20 Mind-Blowing Facts You Never Knew About George RR Martin
12. ...And His First Published Writing Was In A Comic
In fact, Martin probably has comic books to thank for his writing career. He sold his first short story at the tender age of 21, but his writing had seen print before that point. He was a prolific writer to the letters pages of Marvel Comics, and would regularly pen missives to writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby directly. His first professionally published work is in an issue of Fantastic Four. In 1961 he sung the praises of The Fantastic Four #17 in the same letter, referring to a previous letter written by Paul Gambaccini, now best known as a Radio 4 DJ - and, in the process, suggested that Lee was a better writer even than the immortal bard. We might as well quite while we're ahead, Lee responded on the page in a typically sardonic way. He even got to try his hand at writing a comic book himself. 1985's Heroes For Hope was a charity book put together by Marvel, starring the X-Men, and aimed to raise money for and awareness of African famine relief and recovery. Martin was one of many writers who worked on the jam book, along with fellow genre author Stephen King and Harlan Ellison.
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/
