Rob Liefeld, I hate you.

Television, Movies Games and Books Comics
#1

http://www.progressiveboink.com/archive/robliefeld.html

If you’re a casual comic book fan, you may not be aware of Rob Liefeld – and if you’re not? I’m excited that I’m the guy who gets to clue you in. As you’ll see, I’ve provided an op-ed (some would say smear piece) of 40 reasons Rob Liefeld is terrible. However, I’ll live under the assumption that the majority of you aren’t motivated enough to click the aforementioned link, so I’ll try to abridge it here.

Somehow this guy was able to establish himself as a name in the 90s as an artist. I’m not really sure how, since he has zero understanding of anatomy, even when accounting for the standard comic book exaggeration:

Exhibit A:

Why does Captain America have breasts here?

He’s also known for his poor perspective, completely arbitrary use of pouches and pockets, and overly simple feet: ^ (they look like this.) When people started jumping ship from Marvel over wanting more creator owned properties, Rob tagged along with his equally talentless colleague Todd MacFarlene and Jim Lee (who I actually enjoy) to found Image comics. Then he faded into obscurity for a bit, which was fine with most people, before making a big resurgence with DC’s rebooted continuity.

I wouldn’t consider myself a petty individual, but Rob Liefeld’s existence is this weirdly enjoyable masochistic exercise for me. I hate that he has made a somewhat successful career at being terrible at has profession, to the point where the only logical explanation is that the comic book industry is trolling.

So, recap: the link above is to 40 satirical facts about Rob Liefeld’s ineptness, or you can just browse my tangent-y paragraphs of loath. Either way, I think you get the idea.

Are there any artist/writers that you avoid like a plague?

#2

Hey. Todd MacFarlane makes great toys, I wouldn’t call him talentless

#3

+1 to Billy’s signature.

#4

He got a foothold with a cheap, inferior knockoff of McFarlane’s style. And his career (and style) snowballed from there. Eeeeesh…

#5

Nice … "foothold " … hehehe :slight_smile:

OB

#6

In fairness to him, he’s also supposedly one of the nicest guys to work with in comics and is legendary for turning his work in on time. That can count for a huge amount and quite a few artists get by on that cough Greg Land cough

#7

I’ve never read much of Liefeld’s stuff, but it’s exactly the kind of comic book art I hate…

Yeek.

I go back and forth on Chris Bachalo. Kind of a love/hate thing I guess.

I think he’s really talented at character design - just look at Generation X/Next - but his panel-to-panel art just creeps me out.

Yeek.

#8

I’m in the process of collecting a run of Generation X. I read a handful during the 90s as they released and always liked the look. I agree with you completely, the panel layouts can be messy, but I like his character art. I have no idea if Generation X is even worth reading but the issues are easy to find on the cheap so I want to give it a go, if for nothing more then some decent artwork to enjoy.

As far as Liefeld’s work, I would excuse the artwork if the stories and writing were worth anything, but basically everything he produces is sub standard. It could be viewed as servicable artwork, in that you can at least tell what he was trying to convey, but since there’s nothing of real value it’s completely mind boggling that he was able be so successful. I could even excuse the wierd quirks of his art like the misshapen ladies or the feet as a style choice, much the way Peter Chung has impossibly shaped characters, but you know that these choices were made from a level of incompetence rather than grand vision. He’s sort of the Adam Sandler of comics; he just attaches himself to projects with such broad appeal that no matter what, it’ll succeed.

#9

This.

You know the line about half of doing your job is showing up on time? For artists, it’s meeting deadlines. Now, you can fault him for taking on deadlines he couldn’t make with quality output, but that’s an argument you’re having after you got the product on time.

#10

I was a big Generation X fan growing up, and there’s lots of great stories and characters there. If you can find the issues, I highly recommend checking it out in order. Lots of the issues tie in with the big late 90’s X-Men arcs (Phalanx Covenant, AoA, Onslaught, etc.), so if you’re a fan of those, it’s a unique perspective on them. And a lot of the characters are still important in the X-Universe.

#11

Just mosey-ing in from elsewhere… This is awesome, in a crazy inept way. The drawings of women, in particular, we’re just horrible. If you took those shapes out of the superhero-glamour shots and put them in a horror movie, it would freak you out.

Thanks, and I enjoyed your post.

#12

I have issues 1 to 12 or so, plus a handful of random issues in the 30-50 range. I managed to find a foil #1 in good condition too.

#13

This might not help anyone now since I’m so late, but full runs of Gen X pop-up on Ebay pretty regularly. That’s how I got mine. It also wasn’t expensive - I was actually shocked by the price, really.

#14

Yeah I’ve bought a couple full runs off ebay and the price is always surprisingly cheap. I still like to hunt a bit and a series like Generation X is in good supply. For smaller runs of elusive stuff I’ll just break and go for ebay.

#15

I really don’t hate him for making money on his artwork. I’d gladly take people’s money for my crumby art if they were willing to pay. I hate Liefeld because he’s the type of person that does this, and believes he’s doing a good thing. Listen to how he talks about his actions here. He is so lost in his own head that he has no idea just how irresponsible he is being.

//youtu.be/HZ9hjJabvaI