Letters, I Get Two Letters...

Letter One:

Dear Francesco,

A couple of weeks ago, my sister-in-law called me in tears, consumed with worry over how to deal with her mom, who manages to cause new grief with every encounter, in spite of the fact that her daughter is happily married, living responsibly, and raising a wonderful child. I sent her the Sally Forth strips for that week, in which Sally's mom perverts every conversation and puts her successful daughter down.

The comic strip has recently been more real, more perceptive, more touching and liberating than ever before. I hope you collect the recent work -- Ted's unemployment, Sally's relationship with her mother, Hillary's social outsider status -- into a little book.

Wanting to thank and compliment you for the recent strips, I searched you on Google -- found your MySpace page -- and learned that you adopted Sally Forth from a previous writer. He did well enough to keep me reading, but you have taken the strip to another level entirely. This is great literature, and undoubtedly great therapy for many readers!

In all sincerity, thank you so much.

(Reader's Name Removed for Sake of Privacy)

Letter Two:

Dear Francesco,

None of us at Archie Comics appreciated your strip attached above telling your readers not to purchase Betty & Veronica Double Digest #151. Further, you conveyed the wrong information to your readers. We only changed the look of the Archie characters for one 112 page story which will be serialized in four consecutive issues of B&V Double Digest starting with issue #151. Each one of these Digests contains 192 pages of which only 25 or 28 pages will feature the new look. For years, our readers have asked us how our characters would look if drawn in a slightly more sophicisticated style and with a more sophisticated storyline. Under no circumstances are we planning to change the entire line of our Archie Comics to this new style. There have been many articles and interviews regarding this new venture and we have carefully explained that the new look is not universal. Apparently, you have been misinformed.

Here at Archie Comics, we never take pot shots at other creators and we always wish them the best with their work. We feel that it is not good for us to tell the millions of Archie readers, both in newspapers and comics to boycott another creator's property. Immature actions like that are just bad for our entire industry.

(Archie Comics Publishing, Inc. Chairman/Publisher's Name Removed for Sake of Privacy)