“I hate each Julie Andrews film they’ve made. I’m just a nasty narrow-minded jade. Don’t think that I will smile at it, I’m not a weak-willed hypocrite. I’ll say I’m bored!” From I’m Bored, written by Vivian Stanshall.
Before we had letter columns, before we had copy-riddled promotion pages and heartfelt missives from publishers and editors, we had text stories — one page (sometimes two) that told a nice little story about one of the superheroes regularly featured in the title, uncompelling at its best, but occasionally written by someone familiar with the character.
They proliferated in comics though the 1960s or so, but neither I nor my friends nor anybody I’ve ever met had read more that a few of them. And back then we were so bored we even read Roy Raymond TV Detective in the back of Detective Comics.
We have been told that publishers needed some sort of text feature in order to qualify for second-class mailing privileges. That story has been repeated so many times most of us think it’s true — and it probably is. Subscribers needed their comics delivered to their homes at a reasonable time, and publishers wanted to keep their postage costs as low as possible. But it’s hard to tell. Back then no two post office officials interpreted the rules governing those permits the same way with any consistency or logic, and often one could shop around for a friendly bureaucrat. Continue reading “Brainiac On Banjo: Old Texts”
