Dear Editor: LOVE on the Letters Page

As one might guess, the vast majority of fan letters published in the comic books of old were written by males. However, a small percentage of female fans had their letters published, too...most of whom commented on the same stuff their male counterparts did. Ah, but every once in awhile, a female fan would forego the usual shop talk and go straight for the mushy stuff! Temporarily transforming Flash #125 (1961) into what seemed to be an issue of the Tiger Beat teeny-bopper magazine, young Geneva Hawkins made a confession that boys weren't accustomed to reading on a Flash letters page...

Twelve years later, on the letters page of Avengers #117, the mysterious "Ms. S. Otis" revealed that she and her girl friends had a thing for a certain red-faced synthezoid. Complicating the matter was the fact that the Vision's budding relationship with the Scarlet Witch rendered him romantically "off limits" to Ms. Otis and her posse (nevermind the minor detail that he didn't actually exist)!

Er..."blood test"? This letter's taking a rather odd turn, isn't it? First Ms. Otis is going "ga-ga" over a fictional android (an android, mind you), then we take a sudden, unseemly turn into birth certificates and blood tests? Read on...

"After what you did to Gwen" was a reference to Spider-Man's (then) recently murdered girlfriend Gwen Stacy...but what did Ms. Otis mean when she thought offing the Vision or Wanda "wouldn't...be too safe"? For whom? Hey, are we getting into Fatal Attraction territory here? Probably not...but it's still a pretty weird direction to take her commentary. It looks like someone in the Marvel editorial department felt the same way:

This is exactly what I love about those old letters pages, particularly Marvel's...where the weird and surreal made frequent appearances (as this exchange proves). Nowhere else could an editor's reply begin with declaring a fan's musings "totally insane and absurd", working in the phrase "delinquency of a minor", and ending with an equally insane non-sequitur.

Now...where can I get some Low-fat Oranges?

Comments

[suedenim]

Y'know what's weird? It looks like Geneva Hawkins is listed on classmates.com, and was an alumna of Armuchee High School in Rome, Georgia, between 1961-1965!

[Mark Engblom]

Hah! I should track her down and see if she's still crazy about Wally West....or Fabian, for that matter. Earlier this year, I did a "Dear Editor" post where I was able to get ahold of the original letter writer to get his perspective (which was quite a surreal experience), so who knows?

[suedenim]

On a related note, I was watching the "documentary about the comics" on the Iron Man DVD. Stan Lee made an interesting comment I hadn't heard before, about letters. He said they didn't get a lot of letters from girls, but when they *did*, they were disproportionately and noticeably higher for Iron Man. Stan guessed that it was something about Tony Stark's sex appeal.

[Mark Engblom]

Yeah! I saw that, too! That's for remembering that and bringing it up, suedenim. I should have checked out a few of my old Iron-Man letter pages as well. As for the appeal of Tony, he was probably (as Ms. Otis might say) the most "on limits" single male in comics, since most superheroes had perma-girlfriends or, what tiny fraction didn't, were either married or...well....dead.

Anticipating the rather obvious joke... no..those aren't necessarily the same thing. ;)

[Shelly]

As a female who got LoCs printed, albeit after I was in my teens and early-'20s, I can say that while I didn't confess my love for my favorite comic book characters, I surely had those feelings. And still do, as a middle-aged woman.

When I wrote my LoCs to Supergirl, I discussed her as a real person, to some extent, because that's how she felt to me. We kinda grew up together, after all.

And although some females might confess to crushes, they are not the only sex who acts as if fictional characters are real. A lot of males do, too, although the focus might be different.

I miss the Lettercols, too.

[John Nowak]

Part of the problem is that it's impossible to talk about fictional characters in English without sounding as though you believed they really existed. If you think about it, the sentences "I like Superman" or "I respect Captain America's ethics" are no more absurd than "I have a crush on Wonder Woman."

But I agree that the last one sounds goofier.

[Mark Engblom]

Shelly and John-

I should clarify, I certainly wasn't trying to mock young Miss Hawkins...my point was that her talk about crushing on Wally West was quite a switch from the usual lettercol topics.

Ms. Otis, on the other hand, took things in an entirely different direction.

[John Nowak]

Oh, I didn't get the sense you were mocking her; I just think it's interesting how easy it is to be misunderstood.

Ms. Otis is a good example. Back then, dead characters tended to stay dead. I'd bet that what she meant to say was something like

"The only hazard fictional characters can really be subjected to is that their existence threatens a story. If Wanda and Vision have a story where they are married, then it is possible that the Vision would get in the way of a story where Wanda has a relationship with someone else. The only way to resolve that would be to make her a widow, and since I like Vision stories, I don't want that character killed off."

Which is a credible concern in a Marvel universe where death is forever and divorce is a no-no.

I can't help but suspect that LOWAIF is a bullpen joke that hasn't come down to us, not even on the Internet. [Lonely, Obsessive Women Are Interesting Fans? Just guessing.]

I'm kind of reminded of FIAWOL and FIJAGH, and I wonder which side Ms. Otis would be in.

[Pat Curley]

I read many years ago a Superman letter column where one of the readers wrote into to say that Lois Lane had been married to another man in a story, so why did they always claim that she'd never been married.

Weisinger clarified things a bit with his response: Lois hadn't officially been wed because the marriage was never consummated. I had visions of thousands of kids reading that reply and asking their mom what consummated meant.

[Mark Engblom]

Funny you should mention that letter Pat, since I covered it here in a previous Dear Editor post. For those of you unfamiliar with it, you've gotta see it to believe it. It's a classic.

[Pat Curley]

Thanks, I have been looking for that letter for several years! I remembered it being in a Lois Lane issue, but was never able to track it down.

[Mark Engblom]

Hey, glad I could help you track it down, Pat! For added interest, be sure to click here for a follow up to that post in which the actual writer of that original letter contacted me! A truly surreal experience for Yours Truly.

[Hube]

I was always amazed at the tail the Vizh could get. I mean, the Scarlet Witch is absolutely gorgeous, then he had Mantis -- another stunner -- chasing him. And in volume 3 Avengers didn't he go out with Warbird (Ms. Marvel) a few times??

[Ivan Wolfe]

Mark, your life must be truly surreal, what with all those surreal experiences you're having. ;-)

[Ivan Wolfe]

Mark, your life must be truly surreal, what with all those surreal experiences you're having. ;-)

[Mark Engblom]

You're right...they did date a few times. As I recall, Vizh had a cool cat human disguise named "Victor Shade" and would hang out at a local jazz club.

[Hube]

Vizh must've been like Data -- "fully" functional and versed in "multiple techniques."