May 18, 2004
Winner of the Unknown Contest!

   You may remember, some months back I ran a prize contest: Find my first published fanboy letter. This took several weeks of hints before Brendan Walsh of Chicago nailed it and won himself a Sojourn Arwyn statue.

   Well, I've only had one other fanboy letter see print before going pro, and I had planned a similar contest down the road. Well, along comes Enthusiastic Erik Burnham, who moderates Chuck Dixon's message boards on www.dixonverse.com. He beat all of us to the punch and wins by default. Actually, he wins by having an amazing memory, as I didn't offer any clues other than it being a DC-published comic.

   Erik, who hails from Minnesota (middle America representin' once again!) sent me the following email:


   Gotcha!

   Ya never should've bet no one would ever discover your second printed fan letter (that I happened to find in Milestone's HARDWARE 12.)

   Now I want you stand up and admit to all the fans that Popeye could take Captain America in a fair fight. Do it!

   Seriously, I'm always somewhat relieved to see a present pro's name in the old lettercols (how they're
missed!) it says to me that there was passion for the medium in these folks, and it stuck around. And that makes me happy, as some of those same letterhacks-turned-pro have turned out some great
comic book work.

   Now then, back to Popeye and Cap...

   -E

   Super-soldier serum vs. Spinach? Sorry, Erik, but Popeye's all muscle and no finesse. Just look at last week's scans of Cap vs. Mr. Hyde. Okay, Popeye's not a stupid fighter like Mr. Hyde, but if Cap could keep out of Popeye's reach until his Spinach runs out, then Cap wins. Even after the Mark Gruenwald story where cap had a blood transfusion that removed the initial Super-soldier serum, he was physically conditioned enough over the years that it didn't have that detrimental an effect to his strength and abitlities.

   Alright, let me look in the prize closet (actually, it's stuff that's been taking up space around my desk). Well, I don't know how interested you'd be but I've got:

  •    Copies of Thor #75 - 79, signed by Scot and me.
  •    A handful of Crossgen Trade Paperbacks.
  •    Birds of Prey and Nightwing Trade paperbacks.
  •    Dark Horse's 8-issue Propellor Man miniseries by Matthias Schultheiss. (A European Cyberpunk painted book. Nice to look at, but short on story.)
  •    Used KISS CD- Smashes, Thrashes and Hits (1986).
  •    Or all of the above
   And now, ladies and gentleman, the letter in question:
   Dear Milestone Crew

   The first four issues of HARDWARE grabbed me, but the Deathwish storyline didn't. I feared the momentum had died off as many comics do after the first few issues. Issue # 8's cover intrigued me enough to try it again. As I read it, I thought, "Oh, great, another dream sequence!" But no! It was engaging, humorous in parts, and actually served a purpose of advancing Curtis Metcalf's character! In this age of heartless Cable clones, it's refreshing to see Curtis come to terms with his needless bloodletting. I thought he went overboard in the early issues. There was no indication that Alva's security guards knew anything of their employer's wrongdoings. So did they die for simply doing their jobs? It certainly read that way.

   I admit I cringed at the announcement of the Shadow War crossover because I think your titles stand on their own, but again, Shadow War will serve a purpose: to define the origin of the Dakota universe! I'll be there! Keep up the quality and commitment to readers.

   Drew Geraci
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Sure enough, despite my optimism, the mega-crossover turned me off Milestone, just as Valiant Comic's 'Unity' crossover broke my string of collecting what started as a small, but strong line of comics. Back then, there was a lot of 'peer' pressure to do crossovers, because they were guaranteed short-term sales boosters. In the long term, crossovers by new companies trying to be Marvel and DCU overnight hurt the hard-core fans.
 
To be continued...
 
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