JOHN OSTRANDER: Hacking Up Letter Balls
I wrote last time about digital comics and I realize there was another big question for me as we cross the digital Rubicon into this brave new world: will there be letter columns?
Now you might point out to me, “John, most comics don’t have letter columns now.” I’ve always felt that was a mistake. In fact, I think it’s one of the reasons for the decline of comics, if not of the entire Western Civilization as we know it. My first work in comics appeared in a letter column. During the Overlord saga in Thor, I pretty much figured out who the mysterious Overlord really was. (I think it was Odin or some manifestation of Odin or something.) I even was awarded a Mighty Marvel No-Prize for my efforts, which was supposed to be for service above and beyond the call of duty to Marvel before they cheapened it for giving it out to every slob who wrote in and said, “Make Mine Marvel!” and yes it still burns me today that they did that but never mind. (For those of you who are interested, the No-Prize consisted of a an envelope mailed to you that clearly stamped “No Prize” on the front. You opened the envelope and it was empty – there was no prize! That was the gag. My first reaction was that somebody slipped up and forgotten to include my No-Prize in the envelope. I did eventually get the joke. I’m not always real swift but I get there.)
I had a better letter published in a Savage Sword Of Conan. One story had Conan betrayed by his female companion and he snarled at her, “Waitress!” Of course, they meant to say “Traitress!” Obviously, an error no one caught but my letter tried to prove that it wasn’t an error but a nice bit of characterization, showing that Conan obviously had bad experiences with female serving staff; thus, the worst thing he could call the wench was “Waitress!” I remember my closing line was, “After all, have you ever seen the big Cimmerian lug tip?!” I figured the letter was clever enough to make the letter column, and it did.
You may be wondering “Do we really need letter columns? We have so many places – including ComicMix – where we can post messages about comics and it’s more immediate. Doesn’t that take the place of letter columns?” I say: No, they don’t. I’ve written e-mails as you all have; hundreds, maybe thousands of them. I dash them off in seconds and, probably like most of you, barely look at them before I send them down the email tubes.
Letters are different, especially letters that are looking to get printed. They are composed; they are given some thought. The best are trying to find something to say, positive or negative, about the story. Yes, the quality deteriorated as editors started to decide that lettercols were simply places to sell the book. Only letters of praise would be printed and so that’s what the letter hacks wrote. However, the best columns always added value to the comic. Thoughtful letters, with thoughtful replies, made interesting reading. I remember the letter columns in Captain America during the Vietnam War were filled not only with letters about the story but about issues facing the country, including the questions of patriotism and the morality of war.
There were other notable letter columns that I can recall. Peter Tomasi took over the letter columns on The Spectre when I wrote it and questions of theology and philosophy were regularly posed and thoughtful replies given. Our own Mike Gold is a master of the letter column; in book after book that he edits you got some of the best letters and the best smart alecky and/or provocative answers. The Question was a prime example but nothing, I think, surpassed his work on Wasteland. He’d almost get into a dialogue with some readers and it was great reading. I’ve written the occasional letter column myself and Mike has always been the example I’ve tried to follow.
Today, Randy Stradley over at Dark Horse keeps up the tradition with letter columns in the Star Wars books; in fact, I think most Dark Horse books have letter columns. And one cannot slight a modern master, Brian Michael Bendis, whose profane and brilliant letter columns in Powers makes me sometimes head to that part of the book first.
Most important from a fan point of view (and first and foremost, I am still a fan) – you get your name printed in a comic book! People will read what you wrote in a comic book! One that, supposedly, you care about enough in the first place because you sat down and wrote a real letter to it! And if you don’t think that is cool, then you are not a fan. You are a sad, sad excuse of a fan.
Do yourself a favor, comics, and bring back letter columns. As a great man once pronounced, “’Nuff said.”
MONDAY: Mindy Newell
Related articles
- JOHN OSTRANDER: The Digital Rubicon (comicmix.com)
- MINDY NEWELL: Back In The Saddle Again (comicmix.com)
- MIKE GOLD: Whips and Comics (comicmix.com)
The Digital Equivalent of the “Letter Column” are the comments sections. If a comic is dribbled out to the Internet, one page at a time, this can mean that there isn’t enough meat to comment on. And comments can become too trivial, bogged down in the minutiae of the book.
But I can tell you that one of the JOYS of ComicMix for me is being able to interact with the authors and artists. I remember meeting you, John, at a Comics Convention in Minnesota several years ago. I introduced myself as a regular ComicMix comment writer. And it was a thrill when you said something like, “Oh, hi Russ! Of course I know you. You wrote something really smart on Dennis O’Neil’s column the other day … what was it? I can’t remember. Anyway…” And it didn’t matter. Because I was all fan-boy jumping up and down inside, silently shouting, “YES! THIS IS A TRIUMPH!”
I have made a putz out of myself, more than once in the ComicMix Comments, because I’m not afraid to be opinionated and wrong. But, I have this feeling that when I see good work (especially when it’s essentially “free” on the Internet) the authors/artists deserve a bit of my time to at least acknowledge their efforts by saying SOMETHING.
And getting a response in the comments from the artist is a fan-boy thrill. Sometimes a conversation develops in the comments. Sometimes even friendships. And that is a reward I had never expected, but has been the most gratifying of all.
Kudos John. I actually wrote letters into Mike EVERY MONTH they were printing the Manx Cat Grimjack tale. I didn’t get anything printed, but like you said… it forced me to compose some thoughts, comments, and questions. I’ve noticed DC lately has been posting letters in the back of their books. Will it continue with the new 52?
I like letter columns, though not always the content of them of course.
I wrote a lot of letters when I was a kid, and never got a single one published, which was discouraging. I realized a few years later, however, when I read a particularly pointless letter that mine may have been in a similar vein.
When Jason Aaron and Rick Remender started letter columns for their Ghost Rider and Punisher books, I felt compelled to write in and got a number of letters published. The THRILL was palpable. MY NAME! IN PRINT! IN A MARVEL BOOK!
I decided then that should I ever do a full-length book, it would have a letter column, and it does. The thing I noticed, however, is that I get letters from the same group of people. I know how many copies it sells and it’s way more than the number writing in. This leads me to believe people just aren’t that interested in writing letters, which is a bummer cuz I don’t have the time or inclination to troll message boards reading comments but I do want to know what people think.
I agree that comics should have letter columns. As I’ve said before, I consider it very short-sighted of publishers to have discontinued them. Letter columns not only provide some insight into what had happened in previous issues of a series, but can serve as an impetus to track down back issues. Something I read in a letter column sometimes prompted me to do that.
Those who say we don’t need letter columns in an ongoing series now that we have computer message boards and blogs miss a key point: Anyone who picks up an issue of a particular comic can read the letters in that issue, whether they bought it when it came out, or 10 years later from a back issue bin. But a message board or blog thread dedicated to a particular issue of a comic will be pretty damned hard to find 10 years from now— assuming you know where to look (and assuming the website or blog still exists).
Rick
Great column, John, and I’m with you…I think not having a letter column is a big mistake. No reason why you can’t e-mail in your letter; after all, the magazines and the papers do it all the time.
A lot of Marvel comics have letter columns now- Spider-Man has had one since Brand New Day.
I’ve always enjoyed letter columns, especially when they didn’t consist of ‘ I loved the last issue and everybody who works on the book is a genius’ type of thing. It’s great when the columns actually do seem to be a dialogue between readers and creators/editors. Dave Sims multi-page columns in CEREBUS were sometimes as entertaining as the story itself and often more passionate.
Despite reading comics since the late ’50s I believe I’ve only written a half dozen or so Letters of Comment to a title. I’ve composed hundreds of more in my head, but never actually set down at the typewriter (and later keyboard) to put them into hard copy. Even when heavily into fandom during the ’80s thru the late ’90s, I generally kept my comments to the various forums, boards or apa-zines to which I contributed.
I think one reason is that I believe Tony Isabella is still upset about a letter I wrote to HERO FOR HIRE complaining about a villain he used. I’m sure he’s still holding a grudge and I don’t need another writer/artist angry with me.