{"id":24083,"date":"2017-09-12T21:44:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T01:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=24083"},"modified":"2017-09-12T21:57:13","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T01:57:13","slug":"too-few-words-about-len-wein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2017\/09\/12\/too-few-words-about-len-wein\/","title":{"rendered":"Too few words about Len Wein"},"content":{"rendered":"

(I struggled Sunday to find the words which would explain how important Len Wein was in my life, but found I could’t bring myself to write the eulogy he deserved. All I could manage was the following series of tweets, which I gather here in lieu of a proper celebration which I hope will come later.)<\/em><\/p>\n

I first met Len Wein at Phil Seuling’s 1970 4th of July Comic Art Convention. I was member #38. Len was member #65. I was only 15 years old.<\/p>\n

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A year later, at the Times Square Nathan’s, Len—who’d wanted to be an artist, not writer—drew this sketch of a character he’d created.<\/p>\n

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A few years after that, I was no longer a fan to his pro, but working at Marvel where he gave me more chances than a kid like me deserved.<\/p>\n

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Thanks to Len, I got to write comics, starting with Scarecrow, which would never have been without him. Proud our names bookend the credits.<\/p>\n

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He also gave me my favorite assignment from all my years in comics, to write the Bullpen Bulletins which had turned me into a Marvel fanboy.<\/p>\n

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He wasn’t my boss for long. He eventually had to pass the Editor-in-Chief torch \u201cfor health reasons.” Even then, his health was an issue.<\/p>\n

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But during that time, his trust, his guidance, his wisdom, his support, set me on the path to where I am now. I would not be me without him.<\/p>\n

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Recently, I found—and sent off to Len—what I think is a photo of him taken one year before we met, at the 1969 Worldcon in St. Louis.<\/p>\n

The photo (from the Jay Kay Klein archives) is only the back of a head, but it\u2019s one surrounded by his friends. I\u2019d like to think it\u2019s him.<\/p>\n

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I was expecting to hear back from him, hoping to hear back from him, that, yes, it WAS him, surrounded by his old friends, Now I never will.<\/p>\n

Funny how it all circles around. Our relationship began at a con, in 1970. And it ends with me thinking of one, in 2017, from 1969.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more I could say about Len, more details, more anecdotes, but for now, what this has me thinking about is this thing we all have …<\/p>\n

… this continuum that began before I was born and will go on after I die. It\u2019s not just a fandom. It\u2019s not just a business. It\u2019s family.<\/p>\n

So let’s be good to one another while we\u2019re here. Let\u2019s do our best to make this place welcoming. And … that\u2019s all I got for now. RIP, Len.<\/p>\n

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(I struggled Sunday to find the words which would explain how important Len Wein was in my life, but found I could’t bring myself to write the eulogy he deserved. All I could manage was the following series of tweets, which I gather here in lieu of a proper celebration which I hope will come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[18,32,73,50,20,85],"class_list":["post-24083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-comics","tag-gerry-conway","tag-irene-vartanoff","tag-len-wein","tag-marvel-comics","tag-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24083"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24097,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24083\/revisions\/24097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}