On Friday June 2nd (Today for those of you reading this soon after publication) Rob Liefeld will be inducted in to the Wizard World Hall of Legends at a special ceremony at the Pennsylvania Convention Center during the 2017 Wizard World Comic Con.
Liefeld has written, penciled and inked the sequential interiors of countless comic books as well as his artwork famously gracing the covers of even more.
Prior to his time with the (then) fledgling image comics, Liefeld worked with Marvel Comics on titles like New Mutants where he created the iconic Deadpool along with Fabian Nicieza as well as characters like Cable, Shatterstar, Gideon, Copycat, Domino, Feral; most of these would become a new title called X-Force.
After leaving Marvel he joined six of his counterparts at the fledgling Image Comics and there he created characters and teams like Youngblood, Supreme, Bloodstrike, Brigade, Prophet, Chapel, Bloodwulf, Riptide, Shaft and countless others.
Liefeld’s characters have been brought to cinematic life with the release of the immensely popular Deadpool movie, the upcoming Deadpool 2 and X-Force movies and – potentially – the upcoming New Mutants movies. Liefeld has also pinned a “Seven figure” movie deal which will bring his “extreme-verse” characters to life in a shared universe.
At one point during the 1990s, Liefeld was featured in a Levi’s 501 commercial where he talked about his creations and featured X-Force. He is one of the few artists who can claim such a pervasive level of notoriety as to be picked up by a brand and featured in an out-of-industry- tv ad.
Indeed, Rob Liefeld has left an indelible mark on the comic book world both on the professional side as well as for the legions of fans and readers who voraciously devoured his work and continue to do so.
Congratulations, Rob!
From Wizard World:
For more than a quarter-century, the name Wizard World has represented the best in comics and pop culture. As one of the media pioneers in the space, Wizard World is proud to be honoring and respecting the legacy of the comic arts through the Wizard World Hall of Legends, a new initiative to celebrate the artists, writers and insiders who have built the industry and those continue the traditions.
The first recipient of the Wizard World Hall of Legends award is Rob Liefeld, creator of the popular Cable, Deadpool, X-Force and Youngblood franchises. Liefeld will be presented the inaugural award at Wizard World Comic Con Philadelphia in a ceremony on Friday, June 2, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Following the success of X-Force (#1 went on to sell an unprecedented five million copies in the United States alone making it the #2 selling comic book of all time), Liefeld teamed with his peers to launch Image Comics, the most successful independent comic book label in comics history. Youngblood, created and illustrated by Liefeld, went on to sell 1 million copies, shattering the sales record for an independent comic book. Liefeld created a comic production label, Extreme Studios which went on to publish Liefeld creations, Brigade, Bloodstrike, Supreme, Glory, Prophet and Avengelyne, many continue their publication at Image today. More than 25 years after introducing the world to his brilliant creations, Liefeld continues to enjoy the fruits of his imagination as Cable, Deadpool and others expand into multi-media platforms including cartoons, video games and motion pictures.
