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Underground > Comic Books >

The old letter-column gang

17:25 / 08.01.04

Re-reading a pile of old Doom Patrols and Shades, I’m all overcome with fuzzy nostalgia. Not for the comics, because they’re still funky and like, relevant and all that. But for the letter columns. Nobody actually needs letter-columns in the ultra-futuristic 21st century, and I know that this place kind of grew out of the Invisibles letter-columns, but what I need to know right now is what happened to the reaallly old letter-column guys and gals. I’m talking about swell guys like...Malcolm Bourne! Who was obviously very clever, and who probably holds the record for most letters printed in consecutive issues of Doom Patrol, and never once failed to pass on his compliments to the letterist. Or, what about Mark Lucas! whose sensitive soul was always moved to compose lyrical, poetic letters in tribute to the astonishing creativity of Grant’s imagination. And, he always signed his letters ‘mahalo’, whatever *that* means. Andrew Pack! Who actually went to the same comic shop as me, and seemingly read all the same comics I did, but who I never met, alas. But I’ve still got a copy of his self-published John Constantine/Willoughby Kipling ‘influenced’ mini-comic about somewhere. Keith Topping, whos name is still notorious in the realms of Doctor Who fandom. And who could forget ‘Spunkmeyer’? coreY klemoW? Melissa Page? Lon Wolf? Etc etc. Have all these people, such utterly dedicated fans in their time, just grown up and started reading proper books? Could such a terrible fate befall me, too?

All Acting Regiment

20:03 / 08.01.04

The alternative interpretation of this is that some people at the comics company decided it would be a good idea to create some personas and have them "write in" to say how good the comics were. Just a thought.

Doctor Singapore

20:28 / 08.01.04

"...who signed his letters 'mahalo', whatever that means..."

It's Hawaiian for "thanks" or "cheers", I'm told.

20:30 / 08.01.04

It’s a thought, yeah. But I think you’re jumping the conspiracy shark to suggest that sundry DC bigwigs might have gone so far as to divert funds to produce a mock up of a self-published ‘fan’ comic and send it to my local comic shop, so that my jolly comics vendor can hand it over and fool me into thinking it’s the work of a fellow customer, just so I feel justified in buying the comics that I’m already buying anyway. That’s a photocopied A5 hand-stapled ineptly-drawn ripoff of a magic bullet, Chris dude.

These people existed! And now they’ve gone! And I miss them!

Actually, no, I don’t miss them at all. Barbelith is much better. I just wanna know where they’ve gone.

20:55 / 08.01.04

I had a letter printed in an issue of Swamp Thing

20:59 / 08.01.04

I think the best Doom Patrol letter column was one where they printed letters that had been sent to the original DP series years earlier.. and they all seemed to be from little girls saying things like "I love Robotman, I hope nothing bad happens to him!".. it was like something out of an alternate universe.. maybe they just made them all up, I dunno..

ONLY NICE THINGS

00:09 / 09.01.04

The gloriously-named Randy Lander is still at it, I think, now writing fan review columns on the Internet.

And I think that's your answer. With the birth of the Internet, the letters page gang could share their thoughts more dynamically and more immediately. They are probably having spats abotu the symbolism of Rebis on bulletin boards, absolutely tickled pink that they can exchange opinions without having to wait a month in between.

Mind you, I also like the idea that htey all married and now live in Tulsa.

yawn - thing's buddy

09:28 / 09.01.04

anyone remember that bloke Malcolm Bourne, who would write consistently to Swamp Thing (as well as others n doubt, and Speakeasy an that)?

When I was 15, reading me swampys on the bog, I gave him a lot of respect for the dialogue he set up with the comic.

09:41 / 09.01.04

charles j sperling was the king of all that wasn't he - motherfucker used to have letters in the green lantern column that were just as long and involved as the invissy and swampy ones. weird man.

12:43 / 09.01.04

If memory serves, Malcolm Bourne went on to write a mini-series called something like ‘Tales of Ordinary Madness’ which I think is being reprinted in a collected form this year.

Matthew Fluxington

13:34 / 09.01.04

I wonder what Uncle Elvis is up to lately.

17:15 / 09.01.04

TM Maple????

18:28 / 09.01.04

T.M. Maple passed away ten years ago.

19:06 / 09.01.04

The last page of New X-Men #151 indicated that title's letter page is being resurrected as of next issue. The formation of a new letter-column gang is within your grasp, should your motivation suffice...

19:21 / 09.01.04

TM Maple passed away ten years ago? Any details? Cause of death?

22:10 / 09.01.04

Maple died of heart failure.

One of the blog entries I left half-finished was on the classic letterhacks. I should dig that up.

01:19 / 10.01.04

Please dig that up. I remember an interview with Paul Gamboccini (BBC radio ‘journalist’ of American extraction, go figure), where he was outed as one of the original original silver-age lettercolumn guys. It was great: he was so cool, wittering on about the Flash comic in the sixties, and how much he loved Grant’s Doom Patrol because it was just like the Flash.

Hmmmm. That really dates the interview, doesn’t it? God, I’m old. Anyway, yeah. Someone should track these guys down and find out *what* the obsession was that led them to spend so much time writing these fantastically long letters to comics. And then find out what it was that made them stop. And then drain their blood to develop a vaccine, cause I don’t want to catch the comics-apathy bug, I’d rather die.

And: Malcolm Bourne did a mini-series? Just one mini-series? Collecting and reprinting all his old letters would surely make for a 12-issue, prestige format maxi-series, at least.

Any word on Andrew Pack? That’s the one I’m really interested in, of course. I want to get him to sign his comic for me.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

12:28 / 10.01.04

Uncle Elvis sti8ll reads comics, and collected original art, but doesn't write to comics anymore.

What he used to do was to write a post card to every comic he bought, and since he would write short, positive things, got printed when the editors were looking for something to fill a page.

I was printed in quite a few comics in the 80's (the typical fanboy stuff, Doug Moench's Batman, some First comics, and a few Marvel books where my letters were edited), and while it was fun, I didn't write to get published, but because I lived so far away from other comics fans, it was the only outlet I could think of to write about what I thought of comic books. Then came newsgroups and national BBSes, and now message boards (which, other than this one, I avoid).

But I think the loss of letters pages is a big blow to the feeling that comics are made by people and not a Big Company who puts out the books like cans of pork and beans.

23:48 / 10.01.04

I remember an interview with Paul Gamboccini (BBC radio ‘journalist’ of American extraction, go figure), where he was outed as one of the original original silver-age lettercolumn guys. It was great: he was so cool, wittering on about the Flash comic in the sixties, and how much he loved Grant’s Doom Patrol because it was just like the Flash.

I've always loved him. If what you say is true, I love him even more.

00:01 / 11.01.04

It’s absolutely true, I tell you. And, he was such a prolific and well-loved lettercolumn guy that they named a character in the comic after him, ‘Gambini’ or something like that, who was the tailor in Central City who makes all the superhero and supervillain costumes. And, he has one of the most complete collections of Flash comics in, like, the whole world. And, he nailed everything that’s great about Grant’s Doom Patrol. Gambo’s fucking cool, man. We should invite him on to Barbelith for an evening: do a live webchat, one-night-only kind of thing. That’d rock, because he probably knows more than God.

11:04 / 13.01.04

That is brilliant.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

13:23 / 13.01.04

I never listened to him realising he was into doom patrol. fucking cool.

15:42 / 13.01.04

a story's told of gambo interviewing umberto eco on radio 2. listeners were left missing the joke entirely after both DJ and interviewee dissolved into hysterical tears. having got away from the name of the rose and on to the name of the martian-manhunter, eco had some trouble: 'Ja-onn Ja-owns' he said, including the difficult-to-say-out-loud alien apostrophes. gambo got it, and i would have too, but i doubt many others did.

!ECO-GAMBO GO!

17:29 / 13.01.04

Moment of silence for T. M. Maple. That guy was cool.

Haus of Mystery

18:57 / 13.01.04

When I used to read the Demon (Alan Grant shite-fest) the editor, Dan Raspler got in trouble for ripping the piss out of some kid's name. Kid's fucking grandmother writes in to bollock Raspler, said ed has to apologise and give the kid some free stuff.. Pretty funny.

I guess.

21:25 / 13.01.04

I've always loved him. If what you say is true, I love him even more.

I've always hated him. He soundtracked my childhood with endless tedious rockumentaries. And now I find out he has a saving grace. Damn.

I met Malcom Bourne once. I think.

02:29 / 14.01.04

Well, er, I had a letter printed in Rom Spaceknight once (seemed cool at the time). Later, my missives graced the lettercols of Freak Force and WildCATS. And not just any Wildcats - this was WildCATS when ALAN MOORE was writing it. Yeah, yeah, I know. Pretty lame. But hey, not everyone can be Malcom Bourne.

Yup, I surely do miss those letter hacks. They kept things interesting, and, even though I never met any of them, I feel like they're longlost friends. And I miss the letter columns too. But I have to agree that, in the end, Barbelith is better. The old school letter column was fine (hell, it was wonderful) in its day, but its day has passed. Unless the actual creators answer the letters (like, say, in Preacher, Powers, Savage Dragon, or The Invisibles).

18:21 / 14.01.04

The non-glories of my lettercol career are as follows:

Cerebus, several, during the period when Aardvark Comment was still the liveliest and most thought-provoking lettercol in comics. Sim was not so odd in those days and seemed to really value the sense of community. Often, he'd insert an extra sheet or two in the comic just so the lettercol could run for a dozen pages. It were neat, like.

John Byrne's Next Men & The Savage Dragon - Wrote to Byrne and Larsen to tell them off for picking at each other and embarassing themselves publically. Bizarrely got printed in both comics.

Hilly Rose's Space Adventures #1 -
Short-lived BC Boyer self-published B&W series about a pulp space reporter. Some editor picked my name from Cerebus and sent me an ashcan and I sent back a +ve review which got printed as the whole lettercol for issue #1. Made me feel like an "insider" for about 3 days.

17:27 / 16.01.04

Oh yeah? Well, I got a preview copy of the mid-90's Black Lightning #1. So there! My letter didn't get printed, though. The series tanked shortly thereafter. Coincidence? I think not... (I've reeeeally got to stop admitting to this stuff).

21:41 / 16.01.04

I'm surprised that Olav Beemer isn't mentioned in here.
He even has his own website, but it's in dutch:

http://www.weeklydose.com/