Why it's important to learn to draw a foot
polycounter lvl 18
Thought this was a good thing to send out. Just someone ripping on Robert Liefield:)
http://progressiveboink.com/archive/robliefeld.html
Spark
http://progressiveboink.com/archive/robliefeld.html
Spark
Replies
And the article fails miserably for not including this gem, which automatically makes Liefeld hate acceptable.
Poor cap, I hope they find a cure for torso cancer.
If those are the guy's worst 40 drawings, I'd say that pretty much qualifies Liefeld as one of the top 10 modern American comic book artists.
That whole article reeks of 12 year olds pissing on about something they have no idea about. Almost all the points stretch very far trying to take the piss out of something that doesn't deserve it. I have no past knowledge of Rob Liefeld, but American comics are generally way more awful looking than what this guy produces, so what gives?
[/ QUOTE ]
<---- sort of agree although I know who liefield is.
A shitton of those drawings were pretty good. Way better than I can too. The author is just bitching about random shit that no one sees but him.
Of course a couple are laughably bad, but thats liefield.
and yea, wtf is with that author. Dfacto's image is the most liefield thing in existence.
......
Alex
Liefeld wasn't really the worst..he just had a style that was popular and got him his 15 minutes of fame. Hell, look at some of Mignola or Larsen's stuff from way back when. Some of their shit made my skin crawl.
Some of the industry people even worked hard to rip off some of his stuff, and many styles where an offspring-combo of the Jim Lee's, McFarlane's, and Liefeld altogether. Ever hear of Stephen Platt? When he came on the scene people had a hard time taking him seriously because of how similar his style was to all of them. And he was one of the more popular ones. There were a dozen more at least that copied the rest of them.
I never thought Liefeld's art was amazing, but to talk shit about someone's comic book art is a complete misunderstanding of how comic book art works. And if we were to only appreciate "realistic" looking comic books, there aren't many that would be read.
A web site dedicated to shitting on a guy who hasn't been a significant figure in comics in a decade.
[/ QUOTE ]
it was just a single article on a website
saw this the other day. reading the first page i was put off - this douche is just being a douche. But by the third page I was laughing out loud at some of the descriptions. Taken lightly as someone bitching, it's rather amusing.
you could call it an expressionistic take on superheros. LOL
who takes the time to make such a lame website that just tries to hate on someone else's work.
[/ QUOTE ]
Some of you guys are acting like this is your first trip to the interents. I dont see what is surprising in the least about someone writing an article for the sheer fun of shiting on someone else. Here's some more websites you can cry about simply for the fact that they exsist:
http://maddox.xmission.com/
http://www.somethingawful.com/
http://www.oldmanmurray.com/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation
Could it be better? Of course. But it's not dreadfully awful by any means.
Since when did bashing mediocre high-profile work become something that needs to be condemned, huh? What, gonna tell us making fun of fat kids is wrong next? Killjoys.
[/ QUOTE ]
qft. srsly
BIG GUNS+THIGHS+STAR-EYES+TINY FEET+POUCHES+HATCH-LINES = success back then, I guess.
Then he made the move to Image and cultivated a reputation as the industry's 'BAD BOY',
I have a few of his old New Mutants (which I thought were great at the time) but I never really cared for his work after that. He basically personifies that early 90s boom era of 'image without substance'. His comics had bad writing, bad art... bad everything. They dripped with flash and stlye...and POO!
So maybe its not that he's so bad...but that people once thought he was so GOOD that's make him such a big target.
I dunno, thats how it seems to me.
i have several friends in the comic biz, all better artists than their comic work conveys. main factor in this is the deadlines, if you think game industry has crazy deadlines you have no fucking clue how bad it could be... and on top of all that they make almost no money.
yes there are like 3 good comic artists....
so what.
they wouldn't even be good if the rest weren't so horrible in comparison.
looking at comics for artistic inspiration is like looking at whores for true love.
He was hot shit and made bank for work that is dead average. And much like an overhyped movie that is in fact mediocre, we can all make fun of him and have a good time over his tiny feet and freak-hands.
Vanilla Ice was "the shit", until the hangover wore off and then people made fun of him and continue to do so to this day, despite him having made a decent rap song. Rob Liefeld led the charge in comics with substanceless work that was often an anatomical massacre, and now that young dorks have grown up and gotten over the 90s we can all bash him for kicks too.
This is the internet, lighten up.
substanceless work that was often an anatomical massacre
[/ QUOTE ]
Much like the girls in many games?
tinman, I agree, you'd have to be a special kind of person to make a website just to hate on a guy. But, it's given a few people a bit of a laugh, so whatever, I can't tell this guy how to spend his time. Hell, we're all idiots just for writing in this thread - but who cares?
Maybe Liefield's art is funny because it totally sums up that 90's style of crappy superhero comics (has the guy done anything since?) Think of it as making fun of the trend, not the man, then we can all have fun!
Childish American stories of spandex-wearing retards, yeah guys, continue to take that stuff seriously...
[/ QUOTE ]
Hahaha... no I think I'd rather deride them and laugh at their stupid plots, villains, and perverse continuity fuckups. That's how I get my jollies.
[ QUOTE ]
It's that anyone who spends any amount of time devoted to making a multiple page website soly to harp on someones work is a friggan wanker. I'm sorry but no matter how bad the guys anatomy is the work still counts for a little more than the ability to make a few web pages that just make fun of someone else's work.
[/ QUOTE ]
Once again, so what? We should pretend we have sympathy for Rob? The author's a douche, but there's no comedic value in deriding another hater-humor clone, trying terribly to be as funny as maddox and mostly failing.
Rob Liefeld was overrated, and we can have a laugh at his expense. The author is just some wannabe Cracked staffer, and there's not much to laugh at. And of course actually being serious about this is insane, because this is all just juvenile shit-slinging. Online. You know, the place where photoshopping text onto cat pictures is highbrow humor.
So in closing, my thesis is that you should laugh, or not, and get over it.
to be fair, most interviews with him now seem to paint him as a humble guy who's gotten over his 90s rockstar image...so who knows. Perhaps all these images we're seeing are relics from a hotshot growing up in the comic industry
Also, you're not really being fair to american comics--that superhero-only cliche came to a head BECAUSE of guys like liefield. People like him are the reason theres so many dirty/immature/lowquality impressions about US comics running around.
When that bubble imploded in the mid 90s it left the industry devastated. A lot of really cool new stuff sprang up in it's ashes. Sure, there's a lot of crap superhero stuff out there still, but there's tons of genre stuff out there by amazing artists too. And most mainstream comic shops carry them now too--those shelves haven't been monopolized by the superhero in over ten years.
i get caught up on liefield just because I grew up with his/image's works being around me so much. They had a lot of 'market saturation' or whatever its called.
It's one thing if you don't think it's funny, but I thought it was hilarious. It's like one of those threads we have here where we all dig up our worst, old model. Yeah, Per, all of us make some bad art, but that doesn't make it any less funny. Mistakes have comedy. . .
Yukito Kishiro ftw!
[/ QUOTE ]
Hell yeah, I'd love to make a Gully/Alita (?) model - that'd be sweet!
Most styles of comics never appealed to me, and for years I never took it seriously. Rob's work is a clear example of why, but still that's only my preference. The artist's work serves it's purpose. The are many "How to Draw Comics" books on store shelves. The best artists of today and the future will learn and improve from what Rob has to offer to those references, under the section, "What NOT to do". And that's all the effort that really needs to be placed on this subject. As it's an industry driven by trends, and deadlines. Much like the game industry. Thousands of pages are written each year, criticizing the utter crap that's being push as "art" in this industry. With only a small start, I've been on the receiving end of this, as well as many of you, I'm sure. But, it's a learning experience, and eventually, people will shut the fuck up, get a life, and realize that everyone takes small steps to success.
The writers of this hate article are safe in their basement, away from the all powerful sunlight of justice.
If i didn't know who hasselhoff was i probably wouldn't think the jokes that surround him would be very funny.
It's not like this has totally come out of the blue. There's a context. Although its still pretty cuntish, and I know how I'd feel If it were my work up there. I suppose you could compare him to someone like Keaunu Reeves. Everyone knows he can't actually act at all, but it doesn't seem to have stopped him from becoming a hugely succesful Hollywood star.
Spark
P.S: Per, is that a recent photo?:)
Back to the thread, I'm surprised this is getting so much talk. Regardless of whether or not it's funny, I think we can all agree that this is very, very, very, very old. I mean, no one is going to look at Liefeld's art and say any of it is a masterpiece of anatomy. This was obvious when I was a teenager and regularly buying comics. Why is it still being critiqued whilst I'm in my 30s? Picking on Rob Liefeld is liking picking on disco; it's all weird and embarrassing and we've known this for at least half our lives and can stop talking about it now.
Slightly related: I don't think Liefeld gets enough credit. Yeah, his technique sucks. His inventiveness, though? Give him props for that. Utility pouches and massive guns and random bionic limbs are all cliches today, but back in 1989? Liefeld near as well as invented that entire style when he took over New Mutants. He didn't arrive at Marvel trying to imitate Neal Adams or Frank Miller, he was busting out his own vision, crazy as the results might have be. Gotta respect that, few artists have such a unique way of looking at things so early in their careers.
Inside joke, the makers of the Flinstones sued Liefield for naming his stone guy character, his tribute or clone of The Thing, Bedrock. To avoid further legal action Liefied changed the character's name to Badrock. He was pissed.
BIG GUNS+THIGHS+STAR-EYES+TINY FEET+POUCHES+HATCH-LINES = success back then, I guess.
[/ QUOTE ]
I like pouches... pouches are cool ...
The only reason I think Liefield made the "impact" that he did was that he hung out with the right crowd, the guys that founded Image comics and said screw you to Marvel back then, and his comics had a shit load of action and women with giant breasts.
[/ QUOTE ]
Err... I didn't compare him to Jim Lee. And what makes you think I wasn't buying Lee's work back in the late 80's? Anyway, I think that's missing the point. Lee's technique was superb, but stylistically? I don't remember his early work doing being particularly memorable. Here's the cover he did for Alpha Flight 75, back in 1989:
http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0TAAMHbEXd...463259698949933
The Hulk makes me think of Jim Lee (particularly the hands), but the rest is still very Neal Adams-ish, IMO. Rob Liefeld's work was distinctive from the beginning, whether people were fans of it or not.
regardless of how much new stuff lee brought to the table, he was definitely a pinnacle of that "just-prior-to-IMAGE" cumulative marvel style.
liefields stuff on new mutants was DEFINITELY distinct, though..i cant argue there.
As far as Jim Lee works goes I was refering to his work on Uncanny Xmen 248, and then the Xmen series. He also did work on the Punisher and made that series popular again when he had his run on it. I didn't know Lee did any work on the Hulk. Interesting. I was never a fan of the Hulk but loved the Pitt series. Besides it's easy to say Liefield isn't as good as other artists when they, like Lee get to draw the characters Liefield created ten times better. Lee, Marc and Eric Silvestri, Todd Macfarlane, Dale Keown, Eric Larson, that's the group I mean by top dogs at Image Comics to be more specific. Like I said in my first post Liefield wasn't that bad as an artist there were plenty are worse. Hell he has done plenty, he help make Image Comics succeed. It's easy to pick on the guy because he caused a lot of trouble and his art style is way over the top.
Alex
disposable though
like comic art