Liefeld's Farewell

In the early 90's comics (mainly Marvel and Wildstorm) went through an ultra-violent period where over the top action and miniscule amount of time on the story would fill page after page. Rob Liefeld rose to popularity in that period and is a self taught artist. Take a look at that image above, what's wrong with it? If you can't see anything then I can easily point out several "Liefeldism's" that just aren't correct at all.

This article isn't about how befuddling it is that he gained such a huge following, it's about his decision to leave DC Comics only a year after he joined on with the creative talent behind 'The New 52'. Rob was once known for being difficult to work with and often missed his deadlines so when I saw the headlines I just thought he was falling back into the old ways. Check out what he's had to say so far;

Officially got off the DC52 treadmill this morning. I believe in what DC is doing, but had to preserve my sanity. I walked off all 3 books. Can’t wait to see any attempts to spin. I have every email. This is the 4th time I quit in the last 4 months. This time it will stick. Never thought the Image section of my book would be topped. This last year was a humdinger. The DC52 chapters will go top all of it. [...] Reasons are the same as everyone’s that you hear. I lasted a few months longer than I thought possible. Massive indecision, last minute and I mean LAST minute changes that alter everything. Editor pissing contests… No thxnjs. Last week my editor said ‘early on we had a lot of indie talent that weren’t used to re-writes and changes … made it hard.’ Uh, no, it’s you. Don’t look for any tell all interview with me, just follow this feed. … the best stuff has not been shared — not even close!

By following this feed he is refrencing his Twitter account. The reason why I don't think this is him dipping back into lazy habits is the fact that other creators at DC have been expressing their dislike for behind the scenes actions and not being able to express any of their own ideas and creativity into the books. George Perez and Grant Morrison are just two more names that have become fed up with the shackles they've been locked to in order to try to keep this new 52 a streamlined continuity.

DC is set to release a bunch of #0 issues next month, which will give insight into the first year/appearances of the new 52 version of the characters, and Liefeld's last writing duties will be set amongst those. He began last year with Hawk and Dove, characters he helped create. The current titles with his trademark that will soon be changing are The Savage Hawkman, Grifter, and Deathstroke.

Sounds like DC needs to treat their talent better or many more will begin walking away. I'm sure they can find easy replacements and fill-ins, but when you keep rotating writers and artists around fans become release with the constant changes. The new 52 is in in a rocky situation barely a year later.