Notes: On writing letters to comic books

As a kid, I wrote lots of letters to comic books that I read. It seemed every month guys like T M Maple had their letters printed in every book. Even letter hacks were like rock stars to impressionable young comic book readers like me. It was such a disadvantage living in the Philippines with snail mail taking forever to arrive in the editorial offices of Marvel or DC. That changed in 1994, before the publication of Aster by Entity Comics, Billy Lim-it of CATS asked me if I wanted to write a letter based on the ashcan so it would be printed. Of course, I leapt at the chance and felt great that I finally had a letter printed. 

Not soon after that, I had another letter published… first in the pages of Nexus: Executioner's Song and Big Bang Comics. Then finally I got a couple of letters printed in a Marvel Comic -- Daredevil and Fantastic Four. That was the last of it as over the next several years my interest in comics waned. I still read them but wasn't too into them. It was partially because of work and because of other interests.

In the past year or so, my love for the medium had returned and I plunged back into it wholeheartedly. In doing so, I started writing letters again. Imagine how cool it is to have them printed on newer books like The Mercenary Sea, Low, and Manifest Destiny. That makes it three Image Comics in a row and four total. And what makes it even more cool is that Rick Remender, writer for Low, used my suggestion for the book's letter page (I recommended, Lowdown).

As a fan who only recently decided to start publishing my own comic books again, writing letters to my fave books is part and parcel of the whole cycle. If you love the medium, you love the medium. Now it would be a kick to have one published in the pages of Uncanny X-Men.