Letters columns, when they exist at all in comics these days, are no longer what they once were—their importance has been supplanted by the Internet. They used to be where readers discovered they were not alone, and learned that their tribe was out there. It’s where we debated what we loved, found friends, formed fan clubs, and sometimes (as with Dave Cockrum and Andrea Kline) even met spouses.

But there was a time when Stan Lee, as the Marvel Universe was exploding, almost put the kibosh on all letter columns but one.

I imagine it must have been tough to keep up when all those superhero titles were launching, each requiring its own letters column. His solution—drop them, add the freed pages to the stories themselves, and answer all Marvel mail in the Fantastic Four.

In Spider-Man #7 (cover-dated December 1963), he asked readers if they thought this was a good idea.

Spider-Man #8 (January 1964) was way too early for Marvel to have received any letters, so Stan just asked for more feedback.

Same for Spider-Man #9 (February 1964) …

It wasn’t until Spider-Man #10 (March 1964) that Stan announced “the overwhelming majority demanded” the status quo, and so letter columns continued in the full line of Marvel titles.

Though this is something eight-year-old me would have read at the time, it’s a proposal I’d completely forgotten until my current Spider-Man reread. But as I consider Stan’s words now, I wonder—was he being serious? Was he really considering shoe-horning all fan mail into the pages of the Fantastic Four? Or was this just a way of getting readers to write in? What do you think?

Hmmm … I wonder if Stan would remember?