A Different Kind of Comic Book Fame

I love checking in on comic book blogs and websites that look back at the history of the medium. I'm particularly interested in the comics that came out when I first began reading them myself as well as comics from just before I started my lifelong habit.  

One of my favorite sites for comic books is Diversions of the Groovy Kind which posts pages and some complete stories from the late 1960s and through the 1970s. 

Recently, the Groovester posted some splash pages from Gil Kane's run on the Flash which included the page below.

And lo and behold, what's Mark Evanier's name doing up there?

Mark is the writer of my favorite blog on the internet, News From ME. Mark has had a long and prolific career writing comic books and animated series as well as various TV shows. Mark has intricate web of connections to a lot of comic book writers and artists, animators, voice actors, comedians. It's amazing who this guy knows and he has so many cool stories to tell. 

Including how he wound as a character in The Flash#195 which went on sale in December 1969 which he writes about  here. 

While Robert Kanigher is credited as the writer, the names of the people the Flash encounter were inserted by editor  Julius Schwartz. These were people who wrote frequently to his letter columns: Irene Vartanoff, Peter Sanderson and Mark Evanier.

Ironically, all three would go on to careers in comics.

By the way, back in the day (uh oh, old man rant coming on), comic books featured letter columns. Yes, comic book fans would take a sheet of paper, write down their comments on a comic book they read, put that paper in an envelope, put a stamp on that envelope and put it in the mail. A few days later in New York City, a beleaguered editor or assistant editor would sift through these letters, pick a few good ones and maybe, just maybe, a comic book fan might get to see their name in print in a comic book a few months after they wrote their letter.

Letter columns are not that much of a thing anymore and you can blame the internet. I mean, who needs a single page of outdated commentary when there are comment boards and what not for instant feedback and gratification. 

But I think having that fan forum in the comic book itself gave a sense of sharing and community with that book that is now missing. I got to see my name in a couple of letter columns in my younger days and it was a pleasant surprise. 

Of course, finding one's name in a word balloon uttered by the Fastest Man Alive, well, that's a whole other level of a thrill.