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Bits of Legionnaire Business
Feb. 8th, 2007 02:18 pmWARNING! This is a comics post.
First of all, I wanted to let any and all Legion of Superheroes fans know they should pick up a copy of the just-released-yesterday Action Comics Annual 10. Not only do we get the updated origin of Mon-El (in a story very much like, but not identical to the Silver Age version), but we also get an indication that Superboy/man was a member of the Legion in the Brave New DC Earth. Thank goodness.
BUT! That's not what I wanted to make Legion fans aware of! Thanks to the intrepid Michael G. for bringing this site to my attention: someone has scanned in almost all of the Legion related letters pages from Adventure Comics, where the LSH first appeared in 1958 and had a series for most of the subsequent decade. The importance of these letters pages to comics fandom in general can't be overstated; while not as cerebral as Julie Schwartz' pages, editor Mort Weisinger managed to cultivate an air of community participation--almost certainly by accident, as Weisinger wasn't exactly a people person--that had never really been seen before. It wasn't long after the Legion was introduced that the page started featuring "Bits of Legionnaire Business," with young readers writing in giving ideas for new Legion members. (This was a followup to the previous "Bits of Bizarro Business," which featured ideas for silly opposite things Bizarro and his fellows could do.) This was a letters page where the editor, always mindful of marketability, actually took suggestions for future stories from readers! The result? Quite simply, the most die-hard fandom in comics. People ask why Legion fans (especially older fans) are so, well, fanatical, and the root of the answer is right here: readers felt like they were a part of the creative process, like they were part of the Legion family. By the end of the Adventure run, readers were voting for who the Legion leader should be, a practice that continued well into the 1980s. (And that I still wish they would bring back; it gave the writers a lot of problems, but also led to very unexpected and fun stories. Dreamy as Leader, anyone?) The letters also show something that's often forgotten--the Legion (well, Superman comics in general, but the LSH in particular) had a large and vocal female following. We'd do well to remember that Superhero books weren't always solely the domain of boys. (By the '70s, the strip also had a fairly substantial gay following, but that's not reflected here, obviously.)
Anyway, I've been having a heck of a lot of fun reading the letters. It's easier than getting my comics out of storage and reading them issue by issue! Enjoy, I hope!
First of all, I wanted to let any and all Legion of Superheroes fans know they should pick up a copy of the just-released-yesterday Action Comics Annual 10. Not only do we get the updated origin of Mon-El (in a story very much like, but not identical to the Silver Age version), but we also get an indication that Superboy/man was a member of the Legion in the Brave New DC Earth. Thank goodness.
BUT! That's not what I wanted to make Legion fans aware of! Thanks to the intrepid Michael G. for bringing this site to my attention: someone has scanned in almost all of the Legion related letters pages from Adventure Comics, where the LSH first appeared in 1958 and had a series for most of the subsequent decade. The importance of these letters pages to comics fandom in general can't be overstated; while not as cerebral as Julie Schwartz' pages, editor Mort Weisinger managed to cultivate an air of community participation--almost certainly by accident, as Weisinger wasn't exactly a people person--that had never really been seen before. It wasn't long after the Legion was introduced that the page started featuring "Bits of Legionnaire Business," with young readers writing in giving ideas for new Legion members. (This was a followup to the previous "Bits of Bizarro Business," which featured ideas for silly opposite things Bizarro and his fellows could do.) This was a letters page where the editor, always mindful of marketability, actually took suggestions for future stories from readers! The result? Quite simply, the most die-hard fandom in comics. People ask why Legion fans (especially older fans) are so, well, fanatical, and the root of the answer is right here: readers felt like they were a part of the creative process, like they were part of the Legion family. By the end of the Adventure run, readers were voting for who the Legion leader should be, a practice that continued well into the 1980s. (And that I still wish they would bring back; it gave the writers a lot of problems, but also led to very unexpected and fun stories. Dreamy as Leader, anyone?) The letters also show something that's often forgotten--the Legion (well, Superman comics in general, but the LSH in particular) had a large and vocal female following. We'd do well to remember that Superhero books weren't always solely the domain of boys. (By the '70s, the strip also had a fairly substantial gay following, but that's not reflected here, obviously.)
Anyway, I've been having a heck of a lot of fun reading the letters. It's easier than getting my comics out of storage and reading them issue by issue! Enjoy, I hope!
