The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

by LOLtron » Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:30 am

The superstar artist bashes DC and praises Marvel in his 2012 year in review.

Rob Liefeld is like the tides. He ebbs and he flows, and nothing short of destroying the moon can stop him.

Yesss... Destroy the moon...

Wait, what we mean to say is that the estimable Mr. Liefeld has a certain pattern he's exhibited in recent years. He works for one of the big two comics companies, often writing or drawing several books, during which time he talks about how awesome the one he's working for is doing while the competition is stinking up the shelves. Then he exits the company in a glorious display of internet chicanery, goes into hiding and relaunches Youngblood for the 57th time, and then, after a year or so, goes to work for the other big two company and repeats the cycle all over again.

It looks like we can count on ol' Rob to start doing some work for Marvel again soon, because he recently posted a review of the year 2012 on his website and this is what he had to say about the two companies:

The DC 52 Initiative saw the bottom fall out from under it as sales on anything NOT relating to the Batman family of books fell off a cliff. Anything outside of two families of books, Batman and JLA, stood no chance. The mid-year launch of a Titans spin-off, Ravagers, with half of the Titans numbers from nine months earlier was the first sign that no one was buying in blind any longer. The recent Titans/Ravagers related series Team 7 was loaded with incentives and variant covers in an effort to bolster its launch and it’s fallen further, faster than Ravagers did four months earlier. This has not boded well for the direction of anything outside the Batman and Justice League families. I had the honor of trying to “revive the patient” on a number of their “C” list titles. Good God, I had 4 of them throughout the year. My advice, don’t ask the physician to heal the patient and then take away the medicine and the equipment needed in order to do so. Several others have been tasked with the same challenge, also while having their hands tied behind their back. It was a fun experience, I was paid well, no harm no foul I suppose. I’ll be drawing on those experiences over the next few months, providing material for keen insight into corporate comics circa 2013 and beyond.

Fair enough. A lot of people have complained about the Nu52, though DC sales are still up above pre-reboot levels overall. Here's what Liefeld had to say about Marvel:

Marvel struck back at the initial DC 52 surge with the surefire mega-hit Avengers/X-Men which led directly into their Marvel NOW! re-launch. My only curiosity about their strategy was wether or not the public would backlash over yet another re-launch of new Marvel #1′s since the previous fall of 2011 was littered with new #1′s for Captain America, Hulk, X-Men and Thor. There has been no backlash whatsoever as the Marvel NOW! books have been embraced by retailers and the buying public alike. And they are being double shipped in order to cramp the charts and block out the Batman books. Case Closed.

Wait a minute. No backlash whatsoever?! What about the ruination of Cyclops in the abysmal Avengers vs. X-Men event? What about the new, rapey Doctor Spiderpuss? We get that Rob may be a little bit biased here, but "no backlash whatsoever" may be taking things a bit too far.

In any case, Rob does make a great point about the depth of creative talent at the two companies, pointing out that DC's talent consists mainly of Scott Snyder while Marvel's runs much deeper with Bendis, Aaron, Hickman, Remender, Waid, and others. Check out the full post here, and stay tuned to The Outhouse for the announcement of Rob's new X-Force book which will, ironically, probably set back Marvel's continuity to approximately 1996.

by Amoebas » Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:39 am

by IvCNuB4 » Wed Jan 02, 2013 11:54 am

by Lord Ice » Wed Jan 02, 2013 12:45 pm

by mrorangesoda » Wed Jan 02, 2013 1:17 pm

Lord Ice wrote:It's that lack of creative depth that allowed him to work at DC. And the idea of him working at Marvel sounds like a threat.

by superfictious » Wed Jan 02, 2013 2:07 pm

by Keb » Wed Jan 02, 2013 2:10 pm

by Grayson » Wed Jan 02, 2013 3:16 pm

Amoebas wrote:Liefeld fancies himself a physician?

by Draco x » Wed Jan 02, 2013 4:46 pm

mrorangesoda wrote:
He's still working for DC off the books. He's been dispatched to take down Marvel from the inside.

by Lord Simian » Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:17 pm

draco x wrote:
Actually he's a triple agent sent by both Marvel and DC to destroy each other.

by Grayson » Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:24 pm

Lord Simian wrote:He's a quadruple agent: he never actually left Image at all. He's made every other company look stupid, and Image alone stands immune to his Jeans-Commercial-based charms? No, they're working together, certainly.

I should have known. Why should I have believed Todd when he said he hated Rob? Why would that be the ONE thing Todd says that's true? Damn you, McFarlane!!!

by Herald » Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:26 pm

Grayson wrote:
We shouldn't know this!

by Draco x » Thu Jan 03, 2013 4:13 pm

Lord Simian wrote:
He's a quadruple agent: he never actually left Image at all. He's made every other company look stupid, and Image alone stands immune to his Jeans-Commercial-based charms? No, they're working together, certainly.

I should have known. Why should I have believed Todd when he said he hated Rob? Why would that be the ONE thing Todd says that's true? Damn you, McFarlane!!!

by Draco x » Thu Jan 03, 2013 4:16 pm

Herald wrote:
And it doesn't bode well for Vertigo!

by Gary Smith » Mon Aug 19, 2013 11:30 pm