Jerry Weist (1949-2011)

Author, bookseller, and collector Jerry Weist, 61, died January 7, 2011 after a long struggle with cancer.

Weist wrote the Hugo Award-nominated Ray Bradbury: An Illustrated Life (2002) and The 100 Greatest Comic Books (2004). He was an art expert with an emphasis on comic book, pulp, and science fiction art, and wrote two editions of The Comic Art Price Guide, with a third edition completed shortly before his death and forthcoming.

Born September 16, 1949, Weist grew up in Wichita KS. He began producing his own fanzines in 1962 with Nightmare and Movieland Monsters, and later edited and published E.C. Comics fanzine Squa Tront (1967-1983). He moved to New York in 1972 to be an artist, with his work featured in one-man shows and galleries.

He relocated to Boston, where he opened early comic book store The Million Year Picnic in 1974. After a decade as a bookseller he moved back to New York, where he spent ten years as a consultant with Sotheby’s auction house, organizing their first major comic book and comic art auction in 1991. He is survived by his wife and two children.