What is your Favorite Art,Drawing or story by Rob Liefeld? 1 1

[Maccai3]

And let me ask - have you ever inked?

 

Yes, yes, as a matter of fact, I have.

Does that make my comment valid now?

The ink on that page is horrible.

Horrible.

 

 

i have also inked and i concur

[darkstar]

I could never get past his actual character designs. Forget how they were actually drawn, just the overall designs of the characters were terrible. Mutant Liberation Front? Solid name for an organization of evil mutants. Then you see the names of the members, what they look like, and their abilities and its just one big pile of suck. Christ I have a hard time thinking of a more pathetic group of characters in the history of Marvel.

[Prince Namor]

what gives away home turf and headquarters? you know that because you've read it

 

all the art gives away it that there is a group of people who end up charging another group of people

 

 

Home turf and the headquarters are the plot, not the storytelling.

 

And yes, exactly right, the art gives away that a group of people are charging another group of people.

 

This is the middle page in a fight scene. What do you want? An establishing show on every page of the comic?

 

[kav]

I've inked a foot high stack of comic pages.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I honestly can't think of a single artist out there other than Liefeld where people will argue tooth and nail that he's horrible and terrible, often without having seen or read his work, or by simply pointing to the same tired examples again and again.

 

This is a straw man argument. No one who has commented here has done what you claimed.

 

 

Calendar still stuck huh? Bummer.

 

 

If you're going to continue to present fallacious arguments as your "support" for your position, it's rather pointless to get upset when others point them out.

 

[Jeffro.]

i 100% believe that this is what happened though, i have yet to see anybody show any examples of his "quality" work

 

So what determines "quality" work? Your opinion? Perfect accuracy to human anatomy? I flip through much of his work in X-Force #1 and think it's absolutely amazing. It's bold inking, it's enjoyable storytelling, it's fun action, great pacing...but no matter how clearly I point out the good or quality things, people will invariably find things to nitpick no matter what.

 

That's because it's none of these things (with the possible exception of "bold inking." I can spill an entire bottle of ink on a page, and call it "bold inking.")

 

What determines QUALITY work is what has been said over and over again: perspective, anatomy, form, consistency, composition, layout, linework, proportion. These are the things that OBJECTIVELY determine quality work.

 

Liefeld has none of them.

 

Quickly: summarize the plot of X-Force #1, using 15 words or less.

 

Here's an example:

 

Swamp Things #21: The Anatomy Lesson: Alan Moore completely rewrites Swampy's origins, while remaining true to all that came before.

 

Now you try.

 

Here's my favorite page of the book.

 

It's a great action page, great focus on the main characters, the inking is great, it moves the story forward. But plenty of people here will likely rip it apart for the sake of ripping it apart.

 

Or, for the sake of objective analysis.

 

Cover the word balloons. Now tell me what's happening.

 

YOU CAN'T, because the page consists of nothing but POSES.

 

Is it the opening number to a Broadway musical? Is it a post-Apocalyptic nightmare, where humanity has been replaced by garish, overdressed Pouch-People? Is it an avant-garde fashion show in Milan?

 

Storytelling??

 

Give it UP already.

 

 

Awesome!

[slym2none]

I honestly can't think of a single artist out there other than Liefeld where people will argue tooth and nail that he's horrible and terrible, often without having seen or read his work, or by simply pointing to the same tired examples again and again.

 

This is a straw man argument. No one who has commented here has done what you claimed.

 

Calendar still stuck huh? Bummer.

 

 

If you're going to continue to present fallacious arguments as your "support" for your position, it's rather pointless to get upset when others point them out.

 

 

His argument is still stuck. Bummer.

 

::

 

 

 

-slym

[RabidFerret]

I am super-late to this party, but I just saw this thread and thought I would comment on this Kirby piece. Art doesn't need to be realistic to be good. It does need to have some sort of over-arching internal logic, however. Whether you are talking about DaVinci, or Rembrandt, or Van Gogh, or Rockwell, or Pollock, or Kirby, or Liefeld this holds true. The perspective and foreshortening and anatomy (and etc) in the Kirby piece is fair from realistic, but it does have an internal logic. Additionally, from a purely formal evaluation, this is skillfully composed piece with some nice balance and tension. Not saying you have to like it stylistically, but it is far from "flawed". It is actually quite accomplished.

 

The Liefeld piece, however, not only fails at realism, but it also lacks any internal logic -- aside from being "F'ing AWESOME!", I suppose. I get that Liefeld's style and tone was very fashionable at one point and that he worked on some comics that were very popular for various reasons. I don't fault anyone for collecting his work either for nostalgic or aesthetic purposes, either. To each their own and I am more than happy to offer and sell his work. But comparing his work to Kirby's (of any era really) serves no purpose. Apples and oranges IMO.

 

My only point in comparing the two was to highlight that a lot of the mistakes people accuse Liefeld of are present in other people often put on a pedestal. Most comic artists cut similar corners.

 

In the case of this piece, what I notice and am bothered by is really the hand. The perspective and stylistic elements are fine, but the hand really doesn't look like a hand:)

[RabidFerret]

If you're going to continue to present fallacious arguments as your "support" for your position, it's rather pointless to get upset when others point them out.

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

That said, it's not Liefeld's storytelling...that draws me to his work

 

 

I flip through much of his work in X-Force #1 and think it's absolutely amazing.... it's enjoyable storytelling... it moves the story forward.

 

Looks pretty contradictory to me.

[kav]

Ok let's be objective:

Anatomy-no

Faces-no

Backgrounds-no

Shadows-no

Camera angle variety-no

Line quality-no (I hate McCay-looks like a coloring book)

 

At what level does he succeed? A child's scribble is 'dynamic'....

[Prince Namor]

Let's take a look at Liefeld in his early days, right on the cusp of his popularity and see just how much 'better' he was!

 

All of these are from New Mutants #98. I've eliminated the dialogue to further confuse you and concentrate the humor upon just the amateurish layouts and poorly rendered drawing.

 

[Prince Namor]

Oh my God, this is hilarious...

 

[RockMyAmadeus]

The splashiness of the pages was the era though and almost every book that was out there.

 

"Everybody was doing it" is not an excuse for poor technical output.

 

Quality is quality is quality, regardless of what everyone else may, or may not, be doing at the time.

[Prince Namor]

Have absolutely no idea what's going on here...

 

[Unca Ben]

Oh my God, this is hilarious...

 

 

I have to say that's an odd shaped coffee cup. How on earth do you set it down?

[Prince Namor]

That first panel...

 

[kav]

OMG he can't even draw Bart Simpson-like the easiest thing to draw! Wtf?

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

My only point in comparing the two was to highlight that a lot of the mistakes people accuse Liefeld of are present in other people often put on a pedestal. Most comic artists cut similar corners.

 

That "everybody else cuts corners" is not a valid argument to defend or elevate Liefeld's lack of technical ability.

[kav]

All those straight-on shots-he needs to get out more....