The Four Color Media Monitor

IGN says one of the most dreadful illustrators the industry's ever known has announced he's going to stop working on the "merc with a mouth" after more than 3 decades:

Rob Liefeld, the co-creator of Marvel Comics' Deadpool, announced he is retiring from the character on his official X/Twitter account.

"It’s official. Yup, after 33 years of not only introducing Deadpool but chronicling many of his most popular adventures it’s time for the Deadpool Daddy to say farewell," Liefeld wrote.

[...] Liefeld's retirement from Deadpool wasn't the only thing the longtime comic book artist announced. Turns out, Liefeld's been working on "one last crazy Deadpool" story that's slated to release this summer.

"In 2015 I started Deadpool: Bad Blood, getting Deadpool his first original graphic novel, and his only chart-topping, #1 ranking to date, an achievement that got me a round of congratulations from Marvel brass that pumped my chest out farther than Captain America’s! No other auteur has combined to write and illustrate more Deadpool work, I’ll complete this journey with over 1000 pages alongside my Mercenary Misfit. So, I’ll finish this one last Deadpool story, and trust me, it’s a wild one, and call it a collaboration for the ages. It’ll be fun!"

Sorry, it's long too late. Not only has the train already left the station years ago, Liefeld was instrumental in precipitating it. I notice Liefeld couldn't help gushing over his awful illustration of Capt. America with a balloon-like body from the past quarter century. All that does is hint he's not sorry he did a poor job as an artist.

Liefeld also took some time to reminisce over what could have happened had he not created Deadpool, as well as other comic book characters like Cable, Domino, and Stryfe, for Marvel during a time when their initial comic book run was "headed towards cancellation."

"It certainly transformed my young career, creating opportunities and record-breaking sales for New Mutants & X-Force," Liefeld said. "Creating and introducing the Deadpool Corps., featuring Lady Deadpool & Dogpool was a great function of my mid-life crisis during 2009."

And this is little different from countless other "experiments" from the past decade that saw a busload of Spider-Man variations, and even some Superman variations, some of which were politically motivated. Something Liefeld himself doesn't seem to have ever publicly complained about. What's being announced is no big deal, and it's not just the Merc-With-A-Mouth Liefeld should retire from, but the whole industry, if he really believes he's accomplished anything, when he never did. Liefeld's not an impressive artist, and what he said about Captain America certainly suggests he realizes that. And that's why it's a shame only so many gullible people thought his art would be worth something for the speculator market, when it's nothing more than a source of shame for it.

Labels: dreadful artists, marvel comics, msm propaganda