dadaluholla

Rob Liefeld - Worst comic book artist ever?

If not, then who would you rank lower than Liefeld? Beause that is a pretty big insult.

slop101

He's probably the worst successful comic book artist. There are plenty of artists as bad, or worse (if that's possible), who don't have the name-recognition he does.

starseed1981

Yes. Without a doubt.

Unfortunatley though, he is also one of the nicest people you can ever meet in person. Its a yin-yang thing.

dadaluholla

http://progressiveboink.com/archive/robliefeld.html

Check out this breakdown of his 40 worst drawings if you need to review some of his work before making a decision.

slop101

Yeah, I met him once too (not at a con), and he was super nice. That's usually how it works: talented people are weird eccentrics who are usually dicks, and untalented people are usually nice. I met a couple guys from Linkin Park once, they were super nice too...

fujishig

I dunno, I liked his art when he was doing New Mutants and early X-force. Surprisingly he hasn't grown through his weaknesses (mainly feet, squinty eyes, too many action lines and that whole arms outstretched pose that he overuses), but he's still far from the worst I've ever seen. In fact, he had a whole studio that aped his style, but were all (at the time) slightly worse than him, back when Image first started.

I couldn't stand Roger Cruz for a long, long time... I think he's gotten better, but he used to ape so many different styles that it was distracting.

Chris Bachalo is frustrating... his static covers are great, he can definitely draw, and he can tell a coherent story... at least, he used to be able to. Ever since Steampunk, I don't think I've seen art from him that is completely comprehensible... I just can't follow the action from frame to frame. What the heck happened to his sequential storytelling skills? He's not the worst artist either, just wanted to mention him.

Rogue588

Yeah, i'll subscribe to this. Though, I remember liking his art on Hawk & Dove..

fujishig

I don't even think he's the worst artist among the Image founders (Valentino is serviceable, and I liked Guardians of the Galaxy, but I still preferred Rob's art). He is the worst at being on time, though. I think even Portacio's perennially late Wetworks came out with more issues than Youngblood, which was the first Image issue to come out.

He is the worst comic book artist to ever get his own Levi's commercial.

yecul

Thanks for posting that link. Good stuff.

zombiezilla

Wow. Just...wow. I used to think that Rob's art was, maybe, an aquired taste, as I never understood all the "hating" I perceived to be going on at his expense. Now I realize that his art does, indeed, suck shit through a straw, to put a not-too-fine point on it. I guess it was the "Marvel Zombie" in me (nothing at all to do with the recent series, you youngsters) which bought and enjoyed alot of his Marvel stuff, while forgiving the hideous flaws. His art really does, for the most part SUCK. Damn!

boredsilly

This is close to how I feel.

I can't help but wonder though, how he became so popular in the first place? I mean his artwork, before the major backlash, was not only enjoyed but sought after by the masses. And everyone who liked his books weren't 12 year old boys.

So while his art might not be great in retrospect, you can't deny there was something to it.

whotony

that link is spectacular.

i hated his work from the first moment i saw it.
making it worse is the first thing i saw was his issue as the first issue replacing todd macfarlane.

fumanstan

Which refutes your whole notion since Linkin Park is great

I showed that link to a few coworkers because oddly enough, we've had the discussion on Liefeld before and they were cracking up. I thought he was OK during his early Marvel days, since I enjoyed a lot of those story arcs, but looking at that site and the flaws, I can see the hate.

dadaluholla

Maybe Liefeld was popular back then because his look was kinda different from what we were used to seeing at the time? I know I was CRAZY about that end run of New Mutants/early X-force. I was even drawing my own comic characters with huge shoulderpads and millions of pouchs!!

I don't think I really turned on Rob until the whole Heroes Reborn crap. His Captain America was a complete disgrace, and then I started looking back at Cable, Youngblood, etc. and realized how screwy it really was.

fujishig

When did he replace Todd? Are you talking about the Spiderman/X-Force crossover? Or are you thinking of Larsen or something?

MartinBlank

I thought Macfarlane just inked for him on his New Mutants covers?

whotony

heh your right i was thinking of larsen.
he was just as bad as or worse then liefeld.

zombiezilla

Man, what were we all smokin' back then? Those guys all really were pretty sad. Even McF had some lousy art, though occasionally some gems. Spider-man was pretty cool & fun on his run, until the comic titled just "Spider-Man" started, then it was just too over-the-top.

[edit] Oh, and don't get me started on the veritable suckfest that Spawn has ALWAYS been. Cool toys, crappy comics. Todd has no idea about how to tell a story.

fujishig

I think at the time, they introduced a lot of splash pages and dynamic shots, which brought an excitement to comics, if not a good grasp of anatomy or storytelling. Then a lot of other artists aped their style, and it became more commonplace. Heck, I look at some of the old Legion of Superheroes costumes from back in the day and wonder why I thought they were so cool.

calhoun07

Compared to his abilities and what he's paid for them, yes.



View from above

whotony

did that cap america drawing appear in an actual comic.

thats the worst thing i have evver seen. that should have been number one on that list.

Nick Danger

I hated Liefeld's art from the start. His art, and that of all of his imitators, were the end of superhero comics for me.

Looking back, I'm not sure what to think about him. On one hand, if someone were giving me buckets of money to do something suddenly fashionable, I'd ride that fad until it ended. On the other hand, I have a lot more respect for people who use the opportunity to improve themselves. Mick Jagger took his rock star money and got an MBA. It looks like Liefeld never even went to a night class on figure drawing from life.

Mrs Danger points out that most guys who are mediocre artists can still draw women's breasts really well. She says that it's because most guys pay a lot of attention to breasts. Her job as an art instructor is to get students to pay that much attention to everything else. Liefeld can't draw women's breasts, but he is very good at sexy, well-drawn, anatomically correct, man butts.

boredsilly

I dig that Savage Dragon cover a lot. So badass. I want to read that comic now!...or make love to it, I haven't decided.

Draven

I got the hiccups I laughed so hard at that.

And I still have some of those comics. Sad that I never noticed truly how bad he was. I chalked it up to not caring for his style. But the whole "can't draw a foot" is hilarious when pointed out.

calhoun07

That whole site is pretty darn funny.

This had tears running down my eyes....
http://progressiveboink.com/archive/seagal.html

It's totally off topic...not comic book related at all...

And it also lead me to this...
http://www.amazon.com/Mojo-Priest-St...2573787&sr=8-3

With songs like "Talk to My Ass" and "Hoochie Koochie Man" how can you go wrong?