Jump to content

Rob Liefeld: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
m Reverted 1 edit by 198.241.159.80 (talk) identified as vandalism to last revision by Tenebrae. (TW)
Line 1: Line 1:
<nowiki>{{Infobox comics creator
{{Infobox comics creator
| image = Robliefeldpic.jpg
| image = Robliefeldpic.jpg
| imagesize =
| imagesize =
Line 179: Line 179:
[[nl:Rob Liefeld]]
[[nl:Rob Liefeld]]
[[pt:Rob Liefeld]]
[[pt:Rob Liefeld]]
</nowiki>

Revision as of 22:33, 5 February 2012

Rob Liefeld
File:Robliefeldpic.jpg
Rob Liefeld
Born (1967-10-03) October 3, 1967 (age 57)
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Writer, Penciller, Inker, Editor, Publisher
Notable works
Youngblood
X-Force
http://www.robliefeld.net

Rob Liefeld (born October 3, 1967) is an American comic book writer, illustrator, and publisher. A prominent artist in the 1990s, he has since become a controversial figure in the medium.

In the early 1990s, the self-taught artist became prominent due to his work on Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and later X-Force. In 1992, he and several other popular Marvel illustrators left the company to found Image Comics, which started a wave of comic books owned by their creators rather than by publishers. The first book published by Image Comics was Rob Liefeld's Youngblood #1.

Early life

Rob Liefeld was born October 3, 1967.[1] He grew up in Anaheim, California,[2] and has a sister, seven years his senior.[3] As a teenager, he attended comic book conventions at the nearby Disneyland Hotel, where he met creators such as George Perez, John Romita Jr., Jim Shooter, Bob Layton, Mike Zeck and Marv Wolfman.[2]

Career

Early career

In 1986, Liefeld was a last-minute replacement penciller for the first issue of Stetch, published by Silverwolf Comics. In the same year, Liefeld also had a pin-up page included in Boris the Bear #6.

In 1988, at the age of 20, he completed his first significant published work for DC Comics' in Warlord #131 and Secret Origins #28. This was quickly followed by the Hawk and Dove limited series by Barbara and Karl Kesel, who also provided inks. Liefeld's layouts were oriented sideways in story pages taking place in a chaos dimension, so that a reader would have to turn the comic book at a right angle to read them. Because this was done without editorial input, editor Mike Carlin cut and pasted the panels into the proper order, and Kesel lightboxed them onto DC comics paper to ink them. The letters column of Hawk and Dove #5 mentions that Liefeld "showed something new to an editor who thought he’d seen everything." In his defense, Liefeld offered that that was how the dimension had been drawn the only other time it had been featured in the book, although Karl Kesel claims this is untrue.[4]

In 1989, Liefeld moved to Marvel where he became the penciller for The New Mutants, starting with issue #86. He is generally credited for turning this lowest-selling title of the X-franchise into a financial success.[5]

With The New Mutants (vol. 1) #98, Liefeld assumed full creative control over the series, penciling, inking, and plotting, with Fabian Nicieza writing dialog. The New Mutants series was retitled X-Force (vol. 1), whose 1991 debut issue sold four million copies, setting an industry-wide record later broken by Jim Lee's X-Men (vol. 2) #1. The sales numbers were propelled by 1990s direct market sales strategies; variant editions were issued to encourage sales of multiple copies to single collectors. Lee's X-Men was published with five variant covers, and X-Force relied on multiple variant trading cards polybagged with the comic itself. In the early 1990s, Liefeld appeared in Spike Lee-directed commercials for Levi's 501 button fly jeans, in which Lee interviewed him about his career and his status as the creator of X-Force.[6]

Leaving Marvel Comics, co-founding Image Comics

Liefeld's relationship with Marvel began to break down in 1991 when he announced plans in a black-and-white advertisement in the Comics Buyers Guide to publish an original title with competitor Malibu Comics. The exact title is unknown, but according to journalist Michael Dean, it was something to the effect of The X-Cutioners, a title whose similarity to Marvel's X-Men family of titles evoked the ire of Marvel editor Bob Harras, who threatened to fire Liefeld if he used that title.[7]

Liefeld and Marat Mychaels share a laugh as they sketch at the Big Apple Convention in Manhattan, October 2, 2010.

Liefeld and several other popular young artists including Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Whilce Portacio, Jim Valentino and Marc Silvestri left Marvel in 1992 to form Image Comics. Each co-founder formed his own studio under the Image banner, such as Liefeld's Extreme Studios. Liefeld's superhero team series Youngblood, which is loosely based on a 1991 Teen Titans series Liefeld had proposed to DC Comics, was the first comic Image published.[8] He appeared on an episode of The Dennis Miller Show to promote the book.[9] His other titles included Bloodstrike #1, which was released in April 1993.[10]

In an interview in Hero Illustrated #4 (October 1993), Liefeld conceded disappointment with the first four issues of Youngblood, calling the first issue a "disaster". Liefeld explained that production problems, as well as sub-par scripting by his friend and collaborator Hank Kanalz, whose employment Liefeld later terminated, resulted in work that was lower in quality than that which Liefeld produced when Fabian Nicieza scripted his plots on X-Force, and that reprints of those four issues would be re-scripted.[11]

In 1996, Liefeld's and Lee's studios signed with Marvel to re-envision several of the company's core series, an event called "Heroes Reborn." Liefeld was contracted to write twelve issues of The Avengers, co-written with Jeph Loeb, and was to pencil twelve issues of Captain America. However, he failed to meet the publishing schedule and his overall output met with a less-than enthusiastic response, failing to reach the sales targets required in his agreement with Marvel, although Loeb noted in Wizard Magazine #72 that their run on Captain America had three times the sales of issues prior to their run. Marvel terminated the agreement after six issues, and Marvel re-assigned the two series to Lee's studio.[12]

Departure from Image

In June 1996, Marc Silvestri temporarily left Image with his Top Cow imprint, allegedly because of disputes with the other partners over Liefeld's status in the company. Among the many accusations against Liefeld, which came to light in subsequently filed legal complaints, was the charge that Liefeld routinely used his check-writing powers to cover personal debts from Image funds. Other dissatisfaction with Liefeld ranged from his alleged habit of copying art from other partners' comics to his plans to move titles that had been established at Image to the non-Image Maximum Press. Image Comics Executive Director Larry Marder is quoted as saying "He [Rob] was making an increasing number of business decisions that were counterproductive to being a business partner".[13]

In addition to allegedly siphoning funds, he was said to have used Image staff to do promotional and production work for Maximum. In early September, Liefeld issued a press release stating he was resigning his position at Image and leaving the group. Nearly simultaneously, the Image partners issued a press release stating that they had fired Liefeld. The other partners had already voted once to remove Liefeld from the group, a move he protested on the grounds that he was given too short a notice period.[14] His resignation came only minutes before the second meeting that would have forced him out.[13]

The comics press variously reported several underlying issues: the effect of Liefeld's erratically published and critically derided lines on the company's reputation, his supposed misuse of his position as Image CEO to unfairly benefit his own publishing efforts (including Maximum Press, which was not a part of Image) and attempts to recruit artists employed by his Image partners, a violation of their informal agreements.[13][15] As further financial reversals followed, Liefeld moved all of his publishing ventures into a new company, Awesome Comics. This new enterprise, announced in April 1997 as a partnership between Liefeld and Malibu Comics founding partner Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, concentrated its efforts on newer properties.

Awesome Comics

At Awesome, Liefeld and Loeb attempted to resurrect their unused Captain America plots for a new character, Agent America. This character was nearly identical in appearance and background to Captain America. Under legal pressure from Marvel, Liefeld scrapped Agent America and acquired the rights to Jack Kirby and Joe Simon's Fighting American, updating the design. Liefeld was allowed to publish the book, but legally this new character could not throw his shield, one of Captain America's trademarks.

Meanwhile, Liefeld hired acclaimed comic book writer Alan Moore to revive many of his creations, which had declined in popularity. Moore wrote a few issues of Youngblood and Glory, but his most lauded work for Liefeld was on Supreme.

Awesome's initial releases, including entirely new properties like Kaboom! created by Jeff Matsuda, were generally received more favorably by critics than the Extreme and Maximum lines had been. However, Awesome soon collapsed under the burdens of disputes among its partners, and an abrupt departure of its primary investor.

2000s work

In the 2000s, Liefeld returned to his former characters in the X-Men franchise, providing pencils for the occasional cover and/or interior of Cable and X-Force until the early 2000s, when both were cancelled.

In 2004, he reunited with Fabian Nicieza for an X-Force limited series and illustrated the early covers for Nicieza's Cable and Deadpool. In that same year, Liefeld formed Arcade Comics and once again announced plans to revive Youngblood. These involved reprinting older material[16] and providing the art for two new series[17] Youngblood: Bloodsport with Mark Millar[18] and Youngblood: Genesis with Brandon Thomas.[19] Although the former only published one issue, Liefeld expressed hopes to finish the series.[20]

Liefeld returned to the Heroes Reborn Universe with writer Jeph Loeb with the Onslaught Reborn, a five-issue limited series that premiered in November 2006.[21] This led to Liefeld having a pitch accepted for a plan to bring Killraven back, with writer Robert Kirkman.[22]

In July 2007, it was announced that Rob Liefeld and Youngblood would be returning to Image Comics after years of self-publication.[23] This new partnership marks the first time in a decade that Liefeld and Image would collaborate on a project. The new Youngblood series is written by Joe Casey[24] with art by Derec Donovan and Val Staples, with covers by Liefeld, and started in January 2008.[25] He took over writing and art duties with issue #9.[26] To commemorate the event, and the 15th anniversary of Image Comics, the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con was headlined by the Image Founders panel, where all seven of the original Image Comics founders appeared on stage simultaneously for the first time in history.[citation needed]

2010 saw Liefeld return to the Deadpool character, first by penciling issue #1 of the Prelude to Deadpool Corps series, the issue focusing on Lady Deadpool. Liefeld became the regular artist on Deadpool Corps, providing the interior art for the first nine issues.[27][28]

In March 2011 Liefeld was announced as the artist on The Infinite, a mini-series written by Robert Kirkman.[29][30] That June, he was announced as the artist on a new Hawk and Dove series, with writer Sterling Gates, as part of The New 52, DC Comics' relaunch of their entire superhero line, returning Liefeld to the characters that helped establish him in the industry.[31]

Criticism

Mark Millar speaking with Liefeld at the Big Apple Convention in Manhattan, October 2, 2010.

Liefeld's name has become something of a lightning rod in the industry. In an interview, Brian Michael Bendis described the polarization of opinion on Liefeld: "There is a great dichotomy...There's either some great and generous story about [Liefeld] or you will hear some unbelievable thing like, 'How is he not in jail if he did that?' There is no middle ground."[32]

In interviews, Liefeld has compared himself to other popular artists who experience meteoric success and acclaim early in their careers but near-pariah status afterwards, notably Britney Spears, who "became vapid pop music, and perhaps I was nothing more than a vapid comic book artist." He seems to credit his success tapping into the zeitgeist: "I'll be the first to tell you that we [the Image collective] were never the best artists. We were never the best at anything, but just like a song or a band or whatever, we caught on and we toured rigorously."[32]

He is not without supporters in the industry. The A.V. Club says of Liefeld's critics, "Rob Liefeld is the punching bag of choice for many discerning comics fans. But he’s also the man who defined what the 1990s looked like in superhero books, so he’s crying all the way to the bank. For every detractor who thinks he’s the worst thing to happen to comic books since Fredric Wertham, there are a dozen ravenous fanboys ready to snatch up whatever he does next."[33] Writer Jeph Loeb, with whom Liefeld collaborated, and writer Mark Millar are reported to be admirers of his work.[32] Millar in particular wrote the foreword to the 2008 Youngblood collection published by Image Comics, in which he defended that series as an entry in the celebrity superhero subgenre that predated The Authority and X-Statix. Millar also compared critics of Liefeld's layouts and figure work to those who would have criticized Jack Kirby for exhibiting a cartoony style rather than photorealism, and asserted that his own children are avid fans of Liefeld's work in general, and Youngblood in particular.[34]

Production and business problems

Liefeld has become known for producing late books, primarily his creator-owned ones,[dead link‍][11][35] though somewhat less so when doing work-for-hire.[4] Some issues of his series Youngblood shipped as much as nine months late. Liefeld has attributed this to the greater incentive a freelancer feels when doing work-for-hire assignments for a company, as opposed to working on one's self-owned work.[32]

It was alleged that Liefeld was too preoccupied by aspirations of Hollywood production deals, spending time in meetings with Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise, to effectively publish comic books or participate in the business side of the Image venture, a criticism that Liefeld admits is at least partly true.[36] He reportedly fell asleep at numerous Image board meetings.[13][32]

After the San Diego Comicon panel in 2007, Liefeld was interviewed by Wizard magazine about his feud with the Image partners. He claimed the feud was in the past, saying: "The divorce was ugly, but to me it didn't linger....I realized you just need to let it go."[37]

Stan Lee interviewed Rob Liefeld in the documentary series The Comic Book Greats.

Art style and credit

Liefeld has been criticized for drawing figures with exaggerated muscular anatomy,[11] long legs and tiny feet, along with an improbable profusion of weapons, accessories, and pouches, that have been subject to parody.[33] On the one hand, these stylistic devices were seen as the impetus for his initial success, when such affectations were unusual in comics, and helped lend such characters to successfully merchandised products.[5] On the other hand, the approach later became considered a cliché and led to a widespread hostility towards the style.[38] Liefeld agrees for the most part with this estimation of his early work, saying, "In the mid-90's we Mortal Kombat'ed everything. I'm as guilty as anyone..."[39]

At the beginning of Liefeld's run on the New Mutants the heavily muscled, heavily armed cyborg character Cable was created for the team, and became a popular antihero, although there is dispute over Cable's origin, with Liefeld, Bob Harras, and Louise Simonson all claiming credit for some or all of the character concept.[11][39][40][41] For a time, Marvel credited only Liefeld and Simonson as Cable's creators within the Cable & Deadpool series. He also was credited as the sole creator of Youngblood, when documentation suggests that Liefeld's longtime friend and collaborator Hank Kanalz co-developed that team with him.[42]

In addition to this, Liefeld is also alleged to have made a habit of swiping, or copying, art from other artists.[11][43] Liefeld responded to this accusation by stating that in these instances, which he said were limited to ten, he was offering tribute to the artists of the original pieces in question, rather than plagiarizing, and compared this to the work of filmmaker Brian De Palma, who explicitly used the techniques of Alfred Hitchcock, who influenced De Palma. Writer and Comics Buyer's Guide columnist Peter David responded to this rationale by pointing out that DePalma himself was criticized harshly by film critics for employing Hitchcock's techniques, and that Liefeld, who has identified himself as a "stickler" for credit, did not credit artists whose work he copied, instances of which exceeded the ten upon which Liefeld insisted. David also pointed out that some of these artists, such as John Byrne and George Pérez, did not react to this practice on Liefeld's part as a "tribute," and expressed displeasure at the degree to which Liefeld relied on their work.[42]

Selected bibliography

Interior artwork

Writing

  • Heroes Reborn: Avengers 1-7
  • Heroes Reborn: Captain America 1-6
  • New Mutants 100
  • Marvel Comics Presents 52, 53, 99
  • Prophet/Cable #1-2
  • Wolverine Vol. 2 154-157
  • X-Force Vol. 1 1-12
  • X-Force: Shatterstar 1-4
  • Uncanny X-Men 245

References

  1. ^ Spurgeon, Tom. "Happy 44th Birthday, Rob Liefeld!". The Comics Reporter. October 3, 2011
  2. ^ a b Liefeld, Rob. "Anaheim Comic Con". Rob Liefeld Creations. May 2, 2010. Note: Although the source does not explicitly give the year, 2011 is given because Liefeld mentions that Wizard World's first convention in Anaheim took place the previous year, which was in 2010.
  3. ^ "Exclusive Hilarious Interview With Rob Liefeld Creator Of Deadpool". YouTube. January 10, 2011. Retrieved October 28, 2011.
  4. ^ a b Cronin, Brian (February 2, 2006). "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #36!". Comics Should Be Good. Comic Book Resources. Retrieved July 14, 2006. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help); More than one of |author= and |last= specified (help)
  5. ^ a b Dean, Michael. (2000). "The Image Story, part 2". The Comics Journal. Retrieved April 20, 2007.
  6. ^ "Levis 501 Button Fly Jeans Rob Liefeid Commercial ", YouTube, accessed December 16, 2010.
  7. ^ Dean, Michael. "Story: A Four-Part Series", (Part 1 of 4) The Comics Journal, October 25, 2000
  8. ^ "Liefeld Talks Titans". Newsarama. April 28, 2005. Archived from the original on June 18, 2006. Retrieved July 14, 2006. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ "Rob Liefeld On Dennis Miller ", YouTube, accessed December 16, 2010.
  10. ^ Bloodstrike #1; Image Comics; April 1993
  11. ^ a b c d e David, Peter. "Giving Credit Where Credit is Due, Part 1" peterdavid.net; August 20, 2010; Reprinted from Comics Buyer's Guide #1033 (September 3, 1993)
  12. ^ McLauchlin, J. "Lee Extends 'Reborn' Run," Wizard Magazine no.72 p.18, August 1997. Excerpt: "Marvel...[asked artist Jim Lee to]... take over the two former Liefeld-helmed books after six months; Marvel cited low sales as the reason for ending Liefeld's contract early."
  13. ^ a b c d Dean, Michael. "The Image Story, part 3", The Comics Journal, 2000 Retrieved April 20, 2007.
  14. ^ "Chapter Three: Image Litigation, Cont.", The Comics Journal #192 (December 1996), pp. 17-19.
  15. ^ "News Watch: Image, Liefeld Settle Lawsuit, if not their Differences," The Comics Journal #195 (April 1997), p. 12.
  16. ^ "Maximum Rob – Liefeld Talks 'Old' & New Projects". Newsarama.com. July 11, 2005. Archived from the original on February 1, 2009.
  17. ^ "Youngblood-A-Trois I: Rob Liefeld". Newsarama.com. July 2, 2003. Archived from the original on February 1, 2009. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; May 25, 2006 suggested (help)
  18. ^ "Youngblood-A-Trois II: Mark Millar". Newsarama.com. July 3, 2003. Archived from the original on February 1, 2009.
  19. ^ "Youngblood-A-Trois III: Brandon Thomas". Newsarama.com. July 4, 2003. Archived from the original on February 1, 2009.
  20. ^ Furey, Emmett. "Rob Liefeld Talks 'Youngblood: Bloodsport'". ComicBookResources.com June 19, 2008
  21. ^ Taylor, Robert (October 25, 2006). "Reflections: Talking With Jeph Loeb". ComicBookResources.com.
  22. ^ Wizard World Chicago 2007, Marvel.com
  23. ^ "Rob Liefeld Talks Youngblood's Return to Image". Newsarama.com. August 1, 2007. Archived from the original on February 1, 2009.
  24. ^ Furey, Emmett (December 6, 2007). "New Blood: Joe Casey talks Youngblood". ComicBookResources.com. Archived from the original on February 1, 2009.
  25. ^ "Liefeld/Image Reunite For Youngblood HC/New Series". Newsarama.com. July 7, 2007. Archived from the original on October 27, 2007.
  26. ^ Wigler, Josh. "Rob Liefeld Talks Youngblood". Comic Book Resources. July 1, 2009
  27. ^ "Rob Liefeld To Draw Deadpool Corps Comic For Marvel". Bleeding Cool. January 18, 2009
  28. ^ Joel, Bryan. "Prelude to Deadpool Corps #1 Review". IGN. March 3, 2010
  29. ^ Truitt, Brian. "'The Infinite' teams Image's past and present". USA Today. March 7, 2011
  30. ^ Ching, Albert. "Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld Team Up THE INFINITE". Newsarama. March 7, 2011
  31. ^ Hyde, David. "The Next Generation of Justice". The Source. June 8, 2011
  32. ^ a b c d e Brian Michael Bendis. "Brian Michael Bendis Presents...An Interview with Rob Liefeld", Wizard Magazine, 2006, Retrieved April 20, 2007.[dead link‍]
  33. ^ a b "Reinventing the pencil: 21 artists who changed mainstream comics (for better or worse)". Onion AV Club. July 20, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-25.
  34. ^ Millar, Mark. Youngblood collected edition, Image Comics, 2008, Page 3
  35. ^ McLelland, Ryan. "Valiant Days, Valiant Nights - A Look Back at the Rise and Fall of Valiant". Newsarama. September 24, 2003[dead link‍]
  36. ^ Dean, Michael. (2000). "The Image Story, part 4", The Comics Journal, Retrieved April 20, 2007.
  37. ^ Morse, Ben. (2007). "In Step With: Rob Liefeld", Wizard Magazine, November, 2007, Page 108
  38. ^ Keith Phipps and Oliver Sava (September 2, 2011). "The New DC 52, Week 1 (Flashpoint #5 and Justice League)". The A.V. Club.
  39. ^ a b Saunders, Steven G. "Interview with Rob Liefeld". Comics Bulletin. Retrieved April 20, 2007.
  40. ^ Wizard magazine, issue #10.
  41. ^ Johnston, Rich. "Laying Cable". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved April 21, 2007.
  42. ^ a b David, Peter. "Giving Credit Where Credit is Due, Part 2". peterdavid.net. August 23, 2010; Reprinted from Comics Buyer's Guide #1040 (October 22, 1993)
  43. ^ Hauman, Glenn. "Rob Liefeld’s 40 worst drawings? You missed a few…", ComicMix, December 3, 2007

Further reading

  • Wizard Magazine #10, interview about Executioners and Berserkers (June 1992)

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rob_Liefeld&oldid=475299388"