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Brian Miller
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Joined: 28 July 2004
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 8:54am | IP Logged | 1
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Maybe Liefeld had some potential in his early stuff that editors liked and yet he never progressed from.
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Knut Robert Knutsen
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Joined: 22 September 2006
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 8:54am | IP Logged | 2
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"Why keep him?"
Because it sold. Editors aren't all powerful over the books they edit. If an artist's work doesn't sell, he can't keep him on. If the book is just humming along and the editor gets an artist who is late or draws something completely different from what he's told or swipes or hacks his work out, he can fire him. But if sales go up and the artist's work really sells, he can't fire the guy. Not if he values his job.
Certainly we could say that an editor should have walked rather than do that, but none of us do the "right" thing all the time. Certainly they share in the "blame" of keeping Liefeld around, but Liefeld is at the heart of it.
Why is it that people think that blame has to be placed on one person? There's plenty to spread around. But the decisons we criticize about Liefeld are decisions he made. No editor forced him to swipe. No editor had the authority to make him solicit books he was never going to publish. No editor told him to develop his art style in a way that made it less and less attractive.
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Matt Hawes
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Joined: 16 April 2004
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 8:58am | IP Logged | 3
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Joe Zhang wrote:
| ...To me, that Hawkman looks kind of Rob Liefeld-ish...(in reference to the Golden-Age Hawkman cover a few pages back) |
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Yep, but note that Joe Kubert was more likely still in his teens when he drew that. Joe started in comics at about age 14, as I recall.
Edited by Matt Hawes on 14 July 2009 at 9:01am
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David Miller
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 9:08am | IP Logged | 4
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I think Liefeld's popularity owed something to being an artist on one of Marvel's hyper-popular mutant books. I have a theory that at the time, Marvel realized that X-Men would be a top-seller no matter who was drawing it, and that's why we had those awful issues by Mike Collins, or whoever drew Gambit's debut. Marvel then began an experiment to see just how bad the art could be on the top-selling title, and apparently the answer as, as bad as it can be: Rob Liefleld penciled X-Men #142, and the world as we know it ended, as indeed the worst possible artist was found, and lo he increased sales, and the indutry evenbtually collapsed into the singularity this created.
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Martin Redmond
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 9:33am | IP Logged | 5
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Liefeld became a star because no one was buying New Mutants anymore. Rob Liefeld looked like god compared to NM 54-84 (except for the Rick Leonardi, Byrne or JJ Muth issues).
QUOTE:
| Rob Liefleld penciled X-Men #142 |
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WRONG!!! wrong wronger! It was issue 245.
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Paulo Pereira
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 9:44am | IP Logged | 6
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QUOTE:
| Rob Liefeld looked like god compared to NM 54-84 (except for the Rick Leonardi, Byrne or JJ Muth issues). |
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Wow. Could not disagree more. I'd like to see Rob Liefeld do something like this--
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Andy Mokler
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Joined: 20 January 2006
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 10:31am | IP Logged | 7
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I always thought Liefeld was just a potential 2nd McFarlane for Marvel? His Hulk and Spider-Man were the hottest things in comics and Liefeld was enough of a facsimile for Marvel to give him a shot...which sold books. The more he did though, the more he seemed to stray away from any basic rules of anatomy and perspective so instead of developing he seemed to just take more and more shortcuts until there was very little storytelling going on.
In the beginning though, I certainly wouldn't blame the editors who thought to give him work.
Much of the creator owned wave that has occurred since the '90's illustrates to me how important a good team of creators....no, heirarchy might be a better way to look at it. Well, whatever the best term I think it's obvious that a good inker, colorist and editor are a necessity. As is often the case in movies, when the star becomes the producer you can often expect some real drek.
I think the 90's superstars of comic art suffer from that and have helped establish a continuation of coddling and catering that is still rampant.
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Keith Thomas
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 10:35am | IP Logged | 8
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It was issue 245.
Even then I hated that issue it was just so awful, I kept
thinking thank God that was just a fill-in issue and I
never have to see that hack again.
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Arc Carlton
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 10:54am | IP Logged | 9
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Because he's a perfect example of an artist who no one in their right mind should EVER copy?
______________________
Indeed. But sometimes it's like no one is in their right mind...
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David Miller
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 11:01am | IP Logged | 10
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I sued to know those X-Men issues by heart. I'm turning in my Rob Liefeld Rock Army card.
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Samuel P. Barden
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 11:08am | IP Logged | 11
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Quote:
Rob Liefeld looked like god compared to NM 54-84 (except for the Rick
Leonardi, Byrne or JJ Muth issues).
-------------------------------
Wow. Could not disagree more. I'd like to see Rob Liefeld do something
like this--
------------------------------
I'll second that. Bret Blevins with Terry Austin and later Al Williamson did
some great work on New Mutants. And the work definitely holds up
much better than Liefeld's New Mutants or his work in general.
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Paulo Pereira
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| Posted: 14 July 2009 at 11:17am | IP Logged | 12
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Hadn't realized that Austin inked Blevins for that title; I've only seen the tail end of that run. Looks good.
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