Letters to the Editor - Have one published? Let us see it. 3 3

[grendelbo]

 

On 9/11/2021 at 6:16 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

I wrote to things like Nintendo Power and perhaps Wolverine, but cest le vie

I don't think that I was able to get consecutive issues, and  just never kept up to see if they were ever published so I have no idea; although, odds are against me hahhaa

I remember tracing Mega Man X for SNES For like a month to know the intricacies of how the suit was made. I sent it on the envelope addressed to the magazine. I almost wish that I had kept it,  just cause I worked hard on it  

I had forgotten about the envelope art shown in Nintendo Power. Neat "rememory."

[shadroch]

I had a strange letter column experiance, one I even asked Tom DeFalco about, when he was EIC

My friend Brian was the only guy in my ROTC program that also read comics He read every comic he could get his hands on- Whitmans, Dc, Atlas, indies, whatever. He must have read forty or more comic a week  So we graduate, are together for about eight weeks of Basic and go our own ways, he off to Military Police school and I go on to the Infantry course. We lose touch with each other, but I have friends that keep in touch with him At least three years go by and I open up a Hulk and he has a letter printed- only the address he gives is our old dorm in Rochester. I re-read the letter and realize their is nothing current in it, and it might have been written yesterday, three years ago or a decade before. 

 A couple months later, a snippet of another letter was published in Thor with the same address

I asked Tom if they keep letters on file for some future isse that doesn't get enough mail and his response was every book gets dozens of letters at a minimum and each editor sets their own policy.

Edited September 12, 2021 by shadroch

[Crops068]

On 9/11/2021 at 1:32 PM, ADAMANTIUM said:

@BladeTX @Crops068 Got printed in the Walking Dead  

This was me and @BladeTX second attempt at getting in, we think we missed the other pretty closely.  But that is ok, as this was Walking Dead Deluxe #19 (1st Michonne) which is not just a huge issue but the OG has a pretty iconic cover!

 

[Real Elijah Snow]

On 9/11/2021 at 5:24 PM, BladeTX said:

Yeah I've got the formula down.  I also work in the marketing field and know the value of a good hook.  I've submitted 8 letters and been published 6 times.  The two I missed I know what I did wrong, sort of venturing into previously discussed dead topics.     If you want in, here's the winning formula:

1. Snappy intro - keep it fun, short and complimentary
2. Something unique about the issue - short paragraph / setup
3. Ask 3-4 questions and number them.  I've seen as many as 6-7 but I think it's overkill.  Let others have some space in the letters column.
4. Make one totally fun (I was published in TWDD 19 asking if Kirkman had ever written a --script drunk, and if do, did he revise it the next day or let it fly 😂.  I thought the answer could be hilarious but alas, he said he has never been drunk 😕)
5. Make the other 2-3 questions things that other fans would really want to know.  It's OK to be irreverent / challenging but don't be a complete jerk.
6. Closing - keep it short (see you at an upcoming con / maybe a plug for your LCS.  I did this in TWDD19 and they were insanely excited. So spread the love.)

Do that right and I expect you have a 75% or better chance of getting published, which is my hit rate.

Strong disagree on a lot of your points. You need to come in hot, be insulting and also funny AF. This is the only way. I only ever wrote 2 letters to Robert and went 2-2. Batting 1000. HOF worthy. Also, it's important to mention food in your letter. Robert likes food. Promise rich delights and he gets so dazzled he can't help but publish your letter. 

My first letter was in #23 and the 2nd was in #27 (where I bridge the continuity from the 1st letter) Pictured below are these epic, world building letters in their entirety. You're welcome.

[Real Elijah Snow]

On 9/11/2021 at 5:24 PM, BladeTX said:

Yeah I've got the formula down.  I also work in the marketing field and know the value of a good hook.  I've submitted 8 letters and been published 6 times.  The two I missed I know what I did wrong, sort of venturing into previously discussed dead topics.     If you want in, here's the winning formula:

1. Snappy intro - keep it fun, short and complimentary
2. Something unique about the issue - short paragraph / setup
3. Ask 3-4 questions and number them.  I've seen as many as 6-7 but I think it's overkill.  Let others have some space in the letters column.
4. Make one totally fun (I was published in TWDD 19 asking if Kirkman had ever written a --script drunk, and if do, did he revise it the next day or let it fly 😂.  I thought the answer could be hilarious but alas, he said he has never been drunk 😕)
5. Make the other 2-3 questions things that other fans would really want to know.  It's OK to be irreverent / challenging but don't be a complete jerk.
6. Closing - keep it short (see you at an upcoming con / maybe a plug for your LCS.  I did this in TWDD19 and they were insanely excited. So spread the love.)

Do that right and I expect you have a 75% or better chance of getting published, which is my hit rate.

Also, I'm totally kidding. You provide some good tips. People do things my way they may have to start carrying around a bat with barbed wire wrapped around it too. 

[BladeTX]

On 9/13/2021 at 8:27 AM, Real Elijah Snow said:

Strong disagree on a lot of your points. You need to come in hot, be insulting and also funny AF. This is the only way. I only ever wrote 2 letters to Robert and went 2-2. Batting 1000. HOF worthy. Also, it's important to mention food in your letter. Robert likes food. Promise rich delights and he gets so dazzled he can't help but publish your letter. 

My first letter was in #23 and the 2nd was in #27 (where I bridge the continuity from the 1st letter) Pictured below are these epic, world building letters in their entirety. You're welcome.

Congrats on getting into Issue 27, it's a landmark!  And thanks for the clarification, I was really confused with the food reference 😂.  The letters back in TWD 1-25 were super edgy, Kirkman was in his mid-20's and he probably was scraping by to pay food and rent and now he is worth umpteen millions of $.  I honestly wish letters like these could get published but it doesn't seem to be the case anymore.   You actually used my formula pretty well with the numbered questions - just amped up the irreverent tone (a lot!).  Since they are reprinting all of the original letters in TWDD, I'll look forward to seeing these in print again over the next few months.

[Real Elijah Snow]

Thanks! I'm also guilty of scribbling my signature and drawing zombies on about 100 issues of #27 because I had a letter printed in there. As a joke I was giving them away at my booth at shows claiming that I had a periodical in the back. Good times. Well, they were until #27 became an expensive book, and I realized what I had done  Also, these letters led to having something to mess with Robert about when I met him. Getting a little head's up on AMC picking up the book for an adaptation also turned into me being a zombie on the first episode of the show too!

I'm the guy in the upper left corner of the 1st pic. I basically taught Andy Lincoln the meaning of fear in this scene. The show took off from there to become the cultural juggernaut that we've all grown to love. ENTIRELY DUE TO WRITING LETTERS INTO THE COMIC. <----This is is the lesson we've learned here today boys and girls. Write those letters. Do some other stuff. Become a mega star, and help out a fledgling little show grow into something amazing. 

You're all welcome again.  

 

[grendelbo]

The Walking Dead letters page was always fun and while collecting the run (at least 1-100) I read them in their entirety. I liked seeing the development of the book's Hollywood possibilities from perhaps a B&W HBO series to the AMC program. I was hyped up and one Sunday night in October I told my wife I have to watch this new series. It's based on a comicbook I love. She decided to join me and was hooked (at least until season 7 when it lost us).

[BladeTX]

On 9/13/2021 at 11:33 AM, grendelbo said:

The Walking Dead letters page was always fun and while collecting the run (at least 1-100) I read them in their entirety. I liked seeing the development of the book's Hollywood possibilities from perhaps a B&W HBO series to the AMC program. I was hyped up and one Sunday night in October I told my wife I have to watch this new series. It's based on a comicbook I love. She decided to join me and was hooked (at least until season 7 when it lost us).

My wife was also massively hooked, and even enjoyed the early part of Negan's appearance.  Be second half of Season 7 and Season 8 trudged along with those horrible character episode.  I stuck with it (and lead a Facebook fan page for Walking Dead) but she bailed out.  It got better again in Season 10, but by then they had lost 80% of the audience they had at the peak.  They really had something special Season 1 to 5.

[BladeTX]

On 9/13/2021 at 11:17 AM, Real Elijah Snow said:

Thanks! I'm also guilty of scribbling my signature and drawing zombies on about 100 issues of #27 because I had a letter printed in there. As a joke I was giving them away at my booth at shows claiming that I had a periodical in the back. Good times. Well, they were until #27 became an expensive book, and I realized what I had done  Also, these letters led to having something to mess with Robert about when I met him. Getting a little head's up on AMC picking up the book for an adaptation also turned into me being a zombie on the first episode of the show too!

I'm the guy in the upper left corner of the 1st pic. I basically taught Andy Lincoln the meaning of fear in this scene. The show took off from there to become the cultural juggernaut that we've all grown to love. ENTIRELY DUE TO WRITING LETTERS INTO THE COMIC. <----This is is the lesson we've learned here today boys and girls. Write those letters. Do some other stuff. Become a mega star, and help out a fledgling little show grow into something amazing. 

You're all welcome again.  

 

Man that is so cool.  Andrew Lincoln looks so young!  Did you shoot near Atlanta?  Did you fly in for that or live nearby? Those zombie special effects have come so far, you look like a serial killer in a horror film 😂🤣

[Real Elijah Snow]

On 9/13/2021 at 1:07 PM, BladeTX said:

Man that is so cool.  Andrew Lincoln looks so young!  Did you shoot near Atlanta?  Did you fly in for that or live nearby? Those zombie special effects have come so far, you look like a serial killer in a horror film 😂🤣

The scenes I was in were shot right in the city. (I live in Atlanta)

I was given the option to have better make-up/prosthetics etc, but it was 100 degrees those days we were shooting. I opted for the mask instead, so I could take it off when we weren't shooting. The people that did get the heavy make-up treatment were pretty miserable, so no regerts there. My friends and family always poke fun at me about this and say about the same thing; that I look like some dude that just found a mask and was pretending to be a zombie. I usually have one response to that: "ACTING"

Those early days before the show aired were way more lax in a lot of ways. I went back and did a day during the prison season mostly because I wanted to see what the prison looked like, and by that point things were being taken waaay more seriously. Way harsher NDA's, you had to wash the makeup off before you left the set, and you didn't get to harass the main cast as much. Plus big stoopid Kirkman wasn't there. The episode I'm in on that season I'm way in the background of a couple of scenes in really well done makeup, and if you had a gun to my head I couldn't tell you which one I am. Still, my main purpose there was to check out the prison. It was tiny compared to how they made it look in the show; like a prison that Mayberry would have. 

Still nothing beats being there in the early days since that led to getting to go out drinking with some of the main cast on a few occasions. I actually hung out with Steven Yeun the week that his character Glen got his head beat in by Negan in the book. It's a strange life to read a comic about a character getting killed, and then hang out with the dude that plays the character on a show in the same week, and get to talk to him about it. We are definitely living in a simulation  

 

Also, I just realized how OT I've gotten here. I'll shut up now. 

[BladeTX]

On 9/13/2021 at 1:30 PM, Real Elijah Snow said:

The scenes I was in were shot right in the city. (I live in Atlanta)

I was given the option to have better make-up/prosthetics etc, but it was 100 degrees those days we were shooting. I opted for the mask instead, so I could take it off when we weren't shooting. The people that did get the heavy make-up treatment were pretty miserable, so no regerts there. My friends and family always poke fun at me about this and say about the same thing; that I look like some dude that just found a mask and was pretending to be a zombie. I usually have one response to that: "ACTING"

Those early days before the show aired were way more lax in a lot of ways. I went back and did a day during the prison season mostly because I wanted to see what the prison looked like, and by that point things were being taken waaay more seriously. Way harsher NDA's, you had to wash the makeup off before you left the set, and you didn't get to harass the main cast as much. Plus big stoopid Kirkman wasn't there. The episode I'm in on that season I'm way in the background of a couple of scenes in really well done makeup, and if you had a gun to my head I couldn't tell you which one I am. Still, my main purpose there was to check out the prison. It was tiny compared to how they made it look in the show; like a prison that Mayberry would have. 

Still nothing beats being there in the early days since that led to getting to go out drinking with some of the main cast on a few occasions. I actually hung out with Steven Yeun the week that his character Glen got his head beat in by Negan in the book. It's a strange life to read a comic about a character getting killed, and then hang out with the dude that plays the character on a show in the same week, and get to talk to him about it. We are definitely living in a simulation  

 

Also, I just realized how OT I've gotten here. I'll shut up now. 

This is just awesome.  Come hang out with us over in the Official TWD Thread.  We would love to hear more.

 

 

[universal soldier]

I have had one letter published 

Back in 1979 I wrote into Spectacular Spider-man and (incorrectly) guessed  the identity of Carrion as Bart Hamilton who was Harry Osborn's psychiatrist in ASM #'s176-180. If I recall correctly, the clues given were designed to lead us in that direction so they called that out in the response. Still really cool to read the book and see my letter in print.  I believe it was published in PPTSS #32 but would need to check.

[grendelbo]

On 9/14/2021 at 10:37 AM, universal soldier said:

Still really cool to read the book and see my letter in print.  I believe it was published in PPTSS #32 but would need to check.

It'd be cool to see. Thanks for the story.

[djzombi]

I also had two (three?) letters printed in The Walking Dead.  I'll have to dig them out and post here    

[grendelbo]

On 9/14/2021 at 3:08 PM, djzombi said:

I also had two (three?) letters printed in The Walking Dead.  I'll have to dig them out and post here    

Please do.

[KirbyJack]

I wrote a terrible letter as a kid which was mercifully never published. Later,  at the height of my comic addition, (1993?) I sat down and wrote to every comic I was then reading. I got 4 out of 8 printed. 
The Comics Buyer’s Guide was also very accommodating to me during those years.

[djzombi]

I *loved* the CBG letters pages.