Dammit. As if there isn’t already enough stuff to be depressed about this time of year. I realized yesterday that today was September 11, and once again we as a nation would collectively open the wounds of the Twin Towers, of the thousands of people who died that day.
But then yesterday I was driving and Kath was on the Internet, and she suddenly said, “Shìŧ. RIP Len Wein.” I immediately pulled over as she ran quick verifications to make sure it wasn’t somebody’s sick idea of a joke. It wasn’t.
Unbelievable. First Jerry Pournelle, whom I saw just a few days ago at Dragon*Con, and now Len. I still remember when we were out at dinner at San Diego during the con, and he was telling me with great enthusiasm about this new television program called “Pushing Daisies.” I knew from his description that the show wouldn’t last, but it sounded great. And I also recall when Hugh Jackman thanked him on the SDCC stage for giving him a career. His health was obviously deteriorating but I thought he would outlast us all.
Shìŧ.
PAD
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We lost a legend of the field, that’s for sure. If not for him, the world of american comics would be very different indeed. And yes, Hugh Jackman wouldn’t be the star he is today. May he RIP.
Ðìçk Durock, Rick Springfield, and Mark Valley all owe big chunks of their careers to Len as well.
Rick Springfield?
The “Jessie’s Girl” singer?
Huh?
If you’re talking about “The Human Target,” Springfield had just a bit of an acting career for a decade before that. (And a singing career that earned him a LOT more recognition than almost any of his acting.)
I didn’t say that Len gave Rick Springfield his career a start, but I do believe his acting career got its biggest jumpstart from the Human Target. Not Len’s fault if Rick didn’t maintain it.
Is Jerry the first documented death from Con-Crud?
Boy, he will be missed…
So sorry for your loss. It’s a loss to all of us but even more so for those who knew him personally.
Swamp Thing was one of the first comics I read as a teen and it made me want to see what else the medium had to offer. RIP
The first time I met Len, at Comic-Con back in the mid-1990s, I told him something to the effect of, “my being here is really all your fault, you know.”
Why? Because the very first comic book I read, back when I was six years old, was Amazing Spider-Man #164 — one of Len’s. I told him it was that issue, and he immediately remembered details about the comic, about one particular letter complaining about using some vocabulary incorrectly, and so on. It was pretty impressive stuff.
After that I had a lot of fun for years at Comic-Con either watching the Pro/Fan Trivia Challenge or occasionally competing in it. Len was on the Pro team most of the time, and there was a running gag that he kept missing questions about things it turned out he’d written. It got bad enough that one year the Fan team suggested that the next year’s competition topic be “the collected works of Len Wein.” 🙂
I always enjoyed his writing, and from the (far too few) conversations I had with him, he seemed to be an awesome guy. Rest in peace, Len.