CAPA-alpha was the first amateur press association

Amateur press association

An amateur press association is a group of people who produce individual pages or magazines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group.-Organisation:...

 (APA) devoted to comic books, started by Jerry Bails

Jerry Bails

Jerry Gwin Bails was an American popular culturist. Known as the "Father of Comic Book Fandom", he was one of the first to approach the comic book field as a subject worthy of academic study, and was a primary force in establishing 1960s comics fandom.- Early life :Jerry G. Bails was born June...

 (the "father of comics fandom") in the United States in 1964.

In October 1964 Bails released the first issue of comics' first dedicated APA publication. Between 1963 and 1964, "new fanzines were popping up right and left . . . [as] a lot of fans were infected by the "publishing bug," many of them talented writers and artists." In an attempt to focus these emerging talents, and head off the over-abundance of poor quality fanzines (or "crud-zines") which seemed to equal in number their good quality counterparts, Bails adapted the long-standing practice of APAs for comics, creating the first all-comics APA, "CAPA-alpha" (the first — e.g., 'alpha' — 'Comics A.P.A.').

This allowed the easy formulation of a fanzine

Fanzine

A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...

, created through submissions by each of its fifty-strong membership, who could all contribute short submissions on a regular basis. Compiled in the regular APA mold by a "central mailer" (in which role Bails first served), copies of the membership's individual submissions could then be collated and mailed out to everyone. "Now," explained fandom historian Bill Schelly

Bill Schelly

Bill Schelly is an author primarily known as a historian of cinema, comic books, and comics fandom. He is also a portrait and comic book artist....

, "fans could get into print and retain editorial control of their material, without publishing their own fanzine."

CAPA-alpha soon grew to its present limit of fifty members, becoming along the way the archetype for most subsequent comics APAs. Besides Bails, notable members have included Mark Evanier

Mark Evanier

Mark Stephen Evanier is an American comic book and television writer, particularly known for his humor work. He is also known for his columns and blogs, and for his work as a historian and biographer of the comics industry, in particular his award-winning Jack Kirby biography, Kirby: King of...

, Carl Gafford

Carl Gafford

Carl Gafford is a colorist who has worked for several decades in the comics industry. His career to date has spanned several publishers, including Marvel Comics, DC Comics and Topps Comics.- Early life :...

, Fred Patten

Fred Patten

Frederick Walter Patten is known for his work as a historian in the science fiction, anime, manga, and furry fandoms, where he has gained great distinction through a substantial contribution to both print and online books, magazines, and other media....

, Richard and Wendy Pini, Neal Pozner

Neal Pozner

Neal Pozner , sometimes credited as Neil Pozner, was an award-winning art director, editor, and writer known for his work in the comic book industry...

, Roy Thomas

Roy Thomas

Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...

, Tony Isabella

Tony Isabella

Tony Isabella is an American comic book writer, editor, artist and critic, known as the creator and writer of Marvel Comics' Black Goliath, DC Comics' first major African American superhero, Black Lightning, and as a columnist and critic for the Comics Buyer's Guide.-Marvel Comics:Before he joined...

, Dan Alderson

Dan Alderson

Daniel John "Dan" Alderson was a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, and a prominent participant in science fiction fandom. He came from a middle class family and had diabetes...

, Ralph Alfonso, Rick Norwood

Rick Norwood

Rick Norwood is an American publisher, mathematician, comics historian and short story author.Born in Franklin, Louisiana, Norwood attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was one of four writer-editors of the early underground comic God Comics, along with Bill Osten, Durk...

, Don Markstein, Dwight Decker, Rob Solomon, Rocky Bronstein, Tom Stern, Jim Korkis, Richard Morrissey, Harry Broertjes, Jim Chadwick, Meloney Crawford, Gary Brown, Alan Hutchinson, Jeffrey H. Wasserman, and Don and Maggie Thompson

Maggie Thompson

Margaret "Maggie" Thompson , is the editor of Comics Buyer's Guide, a monthly comic book industry news magazine...

.

In addition, Michael Barrier

Michael Barrier (historian)

Michael Barrier is an American animation historian. Barrier was the founder and editor of Funnyworld, the first magazine exclusively devoted to comics and animation. It began as a contribution to the CAPA-Alpha amateur press association...

's famed animation fanzine Funnyworld started as a CAPA-alpha contribution.