Rob Liefeld's newest Cover Swipe Homage to his favorite artist - HIMSELF!

[rjrjr]

I never liked Liefeld's art. To me it was hideous. I knew understood why anyone liked it. After that, I just didn't like him because he wasn't a professional. He never met a deadline when doing books. There were times when there months between issues. I didn't buy his stuff, but would read articles and such where he would do say Issue #1 and then 3-4 months later issue #2 would come out, then another six months for issue #3. I mean, here was a guy getting paid lots to draw a book and couldn't make a deadline. I mean, through the years you had artists and writers doing 2-3-4 books a month and this guy couldn't do one?!

 

Found this and it helps explain Liefeld's art: http://www.progressiveboink.com/2012/4/21/2960508/worst-rob-liefeld-drawings

 

I found it true and hilarious.

 

Very few comic artists are immune to intense scrutiny of their art. I suspect this has something to do with the medium and the deadlines. Seriously, look at the art in comics critically sometime. Many artist draw things in one panel, forget to draw it in the next, and draw it again in the wrong position in another panel. This is more common than you think! Look at the art to see if the panels tell the story. How many times have you read an issue and did not understand something because of poor art, poor panel flow, etc.? How many times does a character look like a different person from panel to panel? Or an object or room looks different?

 

With that said, I'm not defending Liefeld's art. I don't think it is any better or worse than most comic book art. It is dynamic and for many, many years, that was more important that being technically correct.

[rjrjr]

 

You're absolutely right, art is always subjective.

 

Hey, who dressed up my blow up doll?

[Dr. Balls]

Some fellow geeks and I were discussing this last night, and I came to realize that what is truly unfortunate is that Rob Liefeld started out working with some of the greatest professionals in the business and he wasn't smart enough to glean wisdom from any of those relationships. He didn't learn to respect other peoples' work or rights. He didn't learn how to manage his time or projects. He didn't gain inspiration to create better art and push his style to the next level. All these things he took for granted because people threw money at him - not understanding the enormity of the real opportunity he had: learning from the greats. He seemingly learned nothing, other than working on bettering his autograph.

 

It's easy to judge from a messageboard - but I take the rights he trampled on very seriously. People of his status should be inspirations to others - to set good examples of professionalism and ethics. Not everyone has to be a role model, but when a high profile creator works against others in his profession in such a blatant fashion - he deserves every ounce of online villification he gets.

[Bronty]

Agreed.

 

On another note I always wondered how an artist I didn't have much respect for managed to turn out a cover I really liked (NM 87). I see it was swiped from Kane... now it all makes sense.....

 

[DeliBebek]

Some fellow geeks and I were discussing this last night, and I came to realize that what is truly unfortunate is that Rob Liefeld started out working with some of the greatest professionals in the business and he wasn't smart enough to glean wisdom from any of those relationships. He didn't learn to respect other peoples' work or rights. He didn't learn how to manage his time or projects. He didn't gain inspiration to create better art and push his style to the next level. All these things he took for granted because people threw money at him - not understanding the enormity of the real opportunity he had: learning from the greats. He seemingly learned nothing, other than working on bettering his autograph.

Great point. Both Todd and Jim have remained fairly respected because of the way they've handled the power they had at that moment in time. Rob has squandered what influence and position he had.

 

On those same lines, it's interesting that despite being imitative of a lot of better artists, his drawing always seemed to miss copying the best parts of the drawing. If I were a psychologist, I could connect these two tendencies — to be so close to greatness but not to absorb any of it into his skill set.