| Rob Liefeld Born: 3-Oct-1967
Birthplace: Anaheim, CA
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Cartoonist Nationality: United States
Executive summary: The New Mutants, Agent America Ah, the early 90's -- a comic book era wherein a man could be a man with grotesque muscles and an anatomically impossible bone structure, and a woman could be -- well, a woman could be a woman with posture and muscle tone resembling that of a man. A confused time, indeed. Perhaps no artist better embodies the ethos of early 90's mainstream comic pencilling than Rob Liefeld. Liefeld rose to superstardom after assuming the role of penciller for the Marvel Comics X-Men spinoff, The New Mutants. Working in tandem with writer Louise Simonson, Rob transformed the comic book from what was an interesting amalgam of teenagers coping with the pains of both growing up and having to deal with fantastic powers into a sweaty, homoerotic actionfest (particularly noticable with the introduction of the muscle-bound, Terminator-esque character of Cable); characters that were previously depicted as being lean teenagers such as Cannonball and Sunspot, were now Schwarzeneggerian body builders.
Under Liefeld and Simonson's guidance, The New Mutants was completely unrecognizable compared its earlier issues, which had focused on either light-hearted tales of mystic whimsy or emotional, character-centric stories. Marvel decided to restart the series under the name of X-Force. The comic was an instant smash and propelled Liefeld to the status of superstar. While sales were excellent and Liefeld was in demand (in fact, he became a millionaire), critics were left cold. While mainstream comics are not exactly ideal for an insane amount of character development, X-Force can be seen as the comic book equivalent of a Steven Seagal flick.
Thirteen issues into X-Force and Liefeld was particularly pissed that he wasn't receiving a metric ton of royalties -- particularly from the action figures that were being developed depicting his character designs. Liefeld, along with six other Marvel employees, started up Image Comics, an imprint that was inexplicably popular at the time. However, Liefeld had a reputation in the field as a notorious asshole, and his career with the imprint lasted approximately six months. Since then, Liefeld's popularity has floundered and he's the butt of many a comic book industry joke, yet his comics continue to sell.
In addition to anatomically incorrect and grossly over-muscled characters, Liefeld also has a history of plagiarizing other artists, a claim he usually dismisses by stating that he's "paying homage". Currently, Liefeld publishes his Captain America "homage" Agent America via his company Awesome Comics.
Marvel Comics
Endorsement of Levi Strauss 501 Button Fly Jeans
Official Website:
http://www.robliefeld.net/
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