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Len Wein (2011)

Leonard "Len" Norman Wein (born June 12, 1948 in New York City , † September 10, 2017 ) was an American comic book writer and editor. Wein gained notoriety primarily as the creator of the cartoon characters Swamp Thing and Wolverine .

Life and work

Len Wein with a Fan Disguised as a Swamp Thing (2005)

Wein began working as a full-time comic book writer in the 1960s. His first published work was the story Eye of the Beholder , which appeared in December 1968 in the # 18 issue of the series published by DC Comics . The co-author of this story was Wein's friend Marv Wolfman , who would later remain one of his most important artistic partners. In 1968 Wein was hired by DC to write the horror and scary series The House of Secrets . For DC's competitor Marvel, he began to script series like Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness , which are also part of the scary genre.

This was followed by stories for the Secrets Hearts series , which told romantic love stories, and Hot Wheels , which had racing driver stories based on the toy runabouts of the same name.

For Skywald Publication, Wein worked on the horror comics Nightmare and Psycho and the western titles The Bravados and The Sundance Kids, while for Gold Key he worked on Mod Wheels , Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery , Microbots and The Twilight Zone .

After intensifying his relationship with Marvel Comics, Wein took on the authorship of series such as Daredevil , Marvel Team-Up , The Amazing Spider-Man , The Incredible Hulk , The Mighty Thor , The Defenders , Brother Voodooo and Fantastic Four in the 1970s .

At DC, he was also writing for the series Superman , The Flash and The Phantom Stranger (# 14-26) and also contributed stories for the series Supergirl and Zatanna, which appeared in the series Adventure Comics . His most powerful work for a long time was undoubtedly presented in the series, which appeared regularly in House of Secrets from issue # 92 (1971) on the monster “Swamp Thing”, which has become a pop cultural icon. The title character in this series - the scientist Alec Holland, who was transformed into a living swamp monster in a laboratory accident - which Wein developed together with the artist Bernie Wrightson , matured into one of the most important brands in the DC Comics publishing program and its owner, the Time Warner Corporation. Apart from the comic series of the same name, which has been appearing with breaks for more than 30 years, the character of the Swamp Thing has been marketed by Time Warner in two cinema films and a television series as well as in various merchandising products. The first film adaptation from the early 1980s by director Wes Craven , in which actor Ray Wise played the lead role, can be considered the most faithful to the work.

In the later 1970s, work followed on the series Justice League of America (# 100-118) and for the series The Human Target , which appeared in series such as Action Comics , Detective Comics and The Brave and the Bold as a backup story. His artistic partners were the illustrators Dick Dillin and Carmine Infantino .

In the 1980s, Wein worked for DC as a writer on series such as Batman , Green Lantern (with Dave Gibbons ), Legends (with John Ostrander , John Byrne and Karl Kesel ), Blue Beetle and Gunfire . He wrote dialogues for the " Wonder Woman " stories written by George Pérez and edited series such as Camelot 3000 , The New Teen Titans , Batman and the Outsiders , Crisis on Infinite Earths , All-Star Squadron , mostly Wolfman or Mike W. Barr acted as authors.

In the early 1990s, Wein worked for three years as editor-in-chief for Disney Comics publisher , before starting to work as a writer and story editor for animated series. In the last-mentioned functions, he worked on the animated television series X-Men , Batman: The Animated Series , Spider-Man , Street Fighter , ExoSquad, Phantom 2040 , Godzilla , Pocket Dragon Adventures , Reboot and, among others, produced by various studios War Planets: Shadow Raiders with.

In 2001 Wein and Wolfman wrote the script Gene Pool, which was followed in 2004 by a script for a "Swamp Thing" film. Together with Kurt Busiek and Kelley Jones , he produced the four-part miniseries Conan: The Book of Thoth for Dark Horse Comics in 2006 . There were also numerous stories for the Bongo Comics comic series for the animated series The Simpsons and Futurama .

After his first marriage to the colorist Glynis Oliver, Wein was married to the photographer MC Valada for the second time.

Prices

For his work on Swamp Thing, Wein received the 1972 Shazam Award for Best Writer and the same award for Best Story . In 1999 he was nominated for the Society of Horror Writers of America's Bram Stoker Award for his one-shot The Dreaming: Trial and Error .

Web links

• Len Wein in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tim Adams: Len Wein, Legendary Comics Writer and Editor, Dies at 69 . Comic Book Resources , September 10, 2017, accessed September 11, 2017.