Letters pages

[Phoenixx9]

Indeed, such as his letter for The Brave and the Bold #34 (February, 1961):

Hahaha, I think that "154 pound man" was really Roy himself!

[Phoenixx9]

A bit off topic but, I really miss the synopses that would appear on the first page of the old Marvel comics...:



And the corner boxes of course...:



If we’re putting together a book of letter columns, we need to have chapters for the various synopses and corner box art.

EDIT
Something from the DC side of the house, the old Hembeck cartoons...:

I loved those headers, but the corner boxes even more!

Most faces, like the headers, were good, but some needed tweaking. The three you included were my favorites. Although I always thought Jean as Phoenix needed to be in the X-Men. In the Avengers later on, they would add/subtract faces as the characters appeared, but not always exact for each issue.

[Jim Kelly]

In the early 1970s, instead of the DC bullet, they had these character images in the upper lefthand corner of the cover that always give me a sentimental buzz when I see them.

[Riv86672]

In the early 1970s, instead of the DC bullet, they had these character images in the upper lefthand corner of the cover that always give me a sentimental buzz when I see them.

I remember those...
I liked them, but didn’t really miss them when they were gone. Corner boxes always seemed more a Marvel thing and, kinda sappy I know but, seeing that DC Bullet always made me feel good!

[Iron Maiden]

Here is the letters page from Fantastic Four #5, undoubtedly managed by Stan Lee back then. This includes Roy Thomas's letter. I assume that the use of ellipses means that the original letter was shortened for space.

This screen cap comes from the Gitcorp DVD 44 years of the Fantastic Four, which includes the annuals too giving you over 20,000 pages 550 comics It ends with the year 2004. I also have the smaller disc called The Avengers: The Old Order Changeth. This spans from January 1998 to December 2006. As you can see here, the quality of their scans for the FF disc is pretty poor. I don't know what the extent of cooperation was with Marvel in obtaining the pages. But these obviously aren't sourced from a high graded comic I think I will delve more into these discs and see if there is any other things of interest in the letters pages.




You can read Roy's letter in this page where I used the zoom function. The discs open with any Adobe reader.

[Shalla Bal]

Here is the letters page from Fantastic Four #5, undoubtedly managed by Stan Lee back then. This includes Roy Thomas's letter. I assume that the use of ellipses means that the original letter was shortened for space.

This screen cap comes from the Gitcorp DVD 44 years of the Fantastic Four, which includes the annuals too giving you over 20,000 pages 550 comics It ends with the year 2004. I also have the smaller disc called The Avengers: The Old Order Changeth. This spans from January 1998 to December 2006. As you can see here, the quality of their scans for the FF disc is pretty poor. I don't know what the extent of cooperation was with Marvel in obtaining the pages. But these obviously aren't sourced from a high graded comic I think I will delve more into these discs and see if there is any other things of interest in the letters pages.

These images are great, IM. Personally I love it when comics or as above,a letter are posted and the pages look old. I hate it when, say, a page from a 1962 story is posted online and it looks brand new. I like that old comic book feeling!

I'll find that Lois Lane letter from Roy I was referring to and post it.

[Phoenixx9]

These images are great, IM. Personally I love it when comics or as above,a letter are posted and the pages look old. I hate it when, say, a page from a 1962 story is posted online and it looks brand new. I like that old comic book feeling!

I'll find that Lois Lane letter from Roy I was referring to and post it.

Me too! Those old books were the best. They even had a certain smell to them....lol.

I also loved when they had the bottom of the pages not only numbered, but with new comic titles and issue numbers with guest star or new menaces mentioned!

[babyblob]

Is there anywhere online I can read early Avengers letters pages? Just the few issues after issue 16. I would love to read what the reaction to Cap's Kooky Quartet is from the fans who were around when it happened.

[Shalla Bal]

Hi Phoenixx9!

As promised, here it is, from 1965's Lois Lane #56. As shown in the response, Roy was well-known in comics fandom since he was the co-editor of a popular fanzine Alter Ego. Roy's AE co-creator Dr. Jerry Bails also had a lot of letters printed during this time. (And of course much later on Roy named his TwoMorrows magazine after his early fanzine.)





This letter was published in early 1965 and a few months later in 1965 Roy would accept a job offer from the Superman-family editor Mort Weisinger (to replace Weisinger's assistant E. Nelson Bridwell). Well, thanks to Mort's legendary meanness Roy lasted only a few days; he then contacted Stan Lee to see about working for Marvel and the rest is history. Imagine if Thomas had remained at DC, and let's say Bridwell found his way over to Marvel. How different would things have been for the two companies back then? I smell a "What If?" story

[Shalla Bal]

Is there anywhere online I can read early Avengers letters pages? Just the few issues after issue 16. I would love to read what the reaction to Cap's Kooky Quartet is from the fans who were around when it happened.

There was a lot of controversy! Some hated it, others thought it was okay. If I have time later I can try to find some letters, I have a lot of those issues.

[Iron Maiden]

There was a lot of controversy! Some hated it, others thought it was okay. If I have time later I can try to find some letters, I have a lot of those issues.

That would be great! I don't have the Avengers comics we had as kids anymore. Unfortunately I sold them to another young guy when there was really know big deal about back issues like there is now. I kept the Fantastic Four stuff because I liked that title better than the Avengers. But my brother is the keeper of those, along with maybe 6 long boxes of other comics we had. My Dad used to buy the entire Marvel line for us when we were kids. Of course back then they were pretty cheap!

[babyblob]

There was a lot of controversy! Some hated it, others thought it was okay. If I have time later I can try to find some letters, I have a lot of those issues.

That would be great but I dont want you to go through any trouble.

[Electricmastro]

Letters George R. R. Martin, Tony Isabella, and Richard Buckler wrote to Charlton Comics:

Blue Beetle #3 (November, 1964):



Blue Beetle #52 (October, 1965):



The Peacemaker #3 (July, 1967):

[Shalla Bal]

Ah yes, Tony Isabella...in the 1960s his name popped up here and there in some Marvel lettercols, but for stretch it seemed like practically every other DC comic had a letter from him! And from what I have seen, Rich Buckler and also Dave Cockrum stuck mostly with Marvel (in terms of letters printed) and not DC.

[Shalla Bal]

Here you go babyblob and Iron Maiden,

As we know, in Avengers #16 "The Old Order Changeth". The first wave of letters regarding the new line-up (what we now call Cap's Kooky Quartet) appeared in #19.

I hope you can read the letters themselves, the type came out kind of faint--sorry, can't make it darker. Some letters are pro, some con.

from Avengers #19 lettercol page 1

UPDATE:
Future Pro Alert! I forgot to mention that the last letter on this page is from Cary Burkett, who would go on to write stories for both DC and Marvel.



from Avengers #19 lettercol page 2
The other thing that's referred to is that since Thor was absent for much of #16's story, some readers were confused as to whether Thor too had actually left the team along with Iron Man, Giant-Man, and the Wasp. For example, the first letter-writer on this page only notes that Iron Man, Giant-Man and the Wasp have been replaced--no mention of Thor!