Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Letter Columns Back in DC Comics

Story from DC Comics Blog.

cool!

whooo hooo!!!! sure bet that at least one of us will get the letter printed on the letter page!!

Having Letter Columns can only be a good thing, IMO.

(But it should not take away a story page)

I've got SUCH a letter in mind...

Aw, YEAH! That's GOTTA mean the return of the Legion Outpost & Bits of Legionnaire Business!

Just for fun, I decided to submit an edited version of my review of Booster Gold 39 review. And I might do the same with some of the others! <crosses fingers>

I think this is another big step in the right direction for DC!

Wow, really great idea! I hope you get printed!

In fact, Comic Book Review Month could lead to some of us using our reviews as letters!

Lardy, sometimes you rock so hard it makes me dizzy!

It looks to me like the DC Nation will contain general DC Comics letters and it won't be a separate letters page for each book.

But I could be wrong.

I posted something on Paul's FB asking if this means the return of him doing the Outpost. We'll see how he responds...

Agreed. If this is indeed title-specific letter pages as opposed to a generic "DC Nation" forum, I think it will be so cool, given the relatively small world that Legion fandom has become, to actually see folks that you "know" appearing in the letters column.

Okay...just so I get this right...

Lardy rocks so hard he makes Cobie dizzy.

Hmmmm...BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I'm looking forward to the new letters pages. Wonder if they will take from the boards like they did last time.

Guys, I don't think they brought this columns back with the best of intentions.

Today, when Titans #33 came out, that had the first letters page for that one. It just two pages of letters that basically said "awesome! great job!" with almost no substance but praise on the most general, empty things.

I'm starting to believe the only reason they brought them back was to just boost their ego so they could still re-use awful plot ideas for money.

On the other hand...they published my letter (an edited version of this review I sent in) in this week's issue of Booster Gold!!! My first ever!!! They cut my letter a little for content, but my review is/was extremely positive and enthusiastic, anyway, as I consider it one of the best single-issues of ANY comic published in the last few months! And there was a nice response from the editor, to boot! KEWL!!!

And just think, LW got the chance to read it first!

Congratulations, Lardy!

Congratz.

A belated B-Day present from DC!

SWEET ASS SWEET!!!

Congrats to Lardy but re: letters pages - I'm actually against them coming back. And Sarcasm Kid brings up a good reason why.

There is nothing more frustrating IMO than reading a letters page of a horrible book filled with the most effusive, sycophantic praise that surely only the editors could have written them under a pseudonym.

I remember the drecky PMS era of the Reboot being like that. All these glowing letters in the pages about how wonderful Dark Crap Rising was. Surely no real person could have liked that storyline!

Back in the old days, the letters pages used to be much more balanced but somewhere in the 90s they just became cheering sections for the editors and writers of terrible comics to stifle their critics by pretending 'See - you're a minority. Look at all these people who love us!'

I'd much rather get an extra page of art/story than that sort of self-congratulation-ness.

I think letter columns have always been this way. Jim Shooter, while he was editor-in-chief of Marvel, said something to the effect of letter columns being the best promotional tool comics have.

Sure, critical letters are sometimes published, but often they contain criticism that is easily refuted by the editor or comments that are meant to look balanced (i.e, one negative comment about a coloring error in a letter that otherwise praises the issue).

Although letters columns with honest, open exchanges between fans and the editor do happen (Julius Schwartz famously published a column of only critical letters in JLA back in the '60s), one must remember that letters columns are a form of organizational writing. Few organizations will publish material that criticizes its products.

Both of you have got good points.

I don't know, maybe it was because that issue was just so awful atop an already horrible day, or this is just another example of what's wrong with comic companies. They single out the letters that give praise, whether it be sycophantic or well-thought out, and ignore the negative criticism until the fans have to go to the extremes of massive letter writing and protest to get the point across.

(Double post)

^ Looks like we were writing at the same time He Who. I grew up reading the old JLofA book so maybe that's where my impression that letters-pages used to be more balanced in the old days comes from.

But if all letters-pages are is, like you say, a promotional tool (a dishonest one too when the letters don't reflect true public opinion) then I don't get why on earth so many fans seem so excited by them coming back (other than the admittedly cool prospect of seeing your name in a comic book).

As wretched and useless as his DC Nation columns were, I'd much rather have Dan Didio back spewing his hucksterisms than carefully selected (and edited) letters disguised to portray the (often false) idea that the fans love everything that the writers/editors are doing.

If that's a promotional tool to get people to buy their comics then it's a failing one IMO since those unrepresentative-of-what-most-fans-really-thought (IMO) letters of the Reboot's PMS era was one of the reasons I finally dropped that book.