A BIRTHDAY SALUTE: The celebrated Mr. K pays tribute to a colleague and late friend… — UPDATED 6/12/26: The late, great Len Wein was born 78 years ago. Perfect time to reprint this piece from Wein’s birthday in 2023. Dig it. — Dan — By PAUL KUPPERBERG I confess. I stole mercilessly from Len Wein. Later on, I assumed his identity in the credit boxes of some issues of Green Lantern. I’m guilty, I tell you! Lock me up and throw away the keys! OK, I didn’t so much steal from Len (June 12, 1948 – September 10, 2017) as I did borrow shamelessly from him as inspiration and influence when I was a wannabe and neophyte comic book writer. And the times posing as “Len Wein” weren’t for identity theft but as a ghostwriter to help the real Len out of some deadline crunches. And, while it was just another job—I’d ghosted and/or done credited fill-ins on numerous stories for various writers in the past, always for pay, of course—it was a chance to (a) practice literary mimicry, a game I enjoy, and (b) see how Len would take what I’d given him, based on a discussion or a brief paragraph or two he’d given me of the beats he needed to hit in the story, and tweak it just-so to make it work in ways I hadn’t seen. I’m sure you know the high points of his multiple award-winning, 50-year career: co-creator of Swamp Thing, Wolverine, the Human Target, Lucius Fox, and many others, writer of The X-Men, Phantom Stranger, Justice League of America, Fantastic Four, Green Lantern, Batman, and too many others to mention, as well as stints as an editor for DC, Marvel and Disney. As one of the first fans to squeeze through the closed (or slightly ajar) doors of DC Comics and turn pro, Len and his friend and writing partner Marv Wolfman, were inspirations to me during those above-mentioned wannabe writer years. I’ve already written about my earliest encounters with Len on my website. (I also used an anecdote in A Comic Moment With… column elsewhere on 13th Dimension.) Rather than hitting those high points, I’m going to dig deeper into his career, a portrait of the artist as a young artist, mining the first three or so years of his work...
About a minute and a half of Batheaven outside the supermarket… Once upon a time, I lived in a place called Ocean Township, N.J. I was quite young and loved Batman to no end. Nearby, on Route 35, there was a Grand Union supermarket, and right outside the door was the Batmobile. Not the exact one on the TV show starring Adam West, mind you, but one that was close enough: a junior-size ride with bubble windscreens, pointed fins, open canopy, yet with a somewhat different paint scheme or decoration. (It may have been black with yellow trim, though perhaps that’s my imagination.) I’d get in the driver’s seat, Mom would put a coin or two into a slot box — a dime? a quarter? I don’t remember — and that baby would take off. The car wouldn’t actually go anywhere, of course. Just stay planted on a big box, moving forward, up, down, and back, over and over, attached to its gyrating struts, accompanied by a loud, thrumming mechanical sound. In my mind, though, I was chasing the Joker, or the Riddler, or the Penguin, or whoever. It was the best 90 seconds of the day. I don’t know what made me think of these coin-operated wonders recently, but it sent me on a quest to find pictures of 13 different ones, some with similar body types, all with different designs. Their ages are unclear but some are clearly refurbished with modern flourishes. Nevertheless, they’re all the Batmobile and, damn, I wish I could ride in one of them again. — MORE — The Day the 1966 BATMOBILE Came to My House. Click here. — I Rode in the Original BATCOPTER — and It Was Everything I Hoped. Click...
Just watched it. And like for Part 1, SPOILERS AHEAD!
Lisa Kennedy and G.D. Kennedy spent four days wandering the floors of New York Comic Con. Here are 13 thoughts after their marathon con.
Saw it. Dug it. Here’s what I thought. No spoilers. The Flash premieres 10/8 on the CW at 8 ET/7 CT.
