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Post by Bronze age andy on Sept 6, 2021 15:10:40 GMT -5
I always had Jack C Harris pegged as a older Atomic Age writer picking up jobs in the 70's. Turns out he was born in 1947.
I was probably confusing him with Jack Abel.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 6, 2021 15:38:22 GMT -5
It was a shock to me when I learned Liefeld was just 19 when he started in comics. Though it helped explain a few things. He had a passion for comics at an early age but he also needed the money to help his family financially because his father was in and out of hospitals with brain tumors. The father was actually in a 8 months long coma. There are human beings behind these comic books. Well, I have to say, that is the first time I heard that aspect of things. The Comics Scene interview merely mentioned wanting to quit school to break into comics. So, that is understandable, and laudable. Rob could be his own worst enemy, though, in interviews, as were Todd McFarlane and Erik Larson. They did a lot of inserting their feet into mouths which gave them a certain reputation, for a long time. Rob's rather unique grasp of human anatomy tended to add fuel to the fire. Rob certainly weathered the criticisms and jokes well and seems pretty at peace with it, even poking fun at some of his own quirks, like the Pouch Man drawing. His art has improved dramatically, in the past decade or two.
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 6, 2021 15:49:46 GMT -5
I have been listening to his podcast and he has his good side and bad side. But has anyone with his type of weaknesses ever achieved this type of success? Imagine he has made more money than all the legends of the profession. Of course it’s a different era , but he had the courage to walk away from the big two at the height of his popularity. There was no guarantee that he would succeed and certainly DC and Marvel would have blackballed him if he didn’t.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 6, 2021 17:32:46 GMT -5
I have been listening to his podcast and he has his good side and bad side. But has anyone with his type of weaknesses ever achieved this type of success? Imagine he has made more money than all the legends of the profession. Of course it’s a different era , but he had the courage to walk away from the big two at the height of his popularity. There was no guarantee that he would succeed and certainly DC and Marvel would have blackballed him if he didn’t. I don't begrudge him his success, though 10 years earlier or later and he wouldn't have made that kind of money. The Image guys went independent in a very specific and short-lived time in the market, when speculator frenzy made their risk rather small and calculated. They also started up with Malibu and Scott Rosenberg funding the publishing end of things, so it isn't like they were risking their entire personal fortunes. Rob made a deal with Malibu before the others, to publish his Teen Titan fan characters; so, he had less of an assured thing than when everyone else joined in. Malibu's money, plus market share, plus their own profiles meant Diamond and Capital would treat their launch a hell of a lot more favorably than Colleen Doran, Martin Wagner or Jeff Smith. Had the others not joined in, I doubt that Youngblood would have led to total independence from DC or Marvel. It got some play in the comic press; but, nothing like a "Stop the presses." When Todd McFarlane announced Spawn, through Malibu, that changed the game. When the other Marvel guys joined them, especially Jim Lee, that changed the whole league. Of the bunch, Rob was the one taking a risk, though he was still intending to continue at Marvel. Even if he hadn't the idea of blackballing is old comics and mostly fantasy. Lee and Liefeld were working at Marvel, within a few years (under more favorable terms, certainly); but, had Youngblood tanked or Spawn been a middling success, they still had name value that Marvel and DC would pay to exploit. Neal Adams got plenty of chances, despite the mediocre record of Continuity, because his name still had value on DC or Marvel characters. Same with Byrne and Perez, when they stopped back by. Outside of Arnold Drake (who still got work at Marvel) or Jerry Siegel (ditto, plus other companies), you'd be hard pressed to name someone who was effectively blackballed from comics. Heck, Gerry Conway left Marvel, came back as EIC, bailed on the job in a couple of months and went back to DC; and, was still welcomed back to Marvel.
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Post by kirby101 on Sept 6, 2021 17:44:04 GMT -5
I agree cody, both that the Image guys were more lucky than astute. And that, had it failed, they would not have had any problem finding work. And to blackballing, hell, Kirby went back to Marvel and then did work for DC as well after that. And Marvel in the 90s was so chaotic, I doubt the people who were there when they left would be there when they came back. Image thrives today because it has become an outlet for creators, not because of the books they first published. I think that was mostly Larson's doing, but I could be wrong.
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Post by Duragizer on Sept 6, 2021 22:33:36 GMT -5
It was a shock to me when I learned Liefeld was just 19 when he started in comics. Though it helped explain a few things. He had a passion for comics at an early age but he also needed the money to help his family financially because his father was in and out of hospitals with brain tumors. The father was actually in a 8 months long coma. There are human beings behind these comic books. I don't like Liefeld as an artist, but I don't hate him as a person. He seems like an alright guy beyond the drawing board.
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Post by chadwilliam on Sept 6, 2021 23:45:40 GMT -5
He had a passion for comics at an early age but he also needed the money to help his family financially because his father was in and out of hospitals with brain tumors. The father was actually in a 8 months long coma. There are human beings behind these comic books. I'd love to know what the Liefeld haters would suggest he have said when Marvel/Image offered to pay him a fortune to draw in the style he had developed and which hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of kids loved. "How dare you offer me millions to draw comics! Can't you see that you and all those kids are idiots for saying they love my work?!" It reminds me of how Neal Adams took Frank Miller under his wing and kept telling the artist that he'd have to improve if he wanted work. Upon one of his recitations of what must have sounded like a mantra by now to the newcomer, Adams was told "uh, actually Marvel likes it and offered me a job". Adams response was "Then keep doing what you're doing". I mean, if Marvel found a bunch of my stick figure drawings and offered me a million dollars if I'd do this for them professionally, why should I say "No. I need to improve my style first" instead of "You got it!"? I'm actually not really a fan of his work myself (though he's far from the worst artist out there and on something like Alan Moore's Judgement Day it certainly didn't affect my enjoyment of the story one bit) but as time goes on and I learn more about the type of guy he is, I can honestly see him eventually taking on an "elder statesman" sort of role in the industry at some point and fitting the role much better than some of those said to occupy it now do. I'm not entirely sure of my recollection of this story so I won't name names, but I do recall a famous writer being invited to dinner at Liefeld's home to discuss some project and later recounting how amusing it was that the young guy had more comics than actual books in his home. Though the story was intended to knock Liefeld all I could think was "The guy invites you into his home for dinner and you snicker behind his back about how he lives and he's the one you think looks bad?"
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