== origin of the term == 
 :: ' "Retroactive continuity" was coined by comic book writer Roy Thomas in his 1980s series All-Star Squadron, which featured the DC Comics superheroes of the 1940s. The earliest known use of the term is from Thomas's letter column in All-Star Squadron #20 (April 1983), where Roy Thomas wrote that he heard it at a convention. ' 

 This makes very little sense. First it is asserted that Thomas coined the phrase. But according to the next sentence, he didn't coin it, he heard it at a convention. Does anyone know which of these is true?