He asked a lot of good questions. but man if i was Rob i don't know how i could hold back punching Hart in the mouth more then once. He conducted a good interview but he's a shitty person. There's no reason to be cruel to your interview subject. His personal dislike for Rob is pure absolute jealousy nothing more. He was angry that Rob was successful and that kids liked his art and it made Rob rich. Look at Harts history he thrives on being a trouble maker and a glory hound and a sensationalist. have you seen Harts artwork?
I hope hart fisher has done more interviews. Brutal. Reminds me a little bit of lester bangs when he he did album reviews. Lester hated led zeppelin and tore them apart in his reviews.
As an addition, when I worked in S Korea, they tend to view a TON of webtoons on their phones while commuting (train, bus subway, etc..) not so much paper products these days.
I have a much clearer idea of what Rob went through now. Similar thing happened at a studio I was at where the partnership had whittled down to two, one of which was dominating the company. Subordinate artists like us had our prospects wrapped up in the propagation of what was ultimately best for the alpha guy. You pay attention to every detail for the record, like Rob, even if you can't prevent a trainwreck from happening due to a lack of cold-blooded business experience. At the end of the season, you remember every detail of being cut out of royalties and proven ownership of works, but there's nothing you can do or say the press or legal aid will do compared to the alpha guy. Every sub was afraid to state the injustice for fear or reprisal, or losing their job even though they'd eventually get an ultimatum in the alpha's favour. Rob's personal life seems a lot more fulfilling though, whereas a lot of the guys I knew, including myself, had to rebuild from nothing and find any work we could to figure out what we wanted.
Wow! The "Comics Journal" reviews have been really fascinating and hearing you gents reenact Liefeld V Hart Fisher has been awesome to listen to. I wouldn't mind more "Journal" content from this period, especially when compared to the Wizard coverage. Just a terrific "time capsule" this channel provides, to the Roller Coaster Comics Industry in the '90s decade. Keep up the incredible work, Ed and Jim!
I really enjoyed this style of video. I actually have a Comics Journal archives subscription so i could read this interview myself but sometimes i just dont have the time to sit down and read a long one like this. This is great to put on while drawing and just absorb the information. A side of Rob that goes unacknowledged sometimes.
Great interview-read, guys! Just FYI, I own a Comics Interview magazine that's so old, Jim Lee has an interview in it and his name is nowhere on the cover (that's old!). Also, BTW, I've seen Jim Lee at a couple of conventions and my perception of him is that he is a total shark. He's no wide-eyed lover of comics. Dude is in it for the long-green.
Rob's art didn't age well but as a kid who got sucked back into comics because of Liefeld and McFarlane, Rob's art and energy in New Mutants and especially X-Force was total eye candy. It was the perfect time to be a teenage comic book lover.
Phew, this was crazy. Some stuff I"m surprised I'd never heard of. Rob was a partner in Todd Toys? Did I understand that correctly? Boy, I would love to hear Rob talk about making awesome comics for kids these days. Ones that aren't too kiddish, but are still cool. Be interesting to see.
This is gold. I have never cared for Liefeld, McFarlane, and all the crap they did and didn’t know about all the brouhaha. Not surprised. But this is very enlightening.
Does anyone know if TCJ still conducts such penetrating interviews? I haven’t observed the same tone or provocative stance in many of the recent tcj online interviews, but I could very well be mistaken, and I’ve not had an opportunity to read many recent print addition tcj installments. I was revisiting some Liefeld comics today, in the wake of listening to these interview recitations. I understand all the criticism and certainly don’t think it’s groundless. But there’s something so peculiar about Liefeld’s art that I often can’t pull my eyes away from it and find myself revisiting a diverse collection of back issues just for his art.
Lol, I like Rob Liefeld honesty and philosophy. That what I realized in the end of art. The adults or other artists at your age will criticize the fuck outta of your art because it doesn't match the current or expectation of "realism" ar such as anatomy, color, lighting and whatever "rules" they have for it. I think Rob Liefeld art was popular because it was the kids imagination or the adult imagination breaking the rules of what reality should be or could be. It looked cool, it was dramatic, and it was surreal dramatization of human body. Good interview and golden nuggets of knowledge. God bless you Rob Liefeld, saying eff u to the haters and jealously of other artists.
This stuff between Todd and Rob sounds like a couple divorcing and fighting over throw pillows with neither wanting to admit their part in it falling apart.
Rob’s premise that the other Image founders came after him for wanting to leave Image falls apart when you take into account Jim Lee leaving Image. We didn’t hear any disparaging stories about Jim did we?
