Every comics fan in the world has surely heard of Frank Bellamy, right? That being the case, many of them will know of Norman Boyd, who has a site devoted to Bellamy which can be found in my bloglist. Norman is a longtime reader and collector of comics from back in the '60s, and it should therefore have come as no surprise to me to see a letter from a Norman Boyd in a back issue of The Mighty World Of Marvel (#85), when he'd have been a teenager. However, I had no way of knowing for sure whether it was from the same Norman without first checking with him, so I contacted him to ask.
Norman couldn't remember if it might be one of his letters, so I scanned the page and sent it to him. He was astounded to see (going by the location) that it was indeed written by him, as he had absolutely no recollection of it. The same thing happened to me once. I knew I'd written a few letters to Marvel UK back in the '70s, but I remembered the details of only one of them as I'd photocopied it at the time. Imagine my surprise, then, when a Crivens reader (Duncan, I believe) commented to say that he'd read a letter by me in an issue of MWOM (I think) that I'd completely forgotten. In fact, when he sent me a copy of it, I still couldn't fully recall it right away, though there was a hint of something vaguely familiar about it.
And so it was with Norman. He was so thrilled at being reminded of his moment of glory in MWOM that he said I could write about it if I wanted to. So I have. Trouble is, my deteriorating memory is getting so bad that I'll probably have forgotten publishing this post in a couple of weeks and write it again. Then you can all write in to remind me. In the meantime, let's take a look at the letter which established Norman's near immortality in Marvel literary history for many years to come - probably for eternity, in fact. (Well, you can't have one without the other, can you? Immortality and eternity I mean.)
This ever happened to you? Being reminded by someone of a letter you'd written to one of your favourite childhood comics that you'd completely forgotten about? (The letter, not the comic.) If so, tell all in the comments section.
11 comments:
Nothing in comics, butI can think of several letters I've sent to people in the past that I hope they've forgotten about.
Well, it certainly brought a smile to my face Kid, and my kids and wife are impressed! One of my daughters writes short stories for fun and has had a couple of plays performed so this was a surprise to her that her less intelligent parent was published!
Thanks so much for that Kid. Carry on blogging!
I think we've all written letters like that, BS. Never put it in writing they say, 'cos it'll come back to haunt you.
******
I'm sure you were always a star in their eyes even before they knew of your letter, NB. (What age would you have been when you wrote it?) And I'll do my best to carry on blogging - nothing else for it, is there?
Having learned to never put in print something I may not want to haunt me later, you will never know I was sweet sixteen DOH!
Ah well, I'll just have to resign myself to never knowing then, eh, NB? (Doh!)
Kid, I too told you about one of your letters which I'd seen in MWOM & POTA - I was reading all the POTA stories online and the letters pages of each comic were included.
Yup, I know, CJ, but I think I remembered writing them at the time (though I'd probably forgotten the precise issues), whereas with the one Duncan (or Big D) reminded me of, I'd completely forgotten about it until I was reminded - same as Norman.
Are you going to buy the CTB Epic Collection?
I'd considered buying the e-book version but decided not to.
The print version is always preferable in my view, CJ. Go on treat yourself - Christmas is coming.
Hi Kid,
I was reading a bunch of early Avengers comics a couple of months ago and came across your name again in the Swap Shop section and had planned to let you know, but unfortunately forgot. I have also seen a number of your other printed letters in the last few years and had assumed you must have been quite prolific and that I had only come across a small sample of your correspondence - my mistake, as you have confirmed you only wrote 3 or 4 letters in total. Each letter must have been considered interesting enough to be printed and I do recall that each letter wasn't bland or dull and had clear opinions, similar to your current blog comments. Keep up the good work, even when I don't necessarily agree with you I still enjoy reading different opinions.
Cheers,
Duncan
Phil from Phil's Comics contacted me to let me know about that Avengers issue and my Swap Shop ad in it a couple or so months back, D, though I never got around to bidding on it. (I think it was part of a bundle.) Not to worry though, as I bought a copy on ebay shortly after. As for writing 3 or 4 letters, that's all I remember writing, but there's always a possibility that I wrote far more than were published and just can't recall them. Norman told me in an email that he doesn't remember the five other letters he mentions in his published one, so that may be the same in my case. And what do I ever say that anybody would disagree with, D? I'm all sweetness and light.
Actually, I don't mind people disagreeing with me and am always up for a polite discussion, so if you ever read anything by me that you don't agree with, feel entirely free to say so. Dissenting opinions always welcome, as I'm sure you know. I confess to winding-up reader CJ over some of his comments from time to time, but it's only friendly banter.
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