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| '''Rob Liefeld''' (born ], ]) is an ] ] writer, illustrator and publisher, who is one of the ]’s most popular and controversial figures. Although an undeniable superstar in the ], a backlash against his unrealistically exaggerated art style and allegations of ] made him known as "The Most Hated Man in Comics." | '''Rob Liefeld''' (born ], ]) is an ] ] writer, illustrator and publisher, who is one of the ]’s most popular and controversial figures. Although an undeniable superstar in the ], a backlash against his unrealistically exaggerated art style and allegations of ] made him known as "The Most Hated Man in Comics." | ||
| In the early 1990s, Liefeld became a superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics’ '']'', and later ''].'' In ] he and other popular Marvel illustrators left the company to found ], which |
In the early 1990s, Liefeld became a superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics’ '']'', and later ''].'' In ] he and other popular Marvel illustrators left the company to found ], which rode the peak of a wave of comic books owned by their creators rather than their publishers. Liefeld’s high-profile line of comics failed to gain much critical approval. | ||
| Fans praise Liefeld’s artwork as energetic and action-packed but it has been widely criticized for excessive flamboyance, limited versatility, arbitrary use of cross-hatching, and improbable ]. Liefeld's original creations, like many Image properties, have been panned as two-dimensional and generic. A few of his characters bear specific similarities to previously existing ones, leading some to deem Liefeld a plagiarist. He was also known to turn in his art pages on '']'' out of order in order to disguise the fact that he was changing the story without notifying the writer or editor, but he is not the only artist known to have done this, and writer Louise Simonson, with whom he was paired on '']'', has even good-naturedly asserted that the stories were improved by him in some cases. | Fans praise Liefeld’s artwork as energetic and action-packed but it has been widely criticized for excessive flamboyance, limited versatility, arbitrary use of cross-hatching, and improbable ]. Liefeld's original creations, like many Image properties, have been panned as two-dimensional and generic. A few of his characters bear specific similarities to previously existing ones, leading some to deem Liefeld a plagiarist. He was also known to turn in his art pages on '']'' out of order in order to disguise the fact that he was changing the story without notifying the writer or editor, but he is not the only artist known to have done this, and writer Louise Simonson, with whom he was paired on '']'', has even good-naturedly asserted that the stories were improved by him in some cases. | ||
| ]), by Liefeld.]] | ]), by Liefeld.]] | ||
| However, most readers agree that unrealistically exaggerated artwork and decreased focus on character development were widespread trends in mainstream comic books in the early 1990s. For this reason, some consider Liefeld merely the most vilified representative of an industry-wide fad. But few deny that Liefeld's lines of comics were marked at that time by |
However, most readers agree that unrealistically exaggerated artwork and decreased focus on character development were widespread trends in mainstream comic books in the early 1990s. For this reason, some consider Liefeld merely the most vilified representative of an industry-wide fad. But few deny that Liefeld's lines of comics were marked at that time by the most inept storytelling and least literate scripts of any major comics publisher, that his characters and conceptions were often painfully derivative, and that his undependable and unpredictable publishing schedules quickly alienated both retailers and consumers. | ||
| ==Biography== | ==Biography== | ||
| In ], at the age of 18, Liefeld completed his first significant published work, pencils for a ] featuring the superhero pair ] for ]. After disputes with his collaborators at DC, he soon moved to Marvel, where in ] he became the regular illustrator of '']'' (starting with issue #86), starring a junior team of ]. The popularity of Liefeld's art soon allowed him to increasingly take control of the series' story. |
In ], at the age of 18, Liefeld completed his first significant published work, pencils for a ] featuring the superhero pair ] for ]. After disputes with his collaborators at DC, he soon moved to Marvel, where in ] he became the regular illustrator of '']'' (starting with issue #86), starring a junior team of ]. The popularity of Liefeld's art soon allowed him to increasingly take control of the series' story. He is often credited with creating a new leader for the team, the heavily-muscled, heavily-armed, glowing-eyed ] ], who instantly became a popular ]; however, the prototype for Cable, tentatively named "Commander X," was initially suggested by Marvel editorial staff. | ||
| ] | ] | ||
| Liefeld also created the wise-cracking ] ] and a group of immortal mutants called the Externals. Both were popular, but prompted Liefeld's first charges of plagiarism, as fans debated similarities between Deadpool and DC's ] and between the Externals and the immortals from '']''. | Liefeld also created the wise-cracking ] ] and a group of immortal mutants called the Externals. Both were popular, but prompted Liefeld's first charges of plagiarism, as fans debated similarities between Deadpool and DC's ] and between the Externals and the immortals from '']''. | ||
| With ''The New Mutants'' #98, Liefeld assumed full creative control over the book, pencilling, inking, and plotting, with ] writing |
With ''The New Mutants'' #98, Liefeld assumed full creative control over the book, pencilling, inking, and plotting, with ] writing dialogue. He then transformed The New Mutants into the platoon-like ]. The ] debut issue of ''X-Force'' sold four million copies, an industry-wide record soon broken by ''X-Men'' #1, illustrated by ]. In both cases, variant editions were used to sell multiple issues to single collectors; but where ''X-Men'' used multiple variant covers, ''X-Force'' relied on multiple variant trading cards polybagged with the comic itself. | ||
| Liefeld was one of a group of young, popular artists (including Lee) who left Marvel in 1992 to form ], in a migration sometimes called "the X-Odus" (many of these artists had worked on X-Men related titles for Marvel). Liefeld's superhero team series '']'' was the first Image comic to hit the shelves and contained many elements that became Image ]s: huge muscles, huge breasts, huge guns, huge explosions, and plentiful violence. The characters in the series were often considered derivative of characters from Marvel's stable. | |||
| ] art from the "]" event. Liefeld obviously started drawing in one perspective, and ended up in another |
] art from the "]" event. Liefeld obviously started drawing in one perspective, and ended up in another. Most evident is Captain America's left "breast" for lack of a better word, in this case.]] | ||
| Within the Image structure, Liefeld owned two imprints: ] and ]. Once Image began publishing, Liefeld's artwork appeared much less frequently. Liefeld claimed the delays sprang from his management responsibilities; |
Within the Image structure, Liefeld owned two imprints: ] and ]. Once Image began publishing, Liefeld's artwork appeared much less frequently. Liefeld claimed the delays sprang from his management responsibilities; less charitable observers atrributed them to the unsurprising consequences of Liefeld's sudden acquisition of substantial wealth and lack of more adult supervision. He continued to plot and create properties, however, including Youngblood and its various spin-offs, the ]-like ] and the ] ]. Critical approval of these characters was scarce. | ||
| In ], Liefeld and Lee returned to Marvel to ] some of the company's classic series, an event dubbed "]". Liefeld was contracted to write 12 issues of '']'' and write (with ]) and illustrate 12 of ''],'' but he failed to meet the agreed-on publishing schedule and his output met with an unenthusiastic response. Marvel terminated the agreement, and the balance of the series were assigned to |
In ], Liefeld and Lee returned to Marvel to ] some of the company's classic series, an event dubbed "]". Liefeld was contracted to write 12 issues of '']'' and write (with ]) and illustrate 12 of ''],'' but he failed to meet the agreed-on publishing schedule and his output met with an unenthusiastic response. Marvel terminated the agreement, and the balance of the series were assigned to Lee's studio. | ||
| In ], Liefeld left Image Comics, after disputes with his partners led ] to temporarily break away from Image. The comics press variously reported the underlying issues were the effect of Liefeld's erratic lines on the company's reputation, Liefeld's supposed misuse of his position as Image ] to unfairly benefit his publishing efforts, and his imprints' raiding the "talent pools" of the other partners in violation of their informal agreements. As further financial reverses followed, Liefeld moved all of his publishing ventures into a new company ]. The new company concentrated its efforts on newer properties. | |||
| Liefeld and Loeb soon attempted to resurrect their unused ''Captain America'' plots for a "new" Awesome character, ]. This character was nearly identical in appearance and background to Captain America, perhaps so Liefeld could then re-use his art with only minor alterations. Under legal pressure from Marvel, Liefeld acquired the rights to the ], a long-dormant, patriotic superhero invented in the ] by Captain America's creators, ] and ]. Liefeld's Fighting American was also nearly identical to Captain America (his shield no longer contained a star in the center, for example: the shield logo had moved to his chest). Marvel and Liefeld settled their dispute with limits placed on Liefeld's use of the property: for example, their agreement reportedly stipulated that Fighting American was prohibited from throwing his shield. | |||
| Meanwhile, Liefeld hired legendary comic book writer ] to revive many of his creations, which were dwindling in popularity. Moore wrote a few issues of ''Youngblood'' and ''Glory,'' but his most lauded work was on ''Supreme,'' which played on the character's |
Meanwhile, Liefeld hired legendary comic book writer ] to revive many of his creations, which were dwindling in popularity. Moore wrote a few issues of ''Youngblood'' and ''Glory,'' but his most lauded work was on ''Supreme,'' which played on the character's more generic traits in a clear tribute to the ]-era Superman. Awesome, like Liefeld's previous imprints, soon collapsed under the burdens of its unpredictable publishing schedule, its erratic content, and Liefeld's ever-growing unpopularity with mainline comics consumers. | ||
| While Liefeld's own failings, both as a creator and an entrepreneur, were the root cause of many of his imprints' problems, a more fundamental flaw was a disastrous business model: his projects began with bursts of revenue from speculative comics buyers and the optioning of movie/TV rights, but could never be expected to generate the consistent revenue stream required to run the ongoing businesses and return investment and profits to their backers (including the profits required to support Liefeld's reportedly extravbagant lifestyle). | |||
| In recent years, Liefeld has returned to the X-Men franchise, |
In recent years, Liefeld has returned to the X-Men franchise, penciling the occasional cover and/or interior of ''Cable'' and ''X-Force,'' which continued to be somewhat popular properties until the early ], when both were cancelled. | ||
| In ], he reunited with Fabian Nicieza for an ''X-Force'' miniseries and illustrated the early covers for Nicieza's ''Cable and Deadpool.'' In that same year, Liefeld formed ] and is once again attempting to revive Youngblood |
In ], he reunited with Fabian Nicieza for an ''X-Force'' miniseries and illustrated the early covers for Nicieza's ''Cable and Deadpool.'' In that same year, Liefeld formed ] and is once again attempting to revive Youngblood. | ||
| Liefeld's new website was launched in May ] at , with an online comic titled '''', a string of one-panel jokes. | Liefeld's new website was launched in May ] at , with an online comic titled '''', a string of one-dimensional, one-panel jokes that rarely going beyond superficial humor. | ||
| ==Artistic Criticism== | ==Artistic Criticism== | ||
| ]/]'' #1 (1995). Note especially the posture of the woman on the left.]] | ]/]'' #1 (1995). Note especially the posture of the woman on the left.]] | ||
| Below are common characteristics of Liefeld's artwork. Some are idiosyncratic, while others were fairly widespread trends in mainstream comics of the ]. | Below are common characteristics of Liefeld's artwork. Some are idiosyncratic, while others were fairly widespread trends in mainstream comics of the ]. | ||
| *Limited facial expressions, generally ranging from barely-restrained |
*Limited facial expressions, generally ranging from barely-restrained anger to sheer "constipated" look (see ''X-Force'' covers above) | ||
| *Concealment of characters' feet |
*Concealment of characters' feet (which are often drawn very badly when occasionally visible) | ||
| *Concealment of characters' wrists |
*Concealment of characters' wrists, most of his own designs would have bracers or plant-pot style gloves to cover his inability to figure out how wrists work | ||
| ⚫ | *Bizarre proportions such as tiny heads, wrists, and ankles and oversized breasts and muscles (see Captain America above, who appears to be several feet thick), as well as the occasional swipe with female face and breasts layered onto an obviously male figure | ||
| *Disproportionate or misplaced facial features | |||
| ⚫ | *Obvious panel-to-panel inconsistencies in costumes, backgrounds, and even the number of fingers on characters' hands | ||
| ⚫ | *Bizarre proportions such as tiny heads, wrists, and ankles and oversized breasts and muscles, as well as the occasional |
||
| ⚫ | *Poses that appear to be both illogical (in the context of the plot) and anatomically impossible, or at least uncomfortable | ||
| ⚫ | * |
||
| *Skewed perspective: often a picture will be began in one perspective then be finished in another. (See Captain America again, clearly started in profile view then switched to three-fourths perspective, which would make him look like from above) | |||
| ⚫ | *Poses that appear to be illogical (in the context of the plot) |
||
| *Plagiarism. Rob Liefeld created several super-heroes heavily inspired by already existing ones, such as Captain America and Avengers look-alikes. He is also accused of copying panels from other comics (see some ). | |||
| *Skewed perspective: often a picture will be began in one perspective then be finished in another (see Captain America above) | |||
| *Disproportional facial features. Eyes are never symmetrical, often drawn on a skewed axis on the face. The Nose is hardly ever drawn in its proper anatomical location. Characters often have a greatly exaggerated amount of teeth, all of which seem to be molars | |||
| *Plagiarism: Aside from charges of plagiarism in character creation, Liefeld is also accused of "swiping" (copying illustrations from other comics without acknowledgment) | |||
| ==Trivia== | ==Trivia== | ||
| Line 61: | Line 61: | ||
| * - a list of Liefeld's work while at Marvel Comics | * - a list of Liefeld's work while at Marvel Comics | ||
| * | * | ||
| * of supposedly "swiped" artwork | |||
| ] | ] | ||
Revision as of 14:15, 28 May 2005
Rob Liefeld (born March 10, 1967) is an American comic book writer, illustrator and publisher, who is one of the Modern Age’s most popular and controversial figures. Although an undeniable superstar in the 1990s, a backlash against his unrealistically exaggerated art style and allegations of plagiarism made him known as "The Most Hated Man in Comics."
In the early 1990s, Liefeld became a superstar due to his work on Marvel Comics’ The New Mutants, and later X-Force. In 1992 he and other popular Marvel illustrators left the company to found Image Comics, which rode the peak of a wave of comic books owned by their creators rather than their publishers. Liefeld’s high-profile line of comics failed to gain much critical approval.
Fans praise Liefeld’s artwork as energetic and action-packed but it has been widely criticized for excessive flamboyance, limited versatility, arbitrary use of cross-hatching, and improbable anatomy. Liefeld's original creations, like many Image properties, have been panned as two-dimensional and generic. A few of his characters bear specific similarities to previously existing ones, leading some to deem Liefeld a plagiarist. He was also known to turn in his art pages on The New Mutants out of order in order to disguise the fact that he was changing the story without notifying the writer or editor, but he is not the only artist known to have done this, and writer Louise Simonson, with whom he was paired on The New Mutants, has even good-naturedly asserted that the stories were improved by him in some cases.
However, most readers agree that unrealistically exaggerated artwork and decreased focus on character development were widespread trends in mainstream comic books in the early 1990s. For this reason, some consider Liefeld merely the most vilified representative of an industry-wide fad. But few deny that Liefeld's lines of comics were marked at that time by the most inept storytelling and least literate scripts of any major comics publisher, that his characters and conceptions were often painfully derivative, and that his undependable and unpredictable publishing schedules quickly alienated both retailers and consumers.
Biography
In 1985, at the age of 18, Liefeld completed his first significant published work, pencils for a mini-series featuring the superhero pair Hawk and Dove for DC Comics. After disputes with his collaborators at DC, he soon moved to Marvel, where in 1990 he became the regular illustrator of The New Mutants (starting with issue #86), starring a junior team of X-Men. The popularity of Liefeld's art soon allowed him to increasingly take control of the series' story. He is often credited with creating a new leader for the team, the heavily-muscled, heavily-armed, glowing-eyed cyborg Cable, who instantly became a popular anti-hero; however, the prototype for Cable, tentatively named "Commander X," was initially suggested by Marvel editorial staff.
Liefeld also created the wise-cracking assassin Deadpool and a group of immortal mutants called the Externals. Both were popular, but prompted Liefeld's first charges of plagiarism, as fans debated similarities between Deadpool and DC's Deathstroke the Terminator and between the Externals and the immortals from Highlander.
With The New Mutants #98, Liefeld assumed full creative control over the book, pencilling, inking, and plotting, with Fabian Nicieza writing dialogue. He then transformed The New Mutants into the platoon-like X-Force. The 1991 debut issue of X-Force sold four million copies, an industry-wide record soon broken by X-Men #1, illustrated by Jim Lee. In both cases, variant editions were used to sell multiple issues to single collectors; but where X-Men used multiple variant covers, X-Force relied on multiple variant trading cards polybagged with the comic itself.
Liefeld was one of a group of young, popular artists (including Lee) who left Marvel in 1992 to form Image Comics, in a migration sometimes called "the X-Odus" (many of these artists had worked on X-Men related titles for Marvel). Liefeld's superhero team series Youngblood was the first Image comic to hit the shelves and contained many elements that became Image stereotypes: huge muscles, huge breasts, huge guns, huge explosions, and plentiful violence. The characters in the series were often considered derivative of characters from Marvel's stable.
Within the Image structure, Liefeld owned two imprints: Extreme Studios and Maximum Press. Once Image began publishing, Liefeld's artwork appeared much less frequently. Liefeld claimed the delays sprang from his management responsibilities; less charitable observers atrributed them to the unsurprising consequences of Liefeld's sudden acquisition of substantial wealth and lack of more adult supervision. He continued to plot and create properties, however, including Youngblood and its various spin-offs, the Superman-like Supreme and the femme fatale Glory. Critical approval of these characters was scarce.
In 1996, Liefeld and Lee returned to Marvel to reboot some of the company's classic series, an event dubbed "Heroes Reborn". Liefeld was contracted to write 12 issues of The Avengers and write (with Jeph Loeb) and illustrate 12 of Captain America, but he failed to meet the agreed-on publishing schedule and his output met with an unenthusiastic response. Marvel terminated the agreement, and the balance of the series were assigned to Lee's studio.
In 1996, Liefeld left Image Comics, after disputes with his partners led Marc Silvestri to temporarily break away from Image. The comics press variously reported the underlying issues were the effect of Liefeld's erratic lines on the company's reputation, Liefeld's supposed misuse of his position as Image CEO to unfairly benefit his publishing efforts, and his imprints' raiding the "talent pools" of the other partners in violation of their informal agreements. As further financial reverses followed, Liefeld moved all of his publishing ventures into a new company Awesome Comics. The new company concentrated its efforts on newer properties.
Liefeld and Loeb soon attempted to resurrect their unused Captain America plots for a "new" Awesome character, Agent America. This character was nearly identical in appearance and background to Captain America, perhaps so Liefeld could then re-use his art with only minor alterations. Under legal pressure from Marvel, Liefeld acquired the rights to the Fighting American, a long-dormant, patriotic superhero invented in the 1960s by Captain America's creators, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Liefeld's Fighting American was also nearly identical to Captain America (his shield no longer contained a star in the center, for example: the shield logo had moved to his chest). Marvel and Liefeld settled their dispute with limits placed on Liefeld's use of the property: for example, their agreement reportedly stipulated that Fighting American was prohibited from throwing his shield.
Meanwhile, Liefeld hired legendary comic book writer Alan Moore to revive many of his creations, which were dwindling in popularity. Moore wrote a few issues of Youngblood and Glory, but his most lauded work was on Supreme, which played on the character's more generic traits in a clear tribute to the Mort Weisenger-era Superman. Awesome, like Liefeld's previous imprints, soon collapsed under the burdens of its unpredictable publishing schedule, its erratic content, and Liefeld's ever-growing unpopularity with mainline comics consumers.
While Liefeld's own failings, both as a creator and an entrepreneur, were the root cause of many of his imprints' problems, a more fundamental flaw was a disastrous business model: his projects began with bursts of revenue from speculative comics buyers and the optioning of movie/TV rights, but could never be expected to generate the consistent revenue stream required to run the ongoing businesses and return investment and profits to their backers (including the profits required to support Liefeld's reportedly extravbagant lifestyle).
In recent years, Liefeld has returned to the X-Men franchise, penciling the occasional cover and/or interior of Cable and X-Force, which continued to be somewhat popular properties until the early 2000s, when both were cancelled.
In 2004, he reunited with Fabian Nicieza for an X-Force miniseries and illustrated the early covers for Nicieza's Cable and Deadpool. In that same year, Liefeld formed Arcade Comics and is once again attempting to revive Youngblood.
Liefeld's new website was launched in May 2005 at Rob Liefeld.net, with an online comic titled Shrink, a string of one-dimensional, one-panel jokes that rarely going beyond superficial humor.
Artistic Criticism
Below are common characteristics of Liefeld's artwork. Some are idiosyncratic, while others were fairly widespread trends in mainstream comics of the 1990s.
- Limited facial expressions, generally ranging from barely-restrained anger to sheer "constipated" look (see X-Force covers above)
- Concealment of characters' feet (which are often drawn very badly when occasionally visible)
- Concealment of characters' wrists, most of his own designs would have bracers or plant-pot style gloves to cover his inability to figure out how wrists work
- Bizarre proportions such as tiny heads, wrists, and ankles and oversized breasts and muscles (see Captain America above, who appears to be several feet thick), as well as the occasional swipe with female face and breasts layered onto an obviously male figure
- Obvious panel-to-panel inconsistencies in costumes, backgrounds, and even the number of fingers on characters' hands
- Poses that appear to be both illogical (in the context of the plot) and anatomically impossible, or at least uncomfortable
- Skewed perspective: often a picture will be began in one perspective then be finished in another. (See Captain America again, clearly started in profile view then switched to three-fourths perspective, which would make him look like this from above)
- Plagiarism. Rob Liefeld created several super-heroes heavily inspired by already existing ones, such as Captain America and Avengers look-alikes. He is also accused of copying panels from other comics (see some examples).
- Disproportional facial features. Eyes are never symmetrical, often drawn on a skewed axis on the face. The Nose is hardly ever drawn in its proper anatomical location. Characters often have a greatly exaggerated amount of teeth, all of which seem to be molars
Trivia
- Liefeld was featured in a television commercial for Levi's "501" jeans, directed by Spike Lee.
- Liefeld marketed the action figure of Youngblood's archer character, Shaft, as "Rob Liefeld's Shaft: 7 Inches, fully poseable," an unintentional double entendre.
External Links
- Rob Liefeld's official website
- Extreme Genesis - a Rob Liefeld fan site with many samples of his artwork
- Rob Liefeld - a list of Liefeld's work while at Marvel Comics
- Official Rob Liefeld forum