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Underground > Comic Books >

The Death of the Comic Book Letter Column?

17:16 / 06.03.03

It seems like both Marvel and DC are featuring less and less letter columns these days -- especially Marvel since the required "Recap page." I've had impulses to write email letters to both companies lately but stopped because a) no more letter columns, it seems and b) Marvel's letter emails seem to have changed (i.e. to reach X-STATIX you email "Spideyoffice" because Axel Alonso edits both, some confusing crap like that).

Anyone else wondering about this? I love lettercols and would hate to see them go.

Matthew Fluxington

17:34 / 06.03.03

DC's made it an official policy to drop letter columns, so it's no coincidence over there. It seems like Marvel's done a similar thing, with the exception of X-Statix - on the Best Show On WFMU last week, Mike Allred noted that it was the only mainstream comic which still published a letter's page.

I'm glad to see letter columns go. With only a few Vertigo exceptions, Marvel and DC haven't been publishing many interesting/thoughtful letters for a very long time now, and the basic function of the letters column (to create some kind of community and for the audience to have a way to interact with the creators) has for a large portion of the readership been replaced by the internet.

I don't care for letter columns to begin with. I remember reading something Warren Ellis wrote in which he was saying that you don't go to a movie and see a reel of viewer responses after the film ends, and the same went for books and television. It's silly if you think about it.

19:17 / 06.03.03

Captain Marvel apparently still has a letter page. If you care. It would've been nice to have my name in a comic once, and that's the easiest route.

Ah, so what?

23:46 / 06.03.03

I don't think it's silly at all. Letter columns seem to be part of comics as a medium. Granted the internet is replacing them, and probably more effectively, but to call them silly is like calling captions silly. They're not, they're part of comics.

I think a lot of the rejection driven change that we're seeing is brought on by one of two things. The frits is people thinking that since comics aren't working, there must be something inherently wrong with the medium, thus we must change comics to be like the other, more successful mediums. Get rid of thought baloons, captions, letter columns, etc.

The other is that people are trying to make their comics look more like storyboards. Wide panels, less dialogue, no captions, easier for someone to option it as a movie thus giving the creators a fat wad of cash.

I don't like this rejection of things which are unique to comics - "My medium, my shame". Movies don't have fan replies? Big fucking deal, movies don't have gutters or pages, are we going to get rid of them as well? Books don't have pictures, are they on the way out? TV has ads every couple of minutes, does that mean... oh wait.

I'm not fighting for letter columns in particular, it just seems that a lot of the arguments given for change are comicshate, not comicslove.

Matthew Fluxington

23:59 / 06.03.03

I don't think it's silly at all. Letter columns seem to be part of comics as a medium. Granted the internet is replacing them, and probably more effectively, but to call them silly is like calling captions silly. They're not, they're part of comics

Umm......but, you know, letter columns aren't part of the visual language of comics. You don't need them to sell a story. If you take out letter columns, it doesn't make a comic any less of a comic.

I would like to remind you also that there are a LOT more people making comics than the Mark Millars and Grant Morrisons of the world, and that a lot of the things you're talking about are not an industry-wide phenomenon. In fact, there's loads of comics NOT published by Marvel or DC (hard to imagine, I know...) which aren't making vain attempts to compete with other media AND are still publishing letter columns.

You see, it's my pet peeve when people make sweeping comments about the comics medium which only seem to apply to a handful of comics being published by Marvel and DC.

00:50 / 07.03.03

I like letter columns when they are more like afterwords from the writer/artist, or when they expand on the story (like when Grant would list some of his reference material in the Inviz letter column). But it's like the girl with the curl - when they are good, the lettercols can add to the story and overall atmosphere, but when they are bad, they can be wretched. I'm flashing back to some that were full of sycophantic rambles, overeager attempts to emulate the writer's style (e.g. I'm not a big fan of the LOEG vol.1 letter column), or ego strokes for the creators ("Oh my god you made me cry I can't believe you did that to [character]!").

At the same time, I'm kind of a fan of the recap page. When they're good, they're like the "Previously on Buffy" segment - they remind you of which bits of the overall story are important to the chapter that you're about to read. Or the writer can use them to clarify anything that previously happened but that might not have been very clear.

03:46 / 07.03.03

Flux: I didn't see thread as lamenting the demise of the letter column in the latest Euro or Jap comic, or even indie US comic. We're talking about lettercols in mainstream US comics and I thought I'd expand the topic to include other changes.

I won't tell you what my pet peeves are, but they include people who make sweeping comments like "hard to imagine, I know..." about other people on a message board ffs.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:27 / 07.03.03

Slightly offtopic, but I know of one forum that deletes ny post beginning "um....", because it's a very cheap way of saying "I can't believe I'm having to explain this, you fucking cretin", and leads inevitably to raising of the emotional temperature.

I can't condone the method, but I can see where they're going...

It does seem, however, that the more indie a comic is the bigger letters page it has - Optic Nerve seems determined to print every letter Adrian Tomine receives, up to and including gas bills, and there was a point when the letters page took up more of Cerebus the Aardvark than the actual aardvark. Vertigo, it seems, used extended letters pages as a sign of artistic intent, even if they had to throw some of the most incredible drivel in to make up the numbers...is this a distinction beetween comic as consumer product and comic as community project?

07:49 / 07.03.03

I dunno if I’d necessarily mourn the loss of the ‘SPAWN RULZZZ!’ school of letters, but there have certainly been some letter columns which have added to the fun of the reading experiences – especially if, as someone else has pointed out, one of the creators does the talking back, as was the case in the Invisibles. And I seem to recall the identity of Matthew in Sandman was established explicitly in the lettercolumn for those bone-headed morons (like, er, me) who hadn’t figured it out, so sometimes it can actively add to it.
What is more of a concern in the discussion is the fact that it seems to be taking away one of the things that is almost unique to the medium – a story, followed by some people talking about it ? Sounds like – despite the Ellis analogy mentioned earlier – a night out at the cinema to me, followed by the inevitable post-mortem with friends, and that’s not a bad thing. I think in this respect, comics letter columns are more like those other PRINT media, newspapers and magazines.
And if Ellis’s analogy holds, well, if they made a Transmetropolitan film, I guess about an hour and a half of the two hour film would be comprised of Spider Jerusalem just walking up and down the street.

09:16 / 07.03.03

Gotta say I don't miss letter columns that much but the X-Statix one is great because of the type of hate mail they often print! Anyway if its letters you want then just pick up a copy of Powers each month where the letter col and some of the Bendis responses can be as entertaining and as long as the book itself! I'm just glad I got a letter printed in Groo when I was a kid! Definitely the pride of my collection!

09:41 / 07.03.03

i got one in 2000AD about 15 years ago, the one where dredd fought martial artist Stan Leee in a subtle discourse on US / UK comic rivalries and i still have the letter from tharg, happiest day of my life etc although i spent the postal order rather than framin d it.

the 2000AD letters page was basically sycophantic rubbish though, don't know if they still have it, but i did like the US ones because as ppl have said there was often a reasonably intelligent discussion on character / plot development in the better ones and they did print and respond to some criticisms, but agree the net has provided a better medium for writer / fan discussions and the growth of a community

andrew

Matthew Fluxington

11:42 / 07.03.03

I'm glad some of you have pleasant memories of letter columns - I can think of a few which were entertaining (Grant's Doom Patrol, Giffen's Legion, Eightball), but my memory of the things is mostly crowded out by endless letters begging for Rogue and Gambit to get back together. Damn X-Men.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

19:28 / 07.03.03

I don't remember any letters pages that have interested me for years, though at my rate of about 5 comics a month tht's not saying much, even the 'Invisible Ink' ones were only interesting for the things Grant had to say in response to the letters, not for any of the letters themselves (except for the one or two people that argued with Grant over Jim Crow's 'why do brothers go Muslim' stance). The 'Preacher' ones were almost amusing for Garth's replies to stuff but the 'everyone pretending to be a redneck and using a swearing thesaurus' thing was so dull.

19:43 / 07.03.03

POWERS' lettercol is truly terrific. I always laugh out loud (really) at least 4 times while reading it.

21:43 / 07.03.03

Umm......but, you know, letter columns aren't part of the visual language of comics. You don't need them to sell a story. If you take out letter columns, it doesn't make a comic any less of a comic.

it would have made the invisibles less of a comic.
it would have meant that i would never have discovered barbelith and several other places on the web i love.

it would have also meant that i didnt take the magic in the invisibles seriously, and therefore woud have kept that door closed a while longer.

if you read a comic like Xmen, one that is read not only by the intellectuals among us but also by a lot of kids and dumbasses, you have to expect a little stupidity and whininess in the letters. as a rule, though, i like them and will be sad to see them go from the major titles. i was really dissapointed that they were absent from the filth, for example. on reading the book for the first time, i actually felt a little cheated that my purchase had been so devalued.

23:09 / 07.03.03

I miss the lettercols too......... *snif*

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

03:03 / 11.03.03

I remember in the 80's, in an interview, Jim Shooter said that Marvel saw letters pages as advertising. Editors were to mention upcoming stories and other comics...while in the 70's, Marvel used the letters pages to showcase that comics were for intelligent people by having long letters from people like TM Maple, Ralph Macchio and others.

They haven't been worth reading for quite a while now, tho. Only the ones put together by Tom Brevoot have been worth reading, IMHO.

I don't like the idea that they have been replaced by on-line forums as DC said tho. Forums have a vastly different feel...

09:25 / 11.03.03

I always found the Grendel letter col to be good, often very long and well thought out letters were featured.

The Powers letter col is quite funny, but I normally skip because of the 'fuck you' answers Bendis so often writes.

The X-Statix letter col is an example of why letter cols are not missed too much, because of all the fanboys/girls saying 'the new X-force sux'

Forums are much better places for discussion I feel.

23:25 / 13.03.03

Forums are much better places for discussion I feel.

yeah, if you have internet access and wish to waste it on something you used to get free with the comics. i see your point, but i think that we could have both.

A

00:47 / 15.03.03

Letter columns are only worthwhile if the letters are answered by one of the creators of the comic in question, I think. If they're just done by the editor, or assistant editor, or whatever, then they don't really allow you to gain much extra insight into the comic, or the people who created it, and are mostly just a place for people to say "that rocked", or "that sucked".

Off topic- people who write letters in to Spin magazine, or whatever, and say something like "Thank you for your article about Peral Jam. It was fair and even-handed. It's great to see these guys get some recognition", or whatever, are the lowest form of life on our poor, fragile planet.

01:51 / 15.03.03

They probably even spell like that.