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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 133196
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Posted: 16 March 2023 at 3:22pm | IP Logged | 1
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This morning, paging thru one of my bound volumes of comics from the early Sixties, I decided to use Google Maps to look up some of the addresses in the letter columns. Curious to see what kind of neighborhoods those letters came from, if indeed they were still there. Most were, tho the streets were less urban than I expected. Some of the house numbers did not exist, and actually could not have, situated as they were between existing houses. Got me wondering about the people who wrote those letters. How long did they live in those houses? Where are they now? And how many, if any, were figments of Stan’s (or Flo’s) imagination?
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ron bailey Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 16 October 2016 Location: United States Posts: 1035
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Posted: 16 March 2023 at 8:55pm | IP Logged | 2
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Thank you for that! Wherever I'm looking for a momentary distraction from the task at hand I'll open a google session and try to remember the most remote of artists that I followed once upon a when and peruse as much work as I can in a few minutes. Nice to discover someone so talented from one of my favorite periods.
Cheers!
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Bill Collins Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 26 May 2005 Location: England Posts: 11290
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Posted: 17 March 2023 at 7:42am | IP Logged | 3
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In the FF omnibus vol 2 they printed some letters pages and i remember there being one from a chap in Wolverhampton. It made me wonder if that address still existed and if he still lived locally.
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Doug Centers Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 17 February 2014 Location: United States Posts: 5575
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Posted: 17 March 2023 at 10:48am | IP Logged | 4
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A favorite thing of mine to do, when watching old films or tv shows, is if I catch an address on a business I'll punch it in to the Google and see if it still exists or what's there now.
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Brian Miller Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 28 July 2004 Location: United States Posts: 31137
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Posted: 17 March 2023 at 11:54am | IP Logged | 5
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I saw a letters page from an old Marvel in an Omnibus (Nick Fury?) and there was a letter from an old school chum’s dad in it. When we were kids in middle school his dad was a lawyer and he still collected. I would imagine he did until he died. The first time I saw his collection it was like comic heaven. FF1. ASM 1. AMAZING FANTASY 15. X-MEN 1. And he had multiple copies of some of them. It was the most unbelievable thing I’d ever seen. He also had a dozen or so pages of art that Marvel and DC would send home whenever he’d write them letters.
My friend died 15 or so years ago and I know his dad was still alive then. I’m pretty sure the dad has passed since and I sometimes wonder what happened to that incredible collection.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005 Posts: 133196
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Posted: 17 March 2023 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | 6
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A letter of mine was published in an issue of MAD, and it actually took a few weeks for me to realize it. It was the first time I’d seen my name typeset, and I didn’t recognize it!It was a fun experience for my 15 year old self. Gave me something very like a sense of participation. Unfortunately, when I became a professional, I saw that many fans who’d had letters published took that fuzzy feeling WAY too far. They began thinking of themselves as somehow part of the creative process. One letter I received during my time on FF was somewhat typical. It was evidently the second letter the guy had written about a particular story. I had no memory of the first, but he’d apparently completely missed where I was taking my tale, and, according to the second letter, had written to show me the error of my ways. He wrote the follow-up to express his pleasure that I’d followed his advice and saved the story. Of course, he clearly had no idea that the second part of my story was finished months before he saw the first. Like so many readers he assumed the books were completed only a week or so before they hit the stands.
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Brian Miller Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 28 July 2004 Location: United States Posts: 31137
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Posted: 17 March 2023 at 1:12pm | IP Logged | 7
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Sure was nice of you to take his suggestions. 😁
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Vinny Valenti Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 17 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 8109
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Posted: 17 March 2023 at 1:13pm | IP Logged | 8
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12-year-old me wrote a letter for ALPHA FLIGHT #29 (I was a bit upset about it for some reason)......but I actually never bothered to buy the few subsequent issues to find out if mine was printed!
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Brian Miller Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 28 July 2004 Location: United States Posts: 31137
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Posted: 17 March 2023 at 1:46pm | IP Logged | 9
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I’ll check later for you.
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Vinny Valenti Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 17 April 2004 Location: United States Posts: 8109
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Posted: 17 March 2023 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | 10
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Hah, thanks!
I'm sure that I expressed remorse over JB leaving, but I do remember that my main gripe was the way Sasquatch was seemingly dead after their battle with the Hulk. Months later, I did receive a hand-written postcard saying:
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Sasquatch WILL be back....one way or another.
- Bill Mantlo --
We now know what that meant, and as it happens that was my final issue of buying AF, ever.
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Peter Martin Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 17 March 2008 Location: Canada Posts: 15935
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Posted: 17 March 2023 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | 11
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Even though I grew up in a world without email and where old school post was the way you communicated, it does seem weird to look back at the trouble people took to send things -- such as Mantlo making the effort to send you that postcard.
I've been poisoned by all the junk mail I receive nowadays, so it anyone sent me something like that these days, there's a good chance I'd miss it amongst the piles of flyers!
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Daniel Gillotte Byrne Robotics Member
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Joined: 11 October 2005 Location: United States Posts: 2659
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Posted: 17 March 2023 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | 12
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I only wrote one letter to comics, a LONG terrible letter to Savage Sword of Conan written as if I was in Conan's world. It was truly terrible I'm sure. Something like "As I leapt from my horse to enter the tavern I beheld a shopkeeper with the latest issue of SSOC for sale." I blame D & D.
I did occasionally misuse the phone and call the Marvel and DC offices. Asking for random artists (because I was under the mistaken impression that there was LITERALLY a BULLPEN and that Mr. Byrne was hanging out next to Mr. Buscema down the hall from Chris Claremont and Stan. One time I actually DID get Dave Cockrum on the phone and another time Larry Hama. I was about 14 and wanted to draw for the new Savage Tales. He told me to come into the office a few days later with my samples. I panicked as it got TOO real. Ha!
I also called the Pinis at Warped Graphics once or twice. They were really nice.
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