by Joshua H. Stulman

It’s not often that a Deadpool sketch by his comic creator, Rob Liefeld, becomes available for sale. This is for two reasons 1) It’s Deadpool by Rob Liefeld! 2) Once you have an original artwork by Deadpool’s creator, you’re never letting it go!

Seriously, one of the most famous comic creators of the 1990’s rarely attends comic book conventions these days, and on the rare occasions that Rob Liefeld does, he doesn’t sketch much anymore. Even his signature on a comic will have your wallet hurting, especially if its New Mutants #87 (1st app. Cable) or New Mutants # 98 (1st app. of Deadpool)!

“So what’s the big deal about Rob Liefeld?” you may ask. Well, simply put, Rob Liefeld is considered among the top comic creators that has had significant impact on modern comics. Aside from creating Deadpool and Cable, two characters that have become multi-million dollar brands, Liefeld’s success at Marvel allowed him to break barriers as one of the founding members of Image.

It’s true, alot of people criticize Liefeld for his lack of backgrounds, general avoidance of drawing feet, and his penchant for pouch garter belts…but now that that’s out of the way, let’s not ignore that his art-style was a radical departure from the Marvel “house style.” Marvel in the late 1980’s saw artists breaking with the traditional Marvel way of drawing based on the artwork of art director John Romita.

Slowly Manga influences began to show up in the younger artists, like Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee and Todd McFarlane. This was largely in part due to Frank Miller‘s groundbreaking work on Daredevil. (Wondering about McFarlane and Liefelds’s obsession with pouches? You can blame Frank Miller’s Batman The Dark Knight Returns) While Miller’s Daredevil run began in the Marvel house style, towards the introduction of Elektra (Daredevil # 168) it became clear that he was looking more and more to the east for influence. In fact Miller supported the English translation and publication of Kazuo Koike’s Lone Wolf and Cub to the American public. Other Manga content that had a tremendous influence was Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira (1988), which was also translated and published under Marvel’s Epic imprint.

Liefeld’s art-style reduced his backgrounds and borrowed his manga speed lines and various hatch pattern influences which worked to keep the focus on his figures. He also used the splash page format effectively to showcase his dynamic figure work (and shrewdly catered to the demand for his original artwork). These artistic changes helped create a signature style that distinguished himself from his contemporaries. Fans noticed and by New Mutants # 100, Marvel decided to rebrand as X-Force and start back at #1, which went on to sell 5 million copies.

Marvel made him a millionaire and this allowed him to take an even greater risk. He bet on himself along with other top Marvel creators to form Image, a creator owned publisher. Here, Liefeld initially debuted his original creation, The Youngbloods, but soon found himself acting more as editor and art director of his creations. He founded Extreme Studios and later Awesome Entertainment under Image, and hired talent that continued to work in his style. Marat Mychaels, Stephen Platt, Ian Churchill, Dan Fraga, John Stinson and Brandon Peterson all found work creating comics in the “Extreme” art style. Other artists like Ed McGuinness, Pat Lee, and Jeff Matsuda helped test their new projects and manga influenced work under Liefeld’s publishing venture.

While Rob Liefeld‘s legacy is largely overshadowed by Deadpool‘s almost billion dollar success (a character Liefeld does not even own), his influence extends much deeper in shaping the look of the modern comic! After the formation of Image, Marvel desperately tried to fill the void with copycat artists. But you really can’t beat the real thing! When you think of a paradigm shift in comics, none can better be exemplified by the artwork of Rob Liefeld.

The Brooklyn Comics Shop was lucky enough to come across a small collection of original artwork, and one of its key gems is this wonderful Deadpool sketch by his creator.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT OUR ORIGINAL ARTWORK SELECTION

Joshua H. Stulman

Owner, Brooklyn Comic Shop