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Post by foxley on Oct 1, 2019 22:49:47 GMT -5
Reading the letters pages in old comics, I am struck by what did get published sometimes. At a recent con, I bought some DC Tarzans to plug some gaps in my collection, and was astounded to read a letter complaining about how awful Joe Kubert's art was (especially as his art is the main reason I collect the book). The writer also went to lambast the plots as well (the book was also written by Kubert). I couldn't help wondering "If you hate everything about the book, why are you reading it?"
Books that try to maintain a balanced letter column can run into their own problems. In an interview, Michael Fleischer said that there was a huge fan backlash when the artist on Hex changed from Mark Texeira to Keith Giffen. The editors wanted to maintain a mix of pro and con Giffen letters, but the feedback was so overwhelmingly negative that they were forced to print practically every letter that was positive about Giffen, but where spoilt for choice when it came to ones criticizing him.
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Post by Icctrombone on Oct 5, 2019 5:23:03 GMT -5
I just read that Thor will be relaunched with a new #1 in 2020 with him as King of Asgard. What is the current state of Asgard, is it still earth bound , did it get back the Golden Bridge ?
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 5, 2019 11:15:41 GMT -5
I enjoy reading letters in old comics, to see the opinions of the time... it feels like a time capsule to me. On more current comics I tend to read the writer responses first, and the letter only if the response is interesting... I don't really care to hear about why someone likes a comic I just read.
I do like hype/bullpen stuff though.. even if it's advertising, I think it's fun.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Oct 5, 2019 17:20:27 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm really interested as comics-as-part-of-a-historical-continuum, so I love letter pages. When I was talking about old comics professionally (ish) I'd always use the letter pages to get a sense of historical context and fan/editorial opinions. It was surpsising how often letter writers would pop up in the comment sections? (Side-note: I'm really sad that all the stuff I wrote that got folded into CBR had the comments erased in the move. That was the best part.)
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Oct 5, 2019 17:37:09 GMT -5
short version.. I once had a letter printed in the back of Hulk, and they edited it so much that it turned it from a criticism later (my original, hand written letter, started out addressed to Peter David as "Damn you, damn you, damn you". . yes, I was that angry), into a complimentary letter. and they followed it by posting the number to a suicide hotline.
Since what angered me enough to write in was a character finding out they were HIV positive, and then killing themselves.
that was the last time I ever bothered. Oh that's interesting. Stating the obvious here but it's obviously morally wrong to change the intent of fan letters. I get the sense that Marvel letter pages in the '80s had turned into much more of a curated experience, rather than the wild 'n woplly free for all OH SHIT WE NEED TO FILL SPACE AND GET THIS DONE FAST GRAB WHATEVER'S ON TOP OF THE PILE free-for-all of '70s Marvel. I love '70s Marvel. Was this a Peter David comic? He's often fine fiction writer but his online presence (from what I've seen) tends to alternate between disingenuous straw-manning and crying blubbery tears about how he is being victimized. Flat-out lying about fan reaction to his work would seem the most Peter David-y thing that Peter David ever did, but I'd assume the editors (or the interns) did most of the letter pages?
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 6, 2019 17:00:32 GMT -5
Whatever happened to the Martian Manhunter’s New Mars?
Was it dropped during one of the crises, retconned away, destroyed to show how dangerous NewUltimateBadGuy is, or simply never mentioned again after a while?
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 6, 2019 20:41:59 GMT -5
Whatever happened to the Martian Manhunter’s New Mars? Was it dropped during one of the crises, retconned away, destroyed to show how dangerous NewUltimateBadGuy is, or simply never mentioned again after a while? They returned to Classic Mars because buyer's hated the taste and Bill Cosby had to backpedal. Oh, wait.........that was New Coke.
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Post by Cei-U! on Oct 7, 2019 9:09:47 GMT -5
Whatever happened to the Martian Manhunter’s New Mars? Was it dropped during one of the crises, retconned away, destroyed to show how dangerous NewUltimateBadGuy is, or simply never mentioned again after a while? Post-Crisis, J'onn was the only surviving green Martian so there was nobody to populate a New Mars with.
Cei-U! I summon the not-so-jolly green guy!
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Post by foxley on Oct 7, 2019 9:53:56 GMT -5
Whatever happened to the Martian Manhunter’s New Mars? Was it dropped during one of the crises, retconned away, destroyed to show how dangerous NewUltimateBadGuy is, or simply never mentioned again after a while? Pre-Crisis, it still existed, but J'onn was exiled from it from it as a result of the Earth-Mars War when the new ruler of New Mars attempted to conquer Earth and J'onn fled to Earth to warn them of the coming invasion. This storyline resulted in the destruction of the JLA staellite and the foundation of the 'Detroit-era' League.
As Cei-U says, post-Crisis, it just never existed.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2019 13:03:23 GMT -5
When was the term "Golden Age of Comics" first coined?
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Post by kirby101 on Oct 7, 2019 13:09:18 GMT -5
When was the term "Golden Age of Comics" first coined? "The first recorded use of the term "Golden Age" was by Richard A. Lupoff in an article, "Re-Birth", published in issue one of the fanzine Comic Art in April 1960."
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Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2019 13:12:50 GMT -5
Thank you!
You know, and this is a lesson in NEVER presuming anything, I didn't check Wikipedia because I didn't think they'd have anything other than cursory information on the Golden Age of Comics.
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Post by codystarbuck on Oct 7, 2019 21:18:29 GMT -5
Thank you! You know, and this is a lesson in NEVER presuming anything, I didn't check Wikipedia because I didn't think they'd have anything other than cursory information on the Golden Age of Comics. You'd be surprised by how much you can find there, on certain subjects. Accuracy is another story, which is why I try to follow sources, when I can, for context.
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Post by rberman on Oct 8, 2019 6:49:41 GMT -5
Thank you! You know, and this is a lesson in NEVER presuming anything, I didn't check Wikipedia because I didn't think they'd have anything other than cursory information on the Golden Age of Comics. You'd be surprised by how much you can find there, on certain subjects. Accuracy is another story, which is why I try to follow sources, when I can, for context. Wikipedia is pretty well stocked for information on geeky topics due to the interests of its editors.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2019 6:51:48 GMT -5
Thanks. I did search for some Wiki articles once, but some articles were stubs while others had very little information. I have checked some Wiki pages last night, however, and am very impressed with the detail on the comic pages.
I also like to see "Citation needed" next to things that may not be factual. You won't see that in a regular encyclopedia.
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