For the Rob Liefeld Haters

[ChrisHanel]

...which includes myself, actually.


The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings

[mrbasehart]

Wow.  That was awesome.  Harsh, but funny and sadly, true.  I have to post the very first picture in the countdown in case people don't bother to click the link, as it's so fantastic:



That girl needs to see a chiropractor, stat!

[BathTub]

That was hilarious, I was laughing out loud all the way through the top 10.

[Junkyard]

I think the Karen from "Girls Read Comics" said it right:


"Fuck! My Spine!"

[Tyrant]

Ah yes. Rob Liefeld. If I may rant a moment:

He doesn't so much irritate me as an artist as that he landed a professional career at all doing the art he does. I was a senior in High School when I noticed Liefeld existed, and because I went to a private school where all grades were present, the comicbook reading crowd consisted of all ages. I got quite the shock on two fronts one day when a third grader showed me some Liefeld art and called it the worst art he'd ever seen. The first shock was that a third grader could recognize a proportional nightmare minus the genius of Picasso when he saw one. The second shock, of course, was that this artist was even being published at all.

Art is subjective and you wouldn't want all comicbook artists to draw the same. However, unless you're going with an avant garde title where art is used liberally, human anatomy and proportion are absolute musts. If you can't demonstrate knowledge of these two things, you're not going to get very far. It doesn't mean you have to be accurate all the time (ie: the superhero physique doesn't exist IRL), but you've got to know enough about real life human anatomy and proportion in order to warp it in a visually pleasing way to begin with. Because of how Liefeld is warping these aspects in the genre he works in, it tells me that he's either not very good at the subject at all, or he's in the wrong genre to begin with.

Which makes me wonder a few things about how Liefeld got into the industry. Here are a few theories:

1) As is so often the case in the comicbook industry, Liefeld had to have approached someone, be it a writer or another artist for a company, and show his work at some point. Whoever saw this work must have either been drunk or stoned.

2) Liefeld had someone else draw his material to be shown. Or had someone else edit it. Once he got a title, he didn't need that other person anymore and started drawing his own crap.

3) Liefeld really can draw humans from life, but his style doesn't mesh well with the superhero genre and his art falls to crap when he tries to warp it.

4) The comicbook industry is getting too liberal with its expectations.

5) Liefeld is rich and pays companies to print him.

6) Liefeld is related to someone in the industry.

7) Liefeld isn't human and therefore knows nothing of our strange anatomy.

and the most plausible theory:

8)Liefeld slept with whoever he needed to sleep with to get published.

[MrTorso]

That is a link for the ages.... We always have a laugh at work when any Liefeld comics come in.

[Rude]

...

That page was great for a laugh, especially at work... ugh, shitty week. Anyway, it probably had the opposite effect on me than the rest of you. I actually kinda' got nostalgic for those crappy old comics! I was the perfect age to get suckered into the "comic scene" when Liefeld and Lee were the big names. I loved going to my local comic book store during the age of variant covers and poly-bagged collectors editions. Of course, even then i knew cheap gimmicks when i saw 'em. So i didn't buy into too much of the BS, but i did enjoy some of Liefeld's titles. Sue me... i was a goofy kid who loved comic books~

I am gonna' have to dig out some of those early issues though, and count how many times the characters are actually missing their feet! Ha!

-Rude

[ChrisHanel]

3) Liefeld really can draw humans from life, but his style doesn't mesh well with the superhero genre and his art falls to crap when he tries to warp it.

Please don't even entertain the idea that Liefeld might be able to accurately draw any kind of human being. Nothing doing, no way.

Being a person that is primarily self-taught in most areas, I usually tend to not cringe as much as others when discovering someone doesn't have a formal education to back up their occupation in life. However, Liefeld's art is so obvious a lack of tutelage that it screams I NEVER HAD ANYONE CRITIQUE MY WORK AS A KID AND NOW I CANT UNLEARN THE STUPID HABITS I FORMED.

Rob became who he is by doing two things:

1) Being one of the first to mass-produce the ultra-exaggerated Muscles, Tits, and Guns style that eventually dominated the 90's and early 00's. The shock and awe of his art was unique at the time and drowned out any criticism of his ability.

2) The man is a charismatic fucker and is a good salesman. He talks a good game, and that's 90% of the process.

-Chris

[Junkyard]

AND HE GOT A SHORT COMEBACK OPPORTUNITY!
Years after getting kicked out in shame after using copyrighted backrounds in his comics, he shows up doing art for TEEN F***ING TITANS and his old X Force crap.

[Tyrant]

2) The man is a charismatic fucker and is a good salesman. He talks a good game, and that's 90% of the process.

 Agreed. And all being a good salesmen got him in the end was tons of ridicule once the art he was pushing went out of style. That's his legacy. I know he'll laugh all the way to the bank, too. That's his ultimate insult against the comicbook industry, in my opinion. He came, he whored up the business, he made tons of money, and he backed out of the limelight somewhat. Now I know how businesses work, but I try to believe that artists attempt to hang on to some concept of decency and integrity for their craft. Livings have to be earned and you do what you're told, but somewhere in earning a living, an artists' true goal needs to be making great art.

  I don't know who to be madder at when I look at Liefeld's art. Him, whoever gave him his first gig to get his name out, the dozens of artists who should have known better copying his style, or the droves people who actually bought his comics. I wish no particular ill on the man and he's a good deal richer than I'll ever be doing something I can only dream of doing, but he will never deserve to rub shoulders with any of the true artist and writing legends in comics.

[ChrisHanel]

AND HE GOT A SHORT COMEBACK OPPORTUNITY!
Years after getting kicked out in shame after using copyrighted backrounds in his comics, he shows up doing art for TEEN F***ING TITANS and his old X Force crap.

Eh, his dismissal out of Image had a lot more to do with his mishandling of business interests and paying back personal debts out of the company bank account. There's dozens of "great" artists who have been caught duping backgrounds, poses, costumes, etc. It was hardly #1 on his rap sheet of crimes against the industry.

[Hebs]

  Haha, oh man Chris, thanks for posting this it made me tear up laughing.

"Those pesky, tiny feet"
"All grimacing all the time"
"Imagine me at 12 reading a comic about a big black naked body builder"

It really seems to me that the people to blame for all his money are the crazy kids in the 90's who loved that stuff and bought it.  It happened with Batman - remember he had those HUUUUGE ass ears?  Something about the 70's and the 90's - comics were just angrier, I don't know. 

I mean, honestly, money wise, the people who get rich off of comics are few and far between.  In fact, we could probably name all of them on 2 hands. 

The industry just doesn't have the income of other industries, and it really isn't all that big of a business. If you're in it long enough, make enough friends, you get to know almost everyone.  I mean, it's changing now, with the popularity of comics turned into movies and the public embracing indie work - it's definitely bigger, but it still doesn't have the readership it had in say, the 1940s, and it certainly doesn't have the readership of comics in Japan.

It seems like guys who are smart businessmen, Bob Kane, Stan Lee (moneywhoooore!!), Joe Quesada, - they made tons of money off of chance opportunities that ended up scoring really big and they made the best of it.  Is that Liefeld?  I guess, I don't know all that much about him.

Anyway, synopsis: he sucks and the list was hilarious.

[OTC316]

I remember going to see my nephew awhile back, and he had an action figure of Cable. This thing was sculpted the exact same way as Liefeld drew him, with big-ass shoulders and tiny little feet. I tried standing it up, but it kept tipping over!!

[gbeenie]

Sounds like a McFarlane Toy to me. 

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

The only human being that Rob Liefeld would be able to draw with anatomical accuracy.