I remember him sitting next to me one time in church in my early college years scribbling all of these amazing figure on his church bulletin. He was pretty mild mannered and kick back--we went to the beach a few times and saw some movies with our group of friends, like seeing Space Balls. I remember when he came back from San Francisco and how excited he was--along with Tony Lobido and Todd Bruchert. He went in to marry one of my friends, Joy, and then we lost contact. I've recently got into Comic Book culture as in Superhero materials and suddenly I am seeing Rob everywhere. Love it and recollecting the era before he made his big break.
say what you want about old Rob, but he comes off as a pretty humble and friendly guy. I'm not a huge fan of the EXTREEEEEEEEEEEM 90's style, but it was his niche for sure.
Heretic yep I always thought the same thing that you said.. which is why at the time I went out of my way to try and support him as one of the founders of Image comics... but what I got in return was missed deadlines, stories that I couldn't follow, art that made no sense, and project after project of new startup characters and teams that all looked the same and had nothing to say.. it was exhausting. I tried to like his stuff cause I thought he was a cool guy... but he gave me nothing to work with. He wasn't the only one mind you there were a lot of others doing the same thing... but he was doing it Supreme.
JOE SANCHEZ people hate him cause he isn’t a talented artist(in compereson to other artist that were paid much less)or a writer yet he’s rolling in cash.
Every time I read or hear about Rob Liefeld, I'm just filled with overflowing inspiration. I realize there's no reason to doubt myself. Rob Liefeld is living proof that you can make it in comics on hard work and panache alone.
Yes, Rob especially. But I also like Jim Lee's story about how he was on a path to becoming a psychiatrist and even went to med school when he suddenly realized how much talent and passion he had for comic art. The 90s X-Men he did were some of my personal favorites.
@@JB-zo7ln same, he was my primary inspiration in the early days. As someone who gave up on wanting to be a comic book artist and went premed -> mental health, but now dabbles in some freelance illustration, I can relate to him quite a bit!
I know there's a lot of hate for Liefeld. I personally don't prefer his artwork. But I think what many people forget is that the people whose names we know are not the most talented always, but the most talented among those who are willing to do what it takes to achieve notoriety and success in their fields. Liefeld took what talent he did have and found a way to commodify it, plain and simple.
most of Rob's haters are people who cant draw, or people who've never gotten paid for their art. most of the hate is just jealousy (its people who say "i could do better", but have never actually done anything).
Yea he did. I think his talent was and is plain to see. His true gift was attuning to mainstream culture and creating innovative selling points. He broke the mould. He is an extraordinary artist.
Idc what anyone says. Liefield defined the 90s in comics. To make an entire era so identifiable is a talent in itself. Crazy edgy names like BLOODSTRIKE or DEATHBLADE or whatever and bulging muscles and huge guns. Say what you want but I'm very happy this era of comics exists
This video really shows why so many people love and admire Stan Lee. He's such a kind, genuine and humble person, but he also knows when and where to poke fun, and not in a nasty way, he makes sure that everyone can laugh with him and that everyone is happy. Truly one of the best people on earth, up there with Bob Ross and Mr Rogers.
Personally, Rob's story is inspiring to me. He's a nice guy, and has his own recognizable style. He still does what he loves, even though other people don't like it. That's persistence and bravery in my eyes, and is what every artist should do.
For a guy who was only 23 yrs. old hired by both Marvel and DC and faced a monthly audience , I would say He did pretty good ,plus Deadpool is a huge success . Working in Comics is a tough gig , for a young guy that was taking on alot of responsibility and his books were selling too .
John Russell It's great for a 23 year old amateur. The problem is that they turned him into a 23 year old professional and he never got the chance to mature. Btw, the success of Deadpool doesn't have anything to do with him.
Good point about the maturity aspect in his artwork , I'm sure he would have honed some skills working in indie comics a bit longer before approaching large companies . Btw , I thought Rob created Deadpool . Maybe it was Cable ..... or a bunch of other characters . Oh well , either way , great job for an unskilled amateur .
One thing I do like about Rob Liefeld though , is that he really loves being in comics . I'd like to see him take a break from superheroes and team up with a Science Fiction writer to do more intergalactic stuff where his art style could really shine .
John Russell the thought of what you are saying is beautiful compassionate and heartfelt... but the shortcomings of what he gave the consumers of the day was criminal. He comes off here as a young eager to please hardworking kid which made him likable and rallied support for his projects but what he have us for that support in return was substandard to say the least... go back and look at his early Image work, done at about the time of this video taping and you tell me if he was a talented artist, writer, publisher that has been unfairly criticized (for the work not for him as a person).
I give Rob a lot of credit. He’s self taught and made it big. I also believe he got lucky because this was during Marvel’s rut. I’m self taught so if he can do it, I can too.
I'm definitely not comics expert, but one thing I've noticed is his grown up kid mentality for drawing... he envisions concepts and style like a 12 year old would. Maybe that's what made him famous and profitable.
It seems like there's a lot of people that dislike Rob because of his work, but he seems like a genuine man that really is trying his hardest to put the best work out there that he can, and he's just made a couple of mistakes that any "young" (or new) person in this industry would make
Very true he's very kind so it sucks to see him get bullied by everyone, even by his fellow artist at the time. Which suprised me since he looked like the stuck up kind of guy
Thanks for posting this. I had this entire series on VHS back in the early 90's. People give Liefeld a hard time, but years ago, at the conventions, he always took the time to look at my art and gave me sketches and stuff. Thanks for the good memories!
Rob leifeld is an awesome artist. I don't know who first started talking shit about him but they're WRONG! Deadpool almost everyone's favorite character now, belongs to him. Cable is another kick ass character.
In case anybody was wondering, both of those characters are now official marvel characters You may have already knew that, but if you didn’t, the more you know~
He took a life drawing class? I was considering sending copies of Jack Hamm's Drawing the Human Face and Figure. No, seriously: I admit, I like some of his stuff. It's so exagarrated.
This is awesome but depressing cause it reminds me how I'm stuck at a normal job and I'm now 30 but as an artist I keep drawing and hopefully I break into comics or something art related
"hopefully" that means you arent taking charge and sending out portfolios to publishers, or looking for freelance work. stop waiting for a savior/magic genie.
Rob gets a lot of flak, some of it is deserved, much of it is not. He is certainly not the best artist to ever draw comic books from a technical standpoint. Some of his work is definitely hilariously "off" to say the least. However, his work has a lot of appeal as is evidenced by the huge sales numbers from his heyday and his continued success presently. His art is like a Michael Bay movie, lots of style, flash, energy and cheese, while being light on substance. Sometimes, that's exactly what people want. I'd like to say that I can enjoy the work of an acknowledged master of the medium such as Alex Toth and also enjoy what someone like Liefeld brings to the table. I enjoy them each in their own way and I recognize the marked differences in technical ability and understanding but my enjoyment of both remains. That may be blasphemy in some people's eyes but hey, to each their own. Also, RIP Stan Lee, incredible legend. His recent passing actually inspired me to revisit this video. One more side note, I wish these videos were on DVD or Bluray.
What i like about Liefeld is not the artstyle, mainly, (even if i find it funny and energetic somewhat) but the fact he really tries to create something compelling write it up, draw it up by his own. There are many, many many comic boks artists that are better than him at drawing, but have no real creative skills whatsoever, don't know or have the confidence and boldness to write one story, and so, they're sorta buried up doing comic books they don't even like doing. Then, other good artsts come, and they pass on in the preference of comic book readers. Rob instead at least tries to make it all, do his own creations, good or bad, but their are recognizable as his stuff so the readers will never forget him. Btw he could have matured a technically better art, and even stories if he didn't have such an immediate success still being that young. He's not a master like Mignola or Frank Miller and others. But anyway look, he really loves doing comics and he's still there doing them !
Stan was the man! He will be missed!Still love Rob and love that they have brought his creations to life in the Deadpool movies. Love to make fun of his, since fixed, inability to draw feet...I’m sure he’s tired of it, but it’s with love and gratitude I joke about it! Robs send off to Stan in Variety was amazing and I can’t think of a better person to do it!
It is more like his later work got bad. When he started in the industry he was a newbie that had the potential to become great. Sadly his success caused him to become stale and soon everyone he drew looked like a variation on Cable
Nacho Ninja Rob Liefeld like to stylize his characters, maybe to a fault even. It clearly has some understanding or musculature and form, but he goes too far because that's what was popular in his time.
Take an anatomy class, or attend a few life drawing sessions: Rob Liefeld was what all of my teachers told me to avoid. His sense of color and shading is pretty good: but his anatomy has a long way to go.
Supreme-dictator-donald-trump what? i personally like liefeld's style very much, but every action scenes drawn by him is just lame as fuck. each move in panel completely doesn't connected and whole scene has no recognizable flow at all. in the fight scene of x-force #3, kane holds deadpool with his left hand and raises right hand to punch deadpool in first panel, then he just punch him with left hand and the right hand is still raised in exactly same angle. did liefeld even thought about this problem after draw a script?
Rob definitely regressed in his art style. 25 years ago, he showed fast-fancy drawing skill and atrracttive figure. however now, he just shows dullish skill and Crumpled-cardboard figure.
It's night and day watching the episode with todd and then the episode with rob. Nothing seems to faze rob, he's really laid back and can roll with stan's razzing. Nothing against todd, love them both, just something I noticed. Maybe todd was nervous lol
The problem with his style is that he tries to put too much realism. His style has more resemblance to cartoons, but he just adds too many details to give it some realism. It's like drawing Bugs Bunny, but making the fur look realistic as possible.
I like to imagine that rob liefeld after playing with his stretch armstrong toy and admiring his fathers gun cabinet, and reading an issue of spiderman, he wanted to put all of these aspects into his comics!
Rob gets alot of crap for his art back in the day (feet & pouches especially), but I think people are making the mistake of comparing recent art to the art of back then. To anyone reading this, just humor me: google search comic pages from the 50's and tell me if you don't see a huge difference. The coloring of today is 10,000 times better than it used to be and so is the detailing of anatomy and backgrounds. So back then, Rob was a pro and so was Todd Mcfarlane for that matter. I won't include Jim Lee because he is on a different level...he came out of the womb with a sketchpad and some pigma microns.
You may not like his work, but take note that his art, as flawed as it is... if you see it, you know Immediately it's him...or an imitator to him. Many artists would KILL to have that kind of artistic style recognition. So poke fun at the tiny feet he draws, but Picasso also distorted the human form until it became a style of his own as well.
