Today DC Comics announced they will open up the old “letters page” to the 21. century public. I guess the dudes in charge of things over there finally got the chance to give something back to the readers, something most of them never even got to do.

And a lot of people are wondering: what’s the deal with this “letter” business? Who writes letters anymore anyway, it’s all SMSing and tweeting and stuff; and while I’d agree that there isn’t a lot of point in sending your opinions about how awesome Batman is to see them printed two months from now, there are two reasons why even I from Bosnia like the idea:

1. I might get to own a DC comic with my name in it! I am the generation of comic book readers who barely learned how to read when these fan letters pages were last published in ex-Yugoslavia, but once I started collecting back issues from 1960s or 70s, I always envied those guys who actually got a chance to see their name published in a magazine which sold millions of copies back then. Some of them even got awards for “the best letter” or “the best question”. How awesome is that: you ask a question, get the answer you were looking for, and get free comics as well!
2. And the second reason, related to the first one: FAN ART! Seriously, who can be a comic book fan out there and not love fan art in comic books and comic book magazines? It’s a proud tradition that in ex-Yugoslavia we decided to continue even after magazines closed down. Last covers and comic book pages in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are filled with awesome fan art from some of the greatest regional artists, and it’s something I’d like to see DC Comics do as well. Unfortunately, the online submission form doesn’t have an option to upload the artwork directly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if people (especially the little ones, god, those children love to draw their favorite characters!) started sending links to scans of their artwork. And not submissions to become the future artist of some DC Comics title, no. Just to see their name in the same book with their greatest hero.

That was my 2cents, hope you enjoyed it.

Take care of yourselves and have an awesome 2011!