Top 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings

[Creole Ned]

Has this been posted before? No matter, you can never get too much Liefeld!

Top 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings (http://progressiveboink.com/archive/robliefeld.html)

I am fascinated by both the absurdity of Liefeld's drawings and his apparent popularity as a comic artist. Enjoy!

[Circuit]

I'm sure he argues that his characters are "stylized", but even if that were the case they still look really dumb. I'm pretty confused as to why the guy's so popular.

[Q]

Those are truly horrible drawings.

[Kermit]

I'm sure that if you looked over the body of any artist's work, you could find 40 things they did wrong.

I'm also pretty sure that those were the worst 40 in any comic book anywhere. Good God man, take a basic art course and learn how to draw the female form and feet.

[samuelk]

I'm sure he argues that his characters are "stylized", but even if that were the case they still look really dumb. I'm pretty confused as to why the guy's so popular.

Good stylized characters are at least consistently stylized.

Rob Liefeld's artwork makes me physically nauseous. Granted, this particular selection is his worst, distilled down to a concentrated sludge of awkwardness, but even his "good" work is crap.

[LogRoller]

he was always the worst

i never got why they gave him levi's 501 commercials

i guess that they figured that it would demonstrate how ridiculously retarded and deformed bulges in your leg muscles would still look good in their jeans

[Reaver]

Liefeld proves that there is a comic industry version of the casting couch. He must have cast the hell out of that guy.

[Reaver]

I just read that whole thing. Wow. Painful. I think my fav horrible anatomy is the Juggernaut cover. He has a deltoid instead of an armpit.

[BoX]

I don't even think those were his 40 worst.

[Shadowrat]

Did anyone ever think he was good? Is this all through the lens of hindsight and 20 years?

How bad are the 40 best Rob Liefeld drawings?

[Reaver]

See, nobody I ever talked to ever thought he did anything worth a shit. It's just one of those weird things, like how everyone hates telemarketers. Yet, they're still in business because people somewhere spend money on telesales. Or how Paris Hilton is famous. She's on tape getting fucked, and she parlayed that into millions of dollars, tv shows, music and fame. How?! Nobody seems to like her, but people spend money to keep up on what she's doing.

Makes no fucking sense whatsoever.

[Shadowrat]

who was the guy who everyone* thought was awesome? jim lee?


*everyone = all the people i knew who were into comics in the 90's. you may not be qualified to comment.

[Budly]

I'll be honest guys, it looks like superhero cartoons to me, the same as all the rest. I am by no means a drawing afficiando as I cannot even draw a good stick figure. I also didn't really read comics growing up. The local grocery pretty much carried archie comics and sad sack. I also did read mad magazine which might explain my lack of taste.

[Falhawk]

i didn't know who rob liefeld was before this thread

[Kermit]

Insert "Budly is old" joke here.

I will give a guy that is better than me in art (which is pretty much everyone) a lot of breaks, and that's why I won't hack on all of his work. Especially the proportions stuff. Who cares if a guys hand or gun is too large to be quite anatomically correct. These are super heroes, they have muscles on top of their muscles.

What bothers me is that a dude can collect a pretty decent paycheck when he has no idea how to draw the female form or feet. Some of the women he drew in those examples look like aliens! Legs that account for 2/3rds of some-one's height, midriffs that are smaller than thighs, legs turned sideways? WTF!

The feet thing just bothers me because it's not even the hard part of a person to draw. Get some pictures of people standing/running/sitting down and draw the feet at the same size and angle as you see in the real life picture. It can't be that hard.

I also will not claim to be a comic book aficionado. I have a small collection of mid 90's X-men stuff, but other than McFarlane I don't even know if I can name one pseudo-recent artist by name.

[jackrabbit]

Yeah, when there are artists looking for work with more talent when they were ten than Liefield has now, it's frustrating to see him enjoying commercial success with work as amateur and poorly researched as his is. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he is "self taught" as he tends to draw things how he think he's seen someone else draw them, like a visual game of "Telephone". Despite his billions of pouches, I don't think he's ever even seen a pouch in real life.

I hated him when I saw his first comic, and I hate him still.

And yeah, Rat. Everyone was all huge fans of Jim Lee, who was a strong designer, and did some cool conepts, but all of his characters looked exactly the same.

[Kermit]

Huh, I see what you mean. Other than the mask and the color of costume, the characters are almost identical (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Batman_superman.PNG).

[Shadowrat]

i looked up some marc sylvestri and jim lee stuff. i think they were around the same time as RL.

It's not a truly fair comparison because all i can find are portfolio pieces and splash pages, and this site has scoured all the insignificant throw away panels looking for background characters that might, either through poor knowledge of anatomy or unfortunate inking, have a tail on their ass cheek.

Clearly these other guys were better designers. Superheroes are ridiculous to begin with. A good artist lays out his frame using certain rules like off center focal points, visual tension, etc to create a dynamic scene that captures the essence of super. When you look at a good panel, you don't focus on how that dude has silly hair, or that dude's calves are absurdly bumpy. You think, that guy's super and he's kicking ass!. RL examples tend to just draw a stoic non-moving bump of a character that looks like a rectangle in the middle of the panel. It seems to me he thinks super = muscles.

The other guys seem to also have a much better grasp of anatomy. They are still drawing people that couldn't possibly exist, but they are drawing them consistently, and in a way that appears intentionally stylized.

At the end of the day though, i'm not a huge fan of the mainstream US comic style. All the characters are too bulky, their costumes are too tight, and they tend to stand too stiffly. Even the good guys don't seem to draw stuff as dynamic and flowing as i'd like.

Also, in retrospect, the overuse of gradients in the comics of the 90's (the photoshop era) is sad.

[LogRoller]

the whole image fad was stupid to begin with. it launched a bevy of hack job artists that were aping mcfarlane, lee, and liefield, and it pretty much ruined the way they used the medium to tell stories for like ten years.

[Circuit]

Rat has the main part of it: consistency. As bad as most of Liefeld's stuff is, it's not even bad in a consistent manner. He just changes the way his shitty characters look shitty from panel to panel.

I fancy myself a decent artist. I've never been good at drawing comics, but I'm certain I could do a better job at it than Mr. Rob. As absurd as it is to see how much professional athletes paid, at least they're doing something that most people can't do at the level they do it. This guy is the very definition of "hack".

[samuelk]

Yes, consistency is the key. Additionally, it seems that Liefeld's grasp of human anatomy is rudimentary at best. The combination of the two deficiencies makes for very messy art.

[Reaver]

What I don't understand is that he has never gotten any better. After all this time doing comics, there appears to be no noticeable improvement to his work.

[LogRoller]

why improve perfection

[Tick]

It should be noted that a few of the more recent images in the 40 worst drawings are featured in the gallery section of Liefeld's website.

Also, how can anyone leave this gem off that list?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v75/orcho5000/liefeld_cap.jpg

Oh, and Rob and I share a birthday. I actually argued that this was worse than my friend sharing his birthday with Pol Pot, tho I'll admit I was willing to call it a draw. There was a Youngblood splash page of like every character the series has ever had, and every single male character had about 7000 bumps indicating some odd bulging muscles where his ribs should go. It must have taken about 4 weeks to draw them all in. Sadly, I can't find it.

Oh, and they left out the horrid Teen Titans stuff he did a couple years back, like this (http://robliefeld.net/titans4.htm). For reference, Kid Flash is actually supposed to be only a few inches shorter than Cyborg. Wondergirl's legs are about 2/3rds of her total height. And Robin and Kid Flash are supposed to both be about 16 years old, which makes their incredibly muscled physique even more impressive.

Also, note where Cyborg's two knees are. One is slightly above Kid Flash's knees, the other is around his torso. Yet both his feet are off the bottom of the page.

This artwork makes me ill. And he's been doing this for like 20 years now.

Edit: Seriously, WTF? (http://robliefeld.net/past11.htm)

Edit #2: I have to stop myself. One more question: How did he not (http://robliefeld.net/cap6.htm) get sued (http://robliefeld.net/fa1.htm)?

[Shadowrat]

it looks like even captain america's sheild has muscles!

[samuelk]

The coloring in the Captain America picture above is the best thing about it.

Aside from that, though....my god, it's like he's a very large woman wearing a moo-moo with built-in muscles.

Also, his face reminds me of the Crypt Keeper from HBO's Tales From the Crypt.

Based on the way the shadow of the shield curves on his thigh at the very bottom of the image, I have extrapolated how big his legs are, and therefore how the back of his body must be contoured:

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/1802/capameritcaliefeldri9.jpg

All I can say is that Cap needs some reduction surgery, or he's going to have back problems.

[samuelk]

To be fair, Liefeld himself seems to agree that the Captain America pic is bad--I'm pretty sure he's talking about this particular image, but it may be another large-breasted Cap picture of his:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFqXs6vYvO8&feature=related

[LogRoller]

we used to speculate as to why youngblood was popular at all back when i worked at the comic store, and one theory (serious) was that comics were becoming more like trading cards, where there was no actual story or anything, it was just all images of extrapolated anatomy.

if you guys think that his art is bad (which it is), get a copy of youngblood #1 and actually try to read it. it's incomprehensible.

[Tai]

The 'artwork' is making my brain melt, I don't think I care to see what reading the words would do.

[samuelk]

What's great about the cover of the original Youngblood #1 is that Liefeld managed to avoid drawing any feet at all.

[jackrabbit]

If this is an example of how the world works, I'm going into performing brain surgery. I have no skill at it, nor do I know anything about brains or surgery, but why should that stop me?

[Falhawk]

comparing a life or death situation like brain surgery to comic books might be a bit of a stretch


just saying

[jackrabbit]

Nuh uh. It's the same thing.

[Budly]

People always tell me I should have been a brain surgeon based on my signature.(very scribbly)

[Creole Ned]

That fellow with the bow (http://robliefeld.net/past11.htm) that Tick linked to is going to be a bit disappointed when he tries to shoot something.

[Kermit]

It's one of those new rocket powered bows. You can tell, because he didn't bother to draw in any fletchings.

Also, this is my last one and then I'm done hacking on the guy (for now) but the pouch thing is really starting to bother me. It's like he substitutes pouches for areas that can't possibly have muscles bulging. In the previously poked fun at picture (http://robliefeld.net/past11.htm), he's got some pouches to the right of the character's left arm. What are they attached to? His back? His belt? It looks like they are mounted on his triceps.

And here (http://robliefeld.net/titans4.htm)? Look at the area just below Robin's bulging pecks. He has a bulging xiphoid process (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiphoid_process)!

[Harka]

Epic thread of Liefeld bashing!

You best stop before whoever the leave britney alone freak does a leave liefeld alone video!

;-)

[Shadowrat]

This Image (https://lobsterfreshonline.sslpowered.com/joemadonline.com/images/ultimates_3_issue2_interior_03.jpg) provides an interesting contrast. It's drawn by Joe Madureira, who JR reminded me of.

I think it's awesome. I'm going to assume everyone thinks it's awesome. Notice though that his characters are completely unrealistic. Spiderman is impossibly sinewy and contorted, yet nobody really would complain because his hand looks like it's part of the same guy. Similarly, hawkeye's guns are fake guns, he's dressed like a knob, and he's jumping like a freak, but none of that matters because it all works together and is good.

Rob Liefeld's stuff looks doubly bad because 1) he draws bad and 2) super heroes look ridiculous and need a really good drawing to make the viewer ignore that fact.

[Circuit]

That fellow with the bow (http://robliefeld.net/past11.htm) that Tick linked to is going to be a bit disappointed when he tries to shoot something.

I like, too, how once Rob sets his mind on drawing feet, he really goes all out. I mean, those are some pretty damn fancy feet!

[jackrabbit]

Hawkeye was such a stupid character. Ultimate Hawkeye, from the Marvel Ultimate universe, however, is completely badass.

Also, Madureira is probably the best comic artist ever.

[LogRoller]

comparing a life or death situation like brain surgery to comic books might be a bit of a stretch


just saying

that is such an old fart sort of thing to say

[Elf]

Rob Liefeld is my new hero.

It is apparent to me that he has identified a segment of the population that he hates. Not being on par with him, I can only speculate that that would be the segment that a) mindlessly follows any comic, b) admires impossibly proportioned / stereotyped / exaggerated anatomy, and c) has a fetish for pouches. Not merely content to lampoon these sorry people from the sidelines, RL went on the offensive - at no small personal cost!

Having identified his target, he has masterfully subjugated it. In what could only be described as comic jujutsu, he expends 5-10 minutes a day mocking his target, yet getting them to pay him to do so. I suspect he lives far better than his quarry - perhaps even with a correctly proportioned woman.

Brilliant.

[F7]

Elf rules.

[Tick]

The art in Ultimate Spidey (and most of the Ultimate books, for that matter) are awesome. then again, so is the storytelling, for the most part. Which is good, since regular Spider-man just went through probably the worst reboot ever.