Len Wein
In 2017, the Will Eisner Comic Industry Award inducted Leonard Norman Wein into its Hall of Fame, recognizing a career that had spanned decades of work in American comics.
Born on June 12, 1948, in New York City, Wein attended Division Avenue High School before going on to study at Farmingdale State College. He built his professional life around comics, working variously as a writer, editor, artist, and screenwriter. His work was conducted in English, and he remained a citizen of the United States throughout his life.
As a comics writer and editor, Wein contributed across multiple roles within the industry. He also worked as a screenwriter, extending his engagement with storytelling beyond the printed page. His career demonstrated a range of functions within the comics field — from the craft of writing individual issues to the editorial work of shaping publications at an institutional level, as well as the visual side of the medium through his work as a comics artist. The Inkpot Award, presented at San Diego Comic-Con, was among the honors he received during his career, alongside the posthumous Eisner Hall of Fame recognition.
Wein died on September 10, 2017, in Los Angeles, at the age of sixty-nine. His education at Farmingdale State College and Division Avenue High School in New York had preceded a working life spent largely within American comics culture. The dual recognition of both the Inkpot Award and induction into the Will Eisner Comic Industry Hall of Fame marks the regard in which his contributions as a comics writer and editor were held by the industry.
Quotes by Len Wein
Len Wein's insights on:
I think there’s something inherently dishonest in trying to go back and mess with the past.
I’ve always thought of myself as an organic writer, rather than a cerebral one. I feel my way along as I go, hoping I’ll get to the place I intend to reach.
I’ve had editors over the years who couldn’t find a clue if it was stapled to their butt.
It’s all about who’s where on the food chain. When I’m the story editor, I expect my writers to follow my vision. When I’m working for another editor, I’m obliged to follow their vision.
I’ve never had to work out of the arts. I’ve always either been a writer or an editor, or something where I’ve made my living from doing what I love. You can’t get any better than that.
Sometimes you’re not even sure which of your stories were failures. There are things I’ve written that I thought were complete catastrophes when I finished with them that have gone on to generate some of my most positive feedback.
When I’m my own editor, there’s very little difference between the first draft and the final. I write what feels right to begin with. I rarely make any major changes.
These days, it seems that if you’re not already in place, you can’t get there from here.
The curse of comic book adaptations, when I was younger, was that the director or producer would go, “Don’t worry about it, it’s just a comic book.”