Letters columns are an interesting case. They often appear in the Marvel Omnibuses, but they are almost always omitted from digital reprints. When reading an Omnibus or a back issue I’ll usually scan the letters page looking for a significant editorial reply or the name of a correspondent — you are right that quite a number of comics pros show up as letter hacks, sometimes complaining about the crankiest things. It’s small wonder that Marvel evolved into some kind of continuity vortex after their letter column generation came of age and started running the place.

I agree that for the most part, editorial columns haven’t aged well. It’s kind of amusing to read old Stan Lee propaganda pieces, particularly when he’s trumpeting immanent move and TV deals that never came together, or stumping for something strange like a radio show or a LP album.

When going though some early 1980s Batman issues I found the editorial page introducing Frank Miller’s Dark Knight; I wish I’d scanned that one, because the language used made it clear that DC thought they had something special, but they didn’t know HOW special — it sound like a superior Elseworlds, not the paradigm-changing event that it turned out to be.

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