I would be very interested in reading more on the Mego super- hero figures.

I have great memories of those toys, and I had many of them, including the Planet of the Apes figures and the Bat Cave set. I also remember the dreaded day I came home from school to find my mother had been house-cleaning in preparation for a garage sale and my Mego toys were among her victims.

Years later, shortly after the first Batman movie came out, I was at a toy show in Dayton, Ohio, where I saw the Batman and Robin figures again. The Batman was the original version, which I had owned, with a removable mask; as I recall, later Batman figures had the mask as part of the head. When I saw they were going for $130 each, I recalled with mixed feelings that my figures had been sold for the princely sum of 25 cents each.

I was very interested to read about the Falcon doll. I owned that and the POTA figures, but had no recollection about Falcon's hands being any different than other figures. Of course, even if I had, at 7 or 8 years old, I doubt I would have thought anything about it. I'd love to read the anecdotes your readers might have to tell about these toys.

I am a long-time reader of CBG and always enjoy reading your column. Keep up the great work!

I just started catching up on your columns for this year and stumbled over the April 6, 2001 column. I figure you're doing fine (it's the world that seems to be on the rocks), but I still thought I should write something.

CBG influenced me through high school and college. I started reading it right around the time the infamous "Name Withheld" letter sparked so many thoughtful and/or emotional letters, columns and cartoons in the paper. What I picked up in CBG back then stays with me to this day. Peter David's "But I Digress" column had me laughing and (more often than not) thinking; it also seared into my mind the importance of good writing and storytelling--characters, plot, arcs, themes, the works--and how writers should read as much as possible.

Your column also stressed the value of thought, writing, and storytelling, but I remember you most for teaching me a thing or two about heroism. About how if it is within the power of a person to help others, that person should do so. You also pointed out that "expediency is not heroism," separating the wheat (true heroes) from the chaff (mere power fantasies and eye candy). Thank you for sharing your thoughts and yourself in "Tony's Tips!" I continue to read your columns whenever I get the chance.

Thank you for your kind review of my BLACKHAWK stories in the current CBG. David Siegel sent me a copy and directed me to your comments and all I can say is that praise from someone who writes as well as you do is praise indeed. As you probably know--you comic-book historians are incredible--I also wrote some best-selling novels and was the story editor/chief writer for a famous-in-its-time TV series called THE DEFENDERS, but I don't think I ever enjoyed writing anything as much as I did comics.

You and the other comics historians are helping to preserve an artifact of cultural history that will probably outlast many other forms of literary endeavor and for all I know outlast the pyramids. I'm grateful for your sending me back on a brief excursion into the Golden Age of my youthful career.