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Underground > Comic Books >

Comicbook letter columns

13:27 / 29.03.02

Been reading through my ‘shade the changing man’ backissues (due in part to the ‘rac shade’ thread here (go there now!):

…and I’d forgotten how good those old vertigo letters columns were. In the ‘shade’ column (‘oh say can you scream’ ), there was this guy named Malcolm Bourne who would send in some very thoughtful and entertaining letters. Did anyone read his ‘Tales of Ordinary Madness’ book (w/ artwork by one Mike Allred) that came out in the early 1990’s? I remember Rachel Pollack writing weird letters about Rebis and alchemy in the ‘doom patrol’ letter column before she took over writing it from Morrison. There were/are others, to be sure.

Has anyone here ever sent any fan letters? I’ve done two, one to ‘G.I. Joe’ when I was 10 or so, and one to ‘x-force’ a couple of weeks ago. I’m such a product of my times. Anyways, do you think message boards like barbelith have effectively improved upon/replaced traditional letter columns? It would be nice if Marvel and DC expanded their websites some and actually encouraged correspondence between the fans and the editors/writers/artists. It’s always fun reading good letters from the various factions of comicbook fandom.

Also, looking at the back covers of those old issues and seeing what movies were coming out at the time (‘Navy SEALS’, ‘Nightbreed’, ‘the Doors’, ‘Kevin Costner is Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves’ ) provides a nice little snapshot circa 1990-1991…

modified to remove winking smily faces, hopefully

Horus lord of force and fire

13:41 / 29.03.02

Well my fave letter column at the mo is Brian Michael Bendis's one in Powers.

I used to read the ones in Preaher cause they made me laugh and Invisibles cause they contributed to the comic a lot.

14:22 / 29.03.02

Never sent any letters to comics, but i did always love the old letters cols. and would often read them before the issue itself. Recently letters pages are increasingly rare, but there was a brilliant letter in planetary 9 with one reader demanding apolitical comics...

15:57 / 29.03.02

I sent one letter in, it was in Bacchus 50 I think. The self published books I find have the better columns, but I always liked DC's 2 pages better than Marvel's one. Shame Vertigo scrapped them. I agree an area on the web to replicate the letter columns would be a great idea. I do think places like the WEF and here are a response to the lack of letter colums in vertigo stuff, but are an outgrowing of them, too.

16:47 / 29.03.02

i love letters cols when, and usually only when, the creators get an extended chance to speak. invisible ink and gone to texas come to mind. just imagine that every time you went to a movie, the writer and director popped up and took questions from the audience. cool, huh?

17:13 / 29.03.02

Like M. Uptopia, I like letter columns when the writer is the one to answer the letters. The writer has a greater insight into the characters and plots than the editors do.

Which makes me wonder. Why is it that the editors are the ones to always answer the questions in Marvel's books? Is that because the books aren't creator owned?

17:17 / 29.03.02

Yes- Ellis wrote a column at www.comicbookresources.com about letters columns saying how he was persona;ly against them and brought up the idea of not having fan s talk at the end of films.
But some of the most fun times i've had at the cinema have been at events such as the Toronto international film festival- whhere not only do the directors give talks before the film-- but half the cast and crew are watching it with you... Its one of those value added things- like all the extras on DVDs that comics can excell at.

17:30 / 29.03.02

Speaking of invisible ink, wasn't there talk of all those letters being reprinted in that 'anarchy for the masses' book? Or did I just totally make that up?

19:44 / 29.03.02

wouldn't that be cool? Hey author-guy! Where the hell are you!?

19:51 / 29.03.02

letter columns are mostly really dull .. but I still really like them. It's nice just to have a page where the editor/writer can make announcements and jokes and generally say 'hey, hope you liked our new issue, kids'. Without one, there's no sense of communication between makers and readers, it's just .. here's a slab of comix with some adverts in between, make what you will of it.

uh .. that didn't make much sense, did it? but hopefully you get my drift.

21:54 / 29.03.02

Geek confession - when I was a teenager, reading some of Grant's earlier work on Animal Man, I think, I was so awed by Malcolm Bourne (or someone like him) getting mentioned in the final Grant issue of the Invisibles that I rang up directory inquiries and found out his phone number and rang him up. He was completely weirded out.

03:59 / 30.03.02

Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol #47.

Greatest letters column of all time.

13:29 / 30.03.02

Tom, that's got to be the first case of a fan stalking another fan. Well done.

yawn - thing's buddy

17:00 / 30.03.02

swamp thing during moores stint was purty good.

Whatever happened to Malcolm Bourne anyway?

14:43 / 31.03.02

The letter columns were great places for the authors to reccomend books and the like. I think it was an issue of Preacher that printed a paragraph from 'Et tu Babe', which of course made me run out and buy it.

The Sandman letters were the most entertaining: "I had a Dream about Death last night and this is the poem I wrote about it..."

16:23 / 01.04.02

i loved how warren ellis made it a point to recommend one book, one cd, and one website in every issue of transmet before vertigo axed the letter columns. you didn't have to love everything he recommended, but he was trying to promote some kick-ass authors and musicians and that's the way it should be. always remember the people who came before.

and it introduced me to the pixies.

Robot Man Reformed

22:43 / 01.04.02

The Starman letter column, Robinson asked his readers to soundtrack the series around ish 13-14, came up with the Fire Walk With Me which had been an obsession of mine for years - makes me want to buy it again, actually - and Liquid'z, this danish, moody ambience album.

And, confession time, when I got back here in 2000, I tracked down some old copies of Grant's Doom Patrol and saw Cameron *M.* Stewart's letter to Direct Currents(?) at the back of the issue where he wrote about his love for the Vertigo line or something, and that's how I knew of his middle initial. Which creeped him out - as he stated in the You Can't Talk to a Psycho Like a Normal Human Being thread way back when.

23:29 / 01.04.02

Sigh.

I was waiting for someone to notice that.

I also have a letter in Shade, I can't remember the issue number. Fegredo cover, close-up of Shade's head with his hair extending up past the top of the page. Some frogs, I think.

It's all very embarrassing now.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

01:58 / 02.04.02

I used to get letters published in comics in the mid-80's when I had the time to do such things. Got a very nice letter from Peter David about his early run on The Hulk, and a LONG letter from Mark Gruenwald about how he edited his books, what went into them, and how for the most part he was one of the few Marvel editors NOT telling hsi writers what to write.

I knew a few letterhacks as well (yep, I know Willie Mellon and have drank with Uncle Elvis Orton)...but now there doesn't seem to be that sort of organized letter writer in comics. They must all be on-line now.

19:39 / 02.04.02

heh... wrote one letter to the original Alpha Flight comic WAYYYYY back...

never saw print.

my second letter DID see print in an issue of Swamp Thing right in the middle of Mark Millars Mississippi River story line... forgot the actual title maybe it was the issue where the whole world is evil & Abby is humping a scarcrow that becomes the Swamp Thing...

wrote a letter to the invisibles durring the Marce De Sade storyline... never saw print... sigh . . .

21:44 / 02.04.02

so why DID vertigo axe the letters? i imagine it's just a cost issue. i do wish they'd bring it back. at worst they could set something a little more meaningful up online, no?

Our Lady of The Two Towers

09:57 / 03.04.02

Most letter pages were dross, I remember the Preacher one as being especially bad, lots of *really cool* people who thought it would be very clever to write letters with lots of swearwords, gross stories and references to illicit sexual practices that in reality they'd run screaming from if it ever entered into their drab vanilla lives.

The Invisibles one was a little better in that people didn't take themselves so seriously there.

10:06 / 03.04.02

I believe that vertigo axed their letter columns due to space/advertising revenue considerations- the arguement being that either you had a page less of story or a page of letters... of course looking at DC titles theses days reveals that the vast majority of the so-called ad pages are taken up with non-paying house ads, which kind of gives lie to the pressing need for revenue space arguement...

The Natural Way

10:11 / 03.04.02

Glassonion had a big old, spazzy letter printed in The Authority.

'Twas all "cool action!" this and "I loved the bit when..." that.

I was living w/ him at the time - didn't know he'd sent it. Made me me jump.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

12:12 / 03.04.02

"made me me jump." What, was Meme Buggerer living with you too?