Jack Kirby's Virman Vundabar

Back in my days of writing letters to the editors of comics, I was very strategic. Rather than sending in to the comics that I felt most strongly about, I focused on the titles that received the fewest letters. I wanted to maximize the probability of my composition getting published!

In the 1980s, The Omega Men at DC Comics suffered from a fairly empty mailbag. I decided to do something about that. I not only wrote a letter but also sent in a drawing of the Jack Kirby Fourth World character Virman Vundabar. There must have been a connection that is no longer clear in my mind (maybe V.V. was appearing in the then-current storyline?). Anyway, the above drawing by me was colored by DC and saw print on the letters page of The Omega Men #29, cover dated August 1985.

The story in that issue was beautifully drawn by Shawn McManus and, interestingly, written by Todd Klein. That's right! Before he worked his way up the ladder to being one of the most respected letterers in all of comics, Todd Klein dabbled with being a writer. (The Grand Comics Database informs me that Todd wrote over three dozen comic scripts.)

Down here is the letter I wrote to Omega Men editor Alan Gold and which saw print adjacent to the Virman V. drawing. Has my writing style changed in 27 years?