Rob Liefeld

Rob Liefeld is an author and editor of Comic S American born the October 3rd 1967.

It is certainly one of the “modern” authors of the most discussed comics. Although he was a great success in the years 1990, its increasingly unrealistic and exaggerated style, as well as charges of plagiarism, were worth to him to be called “the man more hated in the field of the comics” ( The Most Hated Man in Comics ).

With the beginning of the year 1990, Liefeld became a superstar thanks to its work on the series of Marvel Comics The New Mutants , and thereafter X-Force . In 1992, it and 6 other authors Marvel (Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane and Jim Valentino) left the editor to form the company Image Comics. But the label of Liefeld did not gain the favors of criticisms.

Its fans regard the drawings of Liefeld as energetic and full with action, but its style was largely criticized for its flamboyance excessive, its arbitrary use of the hatchings, and especially its improbable anatomies. Several of its characters comprise many similarities with existing heroes, which leads to the charges of plagiarism. It is known also to have modified the order of certain drawings of the New Mutants to hide the fact that it modified the history without informing the scenario writer or the editor of it, but it is not the only draftsman to have used of this stratagem, and the scenario writer Louise Simonson declared that it had even improved the history in some cases.

The majority of the readers agree to say that the exaggerated drawings and the declining share of development of the characters in the scenarios were largely spread with the beginning of the year 1990, and that Liefeld is only one example representative of a decline generalized at that time. But some are baited to say that it was the spearhead with scenarios among most inept and of the not respected times which embarrassed at the same time the readers and the booksellers.

Biography

In 1985, at 18 years, Liefeld completes its first work published: the crayonnage for a mini-series with the Superman Hawk and Dove for cd. Comics. After some arguments with his collaborators with cd., it leaves to Marvel Comics, where it becomes in 1990 the regular draftsman of the New Mutants (starting from number 86), a series which puts in scene young people X-Men. The popularity of its drawings enables him to take a progressive control on the history of the series. It is often credited to have created a new leader for the team, the very musculeux one and very strongly armed Cyborg with the eyes luisants Cable, which quickly becomes a very popular anti-hero. However the " prototype" of Cable - which could have been called Commander X - had been imagined indeed by the Marvel scenario writers.

Liefeld also will create the assassin Deadpool and a group of immortal mutants called The Externals. Two creations had success, but also its first charges of plagiarism are worth to him, because the fans noticed the similarities between Deadpool and character cd. Deathstroke, and between Externals and the immortal ones of Highlander.

With number 98 of the New Mutants , Liefeld assumes the whole creative responsibility for the series, while realizing crayonnés, inkings and the scenario, assisted Fabian Nicieza for the dialogs. It then transformed the characters into a kind of armed force to the Platoon mutant sauce: the X-Force. The first number of X-Force in 1991 was sold to 4 million specimens, a record beaten soon by the X-Men #1, illustrated by Jim Lee. In both cases, they are editions different from same the comics which multiplied the sales. But where X-Men used different covers (a stratagem which appeared in France for series of cartoon with success like Sillage), the X-Force proposed charts to collect new united with the comics.

The relations between Liefeld and Marvel start to decline in 1991, when he announces his project to publish a titrated original series The X-Ternals at the competitor Malibu Comics. Vis-a-vis the loss of its work at Marvel and with the threats of lawsuits which block its new project, it gives up and incorporates Externals in its series X-Force .

Liefeld joined then 6 other artists (Marc Silvestri, Jim Lee, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Todd McFarlane and Whilce Portacio) who leave Marvel to form the company Image Comics in 1992, a migration sometimes called “the X-Odus” (majority of the artists having worked on titles of the X-Men). The supermen of Liefeld, the Youngblood are the first to be left in bookstore, and contain many elements of the Image stereotype: enormous muscles, enormous chests, enormous weapons, enormous explosions… and much of violence. The characters of the series were often regarded as derivatives of the Marvel characters.

In the structure Image, Rob Liefeld directs two labels: Extreme Studios and Maximum Close . When Image starts to publish, one finds less and less often his drawings there, because of his new responsibilities for editor. The malicious gossip rather allotted this absence to its recent fortune and the lack of hierarchically superior. He continues nevertheless to deal with the scenarios, for various Youngblood and his spin-offs like the substitute of Superman, Supreme, and for the femme fatale Glory. Criticisms did not approve these characters, and if the sales with the bookstores seem high, the final sales are surprisingly weak. Later in the year, Liefeld and Lee turn over to Marvel to start again some traditional company in a saga called Heroes Reborn (rebirth of the heroes). Liefeld is committed to write 12 numbers of the Vengeurs and to write (with Jeph Loeb) and drawing 12 numbers of Captain America. But it does not manage to follow its calendar, and its exits receive a not very enthusiastic reception. Marvel puts an end to the contract, and transmits the load of the series to the studio of Jim Lee.

In 1996, Liefeld leaves Image Comics after arguments with its partners (who pushed Marc Silvestri to leave the company temporarily). The press described this event as an effect of the bad reputation of Liefeld which entâchait the image of the house, or an effect of its usurpation of the title of director of the company. Some reverses fincanciers followed, which pushed it to gather its interests to found a new publisher called Awesome Comics.

Liefeld and Loeb quickly tried to give again life with their scenarios intended for Captain America by creating a new Awesome character: Agent America , almost identical seemingly and in history to Captain America, perhaps so that Liefeld can re-use its drawings with minor modifications. In front of the threats of lawsuit of Marvel, Liefeld buys the rights of Fighting American , a patriotic superman who had disappeared from circulation, created in the years 1960 by the creators of Captain America, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. Its version of Fighting American was also very close to the character Marvel (his shield did not contain a star in the medium: the logo appeared on its chest). Marvel and Liefeld are then reflected agreement on the limits to be respected so that it can use its character (for example, Fighting American did not have the right to launch its shield).

During this time, Liefeld engages the legendary scenario writer Alan Moore to start again several of its creations declining. Moore writes some numbers of Youngblood and Glory , but its larger work relates to the series Supreme , which pays homage to “the era Mort Weisenger” of Superman. Awesome, following the example other labels of Liefeld, started nevertheless to accumulate successive delays, causing an unforeseeable calendar of publications, and an increasing unpopularity at the readers.

Even if the errors of Liefeld, as well as contractor as as author, were the cause of the problems of its labels, a fundamental fault were its business model : its projects started in waterspout, inflated by purchasers of comics speculators and options on the TV/cinéma rights, but never reached the return on investment wished by the investors.

These last Liefeld years is turned over to work on the X-Men frankness, crayonnant covers or interiors of Cable or X-Force , which continues to be popular until the beginnings of the year 2000, time to which these series were abandoned.

In 2004, it finds Fabian Nicieza for a mini-series X-Force , and illustrates the first covers of Cable and Deadpool . The same year, Liefeld founds Arcade Comics and announces its will to continue Youngblood .

Liefeld launched a new Web site in May 2005 - robliefeld.net - with a Webcomic on line called Shrink. At the same period, he works for cd. Comics on the Teen Titans .

External bonds

Official site
Extreme Genesis - a site of fan with much of his drawings
Rob Liefeld - a list of its work published at Marvel
official Discussion forum

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