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letters section and other things
theparttime
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
ok. sorry if this has been asked before. just wondering, how many people read the letter sections in the comics they grab. i usually browse them. but i am disappointed when i'm spoiled by some over observant fan and an agreeing writer. some letters are nitpicky, some are funny, some are insightful, and so on.
what about short entries at the end of comics, like the ones at the end of vertigo comics. the same, but i think i put more effort to read those, although i don't always read em.
am i missing out by not reading my comics cover to cover?
what about short entries at the end of comics, like the ones at the end of vertigo comics. the same, but i think i put more effort to read those, although i don't always read em.
am i missing out by not reading my comics cover to cover?
theparttime on
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I don't know, are you? I haven't seen a comic with a letters column in a dog's age - not counting the "backmatter" in books like Fell or Casanova.
I miss the old Vertigo letters columns. Two or sometimes three pages of lengthy letters from people describing their latest drug intake, sex act, or magick ritual, with Morrison or Ennis or Milligan replying in kind. Some of the most fascinating bits of Preacher and The Invisibles happened in the lettercols, and while I understand the economics of not including them in trades it'd be nice if DC made scans of the pages available online.
Warren Ellis used to rail against letters pages in his old online essays, feeling that the sense of creator accessibility they engendered was part of the reason people didn't take the medium as seriously as film or TV or whatever - his complaint basically being that you don't write angry letters to the CSI scriptwriter because he got this and that wrong, but comics writers have to be subjected to it. I disagree; I think the accessibility of creators and occasionally the rapport they develop with fans (dysfunctional as it sometimes may be) is one of the medium's biggest strengths.
That said, there are a great deal of letter pages still around. I always read the Runaways and Cable/Deadpool ones, for example.
JordynNolz.com <- All my blogs (Shepard, Wasted, J'onn, DCAU) are here now!
Kirkman and Bendis have fun writing them, and they're funny as hell.
Even when the issue is a boring Cable-centric tale, the letter´s page is worth the price.
My digital art! http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=8168
My pen and paper art! http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=7462
Just stuff in general, really.
JordynNolz.com <- All my blogs (Shepard, Wasted, J'onn, DCAU) are here now!
buying stuff is not an issue
Have you reached your quota of things, Geebs?
Especially the ones that date from around Avengers: Disassembled
Not in the Alias omnibus, which is the only Marvel omnibus I have. I wish they included them in their super sized hardcovers, since those are supposed to be stuffed full of extra content (which generally means a few concept sketches and some mastabatory back-patting from the writer).
came with the numbered questions and all that
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The one with Karate Kid eating the sheep was hilarious.
They do help contribute to a sense of fan-entitlement that haas produced a horrific comics culture, though.
What if we had a letters page, but Warren Ellis was free to tell you to fuck off in response to your questions?
That is essentially what the Powers letters page is like.
I think my favorite letter pages are the ones from Powers where Bendis just makes fun of everyone who sends in letters.
The only trade that has letters in it is Vol 7 Forever.
But you could always just pick up an issue in the store and check out the back.
Y'know, I used to think so too, but the more fandoms I experience the more I realize that that sense of entitlement is just part and parcel of fandom, whatever the context - MMOs, board games, Star Trek, soap operas, anything.
Thats pretty awesome, actually. I think The Goon and Powers have the best letters section in comics, because its mostly just goofing off and juvenile potty humor, which I love. Especially The Goon letters section where the dude asked people to take pictures of strippers eating chicken wings, and actually got a few entries.
There's a lot of overlap between those groups, I think. Well, maybe not the soaps.
And yet people were weirded out by the Guiding Light/New Avengers crossover.
Also, televisionwithoutpity is basically a letters section for tv shows, anymore.
I stay the hell away from the forums, though.