Rob Liefeld

Success with DC Comics and Marvel Comics

Learning from a friend that there was going to be a large number of editors in attendance at a comic book convention in San Francisco, Liefeld and his friend drove several hours to that city, where they stayed with his aunt and uncle. At the convention, he showed editors his samples and offered a package, which consisted of 10 pages of sequential art featuring his own characters. Editor Dick Giordano, to whom Liefeld showed his samples at the DC booth, requested that Liefeld send him more samples. Although Liefeld was apprehensive about approaching the Marvel booth, he did so at his friend's urging, and as a result, editor Mark Gruenwald offered Liefeld a job illustrating an eight-page Avengers backup story featuring the Black Panther, much to the 19-year-old artist's surprise. Though the published story was ultimately illustrated by another artist, Liefeld was later given character design work by the publisher. His first published story was a DC Comics Bonus Book insert in Warlord #131 (September 1988). Editor Robert Greenberger recalled that Liefeld "was discovered by my office-mate, Jonathan Peterson, who was scrambling to find something for him to do. I had the Warlord Bonus Book slot coming up, so to keep Rob from finding work at our rival, I tapped him for that." Next came the five-issue miniseries Hawk and Dove for DC Comics, the first issue of which was published with an October 1988 cover date. It was this work that first garnered Liefeld visibility among readers of mainstream comics. That same year, Liefeld drew Secret Origins #28.

Liefeld's layouts for Hawk and Dove #5, which took place in a chaos dimension, were oriented sideways so that a reader would have to turn the comic book at a right angle to read them. Because this was done without prior editorial approval, editor Mike Carlin cut and pasted the panels into the proper order, and Karl Kesel lightboxed them onto DC comics paper to ink them. The letters column of Hawk and Dove #5 mentions that Liefeld "showed something new to an editor who thought he'd seen everything." Liefeld explained this was how the dimension had been portrayed the only other time it had been shown. Kesel disputed this, stating that this was the first time that dimension had been shown, as he and Barbara Kesel created for that very story, but a 2007 article in Comic Book Resources quoted artist Erik Larsen as saying that he depicted the Chaos Dimension in that matter in Doom Patrol #14, which had been published three months prior, and that Liefeld was adhering to that established look of the location.

Shortly thereafter, Liefeld began doing work for Marvel Comics as well, his first assignment for them being The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #23. In 1989, Liefeld became the penciller for the Marvel series The New Mutants, starting with issue #86. He is generally credited for turning this lowest-selling title of the X-Men franchise into a financial success, which underlined the increased popularity and clout that his stint on the title had earned him.

With The New Mutants #98, Liefeld assumed full creative control over the series, penciling, inking and plotting, with Fabian Nicieza writing dialogue. The New Mutants series ended with issue 100, and was replaced with a revamped version of the team called X-Force, whose 1991 debut issue sold four million copies, setting an industry-wide record later broken by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee's X-Men (vol. 2) #1. The sales numbers were propelled by 1990s direct market sales strategies: five variant edition trading cards were polybagged with X-Force #1 to encourage sales of multiple copies to single collectors, while X-Men #1 was sold with five variant covers. As of 2013, X-Force #1 remains the second highest-selling comic book in history.

In mid-1990, Levi's began producing a series of TV commercials directed by Spike Lee for their 501 button fly jeans, which included an onscreen 800 number that viewers who worked in unique jobs could call in order to appear in the company's commercials. After calling the number and leaving a message describing himself and his career, Liefeld appeared in one of the commercials, in which Lee interviews Liefeld about his career and his creation, X-Force.

Liefeld was subsequently interviewed by Stan Lee in the second episode of the 1991 documentary series The Comic Book Greats, in which he discussed how he broke into the industry, demonstrated his drawing technique, and talked about his Levi's commercial.

Leaving Marvel Comics, co-founding Image Comics

Liefeld's relationship with Marvel began to break down in 1991 when he announced plans in a black-and-white advertisement in the Comics Buyer's Guide to publish an original title with competitor Malibu Comics. The exact title is unknown, but according to journalist Michael Dean, it was something to the effect of The X-Cutioners, a title whose similarity to Marvel's X-Men family of titles evoked the ire of Marvel editor Bob Harras, who threatened to fire Liefeld if he used that title.

Liefeld and several other popular young artists including Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Whilce Portacio, Jim Valentino, and Marc Silvestri, left Marvel in 1992 to form Image Comics. Each co-founder formed his own studio under the Image banner, such as Liefeld's Extreme Studios. The debut issue of Liefeld's superhero team series Youngblood, which is partially a derivative of a 1991 Teen Titans series Liefeld had proposed to DC Comics, was the first comic Image published. He appeared on an episode of The Dennis Miller Show to promote the book.

The series' first issue was poorly received by both fans and critics for the unclear storytelling effected not only by Liefeld's art, but by the book's flip format, which some readers found confusing, as well as Liefeld's poor anatomy; incorrect perspective; non-existent backgrounds; poor dialogue and the late shipping of the book, a problem that continued with subsequent issues. In an interview in Hero Illustrated #4 (October 1993), Liefeld conceded disappointment with the first four issues of Youngblood, calling the first issue a "disaster". Liefeld explained that production problems, as well as sub-par scripting by his friend and collaborator Hank Kanalz, whose employment Liefeld later terminated, resulted in work that was lower in quality than that which Liefeld produced when Fabian Nicieza scripted his plots on X-Force, and that reprints of those four issues would be re-scripted. Writer and Comics Buyer's Guide columnist Peter David pointed to Liefeld's scapegoating of Kanalz as an example of Liefeld's failure to take responsibility for his project, and evidence that genuine collaboration with good writers like Louise Simonson and Fabian Nicieza, which some of the Image founders did not appreciate, had previously reflected better on Liefeld's art.

Other titles produced by Liefeld's Extreme Studios during the 1990s included Brigade, Bloodstrike, Glory, Prophet, Supreme, Team Youngblood, Youngblood Strikefile, Troll, New Men and Avengelyne. In January 1993, Variety reported that the 24-year-old Liefeld had signed a deal with Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment to develop a multimedia franchise to produce a feature film called Doom's IV, which would see Liefeld's studio producing a comic book tie-in, and Liefeld himself possibly providing character designs for the film. Doom's IV #1 was released with a July 1994 cover date. The series ran for four issues, plus a ½ issue. The film, however, never went into production.

In 1996, Liefeld's and Lee's studios signed with Marvel to re-envision several of the company's core series, an event called "Heroes Reborn". Liefeld was contracted to write twelve issues of The Avengers, co-written with Jeph Loeb, and was to pencil twelve issues of Captain America. Due to disappointing sales, Marvel terminated the agreement after six issues, and reassigned the two series to Lee's studio, one of the most controversial episodes in Liefeld's career.

Departure from Image

In June 1996, Marc Silvestri temporarily left Image with his Top Cow imprint over conflicts with Liefeld, with Image Comics executive director Larry Marder saying that Liefeld "was making an increasing number of business decisions that were counterproductive to being a business partner." In early September, Liefeld issued a press release stating he was resigning his position at Image and leaving the group. Nearly simultaneously, the other Image partners issued a press release stating that they had fired Liefeld. His resignation came only minutes before the second meeting that would have forced him out. Liefeld moved all his publishing ventures into a new company, Awesome Comics. This new enterprise, announced in April 1997 as a partnership between Liefeld and Malibu Comics founding partner Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, concentrated its efforts on newer properties.

Awesome Comics

After leaving Captain America, Liefeld attempted to buy the rights to Fighting American, a similarly patriotically themed 1954 character from Captain America's creators, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The still-living Simon and Kirby's widow agreed to a figure Liefeld felt was too high, and he created a new similar character, Agent America. Simon threatened to sue, and the parties renegotiated a deal acceptable to all. Marvel Comics then sued Liefeld, who was allowed to use the character but not have him throw his shield weapon, a distinctive trait of Captain America.

Liefeld also hired comic book writer Alan Moore to revive many of Liefeld's creations. Moore wrote a few issues of Youngblood and Glory, but his most lauded work for Liefeld was on Supreme, for which Moore won the 1997 Eisner Award for Best Writer.

Awesome's initial releases included new properties like Kaboom!, created by Jeff Matsuda. Awesome ceased operation in 2000 due to the departure of its primary investor.

2000s work

In the 2000s, Liefeld returned to his former characters in the X-Men franchise, providing pencils for Cable and X-Force until the early 2000s, when both were canceled.

In 2004, he reunited with Fabian Nicieza for an X-Force limited series and illustrated the early covers for Nicieza's Cable & Deadpool. In that same year, Liefeld formed Arcade Comics and once again announced plans to revive Youngblood. These involved reprinting older material and providing the art for two new series: Youngblood: Bloodsport with Mark Millar and Youngblood: Genesis with Brandon Thomas. Although the former only published one issue, Liefeld expressed hopes to finish the series.

Liefeld and writer Jeph Loeb returned to the Heroes Reborn Universe with Onslaught Reborn, a five-issue limited series that premiered in November 2006. It met with poor reviews.

In 2007, Liefeld and writer Robert Kirkman collaborated on a revival of Killraven. Although five issues of the series were finished, the project was cancelled without any of them being printed.

In July 2007, Rob Liefeld and Youngblood returned to Image Comics after ten years of self-publication. This Youngblood series was written by Joe Casey with art by Derec Donovan and Val Staples, and covers by Liefeld. It debuted in January 2008. Liefeld took over writing and art duties with issue #9, though that would be the series' final issue. To commemorate the event, and the 15th anniversary of Image Comics, the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con was headlined by the Image Founders panel, where all seven of the original Image Comics founders appeared on stage together.

2010s work

2010 saw Liefeld return to the Deadpool character, first by penciling issue #1 of the Prelude to Deadpool Corps series, the issue focusing on Lady Deadpool. Liefeld became the regular artist on Deadpool Corps, providing interior art for the first nine issues.

In March 2011, Liefeld was announced as the artist on The Infinite, a mini-series written by Robert Kirkman. In January 2012, this project was canceled by Liefeld after Kirkman's studio, Skybound, disagreed on the work of a new inker Liefeld hired to draw 14 of the pages in issue #5, which Liefeld re-inked as a result.

In June 2011, he was announced as the artist on a new Hawk and Dove series, with writer Sterling Gates, as part of The New 52, DC Comics' relaunch of their entire superhero line, returning Liefeld to the characters that helped establish him in the industry. When that book was canceled as of issue #8, Liefeld was hired to take over three other titles: Grifter, Deathstroke and The Savage Hawkman, plotting all three, while also writing and drawing Deathstroke. Though he indicated in July 2012 that he would stay on the titles for a run that would end in 2013, he abruptly quit DC Comics in late August 2012, announcing that the #0 issues to be published in September would be his last. Though Liefeld characterized his experience on The New 52 as a positive one, he did not disguise his animosity toward editor Brian Smith, with whom his clashes were among his reasons for leaving the company. Other reasons he cited were frequent rewrites of his material, and the overall corporate culture that was more prevalent now that both DC and Marvel were owned by large media conglomerates. Liefeld also referred to Scott Clark's artwork on Grifter as "crap". Liefeld indicated that he would return to focusing on his creator-owned properties at Image, including Bloodstrike, Brigade, as well as other projects yet to be specified. In response to these events, artist Pete Woods defended DC editorial, stating that the restrictions placed on creators was the result of a plan they had for all 52 of their titles that required them to be consistent with one another. Editor Tom Brevoort and writer Gail Simone defended Brian Smith, disputing Liefeld's characterization of him, leading to a heated exchange on Twitter between Liefeld and Brevoort, and eventually head Batman writer Scott Snyder as well.

In 2011–2012 Liefeld returned to his earlier creator-owned characters, with new books written and illustrated by other writers and artists. These included a new Avengelyne ongoing series debut at Image Comics under the creative team of Mark Poulton and Owen Gieni, a Bloodstrike series written by Tim Seeley, a Glory series written by Joe Keatinge and illustrated by Sophie Campbell, and a Prophet series written by Brandon Graham that garnered critical acclaim. He also published revivals of Youngblood with writer John McLaughlin with artist Jon Malin and Supreme by Erik Larsen in 2012.

In August 2012 Liefeld generated controversy by posting a tweet in which he said of his creation, Deadpool, and the creators who worked on the character:

Testament to Deadpool's appeal and durability is that he thrives regardless of being regulated [sic] to D-list talent. Marvel A-list never touches

The comment was met with criticism by industry professionals who pointed to the esteemed creators who had worked on the character that Liefeld was apparently calling "D-list" creators. Among these critics was Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool, who pointed out that some of these past creators included Joe Kelly, Ed McGuinness, Joe Madureira, Gail Simone, David Lapham and Kyle Baker. Artist Dave Johnson, who had also worked on the character, referenced a video Liefeld posted on the Web a year earlier of him inking a comics page while driving, by saying, "Yes!!! I've been elevated to the 'D list' of talent. Thanks Rob. Now if I can only learn how to ink while driving a car." Then-Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso also referenced other creators who had worked on Deadpool, including Gerry Duggan, Brian Posehn, and Tony Moore, saying, "Welcome to the D-list, @GerryDuggan @thebrianposehn @tonymoore! Howdy Doody just put your name on the list." Writer Rick Remender, another veteran of books featuring Deadpool, stated, "Lot of talented people you just called out as D-list. Might be a better way to congratulate yourself?" Liefeld defended his statement in subsequent tweets posted that day, tweeting, "Truth hurts. Did I miss the Brubaker Deadpool arc? The Millar Deadpool arc? The Loeb Deadpool arc. Get over yourself. The flip of my statement is that Marvel doesn't feature their prize talent on Dpool and the character does well-Mostly newbies, hence D-list". Liefeld stated that his point was that "heavy contract players" at Marvel such as Leinil Francis Yu, Steve McNiven, Arthur Adams, and Olivier Coipel did not produce regular monthly books featuring the character. On March 3, Liefeld apologized for his comments, saying, "As a parent I tell my kids it costs nothing to apologise, so here goes: I apologise and am truly sorry to everyone I insulted with my D-list comments. I said it and can't take it back." Liefeld stated that his original complaint was that Marvel tended to rely on new and unproven talent on Deadpool, and not to attack creators such as the then-new team of Posehn, Duggan, and Moore.

Liefeld made a cameo appearance in the 2016 film based on his most famous creation, Deadpool, which was released in February 2016. In an interview that month, Liefeld stated that he was working on the graphic novel Deadpool: Bad Blood, which was set for release later that year. In 2017, it was reported by Deadline that Liefeld was working with Akiva Goldsman and Graham King on a seven-figure movie deal for his Extreme Universe.

Production and business problems

Liefeld has also gained a reputation for producing late books, primarily his creator-owned ones, though somewhat less so when doing work-for-hire. Some issues of his series Youngblood shipped as much as nine months late. Liefeld has attributed this to the greater incentive a freelancer feels when doing work-for-hire assignments for a company, as opposed to working on one's self-owned work. Creator Bob Layton related he had to fly to Los Angeles and actually sit on Liefeld's doorstep until Liefeld finished penciling his portion of the Deathmate miniseries, which was an intercompany crossover published by Image Comics and Valiant Comics, and that he had to ink the artwork himself in an Anaheim hotel room. Layton stated, "There I was, with my own company to manage, and I was in California, managing someone else's people." Layton cites Deathmate, and Image's inability to produce its half of that series in a timely manner, as the first disaster that heralded the end of the speculator boom of the 1990s, and the eventual demise of Valiant Comics.

Liefeld has been criticized for not returning to Rick Veitch the original artwork that Veitch had produced for Liefeld's Awesome Comics series, Supreme.

Liefeld compared his conflicts with contemporaries McFarlane and Jim Lee to the intra-band conflicts of the Eagles, reflecting in 2007 that his feud with the Image partners was in the past, saying, "The divorce was ugly, but to me it didn't linger.... I realized you just need to let it go."