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Post by Red Oak Kid on Aug 5, 2016 18:01:57 GMT -5
Does anyone know when letter columns began appearing in DC comics?
My guess would be in the late 50s, but that's just a guess.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 5, 2016 18:26:38 GMT -5
I'm only speaking for Detective Comics, the comic book not the company, because I have quite a few issues. I have a bunch of issues between #289 and #326, and I don't recall ever seeing a letter column in any of them. And then I'm missing a few issues at the start of the "New Look" but I have Detective #332, which does have a letter column! It's dated October 1964.
I have one issue of Batman from the Jack Schiff era, #153, dated February 1963, and it has a letter column. So it looks to me like Batman's own comic had a letter column way before Detective Comics did.
I think I've noticed in my sparse collection of Superman family comics that books like Superman and Superboy and maybe Adventure had letter columns years before the columns I've seen in Batman comics, but I have so few of those issues anymore that I don't think I have any of them from before 1963. But I could check later.
I will be watching this thread because now I'm curious at just how early letters started appearing in Superman and if it really was several years before they were in Batman.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 5, 2016 18:38:08 GMT -5
DC's separate editors operated differently from each other. My recollections, Red Oak, are Mort Weisinger's Superman books came first in the late 1950s closely followed by Julius Schwartz's titles like JLA, Flash etc. I'm sure that's due to both men being involved with SF fandom and fanzines when they were teens. The Bat-books by Jack Schiff came a few years later.
There were real letter columns in comics previous to these from other publishers. EC comics had them in the early 50s. I believe Captain Marvel books from Fawcett had them even earlier
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2016 18:44:39 GMT -5
Superman #124 in 1958 was the first one (DC) according to my internet search.
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Post by Hoosier X on Aug 5, 2016 18:46:08 GMT -5
I have a few very beat-up issues of "Crime Does Not Pay" that have letter columns. I think they go back as far as 1949. Certainly by 1950 or 1951.
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Post by Red Oak Kid on Aug 5, 2016 18:57:31 GMT -5
I'm only speaking for Detective Comics, the comic book not the company, because I have quite a few issues. I have a bunch of issues between #289 and #326, and I don't recall ever seeing a letter column in any of them. And then I'm missing a few issues at the start of the "New Look" but I have Detective #332, which does have a letter column! It's dated October 1964. I have one issue of Batman from the Jack Schiff era, #153, dated February 1963, and it has a letter column. So it looks to me like Batman's own comic had a letter column way before Detective Comics did. I think I've noticed in my sparse collection of Superman family comics that books like Superman and Superboy and maybe Adventure had letter columns years before the columns I've seen in Batman comics, but I have so few of those issues anymore that I don't think I have any of them from before 1963. But I could check later. I will be watching this thread because now I'm curious at just how early letters started appearing in Superman and if it really was several years before they were in Batman. Hey Thanks. You just reminded me that I have a copy of Batman 135, dated Oct. 1960 and it has a Letters to the Batcave.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 5, 2016 19:34:57 GMT -5
Lots of early romance comics had letter pages but I'm sure a large percent where fake
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Aug 5, 2016 19:53:35 GMT -5
Lots of early romance comics had letter pages but I'm sure a large percent where fake As were a large percentage of Weisinger's.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Aug 5, 2016 19:58:49 GMT -5
Lots of early romance comics had letter pages but I'm sure a large percent where fake As were a large percentage of Weisinger's. I've also seen comments from some older letter hacks, Mark Evanier specifically for one, where their letters were edited and/ or tampered with and completely changed what was written.
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Post by Farrar on Aug 5, 2016 20:50:41 GMT -5
Superman #124 in 1958 was the first one (DC) according to my internet search. Right, I have read that too in various places (such as DC Comics Year by Year for example). Here's a list I'd posted a few years ago elsewhere, regarding when lettercols began (on a more less regular basis) for each of the DC series named below: Superman #124 Sep. 1958 Adventure # 253 Oct. 1958 Superboy #68 Oct. 1958 Action #247 Dec. 1958 Lois Lane #5 Dec. 1958 Jimmy Olsen #36 April 1959 Wonder Woman #115 July 1960 Batman #125 Aug. 1959 Detective #327 May 1964 World's Finest #143 Aug. 1964 Fwiw I had some ( very juvenile ) DC letters published back in the late Silver Age/early Bronze Age.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2016 21:11:55 GMT -5
No Comments
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Post by dcindexer on Aug 6, 2016 4:26:10 GMT -5
The first letter column was all the way back in New Fun #2 (1935). New Fun had a regular letters page called Fun Mail.
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Post by Cei-U! on Aug 6, 2016 10:17:46 GMT -5
Several comics lines featured letters from readers in the early '40s, notably Better (a.k.a. Standard a.k.a. Nedor), David McKay, Novelty Press, and United Feature.
Cei-U! I summon the precedents!
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Post by electricmastro on Jan 20, 2020 22:38:21 GMT -5
Early letters page from Real Fact Comics #3 (July, 1946):
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Post by chadwilliam on Jan 20, 2020 23:05:06 GMT -5
Early letters page from Real Fact Comics #3 (July, 1946): I always quickly scan the names to see if there are any I recognize. I didn't really expect to find any in a comic dated 1946, but sure enough, Forrest J. Ackerman is there. Why the editor calls him Harvey is beyond me though.
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