Note: This page should not be credited to uncited issues.

Letter Columns

Until the Silver Age of comics (and even beyond in certain cases) it was common to have a section of a comic dedicated to answering reader's letters. These columns often took on the names in reference somehow to the title's name. They are alternately known as comic book letter columns, lettercols, letter pages, or letters to the editor. Numerous famous comic creators have submitted letters to columns before starting their careers.

History

Maintaining the tradition of science fiction magazines from the 1930s, as well as borrowing from the idea behind letters to the editor at newspapers, comic books in the 1940s started a tradition of letter columns, in which fans and readers could write into the editors and ask questions or give their opinions. Early letter columns reflected the target audience of comics at the time which was primarily children and letter columns had a respective focus on children's questions about comics.

With the expansion of the medium in the 1960s away from the traditional model aimed only at children, the level of analysis and interaction in the letter columns increased. This was so much the case in the 1960s that some letter columns had to expand to a second page to handle the letters (as was the case with Peter Sanderson's lengthy letters.) As there were primarily two main companies at the time (DC and Marvel) the letter columns for each company varied in their approach. DC generally featured letters in which characters were requested for the titles. Marvel on the other hand generally included letters which critiqued the series in question (and was willing to print negative criticisms.)

Due to the the offset in reading and publishing, it was common for letters to deal with issues that were 3 to 5 issues past. As well letter columns were well known for publishing the addresses of comic fans, in which other comic fans would write letters to those that they had read. At the height of their popularity it became a sign of accomplishment for a fan to have a letter published. Both DC and Marvel at different times had series that could not garner enough interest and thus letter columns would occasional receive requests for fans to write in, and barring that, employees for the two companies might write letters to appear as though were from fans.

Letterhacks

The term letterhack came to be used by some to refer to the fans who would constantly write to letter columns. Some notable letterhacks include Peter Sanderson, Irene Vartanoff, Bob Rozakis, Kurt Busiek, Mary Jo Duffy, Mike Friedrich, Mark Gruenwald, Fred Hembeck, Tony Isabella, Paul Levitz, Ralph Macchio, Martin Pasko, Diana Schutz, Beau Smith, Roy Thomas and Kim Thompson.

One of the most famous letterhacks was Canadian comics fan Jim Burke, who wrote in excess of 3,000 letters to comic book letters columns between 1977 and 1994 under the pseudonym 'T.M. Maple'.

Variants

Interactive Reader Decisions (see below) - Occasionally through the letter columns or other means the creative teams will let the readers directly choose an outcome for the characters in the series.

Reader Submitted Fashion (see below) - As opposed to letters, in these cases readers submit pictures of their favourite characters wearing fashions which they have designed.

Romance Comics Romantic Advice - During the height of the era of romance comics, it was common that an advice column existed within each issue where romantic advice could be given to readers.

Showcase - The 1960s series Showcase started off on the provision of providing fans what they wanted, and although it deviated away from this format relatively quickly, the first issue displayed that it had been conceived with the idea of fans writing in to say what kind of adventures they wanted to see.

Trivia

The 1980s The Question series had suggestions for readers to follow on the philosophical concepts put forward in the book.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the US Postal Service had issues with delivering letters for the Suicide Squad letter column, as the name of the column was "Suicide Notes".

Marvel Value Stamps

Stamps that could be clipped from the letters pages of various Marvel comic books and then taped into a 16-page Stamp Book which Marvel sold through the mail.

Many variants exist of surveys or other promotional material that readers were expected to cut out and send back to editorial.

Daily Planet

It was an in-house advertisement page based off the front page of the Daily Planet newspaper. It would highlight various stories that were issued for the month. Other features included Direct Currents, Ask the Answer Man, What is It Worth?, DC Profiles, trivia, word games and Hembeck.

The Daily Planet was a weekly in house advertisement piece that appeared in DC Comics issues from 1976 (August 1976) to 1981 (March 1982). The advertisements were used as front page headlines on the Daily Planet newspaper. Several stories were featured as headlines with artwork taking the place of photos and a synopsis of the story with creator information. The Daily Planet initially appeared in all DC Comics issues up till August 1980. After that it only appeared in the DC Dollar Comics such as: (The Superman Family, World's Finest Comics, Detective Comics). Bob Rozakis was credited as the editor during the entire run. While, Anthony Tollin, Lynne Gelfer and Jodi Saviuk were credited as production during the run.

Direct Currents: It contained the issues that were being released that week with a very brief summary and creator data.

Ask the Answer Man: It was fan-based DC Comics related questions for Bob Rozakis the Answer Man.

What is It Worth?: It was fan-based DC Comics related questions for Bob Rozakis the Answer Man concerning the value of a particular comic book.

DC Profiles: Was a short biography of DC Comics creators and behind the scenes personnel at DC Comics. This feature also appeared as a part of the DC Feature Page.

Trivia: A trivia question was featured one week and the answer was featured in the following week's edition with a new trivia question.

Word Games: A crossword puzzle or word search game with DC Comics related answers within the clues.

Hembeck: A humor comic strip featuring various DC Comics characters by Fred Hembeck.

Editorial Note

An editorial note used to inform the reader of story elements mentioned that occurred in a past issue or a different book, often times previous encounters between the hero and villain, events in a larger story arc, title crossovers, event tie-ins, acronym definitions and other ancillary needs.

The asterisk is largely used by editors to guide readers towards previous issues where events related to the current story take place, such as an origin story, the first appearance of a character, a team-up between heroes, a cross-title appearance or the last known whereabouts of a villain. It would also inform the readers of little known facts that were pertinent to the plot of the story.

During the mid to late nineties, Marvel titles had an overflow of editorial notes where a page would contain multiple asterisk boxes and the book itself would have up to a dozen, whereas ten years prior, there would be two to three if any at all. After Joe Quesada took the reigns as the editor-in-chief at Marvel, the use of editorial notes where taken down drastically.

The asterisk is also used to inform readers what acronyms like S.H.I.E.L.D., A.I.M., B.P.R.D., and such stand for.

In recent (and not so recent) years editors have used the asterisk box to add a little humor and do some infighting between editors over things a normal comic fan would.

Reader Submitted Fashion

Often times, comic book series will publish solicited or unsolicited fashion (generally for female characters) from readers and fans. This most often occurs in comic geared toward female readers, though not necessarily. Key Comic characters that frequently include(d) reader submitted fashions in their comics were/are: Katy Keene, Suzie, Betty Cooper & Veronica Lodge from Archie Comics and Millie the Model, Patsy Walker & Hedy Wolfe from Marvel Comics.

Interactive Reader Decisions

Readers are occasionally given the opportunity to participate in the outcome of plots, usually through online polling or toll free numbers.