If you haven’t heard of Len Wein, you still definitely know his work. The comics writer and editor died yesterday at the age of 69, after nearly fifty years in the industry. A member of the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, Wein may not be a household name like Stan Lee, but he was hugely important just the same, and respected amongst his peers and comic fans alike.

Jews are predominantly associated with the Golden and Silver Age of comics (as in, the early days through 1970), but Wein is a reminder that they’re remained a relevant presence in the industry since.

Let’s go over just a few of his contributions to the world of comics.

• He created Swamp Thing, the horror comic with a brain, a heart, and multiple live-action adaptations.
• He resurrected the X-Men in 1975 after a hiatus of the iconic superhero mutant team. This included one of the first ever appearances of Wolverine, and the introduction of the hugely popular Storm, Colossus, and Nightcrawler.
• He edited Watchmen, arguably the most important graphic novel of all time.

But let’s take a moment to appreciate one of his more obscure moments— because it’s not every comics writer who decides to bring the Golem to the page.

Strange Tales was a Marvel Anthology series. In Issue #174, from 1974 (during Wein’s very brief gig as Marvel’s editor-in-chief), Wein wrote a story about a Jewish archeologist, Abraham Adamson, who brings young relatives on a desert archeological dig to find the Golem of Prague; Adamson makes it very explicit that the Golem’s purpose is to protect Jews from their enemies. Adamson succeeds in finding the legend, and when he is murdered (by uncomfortable Arab stereotypes, granted), the Golem returns to life and goes on a killing spree, saving Adamson’s family.

The story continued over several issues, and Wein also edited the issue in which Golem fights the Thing, which is amazing because the Thing is Jewish (though it wasn’t explicit at the time) and also looks quite like a Golem himself.

The Golem is not a hugely important comics character, nor does he only appear in this one franchise (a number of writers, Jewish and not, have put the clay creature on the page). But 1974 was a bit early for explicitly Jewish content in comics— this was before Magneto “came out” as Jewish, before Kitty Pryde, before Israeli superhero Sabra.

This story isn’t hugely important (nor is it the first time the Golem appeared in the pages of a comic), but it’s a sort of missing link in how Jewish comics creators expressed their heritage in their works. There had to have been a transitional phase, from needing your your Nazi-punching hero to look so All-American he could have been Aryan to having a girl ward off Dracula with a Magen David. Some of Wein’s famous creations, like Colossus and Swamp Thing, are arguably Golem-like, but here’s the Jewish version of the story in the flesh— er, clay. On the journey from subtext to text, we have this strange little story.

Len Wein was a nerdy Jewish kid who loves superhero comics in the 1950s, and eventually took on the mantle of creation himself. It’s the American Jewish chain of tradition.

Image of Wein via Wikimedia. Comic panels from Strange Tales #174.

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Black Francis needs no introduction; unless, of course, you don’t know that Black Francis is also known as Frank Black, Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV, or simply as the front man of the Pixies.  If I tried to explain his significance, it would take hours to even scratch the surface, and I really suggest you read his Wikipedia page and then buy everything he’s ever been involved with.

That canon now includes his latest release, The Golem: How He Came Into The World, a soundtrack to the silent 1920 German film version of the tale about the Jews of Prague, and the monster they created to protect them.

Why would a guy who uses a backing band called “The Catholics” tackle one of the most well-known Jewish stories ever?  We figured it was worth finding out.

The first thing that I noticed about your score was the opening: the song in the opening credits was pretty upbeat. I’m wondering why you decided to go with such a song like that?

I the instrumental version of my favorite track, “You’re Gonna Pay”; also, I think it needed to have an exciting opening. We’re about to see a movie AND hear a rock and roll band! It’s a big evening!

What was the process for writing the music for the soundtrack? Did you watch the movie and then write it, or did you write it as you watched it?

As I recall, I watched the movie a couple times, made notes of the scenes, my initial impressions of those scenes, and also how long those scenes were. Then I organized the film into sections, although I think at some point my original notes became almost meaningless as I got into the writing of the music. Then I booked a studio, the band and producer (Eric Drew Feldman), and a room at my favorite hotel in the Japantown area of San Francisco. I would get up early in the morning before the recording session and write chord progressions and general musical arrangements of what would eventually become songs or themes. The band would gather at the studio, run down some music, and then we all recorded together while screening the scenes from a projector onto a wall in the studio; this way we could make sure that the arrangements were fitting into the scenes, or not, as the case was sometimes. Some re-writing would take place on the spot if something occurred to me. After this session Eric and I went to Oregon, where I live, and I wrote lyrics and cut vocals. We mixed the record there, too.

Were most of the lyrics inspired by the film?

Yes, but also the real historical figure of Rabbi Loew, and also what I imagined to be their stories outside the framework of the film or outside the framework of history. I guess I was also inspired by the real life stories of the film maker, the actors, cinematographer, etc.; these were people working at the UFA studio in Berlin just before WWII; of course, some of them were Jews who ended up fleeing to California (the cinematographer) and some of them were non-Jews who ended up making propaganda films for the Nazis (the actor/director who also plays The Golem).

I know you’ve stated you’re interest in Old Testament characters, and now you tackle the golem. Do you just really like Jewish stories?

I never met a Jewish story I didn’t like.

Certain parts of your score reminded me of Neil Young’s score for Dead Man, or a Kenneth Anger film. Any particular influences for the music on this soundtrack?

For sure the Dead Man soundtrack was an influence, particularly the first scene’s music.

What drew you to the story of the Golem? More specifically, what was the moment when you said to yourself “I want to score this film!” ?

Well, to be honest, I was simply asked. I had been asked a couple times I think, and finally I had time to do it. They gave me a choice between two films, and I had seen some German Expressionist films as a student, so I thought I would be able to dig it, and I did. I probably Googled Der Golem and thought it was the right one to pick.

Do you see yourself doing more film scores?

This is a silent film score, which is obviously different than doing a score for a modern talkie. I would like to do that, but it’s not something I would pursue, but rather I would wait to be asked. Now doing another silent score, that I could really enjoy doing. There is so much freedom, and so it more closely relates to what I already do as a writer.

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