Sunday, September 21, 2008

Wold Newton fan letter in SHANG CHI: MASTER OF KUNG FU lettercol



To the left is a letter (click to enlarge) from the original Wold Newton Meteoritics Society, pointing out the Wold-Newtonian connections in Marvel's brilliant Shang Chi: Master of Kung Fu series. They don't make 'em like that anymore.



In the shameless self-promotion department, you can read Shang Chi's secret Wold-Newtonian origin in my story "The Vanishing Devil" in Tales of the Shadowmen, Volume 1. Clive Reston's mom appears in "The Eye of Oran" in Tales of the Shadowmen, Volume 2.


12 comments:

Unknown said...

This is cool. I actually had a semi-Wold Newonesque fan letter in the Invaders, when I said the Invaders should crossover with Doc Savage and Fu Manchu. Roy Thomas said it sounded cool but he wasn't sure about the contractual aspects.

Win Scott Eckert said...

Art, if you tell me which issue, I'll scan it and post it. 1940s super-teams like The Invaders and the JSA are my favorites, so I have a full run of The Invaders.

I'm having fun with these lettercol posts.

Unknown said...

It was the one where they have Thor guest starring. I don't remember the exact number. (Got rid of my comic book collection years ago.)

Win Scott Eckert said...

Gotcha, I'll look for it.

BobbyNash said...

I always enjoyed the MOKF book.

Bobby

Win Scott Eckert said...

Definitely a classic!

Henry Covert said...

Win,

this is so cool. i'm not sure how in tune with PJF Doug Moench was. he's on facebook with us, but i think he held out on joining the WNU group (Len Wein & Gerry Conway did; we should invite Marv Wolfman too), and i don't think he's on FB much. if he joined the group, i wanted to seize that opportunity to "talk" to him about Wold Newton. i've never met him, & i don't think he's been to HeroesCon but maybe once in the 80s.

i have MOKF 46; actually most MOKF issues from Marvel Special Edition
(the 1st Shang Chi app) up to the 70s IIRC (middle of Zeck's run) & the Giant-Sizes, and then only a few of the gorgeous Gene Day issues (i may have the last issue). i bought the Day issues & one of Starlin's (with Midnight - man i was young) & one of Gulacy's (1st app of Brynocki; what a mindf**k!) when they 1st came out, but i was too young to appreciate Shang Chi fully. i bought all those other issues in the late 80s in VG to VF condition (reader's copies & they still are; they stay a few inches from my bed in a stack i have to dust frequently; only some in Mylars) for between 25 cents & 50 cents; $2.00 for the MSE).

those were the days; thanx for reminding me Win; don't know how (or if) i overlooked that letter though. man! now, what's cool is, Roy Thomas wasn't editor-in-chief by this point (it was Marv or Len or Archie Goodwin), but he did debut Tarzan & John Carter at Marvel around that same time, & Roy made it clear in his Tarzan lettercols his respect for Farmer.
everytime i see RT (once a year; a few e-mails in between), i always
bring up PJF & WNU & he always gets a kick out of hearing what we're all up to. which gratifies me no end as he's really the writer/ editor that led me down this road... so i was ready when i picked up Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life in 1981 (can't say i was read for A Feast Unknown & Image of the Beast some months later; i was far less jaded than 14 year olds these days..).

sorry to drone on; hope no one minded me sharing more of the things that went into forming the crazed Wolder i am today. thanx Win for reminding me, yet again, of our common roots. most
awesome.

Henry Covert

Win Scott Eckert said...

Henry, wax away, amigo. Do you have any issue numbers for the Tarzan lettercols where Roy mentioned Phil?

Art Sippo: said...

I really enjoyed MOKF too, especially those first issues which connected SHing Chi to Fu-Manchu.

I didn't realize the Wold Newton Meteoritics Society had such a long and illustrious history. When was the original Society founded?

Art Sippo

Win Scott Eckert said...

1976. You can find articles from their "Wold Atlas" fanzine reproduced on Mark Brown's Wold Newton Chronicles website, although I don't think he's reloaded his site since the server migration of pjfarmer.com a couple days ago.

Henry Covert said...

i'll have to double check on the Tarzans, Win. i know it was early in the (very short) run of the Marvel Tarzan, when roy was still writing it himself, before handing it over to Dave Kraft.

Win Scott Eckert said...

Henry, cool, thanks!