Letters pages

[Shalla Bal]

Thanks for posting all these letters, Shalla Bal. They sure are a fun look into the past. One of my favorite ones is the guy talking about taking some of the money his girl friend was saving up to buy a ring in order to buy comics...which were all of 12 cents at this time! This really takes me back to the times when I could fill the tank in my 8 cylinder Chevy for about $5.00!

I notice a lot of fan support for Swordsman too. I guess that enthusiasm faded since he was eventually killed off and really hasn't been brought back since AFAIK. He was seen on a Dead Avengers team a while back

Yes, when he first appeared in #19-20 he was popular with fans, I suppose due to the fact that he saved the Avengers from destruction at the end of #20 so readers could see he was not purely bad. He'll return in a few issues and be unambiguously bad (and not an anti-hero).

I had a few letters printed in the Superman comics of the early 1990s. I even won a Baldy, which turned out to be nothing more than a postcard with Lex Luthor's picture on it.

LOL, that's hilarious! I guess it's better than a no-prize (which was an envelope from Marvel with nothing inside it, from what I hear).

[Shalla Bal]

Shalla Bal, you are wonderful! Thank you for posting all of those magnificent Avengers letters pages. (My own books are in storage.)

Of note, one fan tried to/almost defined Wanda's Hex Power, many years ahead of Marvel! Although, I was happy just to have it unexplained and could not wait to see just what Wanda did each issue!

I really liked that fan's explanation: that her powers slow down or speed up or otherwise disrupt naturally-occurring processes. And you'll see there's another letter-writer, coming up in #29, who also tries to define her power. In fact the #29 reader theorizes that her power makes her a Nexus being--which, many years later in a West Coast Avengers arc, she is!

I loved those early Avengers years which were magical. Cap's Kooky Quartet were fun and powerful in their own right. I loved it when Hank and Jan rejoined the team. I "Marveled" when Black Widow, Power Man, Swordsman and Living Laser formed to fight the team.

That's my favorite incarnation of the Avengers, the Kooky Quartet plus Hank and Jan...with Natasha and Hercules thrown in for good measure as unofficial members.

[babyblob]

Shalla Bal I know I thanked you already but I wanted to say you are amazing for posting these letters. Caps Kooky Quartet is my favorite line up of Avengers. And reading how people reacted to them was a lot of fun. Thanks again

[Jim Kelly]

Ah, would any of these happen to have your letters then?:

I wasn't able to upload any images before, but I think I've figured it out now, so here's one letter page that had my response to DETECTIVE COMICS No. 500, which I'm particularly proud of.

Note that the quote from Carmine Infantino was how I led off my letter, if that's not clear from how it appears on the page.

[Electricmastro]

I wasn't able to upload any images before, but I think I've figured it out now, so here's one letter page that had my response to DETECTIVE COMICS No. 500, which I'm particularly proud of.

Note that the quote from Carmine Infantino was how I led off my letter, if that's not clear from how it appears on the page.

Speaking of which, came across your letter about Gerry Conway!

Action Comics #525 (November, 1981):

[Jim Kelly]

Kent A. Phenis and Charles D. Brown had many letters published back then. I had completely forgot mine. I best remember the letters I liked that had some significance for me.

One was in DETECTIVE COMICS 472 (according to the GCD), under the pen name I was using, K.K. Jameson. If you have a way of finding it, I'd appreciate it. I liked that one because I was commenting on the new direction Steve Englehart had just launched--which was a throwback to Batman's early days--and would turn out to be an important run.

[Shalla Bal]

Shalla Bal I know I thanked you already but I wanted to say you are amazing for posting these letters. Caps Kooky Quartet is my favorite line up of Avengers. And reading how people reacted to them was a lot of fun. Thanks again

I'm glad you are enjoying these seeing these letters, babyblob. I have some more that I'll try to post, now and over the next several days. Readers were still comparing the "old" and "new" Avengers and wrote in all the time suggesting roster additions and removals.

We're up to Avengers #24 Lettercol Page 1
-The first letter wants the following characters added to the team: Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Hulk and the Swordsman
-The third letter says the "new Avengers are definitely not powerful enough." And even though Wanda's powers were played down back then, the letter-writer states that Wanda is "by far the strongest" [in terms of power]. So true!

[Shalla Bal]

And here is Avengers #24
Lettercol Page 2

-The first letter on this page suggests that Cap should retire. There were letters here and there complaining about Cap and that he was hogging the action.

-As with the first letter on the first page (shown in the post above), the last two letters both want the Swordsman join the team. He was pretty popular for a while after his appearance in #19-20 (but this sentiment seemed to die down after he reappeared in #29, where he was shown to be a bad guy and not an "anti-hero"). The last letter-writer goes so far as to suggest Swordy replace "that bum Hawkeye"

[Chubistian]

Reading some old comicbooks, I found the following letter in issue 143 of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, signed by Mark Gruenwald, I suppose the same man who would later become a famous comicbook writer. He makes a really rash criticism at Kirby

IMG_E1585.jpgIMG_E1586.jpg

[Jim Kelly]

Mark Gruenwald had a lot of letters published before he got in the biz. And I think he started in the biz at D.C. before he moved to Marvel. He had some pieces published in AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS, so he was a Junior Woodchuck.

SUPERMAN'S PAL, JIMMY OLSEN 139 was the first Kirby issue of that title that I bought. I liked the issue, even if it was kind of weird, but it wasn't enough to keep me interested. I wasn't the biggest Kirby fan at the time. And anyway I didn't have a lot of money to spend on comics, so I had to be picky about which ones I bought. After I got a paper route, I could afford more.

I only agree with Gruenwald on item 1. The thing I liked most about issue 139 was seeing the Guardian and I feel like he should have got more story. I strongly disagree on taking out the exclamation points. I feel like comics have their own style and their own language and they shouldn't sacrifice that to make them look "proper." The photographic montages were an interesting new thing that Kirby was trying out--I think it worked better in the two magazines that Kirby started (that got prematurely cancelled), because the production quality was better. The Newsboy Legion being linked to the Guardian ought to have been featured even more.

And there should be lots of blurbs on covers--it's a comic book not a Rembrandt. You want to see high brow art, go to an art gallery. Like with the exclamation points, I feel that comics should embrace their own identity and not go chasing after respectability and the conventions of other media. The boisterous quality of comics is what brings them to life. I hate when comics are overly precious about the art and don't dare cover up any of it with a blurb or a thought balloon. Comics are the interplay of visuals and text--and when letterers did this work by hand, they were every bit artists as the pencillers and the inkers. One of my teachers who was a book designer got into book design because he admired the lettering in comics from this era. The blurbs on some D.C. books are one of the best things about them.

[Jim Kelly]

I'm re-reading the Sand Superman Saga right now and I came upon the "Metropolis Mailbag" in SUPERMAN 238 (June 1971), which I well remember reading back in the day. It features a long letter from Elliot S. Maggin (before he was a Superman writer). And another letter from the late, lamented Richard H. Morrissey, who was one of the legendary letter writers of all time and went on to work at D.C. as an assistant editor--a great authority on D.C. history and legend.

[Shalla Bal]

I'm re-reading the Sand Superman Saga right now and I came upon the "Metropolis Mailbag" in SUPERMAN 238 (June 1971), which I well remember reading back in the day. It features a long letter from Elliot S. Maggin (before he was a Superman writer). And another letter from the late, lamented Richard H. Morrissey, who was one of the legendary letter writers of all time and went on to work at D.C. as an assistant editor--a great authority on D.C. history and legend.

Yes, Morrissey was a regular in the lettercols...very sad that he passed away so young (47!)

And it's interesting to see just plain old Elliot S. Maggin here, before he became Elliot S! Maggin.


Also, note the editor who's responding to the letters in the column above , it's E.N.B. or E. Nelson Bridwell. Before he joined DC as Weisinger's assistant, he too sent letters in, which IIRC usually saw print as being from "Nelson Bridwell."