Thanking Len Wein

A tip of the shot glass to Mr. P.J. Perez for tweeting this.

Admittedly, I've been slow to respond to this - mostly because, well, my mind's been on other things.

But when I heard about the fire that cost comic writer Len Wein his home - and his comic collection - I wasn't sure how to respond online that didn't seem....well, overly fannish.

When Giant Size X-Men # 1 came out, I immediately pored over it, my youthful mind taking in the luxurious genius that was the "new X-Men", with the obvious return of Wolverine. Much of my childhood comic reading came through the 29 cent, three-pack of coverless comics available at Tony's Grocery store, located at 33rd and Halsted (and which is, sadly, no longer there). But in all honesty, even though I may never have paid much attention...Len Wein helped shape, much like Fred Hembeck and a few others, my early comic-loving tastes.

However, I was recently surprised to learn (through the Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter DVD, of all things) that he edited Watchmen. Yes, I knew he had written Swamp Thing...and a ton of other comics that everyone else has sung the praises of...but in all honesty, I never knew he edited that series.

But to the point - many comics blogerati (most notably Mark Evanier) are encouraging people to check their collections to help Len rebuild his comic collection. (Obviously, it's books that he has had a hand in writing or editing - and quite frankly, who wouldn't want to take pride in such a diverse collection of work) It's as easy as checking out this PDF, seeing what books you have, and then sending an e-mail to comix4len (at) pvonline (dot) com.

(The rest of the post cited includes a physical address to send the book - make sure you've e-mailed before sending the book, to avoid duplicates. Also, please feel free to use the "Share This" button below to submit to all those wacky social networking sites we dig so much. And retween the bejeezus out of this post).

Granted, this is an unusual request - it's not my typical go-here-and-save-the-world cause. However, it is a small - but meaningful - way to repay a debt for years of comic enjoyment.

At the very least, it's the decent thing to do. Thanks for reading.