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Letters : To The Editor : Letters to the Editor [17]

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Letters : To The Editor : Letters to the Editor [17] (01-Apr)
 

From Karen

My dear webhead fan:

On your Electric Company page, you mention the villains Conk and Bonk (that's Conk with a C, not a K -- I have this episode on VHS and watched it just this morning) and say that these two miscreant enemies of Spidey were played by Skip Hinnant and Jim Boyd.

As a lifelong Electric Company fan with a huge collection of the show on video (don't ask; I was lucky), as well as a sad person who has always had a crush on Skip Hinnant and therefore always knows whom he played and whom he didn't, I feel it's my wall crawling duty to tell you that Skip did NOT portray Conk.

Crazy Jim did play Bonk as you said. However, Conk was portrayed by Luis Avalos. Luis is the mild-mannered Latin fellow, balding, with a mustache. Skip is blonde and fair and wears glasses. Skip's only dark haired character was Fargo North, Decoder, who appeared with Spidey in the episode/comic "Spidey Meets The Blowhard". Luis Avalos played The Blowhard in that episode.

It was Avalos as Conk; not Hinnant.

Huge Electric Company Fan
Karen

Well, I don't know which to do first... thank you kindly for helping keep the TEC Cast List accurate, or tease you mercilessly for having had a crush on some guy from a kids TV show!

Thanks!

*snigger*

From ROBERT

YES MY NAME IS ROBERT .I HAVE PRETTY MUCH EVERY SPIDERMAN BOOK WITH VENOM IN IT. IF YOU WANT THEM YOU GOT EM.I CHECKED OUT YOUR LIST AND I HAVE SEVERAL OF THEM. I'VE PROBABLY GOT SOME MORE HARD TO FIND BOOKS THAT WEREN'T ON YOUR LIST THAT YOUR NOT AWARE EXIST.MAYBE YOU DO AND THOUGHT THEY WERE JUST TO HARD TO FIND.IF YOUR INTERESTED IN BUYING GET BACK TO ME AND I'LL SEND YOU A DETAILED LIST OF WHAT I HAVE.EVERY BOOK IS IN NEAR MINT CONDITION EXCEPT 2 AND THEY WERE'NT ON YOUR LIST.I CAN CUT YOU A BETTER DEAL ON THE COMPLETE SET THAN BUYING INDIVIDUAL BOOKS. BUT EITHER WAY I MUST SALE THEM FAST.I PROMISED MY WIFE I WOULD'NT BUY ANY MORE BOOKS UNTIL I GOT RID OF SEVERAL HUNDRED OF THE ONES I DON'T COLLECT ANYMORE.THANKS FOR YOUR TIME.

PS: I ALSO HAVE KISS, GEN 13, DIVINE RIGHT, CYBLADE/SHI (BATTLE FOR INDEPENDENCE) AND OTHER MISC. TITLES.

PSS: IVE GOT A SUPER COPY OF THE SPIDERMAN SPECIAL UNICEF BOOK, ASWELL AS MANY OTHER SPECIALS HIDDEN AWAY. HURRY UP! GET BACK TO ME SOON!

Ahh, well, yes... it's true, I did name that list my Want List (since removed). But perhaps that was a little hasty. In fact, it's really my "Don't Have" list.

And while I don't have all those horrid Venom Limited Series' - to be honest, I don't think I could bring myself to ever pay money for them!

And I think I'll pass on the "Kiss" books too, Thanks.

From Aaron

The Editor, Wow, it seems you have created quite the Spidey index here, thanks alot.

I have been out of the comics scene for quite some time. I occasionaly picked up an issue of this or that over the years and it seems everytime I pickes up Spidey it was not of much substance. Well, I find myself getting back into comics again and was wondering if you might be able to point me in the direction of what would be essential Spider-Man for the last 5 years or so. It would be greatly appreciated, any sort of starting point or reference material would be welcome. Thank you very much.

Well, you could go to the chronology, starting around 1996, and read the reviews. There's a description of the story, and a rating for each story.

From Travis

I just looked at Marvel Team-Up #1 and couldn't find any evidence that Ultimate Spider-Man killed anybody. What are you talking about?

Look carefully at the scene in the subway station. Spidey blasts a bystander with a full face of webbing, then swings off.

Sure, he's zapped JJJ a few times, but that was always over the mouth. That stops Jonah from talking for an hour or so. A full face-blast will stop you breathing for an hour. That makes you dead.

In fact, webbing people's mouths isn't a safe thing to do either. If you miss by an inch, you could easily block mouth and nose. Or if your target has a cold...

Given that a person of normal strength can't remove webbing. And given that even a person with super-strength will remove most of your skin when attempting to remove it - this was a bloody irresponsible thing for Peter to do.

Still, it matches the half-baked quality of the rest of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #1.

From The Amazing David-Man

Al Sjoerdsma is an idiot. I don't even know if he's still affiliated with you guys, but he has NO idea what he's talking about. And that whole time travel/Ben and Peter are the same person is the most convuluted piece of claptrap I've ever had the poor fortune to read. He's a moron who seems hell bent on making bad storylines WORSE. His mentality is what's wrong with comics - and Spidey and the X-men in particular today.

You shouldn't bring characters back from the dead. Its gotten so commonplace that no one believs a Marvel character is actually DEAD anymore. Norman Osborn? He's back. Mary Jane? She's back. Cyclops? He's back. Colossus? He'll be back soon enough.

And you don't bring losers like the Jackal back, AL. And you certainly bring characters who died meaningful deaths - Gwen - just to tie up a few Mackie loose ends. And you DON'T incorperate TIME TRAVEL into a frickin' Spider-Man comic. That's just common sense.

Fire Al's ass and replace him with someone who knows what he's talking about.

Namely, me. The Amazing David-Man! David-Man, away!

Well, thanks for speaking your mind, but there's a couple of good reasons why I can't fire Al.

Firstly, Al has been writing for the page for at least the last four years or so, and has put probably as much effort into the page in the last four years as I have. During that time, we've become great friends.

Al owns almost every Spider-Man appearance, ever. His collection and his knowledge dwarf my own. I find his ideas refreshing, and original, and well founded from his 30 or so years of reading Spider-Man comics.

Al is also a professional writer, and a prolific contributor, who misses nary a deadline.

As for time travel? A scan through the 2000 or so Spidey issues you'll find in Al or my's collection will show numerous occurances of time travel. Head over to the X-Men and you'll unearth many more. Heck, time travel is a lot more scientifically valid than the idea that a single strand of DNA could contain a person's lifetime of memories!

Last but not least - I recently adopted Al as my blood brother in a Native American ceremony. It was the least I could do, after he saved my life that time in NYC.

Sorry about that, but Al stays!

Heck, if I fire him, he might ask for that kidney back!

From Jack B.

Do you think that anyone at Marvel has any sensitivity to parents' concerns about the gore and sexual content to comics, or do they just deride those types of concerns? I recently read an interview with Roy Thomas, where he talked about his disinterest in writing "grim" heroes, and how the current magazines have lost the quality of "charm", and I found myself greeing 100%. It is fashionable to mock parents who want to protect their kids from having their thinking distorted by slaughterhouse violence or pornographic graphics.

This was the subject of an earlier rave.

Personally, I'm in favour of balance. I enjoy the odd "grim" hero. I LOVE Deadpool. But I deplore "stupid" violence, or depictions which glorify violence. I'm a father of two. I'm anti-guns, but pro-free-speech, in as much as people are in New Zealand. We don't have the level of extremism that you see in the U.S. (where I presume you hail from, since you didn't say).

I don't think it's feasible to force down violence in comics. I personally wish that violence wasn't so popular... but I'm powerless to change society in a day. All I can do is raise my children to understand the consequences of their actions, and to talk to the people I meet about the issues that arise. Who knows, that may just be enough in the long run.

As for "Pornography"... I've never seen any in a Marvel comic! If you mean scantily-clad women with unfeasibly-large breasts. Well, yes, that's par for the course. Does it offend me? Nah... sorry. Can't see what harm it does, myself.

From Kolobos Rexx

Hi! Great sites as usual, glad I found it again! I just read your review of Spider-Man: The Mysterio Manifesto, not having had the chance to read the story myself. And all I can say is... What the Hell?!

The DeMatteis issues of Spidey featuring "Mad Jack"/Jack O'Lantern 2 were among my fave issues of the book! I loved how it seemed certain that Jack was a supernatural being, based on his apparent abilities... This idea that "He" was some sister/cousin/whatever to Beck is the all-out dumbest thing I ever heard! Why have such a personal vendetta against Jameson? Why look sad when seeing a picture of Jameson's wife? That who line about Jack's fire "burning the soul" seems further evidence of his supernatural origins... How about the fact that his cat, whom he directly called "Maguire", attacked Spidey without setting off his spider-sense? Not to mention, Jack had no grudge against Spidey, while any relative of Beck's surely would have!

Did the writers of that mini-series even read previous tales of Jack? The absolute lack of consistancy is so grating! Is it possible that This gal just got ahold of Macandale's old gear? This Jack shot FIRE from his hands, controlled minds... I'd rather believe it's the ghost of Quentin Beck than some relative... I hope someone comes along and fixes this like Stern did with the first Hobgoblin... Why isn't DeMatteis writing for Marvel anymore?

Whew! Well, you're not going to get any argument from me on all of this. I agree that it was all appallingly handled. It would have been better to leave the whole issue untouched than to produce this half-baked explanation.

Maybe one day we will hear a different response from JM DM himself, or maybe not. I'm sorry, but I don't know why he is no longer with Marvel, but it's a shame that he didn't have the chance to wrap things up.

The past few years of Spider-Man have seen one bungled plot-line after another. Mackie himself has provided us with some wonderful examples of how to screw up the resolution even to your own plots! Let's just sigh, and hope that better times are ahead.

From Lenny

hi my name is lenny im doing an article about "changing self" (which is just an individual change) in a series, for my school magazine and i thought Peter Parker would be a perfect example: ordinary guy gets super powers turns to super hero...

ive found it a bit hard gathering genuine information on the personal changes peter went through paricularly in the first episodes...

i would appreciate dearly if you could send me some information regarding Peter Parkers "individual change"

Well... I guess those "personal changes" were just a bit personal, so that's why we didn't get told about them. I suppose I could always read the comics and then form my own conclusions about the changes - but that sounds to me awfully similar to doing research and then writing a story... and you're the journalist, remember, not me!

From Anonymous

ive got two of them 1,000 u s dollars each

*Blech* That's disgusting!

From Amit

please send me free spider-man games
waiting for reply

please send me gene kelly dvds
waiting for reply

From Luis H.

Please what hapenned after the last chapter(65), marie Jane come back of the black hole?, spider will recover her ? i never have seem that last chapter, plese answer me that question !!!!

There are no more episodes after #65, that is the last.

From Luis H.

Thank for you answer, but and then what did happen with Mary Jane ?

Nothing. There were NO MORE EPISODES! OVER! KAPUT! FINISCO! I sat watching for hours and hours... but there's just this big black and white fuzzy block on the screen and a big buzz coming out of the speaker... because that is THE END! She doesn't come back, and she doesn't not come back, because nobody comes back. That's the big one. Kicking the video bucket. CANCELLED! PULLED! DOWN-SIZED! WITHDRAWN! FINAL SEASON!

From Ary

What is the full title of the debut comic book that was dedicated exclusively to Spider-Man and the month and year that it was first issued?
Well, it was Amazing Fantasy #15, from August 1962. Of course, any Spider-Fan knows that. You can find that out from the Comics Chronology. There's been a lot of effort go into that, so that keen Spider-Fans like yourself can have a great resource to explore and enjoy.

Of course, I'd rather that you found the chronology easy and accessible to use, but I don't mind spending a little time guiding you around it, since you're obviously keen to learn about that great Super-Hero we both love, and you're prepared to start at the beginning. I don't have a lot of spare time, but if you're ready to learn, then I'd love to help.

From BABARICCIA

HELLO:

NICE SITE. I HAVE A QUESTION. DO YOU KNOW THE ANSWER OR WHERE I CAN FIND THE ANSWER TO THIS:

WHAT IS THE FULL TITLE OF THE DEBUT COMIC BOOK WHICH DEVOTED ITS FIRST ISSUE TO SPIDER MAN? I ALSO NEED TO KNOW THE MONTH AND YEAR OF THE ISSUE.

JUDGING FROM YOUR SITE, YOU ARE AN EXPERT ON THIS SUBJECT. ANY HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED.

THANKS IN ADVANCE

Well, that was from 1962 - August to be exact. The comic was Amazing Fantasy #15. You can find out about early Spider-Man comics in the Comics Chronology.

From Deborah

I was wondering. What was the full title of the debut comic book that was dedicated excusively to SpiderMan and the month and year it was first issued? I was thinking that the month and year was September of 1962, but I don't know the title. I may be wrong about that too. I would really appreciate it if you could help me with this piece of information - or if you could forward this to someone who could. Thank you.

AF #15, Aug 62. What the heck is going on here?

From Deborah

Hi, Jonathan! Thanks for answering me before. The reason I wanted to know was that these were trivia questions in a "Spider-Man Sweepstakes" that I entered. If you answered these questions you could get 50 extra entries into the sweeps. The sweepstake is at the Sony Spider-Man Movie site.

Oh, thanks a HEAP, Sony!

From Matt

Dear Editor, I am looking for the vary first comic that Spider-Man ever appeared but I can not seem to find it on your website. I understand that it is not his own. I might be interested in purchasing it. Can you please e-mail me the title month and year it was created. Thanks.

Oh... really? Interested in buying it, eh? You want to buy a $30,000 comic that you don't even know the name of? Woah, you must have way too much money? I guess you must have won a sweepstake or something!

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