Len Wein, the influential comics writer who co-created Marvel’s Wolverine and DC’s Swamp Thing, and who helped revive the “X-Men” series in the 1970s, has died, his friends and industry colleagues said Sunday. He was 69.
The cause of death was not immediately known, but since March, his Twitter feed has detailed several health issues, including a spinal surgery and an abscess on his heel bone. His most recent surgery was Thursday, according to his feed, which included jokes wishing Wein had Wolverine’s quick-healing power.
Wein introduced Wolverine with artists John Romita Sr. and Herb Trimpe. The Canadian mutant debuted in “The Incredible Hulk” number 181.
For those who don't know, Two-Face was set to appear in the old Batman television show. Harlan Ellison even wrote up a treatment for it. Unfortunately, it never saw the light of day. There's more on it here.
Recently however DC has published the story in comic format using Ellison's original treatment as the basis. Four pages from it are below.
You may have noticed in the occasional requests threads that I have been making requests for scans of Jademan Comics. I finally found one of my own issues.
For those of you are younger, or missed them when they were around, Jademan Comics were an attempt by entrepreneur Tony Wong to bring his successful Hong Kong comics to an English-speaking audience. They had a decent spread of genres, but he decided the market was best for kung fu comics.
These tended to be long-running soap operas filled with dozens of characters, who solved all their problems with martial arts. (Martial arts was also often the cause of all their problems.) Jademan was an early adopter of computer coloring, so often had some interesting effects.
Unfortunately, Mr. Wong got caught doing something illegal with money (the details are lost to my memory), went to jail, and the company's overseas ventures collapsed.
Eleven pages of thirty-three--I'm unsure of the copyright status of Jademan in the U.S., but some of the licenses were picked up by other Hong Kong comics companies.
Current Music: "The Falcon--Murder Runs in the Family"