Thank you for this. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hope to meet you someday.

I met him at comic con briefly, and as a huge comic book fan as a kid, my hope was to meet Jim Lee, but the line to meet him was incredibly long. Rob Liefeld was doing commissions, and there really wasn’t any line in front of him. Comics led to me doing illustration work, as well graphic design. Despite how I felt about his art, I still grew up on his comics, and that era inspired me to pursue art. Liefeld was incredibly kind, and while talking to him, he saw someone dressed as Mr T. He said take this, and handed me his camera so he could take a picture with the person wearing the costume. He told him that Mr T was just childhood hero, and it made his day. That’s when it hit me, Rob Liefeld’s a big kid that actually accomplished, and then lived his dreams. He wears his emotions on his sleeves in the most honest way that anyone could. There’s something to that, and as we get older, we become more jaded and we lose that part of ourselves. Regardless of how he draws, or how many rules he breaks visually, there’s a contagious aspect to his personality, largely due to his enthusiasm for everything he does, and the industry he’s in.

6:02 The fact that he completely owns the meme of his obsession with pouches and actually willingly autographs pouches fans bring to him is so admirable.

I love the line that he was a kid who knew what other kids wanted to see. He was probably the single biggest contributor to the early 90s comics craze for this reason.

Anyone else saw the thumbnail and thought: "Did Rob Liefield die?"

I would say Leifield represents the hair metal of comic books. Not that there's anything wrong with hair metal, just that his style is more in line with the bombastic feel of the aforementioned genre.

i'm not a huge fan of Liefeld, but i completely agree that "realism" does not equal good, all 2D art is an optical illusion and it should be used in what ever way best suits the work.

This was awesome. The perfect summation of why I love Rob's work. I can confirm his enthusiasm when he broke into the industry has only heightened since. When I worked on his book, Glory, he pushed artist Sophie Campbell and I to always try new things, to add our own stamp to it, with the end goal of doing something which hadn't been done before. I love the guy and am extremely happy to see his work given the spotlight it deserves.

I'm not a fan of his art work but the fact that he became a comic book artist at 16 has made him one of my role models.

I'm a Liefeld "hater" but this was a wonderful video and even though it didn't make me love him it has softened me on some of his art.

Honestly, speaking as someone too young to have experienced Liefeld at his height, all that I've ever heard about him are the criticisms. It was refreshing to hear an opinion that wasn't just "lol stupid this isn't how anatomy works" and instead looks critically at the timing and culture of his work to explain why it has the impact it did. You've given me a newfound respect for the guy and I really appreciate that

It's weird to see how Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld went in completely different directions despite starting in the same generation of comic book creators. Lee's art is beautiful, masterfully performed and amazingly static and lifeless. Liefeld's is rough, over-the-top, very hard to take seriously, but chock-full of energy.

I had only ever heard of him whenever Deadpool was brought up and people were quick to whip out their phone and pull up the Captain America and the feet images. Seeing his work so dynamically placed on the page helps me to appreciate how much enthusiasm he has for storytelling. It's quite infectious.

This isn't something I'd say lightly, but this is one of the best comic book-focused videos I've ever had the pleasure of watching. Great work Josh, extremely proud of you!

Liefeld is more like the Vanilla Ice of Comics. Early success led to their rise, then over exposure and limited talent led to fans and the industry turning on them. But now both of them have gotten through that period of being ridiculed, turned into a punchline and ostracized from the industry. Also, both are now comfortable with their own legacy and the contribution they've made to their respective forms of entertainment. You can love them or hate them, but you can't deny they both made an indelible mark in their field. Oh,.. and coincidentally Vanilla Ice's name is Rob too...."word to your mother".

The ton of work you put into this video is evident, dude i'd never seen anything from this channel and all of the sudden this pops up in my recommended. I didn't know much about Liefeld, only that he was dead pools creator, but now i feel a new respect and desire to check out some of his work. i'm in love with the 90's image comics style having read and loved 'The Maxx' and this guys work looks right up an avenue i want to explore. you've earned yourself a subscriber here man, great video !

This was nice, it’s interesting to hear a take that isn’t just the same old regurgitated arguments. I’ve gotten tired of negative art criticism, I’d rather just hear what people like about things.

As an 8 year old kid I wasn’t an art critic. I saw what I liked and I love it. Rob, Todd and Jim made my childhood awesome! And for that I will be forever grateful!!!

Thank you for creating this video, I grew up with Rob's art back in the 90s, always admiring his great art. I really love the way he drew X-Force.

Though it isn't published as a part of the story, I have the famous Captain America picture published on cable #34 from 1996 on the fourth page from the back. It's next to an interview with liefeld about his work on the cap series.

It must have taken a lot of work to make such a far leap. Liefeld is far from Cobain, he's more Kiss. He's not the punk rock response to hair metal, he's the hair metal response to punk rock. He's the Michael Bay of comics. It's flash and sizzle and that in itself has a niche and has fans of it and that's why he's still around after so long. He came along at the right time to carve himself out a spot. Personally I'm not into his style, he's a little too fast and lose stylistically. I'm willing to suspend disbelief, that's part of the fun, but I have my limits.

As someone who grew up reading whatever New Mutant I could find at comic swap meets, I'm glad to hear that I actually had good taste. Really love how this one's put together, and that Jack Kirby comparison is wonderful

Thank you! This was a very well written, narrated and overall superbly crafted production. Keep up the amazing work! Rob and the Image comics crew had a really positive impact on me growing up, and it's great to see positive insight like this being shared. ♥

Fantastic video. I remember picking up his New Mutants work (including #98 - one of my most prized comics) and while you could pick holes in his anatomy all day, there was a dynamism and energy to his work that just made it infectious. When he says he always saw his role as a creative storyteller rather than a great artist it made everything clear. No-one made Deadpool look as cool as he did. And Cable! The Cable pitch was he's a cross between Arnie in Predator and Arnie in Terminator. For the early 90s it' didn't get better than that. I wasn't a fan of the early Youngblood but it picked up around #6 (was that the one where Shaft had body image issues?) You really contextualised what happened with Image when you position it as a young, self-taught guy in a position no-one has been in before. His ambition and vision outstripped what he could deliver (see also Jodorowsky's Dune). At somepoint it became cool to bash Liefeld for the exact same things people loved about Kirby. Go figure! Thanks for this video.

You make a compelling argument with many good points. HOWEVER, I'll still take works of artists like Curt Swan, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez (Praise His Name), George Perez, Neal Adams, E.C. Segar, Osamu Tezuka and the master himself Will Eisner over any of Liefeld's art, because their art has amazing use of sequential storytelling (I'll fight any argument claiming Eisner's use of sequential storytelling in his artwork sucks) along with looking better than any of Liefeld's art. Also for a lot of people like myself, criticism of his art doesn't really have much to do with realism. I'm a fan of 90s comics like Savage Dragon, Spawn as well other works like One Piece that feature less realistic art style, I just don't find Liefeld's art appealing

This was one of the best mini-docs I've ever seen about comics. Kudos to you, sir! I stood in the freezing cold outside Midtown Comics back in 1993 to see Rob, and he was gracious enough to stay until every last person got every last book signed. I'll never apologize for enjoying his work. Rob Liefeld for Life!

This video has sent me on an insane binge of 90s Image stuffs. I just started watching The Maxx animated series and it’s giving me a crazy “How has I never heard of this!” Experience. Thank you so much for opening this world for me.

As a kid I grew up loving his style. It was so over the top. As an adult I look back and think man that was so over the top. Love it ... flaws and all. His style even when he does bad work it’s still more fun than man other artists. #whoneedsfeet #thighpouchesforthewin

I really liked your perspective here. Early Liefeld really caught my attention back in the day. It was a new, exciting and different. One of my favorite books was the New Mutants and I felt he took it to the next level. The style did eventually start to wear on me though and seeing some of the obvious flaws of some of his work pushed me away. This video has pointed out alot to me from a different angle and I think I may have to reassess my attitude towards his work. Nice job my friend.

This is really well done. Keep up the good work and maybe even make another one please.

Great video! This video has made me really re-examine my opinion of Liefeld, especially all the historical context. I can't help but respect his passion.

love him or hate him, you can't deny he was immensely influential

I always hated how people criticize Rob's style, but praise Jack Kirby and Mike Mignola.

I'm a fan of Rob. Every successful illustrator has a instantly recognizable style, and Liefeld definitely has one. You can look at anything he has done and instantly tell it was his. There are a lot of comic artists, while technically great, that don't stand out in that way.

Just discovered your channel and subscribed. As a life long lover of comic's and an illustrator, it's great to find your channel. I'm not a BIG fan of Liefeld, but I still read his stuff and always admired him. I've come to appreciate his talent more as I've gotten older ( still a kid at heart) . I look forward to binging your videos. If you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to dive into some of my comics 🤘😁🖖🇨🇦

I really appreciate that you went through this, it kinda gets lost sometimes

Didn’t even mention John Buscema by name when he appeared onscreen.

"this pages are about old school and conventional as comics gets" looks at 13:09 proceed to show a muscular Hawk with a jacket and a bunch of guns

Always enjoy a video that make you revisit something you didn’t care for much initially. I wasn’t a fan Rob or any of his contemporaries at Image comics. It’s only been in recent years that I’ve started to appreciate their work and their place in the industry. Great video!

This was an absolute pleasureto watch. Well thought out and credible. Welldone.

While I may not be a fan of most of his work or the way he handles himself sometimes on social media, I truly admire and respect his ambitious passionate attitude. Dude knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life and just went out and did it.

13:09 "These pages are about old school and conventional as comics get" That page is actually pretty well-stocked with typical modern Liefeld tropes, e.g. sleeveless jacket with the collar popped, huge guns, cross-hatching for background, extraneous cranial reflection, gigantic groin area, hand that doesn't line up to the gun handle, etc.

Great video! You just earned a new viewer! Rob is my hero. Im still practicing my drawings, but everytime i read his comics i get inspired to draw even more. The way he drew metallic armour and textures is great and his faces look amazing. He does not deserve any hate he gets.

This is really well done. Great editing, writing and pacing.

As someone who read comics all through the '90s and beyond, I really enjoyed this video. Not always a Liefeld fan, but you made your points well.

Fantastic video, Josh! I just loved your focus and whole style here. This was really great. And you're too kind!

Great video and a great analysis on the legacy of an awesome artist. Gonna go and watch more of your stuff. Thanks!

Really loved this one. Thanks so much for the hard work. Fascinating that the cap drawing was never even published. That must drive a person so crazy to have that be the big "Hurr Hurr" target for so many fools. Really great production values as well, you really put his work into a great perspective.

Completely agree. Rob was a legend in the 90s. Everyone was praising him. Love or hate his art, the guy is extremely passionate about the industry. Nothing but respect from me. Also I really appreciate this video. Some really nice editing and a great overview of Rob's career.

The main difference batsmen Cobain and Liefeld is Cobain was talented.

Enjoyed the video and would like to see more like this.

Awesome work, I really enjoyed it, very well documented and the visuals nicely done. Maybe the black transitions where some frames too long, but apart from that an amazing short documentary.

Rob Liefeld is pure passion for comic and superheroes, realism is boring.

Rob Liefeld refuses to give co-creating credit of Cable to Louise Simonson. Mention it and he’ll block you. He does the same with fabian nicieza co-creator of deadpool. Besides being an overrated artist hes not a good person as well as being an ego maniac. The comparison to Kurt Cobain(a true genius) is laughable.

Really enjoyed the video. The Kirby comparisons are right on. Keep up the good work!

Great vid! I had been out of comic collecting for years and when I saw what type of art was being done by Liefeld and his gen of artists I was blown away.

I respect Liefeld, but I dislike his art style. His art style made me not want to get into New Mutants or X-Force, I think I was spoil by Batman TAS and Superman TAS. It not because his art doesn't look Realism (I'm a fan of One Piece), I don't like the fighting and it very hard to follow.

An amazing video man! There is so much i agree with and have thought of a billion times before. The way it was edit made it feel like a roller coaster and was fun the whole way through. Beautiful stuff man!

Dude that was one kick ass video. Superb. You make an incredibly strong case

I dont know if I think RL is any better but that was a great video. Its nice to see a reasoned argument about something your obviously very passionate about. Keep it up man!

I just remember him not finishing a lot of books and my father started to get sick of him back in the day when he read his books.

I find it inspiring, as a comic artist myself, trying to make it in the world. :3 In addition, I see so often where other artists are fussing over whether their art is "good enough" to make comics - I'm all for improving, but if you want to make comics, just go for it. You need to chase your own style, your own signature - not the styles of other artists. You don't want to drown in an ocean - you want to be the unusual island that sticks out of it, always catching your eye. :3

awesome topic and very professionally mixed video. Thanks!

Well, I gotta say, I'm thoroughly impressed. An informed, well worded and most of all ORIGINAL take that actually changed my mind about something I just took to be true basically ever since I heard of him. Bravo! subscribed

I loved Liefeld's art growing up and as a kid who did his best to try to draw super heroes and the like, I could care less if an artist could draw everything correctly as no matter how much I studied or tried, my feet, hands and overall body structure came out looking weird. The man did what almost none of us ever get the chance to do and he did it with no formal training. I don't care what anyone says, Rob is a legend.

I like how you brought in Jack Kirby as a comparison to Liefeld in terms of anatomy and dynamic poses and story telling. I often thought both of them could stand to be compared to one another in terms of what they brought to comics, but was scared of the criticism I might get. I mean, today Jack Kirby is considered a legend in comics artwork, story telling, and pure creative talent who's come up with a library of well known characters. Who's to say that Liefeld may someday be known for the same reasons? I admit, I grew up in my teens collecting comics in the late 80's to the mid/late 90's, and will always have a soft spot for artists like Art Adams, Frank Miller, Jim Lee (my favorite), Marc Silvestri, Todd Macfarlane, and yes Rob Liefeld damn it! His artwork can be fun to look at. Thanks for the video.

Great video, love the editing and music. Love Liefeld’s art :)

This was absolutely awesome! I grew up reading X-Force (and all the X-Books), and even remember seeing that Button Your Fly commercial on TV! You definitely updated my view to the better. Subscribed!

As an aspiring self taught comic book artist to be I can relate to Liefeld

Rob Liefeld Draws the perfect characters for 13-year-old boys, and that used to be the main demographic for the field. His art is Dynamic and fun.

IMO as a comic fan in the early 90s, it was a time that sizzled with excitement and each book was trying something new--good, bad, or unnoticeable. You bring up many of the ingrained pop culture reasons that drove the art style of that time. Great video. Thanks!

Good job. I have been enjoying his Instagram too. The length was just right on this video 👍

I do believe he went to art school and anatomy class taught by a former teacher of mine. The college art teacher told me this and at a convention Rob confirmed it.

Interesting video. Honestly, I've never had a issue with Liefeld arts, it's certainly not my cup of tea, but that's purely me. It's his dickishness that puts me off, and not for unprecedented reasons, a lot of his recent actions feel unfortunately familiar to another comic artist who went down a dark path.

Thanks for this post! I've been saying this for years. The man's love of the medium is contagious, I don't know of anyone that publicly loves comics more!

Great, insightful video! I never read any of his comics or had any strong feelings about his art, but you've convinced me to check him out.

Look, i don't like Liefeld's style but i understand his appeal i remember a 13 year old me fascinated with pouches and belts. Does he deserve all the negativity he gets? not really, and like you pointed out he did good things for the industry(maybe). BUT. most of the points you make in the video are subjective, his impact, goals and effect are all subjective, are his drawings dynamic? subjective. Does he transmit energy and excitement with his drawings? Subjective. Did he change the industry? Subjective, one could argue every single point by either saying he didn't do it alone, and how much is his own personal effort and how much of the peers he surrounded himself with or how it was all accidental and it was actually the talent of the people that came after that managed to save his characters and ideas (for example Deadpool). Most if not everything Liefeld is critiqued by is pretty much objective, Is the anatomy wrong? Yes. Does he have pacing issues? Yes, details from characters change from page to page and scenes are rarely explained, there's never a wide shot telling you what's going or where. Are his background simple and/or blank? Yes, just lines or colour most of the time, having colour and lines is factually "simple". To summarize or as simpletons put it (TL;DR), Although it's a nice video and i applaud the effort most of your arguments are flawed and invalid, things you establish are based on fallacies and therefore are false. whereas the criticism is mostly "logically sound" based on actual facts and conventions not opinions, even the Captain America drawing that as you say wasn't meant to be in a comic book is anatomically incorrect, the lights and shadows are wrong and it's overall just poor craftsmanship, again a fact not an opinion, all of this regardless of any context, it's a bad drawing done by an artist who, historically has never shown more talent or skill. If you want to bend the rules you need to master them first, look at Picasso's early portraits he is a master of the drawing and allows himself to disturb the realism with his very late cubist style, Rob Liefeld has made a career of just the last part without an understanding of the basics. Fact, sadly. Props on the video nevertheless, it was entertaining and your rhetoric is effective, i do feel slightly less prone to judge Liefeld harshly and actually feel bad for the guy.

The extra work you put into this video really shows!

Having stumbled onto this topic as a casual observer of his work that I did not like. You have totally changed my perspective on Rob and his work. I feel like I can appreciate and understand what I and others were clearly missing. Excellent video!!

Awesome video, I’d love to see more content like this. Always have loved Robs work , never really understood the backlash until this video.

Man you really changed my mind on him. Thank you. I won’t blindly hate people just because others tell me to anymore.

I think that the backlash against Rob's art comes down to one thing: we've seen it, and we don't like it. It doesn't matter that he was young and punk and independent and avant garde and yadda-yadda: all that matter is that his art looks bad to most people. If you like it that's fine, but you don't need an elaborate theory to explain why we don't like it: we don't like it because it looks bad.

Awesome vid mate. More history of comics would be brilliant. Cheers bro!

Good video. Well researched, written and presented!

Though I enjoy this video and respect the reassessment, Todd Mcfarlane is a far superior artist in all accounts particularly in being pleasant to look at. As much as I like liefield as an underdog cult figure, his work is just ugly even by those 90s image standards. Mcfarlane, Jim lee, and Marc silvestri could do everything liefield did while achieving something akin to beauty. Liefield's work is clunky, one note, and soulless, he's cashing in on his extreme personality more than his comics which have looked the exact same since x-force.

First things first: Art is subjective. To each his/her own. Second: I've been a professional comicbook artist for over 15 years and a fan of Nirvana for even longer, so I feel obligated to make a comment. In any case, frankly, I think you're missing the point. The problem with Liefeld's work's that the storytelling's terrible. Transitions between panels are really hard to read. He barely bothers with backgrounds. Did he ever heard of the 180 rule (which CAN be broken, but you should learn the basics first)? The anatomy, style, splash pages, etc. All of that comes later. Storytelling comes first. I think it's great that he can make atractive drawings but if the story suffers... what's the point? Again, to each his/her own. Cheers. PS: I won't comment on his writting since I haven't really read that much by him and it wouldn't be fair. And, by no means I'm a good artist, so all c&c's more than welcome.

I really enjoyed this video and hope you do more comic book stuff. I'm from the "Image Era" and always liked Rob's style. I found it exciting and it inspired me to create my own characters!

You not only captured the music I felt the comics I read but you accurately describe the 90s experience for me growing up! Hell yeah!!!

I don’t need to see the video to positively assert that comparing Rob Liefeld to Kurt Cobain is so way of the mark that I wonder if you really know anything about them, specially Cobain. For starters Cobain didn’t play shit music, nor plagiarized, nor punched his band mates and he really really hated becoming a celebrity. Ambitiousness was not Liefeld’s biggest crime, it was being an asshole.

His what if issue was very good. That's when I first saw his art

Really nice vid, I remember seeing my son reading X-Factor and other X-men titles back when Rob and MacFarland were still in Marvel before Image. I've always taken Liefeld as trying to be the Jack Kirby of the '90s because of the way he was drawing his panels. Unfortunately, sometimes the business is cruel depending on how things go. Anyway, a very well researched vid, it presents Liefeld's career in comics in a different light that most people don't see. Keep up the nice work!

This was aweome! Well put togther and very repectful. I enjoyed this!

Rob "Gigantic Boots On Everybody" Liefeld. 90s kids remember

While I would never say his style is anywhere near my favorite (that's reserved for the likes of John Romata Jr and Steve Dillon) bc I do think he isn't the best artist I do have a nostalgia for it for the reasons you stated in this video. It's the same reason I love grunge. Sometimes the attitude and intent is more impactful than the polish. I don't care much for a lot of mainstream comic art now for instance bc it's just so polished. Like everything looks nice, great. It takes a lot of work I know but it's kind of boring to me personally. It's similar to why I love art styles in Anime like Mob Psycho 100 vs SAO. While MP1 is actually drawn by incredible artists what I love most is how interesting the style is vs the bland pretty style of more mainstream anime. There's something about the punk rock rough style of Liefeld, Mcfarlane, early Lee, and others that I still get a kick out of going back to read today.

Really well done video - great job :)

Great video. I'm not a fan of his style but my respect for learning from scratch by himself this trade. Creativity is underrated and possibly one of the hardest thing to use and to master.

Liefeld is way more Guns N' Roses than Nirvana.

I’ve met Liefeld a few times, a real nice guy (really cares about the fans). The guy is very passionate about what he does. He’s like a big kid that lives and breathes comics.

Love your work and fearless appreciation.

Really good vid. Maybe do a follow up with an interview with Rob? You re-aligned my perspective on Rob Liefeld. Cheers!