Famous Lettercol Writers

[Aman619]

So we all know that many comics pros wrote letters to DC and Marvel when they were kids... and many were published. Its cool to read their gushing praise and caustic commentary, especially in light of their later works on many of the same characters...

 

Has anyone catalogued them all? Do you think any issues could or should be valued moew BECAUSE of a letter printed in them? Have any of YOU had a letter printed??

 

To start it off, I just leafed thru XMen#65 and there were not one but TWO letters of distinction: Doug Moench and Mark Verheiden.... bith gushing about that new guy - - Neal Adams's --- work!!

[chromium]

Well Tony Isabella had a letter printed in almost half the Avengers issues from #30 though to #70...

[Aman619]

thats pretty insane! Bob Rozakis and Paul Levitz were avid letterwriters too before jumping to the major leagues..

[davidpg]

I've always been interested in these kinds of letters. I've come across a few of them and have pics/scans around somewhere...here is one I had handy. MArvel Spotlight #1 I think:

 

[Aman619]

I really thought I was supposed to know hwo Beppe Sabatini was!! Until I focussed my eyes on the blurry Hurt Busiek!!

Wasnt Beppe also known as Super Monkey?

[mar-vell]

someone named Roy thomas had a letter printed in fantastic four #5!

[FlyingDonut]

I just graded and appraised an original owner run of Amazing Spider-Man 1-25 (name dropper that I am). There are LOTS of famous names in the letters pages - Buddy Saunders (big time dealer now), Frank Brunner just to name a few.

[Joanna]

I had a bunch of letters printed in Wonder Woman in the 90s. I wrote after every issue -- not so much to get printed (although that's nice) but to get my voice heard on the direction the book was taking. When Paul Kupperberg took over the book, he took a shine to me even though my letters weren't always favorable. One day the phone rang and it was Paul, calling from DC Comics. He just wanted to chat about the book and get my opinions. We talked for over an hour. When John Byrne took over, Paul put him in touch with me as a Wonder Woman "expert". John needed to catch up on the history and continuity so he called me several times and we became friends. After awhile Paul called again, asking if I wanted to write a 22 page origin story for the Secret Files books.

 

And it all happened because I wrote a bunch of letters to the editor. Pretty cool, huh?

 

-- Joanna

[Stronguy]

Buddy Saunder's (Lone Star Comics) letter is in Avenger #3. Kurt Busiek has lots of letters published and Dave Cockrum had a few too. In fact Dave's first letter is in Avengers #35 -- I got him to autograph the letter page.

[FlyingDonut]

Buddy Saunder's (Lone Star Comics) letter is in Avenger #3. Kurt Busiek has lots of letters published and Dave Cockrum had a few too. In fact Dave's first letter is in Avengers #35 -- I got him to autograph the letter page.

 

Buddy also has a letter in one of the early Amazings - 8 maybe?

[jimm94]

I had a bunch of letters printed in Wonder Woman in the 90s. I wrote after every issue -- not so much to get printed (although that's nice) but to get my voice heard on the direction the book was taking. When Paul Kupperberg took over the book, he took a shine to me even though my letters weren't always favorable. One day the phone rang and it was Paul, calling from DC Comics. He just wanted to chat about the book and get my opinions. We talked for over an hour. When John Byrne took over, Paul put him in touch with me as a Wonder Woman "expert". John needed to catch up on the history and continuity so he called me several times and we became friends. After awhile Paul called again, asking if I wanted to write a 22 page origin story for the Secret Files books.

 

And it all happened because I wrote a bunch of letters to the editor. Pretty cool, huh?

 

-- Joanna

 

That is awesome, Joanna!

 

One name I came accross in a Marvel SA letter column once (I can't remember which book) was Kenneth Gorelick, which is the real name of saxophonist Kenny G. I have no idea if it was the same person or not, but he would have been of comic reading age when the letter was published.

[Stronguy]

Buddy Saunder's (Lone Star Comics) letter is in Avenger #3. Kurt Busiek has lots of letters published and Dave Cockrum had a few too. In fact Dave's first letter is in Avengers #35 -- I got him to autograph the letter page.

 

Buddy also has a letter in one of the early Amazings - 8 maybe?

 

#8 is it -- just checked. He was commenting on the Spidey/Torch team-up in Strange Tales Annual #2.

[Lantern]

From Cerebus 21

 

 

[Aman619]

that must have made Sim's day! Cerebus was, after all, a Conan homage in the beginning, before Sim's imagination and took off.

[Mr. Zipper]

On the first Fantastic Four Fan Page (#3), there are two notable writers: Sol Brodsky and Bill Sarill (a pioneer of comic restoration.)

 

Another prolific writer was Ralph Macchio -- the comic industry Ralph Macchio, not the actor.

[Zonker]

that must have made Sim's day! Cerebus was, after all, a Conan homage in the beginning, before Sim's imagination and took off.

 

I also liked the self-mockery "to make limited edition prints or other such nonsense." Kind of like what BWS & The Studio guys were doing at the time.

[burntboy]

Sorry to see that this thread hasn't generated more interest as i was always fascinated by the letter columns as a kid. as memory serves me, i seem to recall that The Flash had an early and interesting letters column. they even got to a point where they would GIVE AWAY the original art each month to the "best" letter received.

 

"Flash Grams" debuted in issue #112 april/may 1960 with the Elongated Man on the cover. here's the first letter i could find (#116) from a very "recognizable" fan - Roy Thomas - future writer and editor at Marvel Comics.............(it only took them 19 issues to adopt his suggestion of changing Kid Flashes uniform.........)

 

[Zonker]

"Flash Grams" debuted in issue #112 april/may 1960 with the Elongated Man on the cover. here's the first letter i could find (#116) from a very "recognizable" fan - Roy Thomas - future writer and editor at Marvel Comics.............(it only took them 19 issues to adopt his suggestion of changing Kid Flashes uniform.........)

 

 

What is even odder is that despite his denials in response to Roy Thomas' letter, editor Schwartz did a Silver Age "3 Dimwits" story in the very next friggin' issue #117 (see the GCD entry ). That story disappeared into obscurity, and the Silver Age versions of those Three Stooges knockoffs were never heard from again. Was Schwartz' initial instinct in response to Thomas correct? Or did Schwartz know what he had slated for the next issue was a loser and wanted to disavow it beforehand?

[Aman619]

interesting... usually back then if a letter writer touched on a storyline coming up they would have taken the oportunity to plug it by acknowledging the story in the next issue. Theres no way JS did now know the story was slated for 113, so, you must be right! But its STILL hard to believe why he'd clam up about it, I mean, would JS really think the story was so bad he wanted to ignore it and hope no one noticed?

[burntboy]

interesting... usually back then if a letter writer touched on a storyline coming up they would have taken the oportunity to plug it by acknowledging the story in the next issue. Theres no way JS did now know the story was slated for 113, so, you must be right! But its STILL hard to believe why he'd clam up about it, I mean, would JS really think the story was so bad he wanted to ignore it and hope no one noticed?

 

that is very interesting!!!!

 

perhaps JS just wanted to keep the Big Surprise to himself for a while longer....

 

it actually makes Thomas seem a bit prescient...................