Liefeldmania
“Rob Liefeld is the modern day equivalent of JACK KIRBY”
-Robert Kirkman, Marvel Spotlight #11, 2006
In several years, the “Liefeld Look” will be transformed into a retro-hip pop homage to a time in comic book history full of excess and excitement. His style will be mimicked not by anxious young fans looking to break into the business, nor by aging pencilers trying to look “hip.” No — the new generation of “Liefeldmania” will be championed by talented writers and artists who know exactly what they’re doing.
Flashback to Brooklyn, the early 1990s. I knew dozens of comic collectors and wannabe comic artists (often the same thing), who scratched Liefeld-esque superheroic figures in graphite on looseleaf pages and sketchbooks. People who didn’t even like reading comics — or hadn’t read them since their school days — would buy up copies of New Mutants and X-Force from my local comic shop.
During that time, I waited in line with about 50 others — in the rain — to see Liefeld at a NYC comic convention. It was exciting. It was like several years later, when I waited in the rain to see Bill Clinton in front of my college auditorium. Two 1990s icons. In both cases, we were turned away without setting eyes on our heroes; Liefeld and Clinton were apparently whisked off into some alternate side-door exit, like the rock stars that they were.
Sandy, who runs the blog “I Love Rob Liefeld,” writes about the first time he encountered a Liefeld comic:
“Youngblood #1 was published in April of 1992, when I was fourteen years old and in high school. Notice the ugly gold border? That was added for the second printing of the book, because the book sold out of its first printing. Like everything being published by Image at that time, this book was hot stuff when it came out.
Prior to this, I wasn’t really interested in comics. I had a few old ones lying around that I liked, but comics hadn’t really grabbed me yet.
Then, at the recommendation of a friend of mine who was into comics, I bought Youngblood #1 and my eyes were opened.”
Sandy goes on to explain his visceral reaction to this panel in said comic:
“When I saw that, I thought it was AWESOME. The energy, the power, the thrill of super-heroes beating the snot out of super-villains. I loved it.”
It’s cool nowadays to trash Rob Liefeld. There are many stories circulation about Liefeld, some questioning whether he was really responsible for his own early success. And, of course, there are the panel-by-panel critiques of his art (one of the most famous being a picture of how a Captain America figure that he drew would look like naked).
But Liefeld has his outspoken champions as well. Such as acclaimed comic writer Robert Kirkman, now a partner at the publisher Liefeld helped found, Image Comics. Kirkman has compared Liefeld with a comic artist whose bombastic style has been co-opted and mimicked in tribute by countless artists:
“But Rob — who ELSE could you compare to Jack? Rob has the same energy on his pages — say what you will about them, but a Rob Liefeld page is EXCITING…Rob and Kirby drew what looked COOL on the page.”
And the blog The Daily Cross Hatch recently had this to say about the Liefeld Legacy:
“Whatever personal criticisms one might harbor against Liefeld, the artist is an undeniably important character, both in the worlds of mainstream and independent cartooning. In the early 90s, the young artist was part of a movement alongside artists like Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane that helped re-energize the super hero comic. Alongside those artists, he helped launch a new comics independent comics company that helped strike a major blow against the Marvel/DC stranglehold on the industry.”
Will there be a Rob Liefeld Renaissance somewhere down the road? Will some of the critics who have previously turned their noses at his work wake up and at least give the man his due for producing comics that made comics exciting for a generation? Such turnabouts, aided by hindsight and a larger view at the big picture of comic book history, have been done before.
Until then…
This is a fascinating perspective. I, for one, am currently on a “Kirby-as-genre” kick, eating up his 4th World stuff recently and just turned on to GODLAND. (Found the trades in a comic shop just this past weekend. Where have I been?!) But “Liefeld-as-genre”? That seems a stretch, especially with Liefeld still working and having vastly improved his artwork in recent years.
That said, I’m with the above fan: I ate up Liefeld’s work in those early days, excused the crap perspective and the horrible anatomy. Friends of mine mimicked his style when trying to draw their own ideas. I certainly got caught up in the “energy” of his stuff. Still, for the life of me, I can’t remember a single image of his that stands out in my mind when looking back at those times. Covers like the one above are familiar and easliy recognizable, but what really left an impact and memorable impression on me was the stuff by Allred, Wagner, Mignola and Frank Miller. Liefeld’s books were like cotton candy - fluffy, sweet, and next to zero in actual substance. You can’t say the same about Kirby. Not at all.
He certainly has energy, I’ll grant Liefeld that much. And I love me some Robert Kirkman, but I totally disagree with the Kirby comparison. The refutation of that comment would grow this comment to novel-size. Simply put, Kirkman’s comparison is merely facile at best but ignores the totality of Kirby’s work and abilities at worst.
I’ve never noticed it before, but in the second picture, that guy’s thumbs are totally on the wrong side of his hands.
Valerie - I enjoyed reading this. I agree with you that Rob Liefeld doesn’t get enough credit for helping to bring in an entirely new generation of comic book readers. However my own tastes and opinions have changed over the years, I’ll never forget that he got me interested in comics, and I owe him for that.