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Post by buck on Mar 27, 2012 1:09:14 GMT -5
Would you rather read a comic written by Rob Liefeld or a comic drawn by Rob Liefeld?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2012 1:20:20 GMT -5
Would you rather read a comic written by Rob Liefeld or a comic drawn by Rob Liefeld? The only time I have enjoyed Liefeld's work at all was on the run of New Mutants he did at the end of the 1st series and the Hawk and Dove mini , when Rob was just breaking into comics. He was working with decent writers and strong editorial oversight, which helped reign in his excesses. His work was energetic and enthusiastic, and it was a fun run. Once Rob gained more creative control beyond pitching ideas for plot to the writer he was working with, the comics became virtually unreadable, with no clear story being told just seemingly random tangentially related images and words on a page. So the short answer is a comic drawn by him from a strong writer giving him full scripts that an editor is making him follow... but that's not going to happen, so yeah. In truth, Liefeld is a creator I have avoided completely since Heroes Reborn first appeared on the scene in the mid-90's and I avoided the entire Image line at its launch-the first Image books I bought were Alan Moore's 1963 and Mike Grell's Shaman. Even Neil Gaiman writing an issue of Spawn couldn't get me to pick up an Image book at that time. Now however, I think Image has become one of the best publishers for creator owned material out there. -M |
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Post by superecwfan1 on Mar 27, 2012 12:01:35 GMT -5
He's really not written anything you can say , hey that is great. I mean he's mostly known as an artist so he should stick to that.
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Post by C_Miller on Mar 27, 2012 14:36:27 GMT -5
Yeah. Buck and I were discussing this last night... it's tough, because normally I gravitate towards writing, but his art is so bad. It doesn't hit anything I look for in good art (pretty or good storytelling). But, I'd have to go with draw.
I look at it this way: If Liefield was drawing a Scott Snyder comic or if Liefield was writing a comic drawn by Francis Manapul. I'd probably go with Scott Snyder. I buy comics to read, not look at the pictures.
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Post by superecwfan1 on Mar 27, 2012 21:29:16 GMT -5
Liefeld if he reigns himself in and doesn't try to go too out there can draw ok. I mean , he's never gonna follow the rules and he joked back in the 90's his art teacher was all over him . Telling him how he never followed the rules of art. Liefeld joked "That's ok , I'm just getting paid to do what I do."
Rob adds a real pop super hero dynamic to his work. His heroes are always bigger than life. I think a lot of what he did helped get other artists like Ed McGuiness to follow and do heroes as big , blocky and cartoony as they wanted. So while I don't like a lot of Rob's art. Some where he's reigned in , is pretty ok.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2012 22:04:50 GMT -5
Liefeld if he reigns himself in and doesn't try to go too out there can draw ok. I mean , he's never gonna follow the rules and he joked back in the 90's his art teacher was all over him . Telling him how he never followed the rules of art. Liefeld joked "That's ok , I'm just getting paid to do what I do." Rob adds a real pop super hero dynamic to his work. His heroes are always bigger than life. I think a lot of what he did helped get other artists like Ed McGuiness to follow and do heroes as big , blocky and cartoony as they wanted. So while I don't like a lot of Rob's art. Some where he's reigned in , is pretty ok. See to me that cartoony bigger than life style seemed like a pale imitation of Kirby at the end of his career (late 70's Marvel stuff post Eternals and the indy stuff he did for Pacific, plus the Super Powers minis and Hunger Dog GN for DC) without hte solid foundation of draftmanship and composition skills that Kirby possessed. It has a lot of the energy and enthusiasm but none of the skill and grace of the work that seemed to influence him. When he first started on New Mutants, that energy was contagious and fit that young group of heroes, but it was reined in and put to the service of the story by his co-creators and editors. By the time he got to X-Force #1 he had become a big enough name (hell he even starred in a Levi Jeans commercial that featured some of his artwork at a time when Levis were THE fashion choice of the hip and cool young adult scene) that he could shed those reins and with the shedding of the reins went anything resembling story structure or cohesion. Issues seemed to be endless fight scenes with badly proportioned individuals and impossible anatomies. Liefeld had no formal art training, and was proud of it. I think he had a lot of artistic potential and would have been well served getting some formal training. If he had say gone to the Kubert school and mastered the techniques of storytelling to use and be fueled by the energy and enthusiasm he had, he could have been a very fun creative force, but he never seemed to care about the craft of making comics or improving his craftsmanship. He was right, he sold and he made money hand over fist for a while, now he is still getting work for DC, so he must still have some market appeal, but man I can't see it anymore. I think if there is an artistic hell and Liefeld goes there, his torment will be having to draw kung fu comics where every character's feet are in every panel. I think he has a pathological fear of feet because no feet ever seem to appear on panel in his work. See for me this is the test of a good comic artist-look at the pages without the words and see if you can get the gist of the story-if you can, then the artist is a good storyteller. I don't know if I have ever been able to do that with a Liefeld comic (of course when he is writing and the words are added in there are times I still can't figure out the gist of the story, but that's another day's discussion). -M |
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Post by buck on Mar 28, 2012 0:42:45 GMT -5
I think if there is an artistic hell and Liefeld goes there, his torment will be having to draw kung fu comics where every character's feet are in every panel. I think he has a pathological fear of feet because no feet ever seem to appear on panel in his work. -M That is possibly the greatest thing I have ever read |
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Post by C_Miller on Mar 28, 2012 0:55:46 GMT -5
See for me this is the test of a good comic artist-look at the pages without the words and see if you can get the gist of the story-if you can, then the artist is a good storyteller. I don't know if I have ever been able to do that with a Liefeld comic (of course when he is writing and the words are added in there are times I still can't figure out the gist of the story, but that's another day's discussion). -M That's actually the only way I judge comic art. It usually works better on quieter works than louder works. My cat can get the gist of Geoff Johns' Justice League. But yeah, I generally appreciate pretty pictures. Alex Ross draws some very pretty pictures. But they have to be able to tell a story, which is kind of becoming a lost art (pun not intended). But art doesn't need to be pretty for me to appreciate it. Howard Porter is a perfect example. He's not the most pleasant looking artist in the world, but damn if he couldn't interpret Morrison's scripts and take that to the page. |
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Post by liquidsword34 on Mar 28, 2012 11:15:21 GMT -5
As bad as his drawing is, we've seen that writing is more important than drawing. All Star Batman and Robin compared to The Dark Knight Returns, for example. Personally I didn't enjoy the drawing in TDKR (The junkyard fight looked like a blob fighting a blob surrounded by blobs at blob fest 1986), but the writing made up for it. All Star? I enjoyed the art, and I don't feel there is anything to be said about how bad the writing and finished product are.
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