One Look at Rob Liefeld's Work

I offer up this deconstruction of Rob Liefeld's work for several reasons, only one of which being that it is humorous. I've discussed Liefeld in the past, but only tangentially, because I never liked the guy's work -- EVAR -- but once I learned just how much of a joke the general Web treats him, I kinda felt sorry for the guy.

The truth is that, when Rob Liefeld was at the top of his game (in the early 90s), I was in the vast minority, and I took a lot of shit for not liking Liefeld's work, so I went through 20 years of my life assuming I remained in the minority on this one (remember I only started buying comics again in the last five years or so; there was a solid decade there when I wasn't buying comics, and had no idea what was happening in the industry, titles, et.al.); it was only very recently that I learned how much the Web (as a general assembly) -- maybe "despises" isn't too strong a word, here -- despises his work.

Of course, it being the Web and all, few bothered to constrain themselves or their comments, and some of the "criticism" is aimed more at the man than his work. Although, having never personally met the guy, I have heard numerous stories (both from within the industry and outside it) regarding his temperament, almost none of which are very flattering. Still, that doesn't give me reason to snipe on the guy; his art, however, has always been shit. Sorry, but it has -- always. Again, I don't know the guy, I'm sure I'd be honored to meet him -- and there's a high probability that I will someday, and I would never say these things to his face (even though I know I run the risk of him reading them here, durr) -- but I've never been a fan of his work.

And lest some youngsters get the wrong idea, I was one of the first to be... flabbergasted by his appearance in a 501 Jeans commercial. His work was literally a bad impersonation of Todd McFarlane's, so I always wondered why Todd McFarlane didn't get the commercial. It was only later that I surmised it was due to the fact that Liefeld was probably prettier, and definitely younger. He was one of the youngest in the field at that time, IIRC. (Actually, Rob Liefeld was the first comic book artist to be paid $1 million; that was the real reason behind the commercial and all, but... you get what I'm saying here.)

I am pretty hard on comics and creators when I critique them, but I'm cognizant of the fact that it, like all entertainment in America, is a business, and the hard truth is that, at some point, you have to make concessions; getting a project to market means conceding to it becoming "product" at some point. So I never faulted Rob Liefeld totally. Someone, somewhere, at some point, should have sent about 60% of his work back for proofing/re-do -- or, at the very least, assigned a "finishing" artist.

Back in The Day, it was not unusual to come across "fill-in" issues which were out of continuity, often because the series regulars (the artist, usually) couldn't get the product out the door on time and something had to ship. They don't do that much anymore, thanks to the umpteen-million crossover events, hype, and total bullshit that has blindsided the industry these days, but I -- and everyone else who reads comics, I'm 99% certain -- would rather get a Shatterstar story that "happened sometime ago* - Ed." and wait an extra month for the next, regular installment, than get crap.

And though I haven't followed Rob Liefeld throughout the years, some of his newer work featured in this selection forces me to agree that he doesn't much care for the comics field -- not enough to get better, anyway -- which is a pretty telling comment on the industry itself.

Not for nothing, the post on Rob Liefeld's Messiah CompleX (X-Force) is still one of the most popular posts I've written here.

© C Harris Lynn, 2010