How this "terrible artist" made MILLIONS

A few notes/corrections (includes spoilers):

-I mention Louise Simonson but show a picture of Ann Nocenti. This will haunt me until the end of my days. Weezy deserves better. As does Ann. I'll be sure to get to them both in future videos.
-I show Stan Lee and say Spike Lee. I actually do mean Spike Lee though! The video of him in a yellow shirt is a Levis ad commercial that was directed by Spike Lee, where Rob creates a character called "Spike man" for him. The Stan Lee video was a direct-to-VHS interview. But the way I edited it is very confusing.
-Marc Gruenwald hires him to Marvel and then I show DC books. His first published work was for Marvel, illustrations of the Zodiac in a Handbook of the Marvel Universe Issue. I found what I believed was the work in question, but I wasn't able to verify it, so I ended up cutting it, leading to the confusion. So yes, he does start at Marvel, before really launching his career at DC before dramatically returning to Marvel.
-Someone said I slipped a Larsen page in with Todd's Spider-Man pages, sorry about that!
-As always, there's a ton I left out. There were multiple causes of Liefeld's departure from image. His poaching of talent from Silvestri's Top Cow, some accusations of using Image resources to promote non-Image books, inability to pay back a fee that was inadvertently paid out to all the image partners, etc. And yes, Jim Lee would return to do work for Marvel as well and wasn't kicked out of Image. But again, there's so much to the Image story that I'll cover in the future, I really just wanted to focus on Liefeld and his relationship with McFarlane and not spend half the video on Image drama.
-I show an establishing shot of San Francisco when I say San Diego! I was too focused on trying to get that little graphic to look cool. Oops!

Thank you all for embracing this video and for keeping me honest with the fact checks! I always strive to catch everything but things inevitably slip by me.

You got to hand it to Rob. He has guts to show off bad artwork.

Dudes who hate on the pouches aren't cool cause pouches are cool😏😎

You what I love Rob Liefeld.

I'm a graphic designer and I remember in school my teacher had a quote on the wall that said "Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist."

I think a lot of people look at his work and think he just "got bad" or he wasn't taught so he didn't have a solid foundation to learn from.

But that's not how skills work. If you do something long enough, you start to pick up those basic skills. You dont get worst over time for no reason. Unless you're doing it on purpose. I think he's just breaking the rules on purpose. It's like surrealism or abstract drawing but with comic books.

I mean, I feel like anyone who's actually read Liefeld's stuff knows the answer. His command of anatomy may have been truly awful for most of his career, but the man knew how to write a story that would appeal to his intended demographics.

stop throwing around "can't draw" and "had no skill in drawing" He could draw, he is good, just not as good as most would expect of comic book artists at his level of success.

id love to just see a big video about Image's history in general, all those guys are so interesting.

Views are popping off on this one, go matttt go!

You lonely jerk-offs on here will never make millions like him.

Image changed the game, and was a part of my childhood. Yes we knew the female bodies were pushing the limit back then, but we didn't care. Thanks Rob.

I was a comic book addict from mid 60's to till about 74 when I decided to quit comics to get a life. After a decade I tried to get back into comics but couldn't. Artists like the ones you are talking about in this vid just exaggerated things to an unbelievable point. Not only that but the violence for violence sake made it to silly. Finally the stories became soap operas with characters always gloomy, angry, impulsive, with a chip on their shoulders, and quick to violence even if there were other alternatives. Till this day, I'm 68, I've never been able to get back into my old addiction, that I kind of miss, but to me, they are to depressing, the stories make little sense, and the characters are all asses.

Was not a big fan, always thought of him as a McFarlane knock-off. But knowing of his life behind the scenes that I didn't know then, I'm very happy of his success.

I just can't get over how much he looks like Matt Damon

McFarland seems like such a dick towards Rob; totally acts like a shitty older brother lol

It's the same as, I can't make movies so I will make superhero movies now with marvel lol

erm...

"Couldn't draw" = draws better than I ever did.

Great video, I watched all your videos, keep up the great work 👍

Thought Matt Damon would’ve been a great actor to play Liefeld. Alas, he’s too old now unless he plays old Rob.

Even with all bad proportions and over the top designs, his art has more personality than most of the comics Marvel and DC put out nowadays. Most of their stuff is now so bland and boring to look at

This was a amazing video. Thank you so much. So well edited and researched. Would love to know more about Image Comics. Awesome work!

That captain America pic
There's pictures of Arnold Schwarzenegger with that exact proportions to his chest and likely the reference

It's honestly very heart whelming to see that Liefeld and McFarlane made amends

ee

you look like a stock video

Odd thing is those early sketches look pretty damn good. It feels like he unlearned how to draw.

All the founding image artists please would love to see videos on popular artists from the 90s

It’s really about how the artist connects to his audience,some people just don’t care about even Amundsen level work, they’ll settle for beginner artist shit that looks glossy. 😂😂

McFarlane started out great and then became more annoying as a person and lousy as an artist. Spawn sucks out loud.
Leifeld just got lucky. he was never good at writing or drawing. i think other artists prob made more money than him too,

Is the first physique obtainable?

"Spike Lee commercial."😅😂

Loved this! I know he's criticised for his drawing ability (anatomy, fashion etc) and I agreed when seeing the worst e.g. but I didn't know much of this story. I have to admire his energy and hustle!

looks like Sam sulek

He's a better artist than me.

Leifield focused on the success, so that it he could grab it. Mcfarlaje focused on the art, and the success came to him as he earned it

Dude looks like Matt Damon

It's Matt Damon y'all

this is a successful artist. Good art doesn't come from realism.

Rob also did Avengers during the Heroes Reborn thing. Not just Captain America.

interesting how all your subjects end up taking a "few weeks researching"
who do you work for?
almost all your vids have subjects that can be researched in a few hours
both the toddler and rob benefited from the speculator market....but you dont mention that once
why did marvel bag each copy of x-force 1? because they wanted buyers to believe they were collectors items and to keep it's worth...you had to keep it bagged
so then buyers would have to buy at least 2
but there were speculators who bought dozens
and so, the illusion that the comic book buying/reading public was larger than it actually was....was born
and i was in the comic book stores at the time....the readers were not young kids....they were late teens and adults
you even show a signing line.....with no young kids in it

once, to defend rob's lack of skill, todd said "well, kirby couldnt draw knees...." ignoring the fact that kirby was doing multiple titles at one time and had created shortcuts to keep up with the workload and still drew more dynamic panels and came up with more real innovations on his own, than either todd or robb


you make it sound as if there were no innovative artists working in comics before they arrived
so much for your "weeks of research"....didnt even bother to look up what artists who worked on new mutants before robb....ever hear of a guy named Bill Sienkiewicz?

god, i hate this know it all gen that knows nothing

Leifeld may not be the best artist in the world but he did make dynamic illustrations and pages and that drove him to the top of the industry along with McFarlane because at the time comics had a stale formulaic look and they were breaking rules. Leifeld is like the Ramones of comics. He accomplished a lot with very little technical know how.

Great video , lots of memories. Also Todd Mcfarlene was definitely inspired to create Spawn from drawing The Prowler in those Spidey comics.

He Robs, lies, and fails... bars 🔥

This would make an amazing movie

maybe the secret is thugging it out

I’m really glad they’re friends again