LEN WEIN: In His Own Words

I had the good fortune to talk with Len Wein, who would have been 70, about various elements of his Batman run in the Bronze Age — a run that’s woefully underrated.

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— UPDATED 6/12/18 —

The ever-popular Len Wein was born today in 1948. He would have been 70 years old. Sadly, he died in September. But I was fortunate to talk with him a while back about his time on Batman, which is my favorite of his lengthy body of work. That talk became the foundation of the 7-part LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS.

Check out the links below, because I promise you that you will be entertained. And as a bonus, I’ve added our interviews about his Batman ’66 one-shot, based on Harlan Ellison’s treatment of a Two-Face episode that was never produced.

So pull up a couch. If you’ve never read these, enjoy. If you have, enjoy them again!  — Dan

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PART 1. How he made his way to Batman‘s world — and the classic Moon of the Wolf. Click here.

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PART 2. The Coming of Clayface! with Marshall Rogers. Click here.

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PART 3. On creating Lucius Fox and writing Two-Face. Click here.

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PART 4. Writing Batman’s vile villains and reviving the likes of Calendar Man. Click here.

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PART 5. The Bruce and Selina romance. Click here.

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PART 6. How Batman took out the Hulk. Click here.

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PART 7. Crafting The Untold Legend of the Batman. Click here.

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HOLY BONUS COVERAGE!

Len Wein: Batman ’66 “Quite Literally Saved My Life.” Click here.

Batman ’66: The Lost Episode — Len Wein Tells the Two-Face Tale That Never Was. Click here.

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Look familiar?

MORE

— Comics Pros Pick Their Favorite Stories by LEN WEIN. Click here.

— How Six LEN WEIN Batman Comics Changed My Life. Click here.

Author: Dan Greenfield

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2 Comments

  1. Len Wein had a run writing Marvel team ups in the early seventies. And he wrote an issue that I believe is a classic, forgotten, unappreciated Gil Kane masterpiece. The art is fantastic! It’s the kind of thing that should be in Kane’s portfolio of what he’s remembered by. The team up in this issue is Spiderman and Captain Marvel.

    This issue introduced me to Gil Kane, Captain Marvel, and adult film actress Linda Lovelace. Peter Parker is talking to himself at the beginning of the issue, as he often does, on his way to a movie. And he’s musing to himself that he has this night off, – away from being Spider-Man, – and it’s been so long since he’s seen a movie that he probably wouldn’t be able to distinguish Clint Eastwood from Linda Lovelace. Now, as a kid I had no idea who Linda Lovelace was. But after all these years later I’ve always wanted to ask Len Wein how he got that one past the comic book censors. The things one learns in a comic book. Gerry Conway taught me vocabulary words like pyrotechnics and concepts like idealism . And I learned other things from Len Wein.

    If you ever get another chance to talk to him maybe you can bring it up and see if he remembers writing that. Marvel team-up 16.

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Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. The LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS: Tales of the Batman | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] 6/11/16: It’s Len Wein’s birthday this weekend, so we’re re-presenting The LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS, in which he reveals all…
  2. The LEN WEIN Interviews: The Coming of Clayface! | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] 6/11/16: It’s Len Wein’s birthday this weekend, so we’re re-presenting The LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS, in which he reveals all…
  3. The LEN WEIN Interviews: Creating Lucius and Writing Two-Face | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] 6/11/16: It’s Len Wein’s birthday this weekend, so we’re re-presenting The LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS, in which he reveals all…
  4. The LEN WEIN Interviews: Riddler, Crazy Quilt and Calendar Man, Oh My! | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] 6/11/16: It’s Len Wein’s birthday this weekend, so we’re re-presenting The LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS, in which he reveals all…
  5. BRUCE and SELINA: The Beginning of a Love Story | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] 6/11/16: It’s Len Wein’s birthday this weekend, so we’re re-presenting The LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS, in which he reveals all…
  6. The LEN WEIN Interviews: How Batman Took Out the Hulk | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] 6/11/16: It’s Len Wein’s birthday this weekend, so we’re re-presenting The LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS, in which he reveals all…
  7. How LEN WEIN Told THE UNTOLD LEGEND OF THE BATMAN | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] 6/11/16: It’s Len Wein’s birthday this weekend, so we’re re-presenting The LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS, in which he reveals all…
  8. BATMAN ’66: The LOST EPISODE — Len Wein Tells the Tale of Two-Face | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] 6/11/16: It’s Len Wein’s birthday this weekend, so we’re re-presenting The LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS, in which he reveals all…
  9. The Best BATMAN Story Never Collected by DC | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] To read a series of interviews with Len Wein, Wolfman’s predecessor on Batman, click here. […]
  10. BRUCE & SELINA: The Beginning of a Love Story | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] 6/11/16: It’s Len Wein’s birthday this weekend, so we’re re-presenting The LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS, in which he reveals all…
  11. THE COMICS OF SUMMER: By the Pool With BATMAN & Friends | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] But earlier in 1979, I actually set about buying new issues on a regular basis, mostly from an overstuffed, hole-in-the-wall stationery…
  12. LEN WEIN: 1948-2017 | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] I was really fortunate to get to talk with him at length about his work on the Darknight Detective.…
  13. Comics Pros Pick Their Favorite Stories by LEN WEIN | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] For me, it’s simple: My favorite Len Wein stories come from his 1979-’80 run on Batman, a terrific if…
  14. Len Wein 1948-2017 | The Crusty Curmudgeon's Comic Classics - […] 13th Dimension has a great post with links to bunch of interviews with Len regarding his Batman work. CBR…
  15. The Six LEN WEIN Batman Comics That Changed Me | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] couple years ago, I got to talk to Len about those issues — you can read those interviews here,…
  16. Legendary Len Wein: BATMAN ’66 ‘Quite Literally Saved My Life’ | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture - […] — For the complete LEN WEIN INTERVIEWS Index, click here. […]
  17. “Holy-Hooray-For-Hollywood, Batman!”- My trip to the Hollywood Museum – Have Geek Will Travel - […] 13th Dimension– Len Wein: In His Own Words […]

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