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-   -   Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever? (https://forum.dvdtalk.com/comic-book-talk/524592-rob-liefeld-worst-comic-book-artist-ever.html)

RonG617 07-23-21 11:55 AM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by Bronkster (Post 13960575)
Can we make fun of the cover drawing? Like, what's all that swelling on Deadpool's leg? And where's his other leg?

Also I think he started drawing Deadpool from the bottom up after he drew Captain Marvel and then had to have him duck down and peek under her hair.

whotony 07-23-21 11:58 AM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 
He traced that sketch without a doubt.

rocket1312 07-23-21 02:17 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 
A bunch of Rob's original art for the first Youngblood series is coming up for auction at Comic Link next month.

https://www.comiclink.com/Auctions/s...od&ItemType=CA

I don't care for his contemporary stuff at all, but I LOVED Youngblood when I was 12. I still think this was his peak. There's obviously plenty to nitpick about these pages, and Danny Miki is probably doing some heavy lifting, but there's an energy there that is undeniable. I'd love to pick up one of these pages, but I feel like they're going to start at mid-four figures with some going over 10k.

Draven 07-23-21 02:23 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 
What's most hilarious/sad to me about Liefield is that his shortcomings have been common knowledge for a long time now. And he makes ZERO effort to improve. That Captain Marvel cover has the same problems he always has - no one has feet, body parts are too big or disappear and whatever woman is featured is in a spine-snapping pose.

Take a fucking class Rob! Do that thing where you have to draw the turtle and just learn how to draw feet! How hard is that after THIS LONG??

fujishig 07-23-21 02:41 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by Draven (Post 13961307)
What's most hilarious/sad to me about Liefield is that his shortcomings have been common knowledge for a long time now. And he makes ZERO effort to improve. That Captain Marvel cover has the same problems he always has - no one has feet, body parts are too big or disappear and whatever woman is featured is in a spine-snapping pose.

Take a fucking class Rob! Do that thing where you have to draw the turtle and just learn how to draw feet! How hard is that after THIS LONG??

And yet there are people who proudly proclaim they buy a comic just because he drew the cover in that same style.

rocket1312 07-23-21 03:51 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by fujishig (Post 13961311)
And yet there are people who proudly proclaim they buy a comic just because he drew the cover in that same style.

It's because he's popular that anyone cares. Like, is there a single other artist that the first thing people look at is whether or not they drew feet? It's kind of stupid if you ask me, and the criticisms are just as lazy as he seems to be as an artist.

Draven 07-23-21 04:28 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by rocket1312 (Post 13961335)
It's because he's popular that anyone cares. Like, is there a single other artist that the first thing people look at is whether or not they drew feet? It's kind of stupid if you ask me, and the criticisms are just as lazy as he seems to be as an artist.

It's ridiculous because he actively seems to avoid drawing feet. And once you see it, you can't unsee it.

fujishig 07-23-21 04:40 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by rocket1312 (Post 13961335)
It's because he's popular that anyone cares. Like, is there a single other artist that the first thing people look at is whether or not they drew feet? It's kind of stupid if you ask me, and the criticisms are just as lazy as he seems to be as an artist.

Oh I'm not arguing that, of course it's because he's popular that people point out his flaws when compared to his popularity.

But all I'm saying is one of the reasons he doesn't "work on his craft" necessarily is because he doesn't have to.

Kurt D 07-23-21 04:52 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 
When I was a youngster, middle-and-high-school, I aspired to be a comic artist. I don't know how hard I worked at it per se, since I was in school at the same time, and all, but I recall very clearly that my colleagues and I (comic geeks stick together, and we all wanted to be artists), all of us made it a point of pride to be able to draw hands and feet correctly. I think anyone who wanted to MAKE A LIVING DRAWING THE HUMAN FORM, especially in a medium so focused on punching and kicking, would be duty bound to work on such things. Or they could be Liefeld.

ytrez 07-24-21 09:08 AM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 
Have any of his books (post X-Force period) actually been good? I might say that SOME of his artwork is dynamic or energetic but it's also in books that are absolute shit form a story/overall perspective. At least all of the ones I've tried to read. Combine that with all of the flaws cited over the past 41 pages, how does his popularity endure? Most of it has to be his association with Deadpool and, while I'll give him credit for creating the character, from what I remember of those early X-Force appearances, what people love about DP today isn't really attributable to Liefeld.

Red Hood 07-24-21 12:48 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by ytrez (Post 13961562)
Have any of his books (post X-Force period) actually been good? I might say that SOME of his artwork is dynamic or energetic but it's also in books that are absolute shit form a story/overall perspective. At least all of the ones I've tried to read. Combine that with all of the flaws cited over the past 41 pages, how does his popularity endure? Most of it has to be his association with Deadpool and, while I'll give him credit for creating the character, from what I remember of those early X-Force appearances, what people love about DP today isn't really attributable to Liefeld.

In short, no, nothing he has created post X-Force has been good overall. All if his concepts like Youngblood, Supreme, Prophet, etc, had the potential to be good and many of those characters achieved it when they got to competent writing hands like Alan Moore.

Liefeld was lucky to have created Deadpool, Cable and Domino. He was also lucky to be at the right place at the right time back in 1990. The biggest problems Rob has is his stubbornness and his ego. Every other Image partner saw their shortcomings pretty quick and the adjusted. Lee, Todd, Erik, Valentino and Silvestri saw quickly that they couldn’t be writers and artist and run their studios. Rob saw that too for a quick second and then reverted to his old ways. When Rob has a writer doing the script, his work overall improves. When he has an inker, even better. The problem is that for better or worse he wants to do things his way all the time and has proven that Rob doesn’t work well with others.

He has left a legacy in the industry. His artwork changed the way the industry approach doing comics. I mean, guys like Herb Trimpe changed their styles to keep working. The problem is that Rob has also left a legacy of screwing talent, screwing studios, screwing corporations and screwing himself for all the bad business deals he has done over 30 years. If he was a little humble, people would tolerate his shortcomings like not being able to draw feet, but Rob is so arrogant and short tempered that he brings all the fan hate on 💯

Why So Blu? 07-24-21 01:33 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by Kurt D (Post 13961361)
When I was a youngster, middle-and-high-school, I aspired to be a comic artist. I don't know how hard I worked at it per se, since I was in school at the same time, and all, but I recall very clearly that my colleagues and I (comic geeks stick together, and we all wanted to be artists), all of us made it a point of pride to be able to draw hands and feet correctly. I think anyone who wanted to MAKE A LIVING DRAWING THE HUMAN FORM, especially in a medium so focused on punching and kicking, would be duty bound to work on such things. Or they could be Liefeld.


Likewise, but I was more a fan of Jim Lee and his style and tried to develop my style to his and that didn't take. After that, I got into Bart Sears and Andy Smith's art and I took to their style. I really enjoyed drawing characters that have correct anatomy. I like seeing these fantastic make-believe characters look like they can live in the real world.

Kurt D 07-24-21 01:42 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by Why So Blu? (Post 13961623)
Likewise, but I was more a fan of Jim Lee and his style and tried to develop my style to his and that didn't take. After that, I got into Bart Sears and Andy Smith's art and I took to their style. I really enjoyed drawing characters that have correct anatomy. I like seeing these fantastic make-believe characters look like they can live in the real world.

John Byrne guy here, but I'm olddddd


Nick Danger 07-24-21 02:21 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by rocket1312 (Post 13961335)
It's because he's popular that anyone cares. Like, is there a single other artist that the first thing people look at is whether or not they drew feet? It's kind of stupid if you ask me, and the criticisms are just as lazy as he seems to be as an artist.

I don't care that Liefeld doesn't want to draw feet. I don't even mind that he draws women with tits and ass both facing the reader, because that is a stylistic choice. What bugs me is that he doesn't know how to attach an arm to a shoulder, or a head to a neck, or a gun to a hand. He just puts body parts adjacent to each other, and sometimes they fit, and sometimes they don't.

He's a professional who shows no interest in his craft. It would be as if a popular architect never bothered to learn how to design houses that didn't leak.

Bronkster 07-24-21 02:49 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by Kurt D (Post 13961361)
When I was a youngster, middle-and-high-school, I aspired to be a comic artist. I don't know how hard I worked at it per se, since I was in school at the same time, and all, but I recall very clearly that my colleagues and I (comic geeks stick together, and we all wanted to be artists), all of us made it a point of pride to be able to draw hands and feet correctly. I think anyone who wanted to MAKE A LIVING DRAWING THE HUMAN FORM, especially in a medium so focused on punching and kicking, would be duty bound to work on such things. Or they could be Liefeld.


Originally Posted by Why So Blu? (Post 13961623)
Likewise, but I was more a fan of Jim Lee and his style and tried to develop my style to his and that didn't take. After that, I got into Bart Sears and Andy Smith's art and I took to their style. I really enjoyed drawing characters that have correct anatomy. I like seeing these fantastic make-believe characters look like they can live in the real world.


Originally Posted by Kurt D (Post 13961630)
John Byrne guy here, but I'm olddddd

I also had early dreams of being a cartoonist, and my biggest influence was Don Martin (Mad Magazine). Fortunately for the world, I realized very young that I didn't have what it takes. :lol:

:sad:

Nick Danger 07-24-21 03:19 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by Bronkster (Post 13961642)
I also had early dreams of being a cartoonist, and my biggest influence was Don Martin (Mad Magazine). Fortunately for the world, I realized very young that I didn't have what it takes. :lol:

:sad:

Youthful dreams. :(

I wanted to be a science fiction author. I realized that I was a better writer than some authors that got published when I was sixteen. When I was nineteen I realized that I didn't have what it takes to write good fiction.

But I've written lots of great operating procedures in my life! I've left the company, but my legacy will live on.

rocket1312 07-24-21 05:50 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by Nick Danger (Post 13961638)
I don't care that Liefeld doesn't want to draw feet. I don't even mind that he draws women with tits and ass both facing the reader, because that is a stylistic choice. What bugs me is that he doesn't know how to attach an arm to a shoulder, or a head to a neck, or a gun to a hand. He just puts body parts adjacent to each other, and sometimes they fit, and sometimes they don't.

He's a professional who shows no interest in his craft. It would be as if a popular architect never bothered to learn how to design houses that didn't leak.

​​​​​ He's also a professional who's very rich and successful, so I don't think there's a whole lot of incentive there.

Red Hood 07-24-21 05:54 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by rocket1312 (Post 13961685)
​​​​​ He's also a professional who's very rich and successful, so I don't think there's a whole lot of incentive there.

I don’t think he’s that rich. It’s one of the reasons he lost the rights to Youngblood.

rocket1312 07-24-21 07:11 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 

Originally Posted by Red Hood (Post 13961688)
I don’t think he’s that rich. It’s one of the reasons he lost the rights to Youngblood.

Rob's pretty active in the original art collecting hobby and participates in a couple different Facebook groups I'm in. He loves Byrne X-men (among other things) and is pretty regularly pulling down pages at auction for tens of thousands of dollars. I also see what he charges for his own original art, not to mention signings, etc. My guess is he's doing just fine for himself.

Kurt D 07-24-21 08:52 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 
One of those 'celebrity net worth' sites pegs him at 5 million. Not much by DVD Talk standards but not bad for your average American.

The Spectre 02-02-23 10:13 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 
WTF?!?


Kurt D 02-02-23 10:21 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 
He's more of a giraffe man, from what I've heard.

whotony 02-03-23 03:11 AM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 
Topic back from the dead.

TheBigDave 06-17-23 10:47 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 
If anyone's interested, Liefeld has a WhatNot channel. He does live shows a couple times a week, answering questions, selling signed stuff and doing some original artwork.

https://www.whatnot.com/user/robliefeld

VHS? 06-27-23 07:00 PM

Re: Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?
 
I can admire Robs knowledge of the comic book industry, but his lack of anything different is what frustrates me as a fan of the art.
Dude uses the same face structure on every person he draws. Men, Women and any other creature. Same jaw line. Same tiny mouth with grinning teeth...At least Todd got better over the years.


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