By Dan Hagen
Remember the first letters you
ever got in the mail, what a thrill they were?
I was impressed to get a reply
from Marvel Comics, before they were even called Marvel Comics, after I wrote
them a letter about all the familial bickering in the early issues of the Fantastic
Four. Too young to appreciate the drama, I found that unsettling. Even caught
in a death trap, the Justice League members never seemed to so much as raise
their voices.
A little later, with my age
still in the single digits, I got a nice, serious and friendly reply from the
famed anti-comic book psychiatrist and author Fredric Wertham after I wrote
asking him why he hated my beloved Superman. He replied that he did not and
gave me an age-appropriate explanation of his views. It is clear, in
retrospect, that Wertham cared a great deal about children’s welfare.
That first letter addressed just
to you. It’s another of those little defining pleasures that today’s children
will likely never experience, along with the wonder of books and magazines
spread like a rainbow across a newsstand and the mouth-watering cozy-warm-sweet
smell of a small bakery the moment you walk in.
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| This letterhead must have thrilled any number of kids in the late 1940s. |
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