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MATTHEW LEWIS
Brooklyn, NY re: Amazing Heroes #107 – Turtle Boys:I was rather amused by your comments concerning Marvel Comics, specifically Jim Shooter and Stan Lee on the Kirby situation.Peter Laird said, and I quote, “Jim Shooter and Stan Lee should go on TV and publicly apologize.” Laird also says when asked whether he would work for Marvel, “I’d also prefer an ethical revision of their policies before I do any work for them.”I find it absolutely amazing that two rip-off artists (and I use the term “artist” quite loosely) should be pointing their moral little fingers at Marvel Comics.Whereas Marvel Comics ripped off Jack Kirby, the Master of the Graphics Medium, and should absolutely return this artwork, you, Laird and Eastman, have ripped off the comics-buying public!

This rag that you call a comic book is nothing but an over-priced, low-content piece of garbage.  For $1.50, I can buy a Marvel comic such as the X-Men Vs. The Avengers, which has beautifully colored pages, and the paper is of good stock.

You folks put out this black-and-white crap for the same buck-fifty, which in two years, will go the way of the dinosaur in terms of it’s physical life.

You say you have a readership of 125,000 and yet still you print the book in black-and-white.  One can only come to the conclusion that you two hypocrites are nothing but a couple of greedy swine who point at Marvel as you rake in the dough from collectors to children.

I would rather have a company hurt its employees, or ex-employees, than hurt the public, which you are guilty of.

But wait, T.M.N.T. has been produced in color.  But guess what?  The first three issues are placed into graphic novel form selling for $10.00!  Oh sure, 12 new pages, so those who have the first three have to buy the graphic novel to keep their collection intact.

I buy T.M.N.T. so that as time goes buy, I sell my copies to collectors, so I can complete my Marvel collection with the money from T.M.N.T. That is the only reason I would buy your tripe!

My theory is that people such as yourselves will never be able to create a fellow who climbs up and down walls and rooftops, while shooting webs out from his blue and red wrists.  I’m of course, speaking of the Amazing Spider-Man.

You do not have the talent (Lord knows you don’t have the originality) to ever create a character like the web-slinger.  Nor, for that matter, could you ever create a Fantastic Four, or an Iron Man, or an Original X-Men, much less a New X-Men.

So, you tear down those whom you can never hope to equal, much less surpass!

I put it to all those who attack Marvel, where are your Silver Surfers?  Where are your Mighty Thors and regal Sub-Mariners?  How about an Avengers? No… I do not see any of those in your books.

There is not one of your characters which will ever be as memorable as those that Marvel, specifically Lee, Kirby, and Ditko created, lo, those many years ago.

In closing, I hope other readers will write in and demand that the T.M.N.T.  be printed in color and not in graphic novel form either!  After all, I’ll get more money when I sell your rags, if they are in color.

[Amazing Hero’s Response…]

• Brooklyn, huh?  Maybe that would help explain it.

So, Matt, you think publishing a comic book you don’t like is a bigger crime that screwing Jack Kirby out of tens of thousands of pages of artwork?  Not to mention refusing to credit him for his role in creating all the dozens of characters you hold up as examples?  I guess I missed the declaration that made Matt Lewis and his taste in funny books the Ethical Center Of the Universe.

Fair warning to irate letter-writers: like the previous editors in this slot, I have no compunction about being downright nasty to those who are (a) rude, (b) arrogantly ignorant, or (c) personally insulting.  You pays your money, you takes you chance, and if you act too much like a jerk, you get clipped.  If that offends your tender sensibilities, there are plenty of other publications in which you can throw your fits without the mean ol’ editor telling you off.