It’s the question that keeps Rob Liefeld awake at night, as discussed by the Comics Journal message board: How will history remember the Image founders?
” Since many bad comics from the fifties and sixties are seen as charming because of their awkwardness, I think Rob Liefeld and the artists who copied him will also get a cult following. I’m almost positive that there will be altcomix artists channeling Liefeld in a very knowing popart manner.I think there will also be new artists who go against the grain by saying that many of that generation are not as bad as they are made out to be( which I think is true).”
“The Image boys managed to do what the the old 40s and 50s guys did: They managed to get young people (young men) enthusiastic enough about comics that they were inspired not only to collect them, but to create their own. Like the older school, they also managed to inspire other creators to create things that were better than their own.”
“This is probably sacralige, but early Kirby work is also pretty bad. Pages where the last panel read is on the left, bad antomony, etc.. but I think both he and the Image guys were made popular because their work was exciting to look at purely from an juvenile emotional standpoint. Kirby of course, got smart real quick and surpassed his peers to the point where others were learning from him. The Image guys, not so. Most of them are just trying to win back their former glory by doing they used to. Larsen of being the big exception, he’s trying to figure out how to letter and color his own book.”
June 12th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
All that negativity towards the 90′s………..where almost everybody joined in in all the things considered bad. And now, years later, almost everybody disregards that stuff, howling along with the majority. The 90′s were a great era of comics, only towards the end things got bad….in my opinion. And Rob Liefeld is not so bad in my book either, lots of artists I enjoy less.
June 12th, 2006 at 5:24 pm
No. The 90s were awful, for the most part. Of course not everything produced then was bad, but there was a big emphasis on style over substance when it came to art, and soap opera gimmicks over original ideas and characterization when it came to writing. Everything was so gimmicky and self important, especially towards the last half of the decade.
I don’t think there’ll be a wave of nostalgia for the 90s like there was for the 50s. For one thing, the people who like the silver age mostly weren’t born until after it ended. The comic book readership turned over with each generation, and the new kids were continually discovering the mysterious comic books of the past hidden away in closets and attics, which made them seem more special. Like hidden treasure. Now comics have a smaller, far more stable readership. There aren’t as many old people going out and new people coming in, which makes the thrill of discovering the past a lot less interesting. We lived through the 90s, and we know what it was like. There’s no new generation that can look at that era with a fresh perspective.
Maybe in fifty years…
June 12th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
To paraphrase the late, great Drew Caret (even though he’s not dead), I remember the 90s. I remember without even being asked. I remember every time it rains.
September 23rd, 2006 at 6:16 am
I for one kind of appreciated Rob Leifeld. Sure his art was terrible but he had fun. Just like the source said about Jack Kirby. He is far from the greatest artist to ever work in comics. But he did bring more energy to his work than anyone else. Not that Liefeld is on the same level as Kirby, or even really belongs in the same sentance.