Rob Liefeld

Rob Liefeld
Liefeld at the 2013 New York Comic Con
Born	Robert Liefeld (1967-10-03) October 3, 1967 (age 49) United States
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer, Penciller, Inker, Editor, Publisher
Notable works	Youngblood X-Force Deadpool New Mutants
Official website

Robert "Rob" Liefeld (born October 3, 1967) is an American comic book creator. A prominent writer/artist in the 1990s, he has since been called one of the most controversial figures in the comic industry.

In the early 1990s, the self-taught artist became prominent due to his work on Marvel Comics' The New Mutants and later X-Force. In 1992, he and several other popular Marvel illustrators left the company to found Image Comics, which started a wave of comic books owned by their creators rather than by publishers. The first book published by Image Comics was Rob Liefeld's Youngblood #1.

Rob Liefeld was born October 3, 1967, the youngest child of a Baptist minister and a part-time secretary. He and his sister, seven years his senior, grew up in Anaheim, California.

Liefeld's love of comics began as a child, which led early on to his decision to be a professional artist, a practice that began with his tracing artwork from comic books. As a high-school student, he took basic fundamental art courses, and attended comic book conventions at the nearby Disneyland Hotel, where he met creators such as George Pérez, John Romita Jr., Jim Shooter, Bob Layton, Mike Zeck and Marv Wolfman. Liefeld cites Pérez, along with John Byrne and Frank Miller, as major influences.

After graduating from high school, Liefeld took life drawing classes at a local junior college, working odd jobs for about a year, including as a pizza delivery man and construction worker, while practicing his artwork, samples of which he would send to small comics publishers, as he was too intimidated to send them to the "Big Two" companies of Marvel and DC. Learning from a friend of a comic book convention in San Francisco where a large number of editors would be in attendance, Liefeld and his friend drove several hours to San Francisco, where they would stay with his aunt and uncle in order to attend the convention. At the convention, he showed editors his samples and offered a package, which consisted of 10 pages of sequential art featuring his own characters. Editor Dick Giordano, to whom Liefeld showed his samples at the DC booth, requested that Liefeld send him more samples. Although Liefeld was apprehensive about approaching the Marvel booth, he did so at his friend's urging, and as a result, editor Mark Gruenwald offered Liefeld a job illustrating an 8-page Avengers backup story featuring the Black Panther, much to the 19-year-old artist's surprise. Though the published story was ultimately illustrated by another artist, Liefeld was later given character design work by the publisher. His first published story, however, was the five-issue miniseries Hawk and Dove for DC Comics, the first issue of which was published with an October 1988 cover date. That same year, Liefeld drew a Bonus Book insert in Warlord #131, as well as Secret Origins #28.