The Mad Maple

[Cherokee Jack]

For any of you who remember Jim Burke's (T.M.Maple) many, many LOCs, I came across this website:


http://webpages.csus.edu/~sac53175/maple1.htm


And giving credit where credit is due, I found this at the Progressive Ruin blog.

[Mr. Palmer]

I remember when we discussed that site on here. Back around the beginning of the year, I think it was? Wealth of information for anyone wanting to dig into the Maple (which is how I found it).

Definitely needed its own thread!

[Lone Ranger]

Thanks for the link, Scott.

I always enjoy running across a T.M. Maple letter in a old comic - always a 'must read'.

It's unfortunate that he passed away (was he young?), as I would have loved to meet up with him at a Toronto convention. He probably would have loved the role the internet has played in bringing fans together.

[gking727]

What a great tribute to TMM. I always loved reading his letters as a kid and envied his "relationship" with the staff. I was about 12 when I first started noticing him and really just getting heavily into comics. I learned so much about the world of comics from him. I must have dozens and dozens of comics with his letters in them. I'll have to dig through and send some in to the site.

[Sir Tim Drake]

Someday I'd like to publish a book collecting T.M. Maple's greatest letters. It would be called something like "T.M. Maple: A Life in Letter Columns," because the guy used his letters not just to comment on comics, but to express himself. In his most powerful letters-- like the one where he interprets Saturn Girl's awakening, in LSH vol. 3 #32-- we see him probing the innermost depths of his obviously troubled psyche.

It's too bad he's gone. I would have loved to meet him.

[Agentum]

He must have read almost everything, or there was more people using the same nick.

[Mr. Palmer]

I can easily imagine him reading everything.

It's that fantasy that always endeared me to him. The thought of him picking up every darned book, every darned month, and dissecting them.

[estee]

I remember reading his letters in the old Cerebus books, and Grendel when it was at Comico.

I have wondered what happened to him. Sorry, to hear the man passed away.

Glad to see his memory lives on here.

[devildinosaur]

I swear this guy's letters were in every comic I read as a kid...I used to love reading them, too. God Bless.

[Mark Wallace]

For any of you who remember Jim Burke's (T.M.Maple) many, many LOCs, I came across this website:


http://webpages.csus.edu/~sac53175/maple1.htm

Wonderful; absolutely wonderful. What better use for the Internet, than to give credit to someone who was not so pathetic as to seek *fame*?

When I was a young boy, reading comics, Jim was the "adult voice", who always talked sense and was enjoyable to "listen to", even when my tastes diverged from his.

And even though I'm now all growed up, and know a lot more about publishing than Jim ever did, I would still love to be able to read his comments on where comics have gone (although I know what those opinions would be). I miss his communication of his feelings; I miss him.

Good on ya, Jim. You're remembered.

[Budman]

Count me among those who always looked forward to T. M. Maple's LOCs. I was sorry to hear that he's no longer with us.