shaxper
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Post by shaxper on May 4, 2017 7:57:12 GMT -5
I just scanned the letter page for the final issue of Howard the Duck to see what it said about Steve Gerber and was surprised to find the page vehemently denying that the series would be cancelled in favor of a magazine format (which ended up happening right after that issue). I had also just read Teen Titans #18, in which Dick Giordano boldly asserts that they will not be getting rid of Aqualad and replacing him with Speedy, even though they end up doing so in the very next issue. So I'm curious: how often did letter pages lie, and what examples do you recall most vividly? |
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Post by codystarbuck on May 4, 2017 9:34:26 GMT -5
I just scanned the letter page for the final issue of Howard the Duck to see what it said about Steve Gerber and was surprised to find the page vehemently denying that the series would be cancelled in favor of a magazine format (which ended up happening right after that issue). I had also just read Teen Titans #18, in which Dick Giordano boldly asserts that they will not be getting rid of Aqualad and replacing him with Speedy, even though they end up doing so in the very next issue. So I'm curious: how often did letter pages lie, and what examples do you recall most vividly? Well, Miracleman #24 had some whoppers in them, though mostly due to circumstances. We did not get Miracleman Triumphant or issue 25, due to their financial mess, despite the work being done. They also made a statement accusing Dez Skinn of pocketing money owed to artists and writers, though that has been disputed by Skinn and several others. In the Implosion era, there are a ton, as the axe fell suddenly on a lot of titles. A bigger lie would be the made-up letters that appeared in some columns. Roy Thomas later admitted that Marvel made some up, in the 60s. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on May 4, 2017 9:40:31 GMT -5
Roy Thomas later admitted that Marvel made some up, in the 60s. To make work look like it was receiving more praise than it was, or to fill space? |
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2017 10:04:12 GMT -5
Roy Thomas later admitted that Marvel made some up, in the 60s. To make work look like it was receiving more praise than it was, or to fill space? Probably a little of both. But I suspect the biggest reason back then was letters primarily came from kids. They had to either heavily edited for clarity or revised to the point that they were fiction. When more adults continued to read comics & write in then we saw the rise of the great letter writers like TM Maple. And probably the "need" for "fake" letters declined. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on May 4, 2017 10:16:24 GMT -5
To make work look like it was receiving more praise than it was, or to fill space? Probably a little of both. But I suspect the biggest reason back then was letters primarily came from kids. They had to either heavily edited for clarity or revised to the point that they were fiction. When more adults continued to read comics & write in then we saw the rise of the great letter writers like TM Maple. And probably the "need" for "fake" letters declined. Good point. Some of the early Silver Age letters often felt obnoxiously simplistic too. I guess that, if you didn't want twenty letters all saying "Sue Storm should wear a skirt" and "Captain America's shield should be yellow," then there was a temptation to create your own. |
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Crimebuster
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Post by Crimebuster on May 4, 2017 10:40:32 GMT -5
There was the infamous incident where Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner were told by Stan Lee that they had to print a retraction of their God/Sise-neg story because it may have been offensive to religious people. Instead, they wrote a fake letter from a "Reverend" talking about how illuminating the comic was to the children in his congregation, then they mailed it from Texas. When Roy Thomas got the letter, he didn't know it was fake and decided to print it instead of the retraction.
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on May 4, 2017 10:56:05 GMT -5
There was the infamous incident where Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner were told by Stan Lee that they had to print a retraction of their God/Sise-neg story because it may have been offensive to religious people. Instead, they wrote a fake letter from a "Reverend" talking about how illuminating the comic was to the children in his congregation, then they mailed it from Texas. When Roy Thomas got the letter, he didn't know it was fake and decided to print it instead of the retraction. I had no idea. That's positively awesome. |
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shiryu
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Post by shiryu on May 4, 2017 16:02:54 GMT -5
There was the infamous incident where Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner were told by Stan Lee that they had to print a retraction of their God/Sise-neg story because it may have been offensive to religious people. Instead, they wrote a fake letter from a "Reverend" talking about how illuminating the comic was to the children in his congregation, then they mailed it from Texas. When Roy Thomas got the letter, he didn't know it was fake and decided to print it instead of the retraction. Ha! That's fantastic. I remember a letter full of praise in one of the earliest issues from someone in the Bullpen. Sol Brodsky maybe? |
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Post by ArizonaTeach on May 4, 2017 17:08:48 GMT -5
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Post by chadwilliam on May 4, 2017 18:45:41 GMT -5
There were quite a number of letters printed during the late 50's/early 60's which were clearly plugs for some upcoming issue of Batman or Detective or whatever.
"My older brother has told me that Batman used to have enemies named Firefly, Killer Moth, Mirror Master, and Two-Face. Any chance of there villains returning?" "Funny you should ask since you can read stories featuring each of those characters in the upcoming Batman Annual on newsstands in April!"
"I'd like to see a story where Batman switches minds with Ace the Bathound and has to run for Mayor of Gotham when Alfred becomes a teen-ager." "You must be a mind reader because that's exactly what happens in next month's issue of Detective Comics!"
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Post by The Captain on May 4, 2017 19:07:16 GMT -5
There was the infamous incident where Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner were told by Stan Lee that they had to print a retraction of their God/Sise-neg story because it may have been offensive to religious people. Instead, they wrote a fake letter from a "Reverend" talking about how illuminating the comic was to the children in his congregation, then they mailed it from Texas. When Roy Thomas got the letter, he didn't know it was fake and decided to print it instead of the retraction. Thing was, Englehart went much further than just writing a fake letter to pull a fast one on Stan. He was flying through Dallas over Christmastime that year and mailed the letter from there to ensure it had a legitimate-looking postmark on it, just to sell it a little bit more. As well, I've read that Jim Starlin was the one who was in the Marvel office reading the Doctor Strange fanmail, and he was the one who bought it as legit initially, then gave it to Roy, who then gave it to Stan, who insisted it be published instead of the retraction he had originally demanded. |
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Post by Rob Allen on May 4, 2017 19:54:27 GMT -5
The Special Announcements Section in FF #31's letters page had the news that Dick Rockwell would soon be drawing the Giant-Man & The Wasp series in Tales to Astonish. That never happened. Instead, Joe Orlando drew that story but Stan wanted a lot of changes and Joe quit instead. Steve Ditko redrew about half the story in a couple of days and George Roussos inked it practically overnight. That's why the Giant-Man story in TTA #61 looks strange.
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Post by codystarbuck on May 4, 2017 22:08:59 GMT -5
Roy Thomas later admitted that Marvel made some up, in the 60s. To make work look like it was receiving more praise than it was, or to fill space? Not sure about the Engelhart thing; but, Gerard Jones and Will Jacobs' book, The Comic Book Heroes made the assertion that there were some letters inserted, in the earlier days, that praised Marvel, in general, while taking shots at "Brand Ecch." I believe it is definitely in the second edition of the book; but, I could swear something to that affect was in the first edition. It sounded mostly like it was to sound mature, fill up the column with something printable, and poke fun at DC, for attention purposes. I can't remember exactly where; but I saw some article or interview where Roy said it was true; but, have no idea if he meant that particular strategy or whether he was talking about the Engelhart thing. |
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Post by tingramretro on May 5, 2017 2:34:09 GMT -5
Not so much a lie as a manipulation of the truth...
In the early 1990s, I had my first ever letter to a Marvel comic printed in the lettercol of Excalibur. I had been infuriated by the way Captain Britain had been sidelined over the previous year or two in what I considered to be "his" book, and wrote an impassioned letter complaining about it and requesting that he be given more panel time. The editor replied that he was sure I'd be delighted to know that the very next issue was a story heavily featuring Captain Britain.
He was right. It did. To be precise, it was a story in which CB lost his powers and left the team. He wasn't seen again for a year and a half...
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Post by tingramretro on May 5, 2017 2:38:15 GMT -5
Also in the early 90s, shortly after Nuklon and Obsidian began tbeir short lived stint with the Justice League, a reader wrote in asking for clarification on a point in their dialogue; they had mentioned someone called Fury, who was she? Of course, the character referred to was Lyta Hall from Infinity Inc.Unfortunately, the editor had clearly never read that book or heard of the character...which didn't stop her from explaining authorititively that "Fury refers to Fire, who used to be called Green Fury"...  |
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