I Was In... THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #521!

In the good old days of comic books, readers would write letters to the editor of the title, or sometimes to a character featured in the title.  Selected letters were included in the letters column, usually one or two pages worth.  Editors would reply to questions, make corrections, tease readers about upcoming storylines, etc.  As comics page counts became smaller and as fanboys and girls gravitated toward the internet, letter columns were dropped from many comics.   To make matters worse, when comics are digitized, letter columns and other text pieces are often left out entirely, and much history is lost.

I can only recall writing to a letter column one time.  I thought I had solved the mystery of the "who is in Superman's coffin" storyline from the mid-1990s.  And then, I forgot all about sending the letter.

Fast forward a decade or more... I was Googling my name to see what popped up.  As a pastor, my name is included in countless obituaries.  I also saw some of my social media and websites... Some writing I had done for various publishers... And a couple results related to the Kryptonian Cybernet.  

According to the Superman Homepage, "The Kryptonian Cybernet was the ultimate e-zine for Superman fans... It contained news, reviews, articles, and opinion columns on all aspects of the Superman mythos."  I remembered doing a "pre-review" for them--I was sent black and white art of a yet-to-be released issue of an upcoming comic.  I read it and wrote a review of Legends of the DC Universe #1.  (My copy of which was recently eaten by a hamster...)

But my name was also mentioned in connection with The Adventures of Superman #521.  I didn't remember writing any thing about that issue, and I didn't have it in my comic book collection.  It was awhile before I could track down a copy, but I finally did.

I turned to the "Kryptograms" letter column in the back of the book, and there it was.  The letter I had written years earlier:

Dear DC: 

The body in the tomb is Mr. Mxyzptlk.

Tom Pairan

Springfield, OH

And the editor's response:

See the previous answer, Tom.  (Minus the Red Kryptonite and love stuff).  

It turns out I was wrong, but so was Charles Brown, the reader whose letter appeared with the previous answer.  

And I don't remember the big reveal in the "Dead Again" storyline...  

But my name was in a comic book.  :)


 

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