People make a big song and dance about how social media, San Diego Comic Con and the like have helped fans and creators interact like never before. Hop online and you can instantly send a message to your favourite actors, writers, directors, reality TV stars, those people who make the really obnoxious YouTube videos where they just yell a lot in their colourful bedrooms... Thing is, comics have been letting fans stick their oars in for decades. Pretty much from the very beginning they've featured a letters page at the back of each single issue, where readers can write in with questions, queries, long-winded rants, and to practice their later sociopathic literary tendencies. Between that and hanging out with writers, artists and editors at conventions, the dividing line between creators and readers are paper-thin. But like, tissue paper, not the shiny paper they print modern comics on. Fans have always had indelible effect on the comics they read. Characters will be killed off or brought back according to their popularity, leaks can cause last-minute changes to huge storylines, and then there are the create-your-own-character contests...these are the ten times comics changed because of fans.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
