From SWAMP THING 6, Oct 1973:




 Quote:
Messrs. Joe Orlando, Len Wein, and Berni Wrightson,
Dear Responsible Parties,

A week ago I watched Joe Namath perform a feat of athletic prowess that nearly won the Jets a wild card place in the playoffs: with no offensive line to help him, devoid of a ground game, he passed and passed, and connected and connected, until the opposition blitzed and smashed him into the ground, at which point he was taken out; five minutes later he was back in again, limping, and brought his team to within inches of winning.
Last night I saw Rudolf Nureyev dance Tchaikovsky's "The Sleeping Beauty" and saw an integration of grace and art and expertise that removed him, in my eyes, from the masses of slower-moving humans that dot the planet. He managed to make High Art seem effortless, to move as humans were meant to move by a higher order, to wrest from the commonplace potentialities of bone and musculature a wonder that was superhuman.
No matter how good the best in any line of work are taken to be, once in a generation there arises a talent that goes far beyond the ordained limits. A Chaplin, a Van Gogh, a Twain, a Nureyev, a Namath. No matter what their chosen field, they rise above all the others with a superiority that puts them in a class all their own.
Thank you for SWAMP THING.

Sincerely,
Harlan Ellison, Sherman Oaks, California


The supreme compliment is one received from someone whose work you all admire and whose opinion you all respect. Thank you, Harlan, for many hours of reading pleasure, as well as for these priceless lines.




This is a letter I read at age 10, that later made me seek out Harlan Ellison's books when I re-read the letter at age 15, starting with his 1971 collection Alone Against Tomorrow, a collection of stories that was the perfect introduction to Ellison's work.

Ellison was the transitional bridge for me, from reading comics to reading actual books. (At least, reading books beyond what I was assigned to read for school.)
His letter was also the first that showed me it wasn't just kids my own age, and maybe high school and college age, reading comics, but also accomplished and highly creative people in other fields. That comics were an appreciated art form.