Have you ever written a fan letter?

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Specifically, I'm thinking of the type oft found in the letters section of any given title, perhaps sandwiched between such epistolary exemplars as Charles J. Sperling and Mark Haden Frazer, though feel free to expand beyond these limits - a letter to a creator or even fictional character, maybe? (In which case, an autographed 8x10 of Logan would be AWESOME.)

Sadly, my letter, written around 99, during the last gasp of snail mail, was not composed by twelve-year old Richard (who very nearly did so during the halcyon Larry Hama/WOLVERINE era), but during my overcaffeinated days as an undergrad, and for EIGHTBALL. I, flush from too much Nabokov, felt compelled to inform Mr. Clowes that the thematic allusions in the DAVID BORING saga to the aforementioned genius were going neither unnoticed nor unappreciated. Thankfully, the specific contents of this letter have wholly escaped my memory and I can write about it without wincing at my pretentions. Clowes was nice enough to respond in kind - I have the postcard safely tucked in a droor and the possibility of framing it for display is still pending.

― R Baez, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:22 (eighteen years ago)

I wrote a bunch of letters from 1990 to 1992, and maybe a handful got published. Forget where, other than an issue of Captain America, which I only remember because they sent me the "master" of the letters page, or whatever the equivalent publishing term would be, the big oversized cardstock page with all the text and logos and stuff pasted to it.

― Garrett Martin, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:32 (eighteen years ago)

I probably wrote something about how D-Man deserved his own book.

― Garrett Martin, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:32 (eighteen years ago)

Wrote two. They published both, much to my shame and dismay.

― M.V., Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:34 (eighteen years ago)

My EIGHTBALL letter never got published - I recall the letters page for that issue 21 was dedicated to the various letters of someone named B.N. Duncan.

― R Baez, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:36 (eighteen years ago)

I also had one in the very first letters column of that awful Marvel UK book Warheads, probably because I was one of maybe three folks to actually buy that first issue.

― Garrett Martin, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:41 (eighteen years ago)

I wrote three letters, and each one got published, which says everything you need to know about why letter columns no longer exist.

1. The first one was to the Marvel UK weekly reprint of "The Punisher" -- I think it was a fan letter about "The Shadowmasters," although fuck knows who The Shadowmasters are. (Really -- I have no recollection.)

2. My lettercol title competition entry to "Green Lantern: Mosaic"

3. Shamefully pretentious letter in Shade The Changing Man, written by 15-year-old me. I shudder to think.

Success, I think.

― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:52 (eighteen years ago)

Sent several whimsical drawings to 2000AD of various characters from popular culture dressed as Judge Dredd. None were published.

― chap, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:55 (eighteen years ago)

Shamefully pretentious letter in Shade The Changing Man, written by 15-year-old me. I shudder to think.

Note for further use.

― R Baez, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 19:56 (eighteen years ago)

Ha, now I'm never going to use my real name on ILX.

― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 20:02 (eighteen years ago)

I kid, of course.

― R Baez, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 20:04 (eighteen years ago)

We had a pleasant family discussion about my Punisher letter around the dinner table one shabbes. There's one for the "conversations I wish I'd taped" list.

― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 20:05 (eighteen years ago)

W/R/T PUNISHER LETTER COLS:

(this was letter from an old Punisher column was republished a few months ago in the comments section of Jog's blog, and frankly I wanna share the wealth)

Dear Editors,

My name is Clifford M.O.A. Mineau. M.O.A. stands for Man of Action - that's what my friends call me after beating the c**p out of two drug dealers about three years ago. They were giving dope to two 17 year-olds. I'm very Anti-Drug. It was happening in a cemetary in my town. They said, "What the blank do you want"' I said "Your blanken heads you lousy stinken sons of blanked dope dealers." I beat the living c**p out of them. I used Karate and other special skills, and said "get the bleepin' h**l out of this town - if you come back, you're dead! As long as I'm living here you're not going to poison any more kids with your drugs". I also stopped a dope deal in one of your parking lots. You could call me a vigilante but I would just call me someone who cares. I've been reading the PUNISHER for about eight years, and I love him. He's Action Violence, but I wish the writer, Mike Baron, would put more Drug stories in the book. That's the biggest problem in the U.S.A. but it seems like no one cares anymore.

I'm a sucker for a good explosion. I wrote a book about three times 3 years ago and it still hasn't been published. It's called Knife Huntress, Destroyer of Dope Dealers. It's about five women vigilantes that take on 80,000 dope dealers. All gore and action - I've got a copy on tape. If you want to hear it let me know and I'll send it to you so you can let me know if you want to use it. I heard the PUNISHER might become an action show on TV. I've got the perfect actor - Sam Jones,from the HIGHWAYMAN TV series, now cancelled. We need more shows about vigilantes, action heroes etc. to show people how to fight back against drugs and crime. Make the Punisher fight dope dealers for two, maybe three issues and have him shooting the c**p out of a copter and have it crashing into a trailer full of crack sending them both into a deep canyon, turning the drugs into ashes along with the dope dealers and have him saving the kids of that town. You'd be surprised at how many issues you'd sell. Well, thanks for reading

Clifford M.O.A. Mineau
3 Dora Street
Ware, MA 01802

― R Baez, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 20:11 (eighteen years ago)

"this was letter from" = "this letter was from"

Clearly, I'm dumb.

― R Baez, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 20:13 (eighteen years ago)

I had a couple published in Cerebus in the early-ish days.

― Rock Hardy, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 20:17 (eighteen years ago)

Even if it turns out to be fake, that letter is awesome.

― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 20:27 (eighteen years ago)

And then the kids he was trying to save kicked his ass and went home to listen to punk rock.

That letter is incredible. I wanna read about the further adventures of CLIFFORD M.O.A. MINEAU!.

Never wrote a letter myself, though.

― Amadeo, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 21:10 (eighteen years ago)

I once went on a blind date with a girl who turned out to be Connie L. from the Cerebus letter columns.

― Douglas, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 21:11 (eighteen years ago)

Was that a good or a bad sign?

― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 21:15 (eighteen years ago)

I'm still not sure.

― Douglas, Tuesday, 8 May 2007 21:40 (eighteen years ago)

Uh... I wrote to Paul Jenkins when I was getting back into comics as a uni student and he was doing Hellblazer, which I was enjoying at the time. It wasn't printed, but he did reply personally and at length, which was very kind.

Also wrote to Grant Morrison re the Invisibles at about the same time, smart-arsily pointing out the connections between his characters and a bunch of hallucinations from a famous psychosis case, but this was just as Vertigo was axing all their letter columns, so this was also (perhaps luckily) never printed.

― James Morrison, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 08:08 (eighteen years ago)

There is a thread somewhere with other highlights from old letter columns including my personal favourite, the X-Men poem.

I wrote a handful of letters - 5 or so maybe. Most were published. One in Suicide Squad, one in Doom Patrol, one in - I think - Hawkworld! It is indirectly through these that I know the Dirty Vicar, Rock Hardy, and some other ILX bods!

― Groke, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 13:09 (eighteen years ago)

I wrote a letter to the Finnish edition of X-Men when I was 13 or 14. It was published, but I have no recollection about what I said there.

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 18:14 (eighteen years ago)

Tom, were you at the Frank's get-together in 1999? I'm ashamed to say the vodka erased some of my memory.

― Rock Hardy, Thursday, 10 May 2007 01:12 (eighteen years ago)

Wrote one. It was published. In DV8.

Fuck you, 90s.

― HI DERE, Thursday, 10 May 2007 02:28 (eighteen years ago)

I did and it was published in MICKEY MOUSE, circa gladstone era. Definitely one of my life's goals realized. I was thirteen. I asked for pen pals, which set off eight varieties of weirdness. I could tell you some stories.

― forksclovetofu, Friday, 11 May 2007 17:42 (eighteen years ago)

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