book out the old hospital window, and it landed in a hedge. I
remember taking it off the hedge and looking at it. It was [Airboy Comics with] “The Heap,” drawn by Ernie Schroeder. Of course at the time, nobody knew who Ernie Schroeder was! My granddad gave me a lot of old unused ledgers which I used to catalogue my comics. I began to teach myself how to draw by looking at the comics, and fortunately in the 4th and 5th grades I had the good fortune to sit beside classmate Mercer Mayer, who as you know is one of the great modern-day children’s book illustrators. Mercer was great even then, and I learned a lot just by watching him draw. Just last year a number of my drawings were collected together and some sold at a local gallery, and I thought that was neat. I had favorite artists. I began to learn their styles and how to associate names with the styles. I just had a knack for identifying styles of the artists, and I’d write their names down. And if their names weren’t there, I’d look for “sneaks.” I began to hone my abilities to look for hidden signatures or initials on license plates, stuff like that. It became a game. I built up a number of ledgers with this information: publisher by publisher, what artist worked for what publisher, what years they worked, etc. Then I discovered girls and my interest in comics waned. Incidentally, just as classmate Mercer Mayer went on to fame and fortune, Rhonda, the great early love of my life, went on to be a Miss Arkansas, and starred on Broadway in The Robber Bridegroom. We’re still very close, and I’m proud of that and of her. She wrote a hit song for Jimmy Buffet, and worked with most of the Saturday Night Live gang on various projects... she sang at John Belushi’s funeral.