Img 6988A fan in a yellow hat went to Chicago Comic-Con, saw Rob Liefeld — who has certainly had his ups and downs in the comics industry but still goes out to shows and takes his lumps like a grown-up — and showed Liefeld who’s boss by slipping him a copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way with a snotty note inside. And then took a surreptitious video of it. And wrote a triumphant blog post about it. We decline to link to the post in question because all this guy was after was attention and he’s certainly got it, as a 300+ post reply thread has emerged with various comics professionals — from Ethan van Sciver to Sarah Oleksyk — telling Yellow Hat how petty and immature he was being. Here’s a representative response from Tony Shasteen:

Seriously dude, whether you like him or not, Rob is know as an industry professional that made a truck load of money in the heyday of Image. You’re known, and soon to be forgotten, as the guy in the ridiculous yellow hat that acts like a twat. Bravo…


Seriously dude, if you behave like such a douche that you are getting the comics industry to rally behind Rob Liefeld you’ve really behaved like a douche.
Or, in the words of Cameron Stewart:

So you don’t like Rob Liefeld, big deal. His work isn’t to my tastes either but I would never dream of trying to publicly humiliate him in person. He’s taken the time and expense to come to that show to ply his trade – just as you work at your job – and interact with the people who DO appreciate his work and presence. He’s not there for you to be snide and condescending and to be the recipient of your asinine, half-witted pranks.


Actually, Dustin Harbin had the best suggestion:

Guys, let’s increase the peace. A SUGGESTION:

Those people who agree with Yellow Hat Guy should signify so by wearing yellow hats at comic book events. Also trenchcoats–those are always in style, year-round. People LOVE TRENCHCOATS.

Those who disagree with Yellow Hat Guy should walk up to people with yellow hats, hand them a bag with a surprise in it (a turd? you decide!) and a note which asks for an apology for the yellow-hat wearer’s douchery. Origin of the douchery not important–the recipient likely is inhuman and lacks feelings, so it doesn’t matter at all whether it makes sense or hurts them in any way. They almost certainly love being publicly insulted by people, like most of us do.

Then film (or have a friend film, that’s okay too, still ballsy) the whole thing from between some other con-goers’ shoulders. Like a stud.

UPDATE 2 pm EDT: Well, this has really taken on a life of its own — check out the Twitter hashtag #douchebaginayellowhat. The term “yellow hat,’ as yuo can read in The Beat’s comments, is now a code word for a kind of obnoxious fan.

Also every blog out there has lit up with comments on it. Our favorite, however is this from Jordyn Marcellus, who analyzes the incident in terms of the work of Prof. Henry Jenkins, who has made extensive study of the psychology of fandom:

In Poachers, Jenkins refers to a paper by John Tulloch about Dr. Who fans. In short, he argues these fans (and what I want to generalize to all “fans”) is that they are a “powerless elite” who find themselves with an inability to affect their decisions on the production of their fannish interest, despite their relative mastery over it. Jenkins says this kind of knowledge is comparable to, or better than, an academic’s knowledge of their particular academic area of interest.  (In short: a Harry Potter obsessive may know more relative knowledge and are better able to analyze the subject of Harry Potter than an academic who studies pornography or film. I’m not sure if I agree with that, but I want to continue with it because it’ll be important quickly).


It’s this sense of elitism that has led some (not many) fans to condone the Yellow Hat actions.

1 COMMENT

  1. Ah, the Yellow Hat Brouhaha. To think that in Curious George, the man with the yellow hat was a hero.

    Dan Wickline gets my nod for best comment/idea. Via FB:

    “Rob, you should have that last laugh on the Yellow Hat…auction the book off to raise money for the Hero Initiative or CBLDF.”

    Agreed. Rob should draw something in it, Cable maybe, & sell that suckah for a good cause. :)

  2. Kudos to you, Heidi, for not running a link to his post. He’s probably gotten 100 times more visitors to his site he usually gets, and he really doesn’t deserve to get more.

    Personally, I have been critical of Liefeld and others on the Internet, but I always try to be fair and reasonable. Try, not always succeed, but try. But never in a million years would I think of doing something like this.
    Whatever your opinions about Liefeld, he is a human being and has feelings, friends and family who love him and a life of his own. He deserves a modicum of respect.

    But this seems to be a disturbing trend of people taking the bravado they show on the Web into the real world. At last years SDCC, I was walking past the G4 booth. Joe Quesada was being interviewed by Blair Butler. A fan behind me thought it would be awesomely cool to scream “Thanks for ruining Spider-Man” as Quesada was being interviewed. Because, you know, nothing is better than humiliating someone while he is on National television. I thought it was a real d-bag thing to do.

  3. Yellow hat dude’s “joke” was like the thing you and your friends totally laughed your butts off about when you were 13-15 but for these guys to even remember this comic have to be at least 10-15 older than that which makes it sad. What makes it creepy is that they still care.

    The best part is Liefeld handled it perfectly (actually making him sympathetic which is something I thought I’d never see) and with class yet they still posted it like they had some great Jackass/Tom Green moment caught on video. I also like how the entire world of pro comic artists descended to take out their frustrations with self-entitled d-bag fans.

  4. Liefeld is an idiot and a jackass and he still doesn’t understand anatomy.

    What Yellow Hat did might have been funny in a stupid movie aimed at male teenagers, but not in real life.

    What Yellow Hat did might be bordering on mental illness.

  5. Liefeld’s also a very polite guy; he held the men’s room door open for me at the Hyatt at SDCC. That’s unusually gentlemanly.

  6. I’ll admit that at one point I drank the Liefeld Kool-aid, but in recent years I’ve come to renounce my prior sins. I might’ve even made a jab or two about Liefeld on my blog or my twitter or whatever. I’m not a fan of his work, and I don’t buy it.

    That said, What the douchenozzle in the yellow hat did is probably one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever seen. Judge Liefeld for his work, treat him like a professional. Apologize to the market for buying Heroes Returns because if you have such issues with his work, don’t keep buying it. You continuing to buy it is as bad as your taste in hats.

    Alan Coil above me does a similar thing, though. Why is Liefeld an idiot and a jackass? have you met him? no? Then take your imaginary yellow hat off your head and stop posting nonsense like that. Or else, I might have to assume you’re an idiot and a jackass.

  7. Little known fact about Liefeld… He was instrumental in getting Rosaleen Kirby much of Jack’s artwork back from Marvel after his death. He also had the presents of mind to hire Alan Moore and Rick Vetch to do some of the greatest comics I’ve ever read. These titles, such as Supreme and Glory, have left their mark on comics right up until now. I was reading an old trade of Warren Ellis’ Storm Watch the other day, and saw it, and I saw it in Grant Morrison’s All Star Superman. He also helped to change the playing field of the comic book world in the 90’s, for the better, over all. Is his artwork so bad that we continue to over look all of these things? My friend Frank Kane and I saw him at the Spawn movie premier and thought it a good time to shake his hand and tell him what a good guy we thought he was.

  8. You know what? This makes me want to go through my collection and read my old Rob Liefeld comics. I seem to recall enjoying how much energy his books had.

    Plus I think that if it weren’t for Heroes Reborn, there might not have been an Ultimate Universe for Marvel to get the attention of Hollywood with.

  9. Never been a fan of the man’s art, never met him, and I’ve heard some pretty mixed stories about him. I’ve even been known to chuckle at some of the critiques of his drawings. However, what was he doing at the con? Drawing free sketches for people who enjoy his work (and snide comments aside, there are plenty of them). A friend of mine walked up and got a sketch and a few minute of polite conversation, and I’ve seen him doing similar for hundreds of people at cons.

    That someone would ‘reward’ such decent, generous behavior with a nasty insulting joke really burns me up. I hope ‘yellow hat’ becomes con slang for someone displaying rude and moronic behavior…

  10. There is an aspect to the Liefeld incident that deserves some attention: the meaning of “professionalism.“ Liefeld has been widely scorned for not knowing anatomy and for having other artistic weaknesses.

    Trying to publicly humiliate Liefeld was obviously wrong. How much difference, though, is there between being contemptuous toward Liefeld’s work in the way that “Yellow Hat” was and being casually contemptuous? There’s a disconnect between casual contempt and defending him as an industry professional who’s simply plying his trade at conventions. If his artwork was so obviously lacking in technique, then it arguably should have never been published, just as a writer who couldn’t write coherent paragraphs shouldn’t be published. Working in an industry that doesn’t have meaningful standards robs the word “professional” of its meaning.

    Compare the reviews ASTERIOS POLYP has received with the reviews that are typically done for DC and Marvel comics. How many of those comics could survive such intense scrutiny and not be reduced to little scraps of paper?

    SRS

  11. Well done Heidi. I’ve never understood the anti-Liefeld attitude anyway. I stopped reading comics shortly after X-Force #1 not to return to them until Civil War. At times I feel like Rip Van Winkle because, after my 15 year absence, I knew nothing of the rise and fall of Rob Liefled. When I came back to comics I was shocked to hear how much people hated the man I only knew as one of the top artists that founded Image.

    Come on people, give the guy a break. It’s one thing to have a personal opinion about the quality of an artist’s work but it’s quit another to think you opinion should matter to the artist. Mr Yellow Hat, do we come to McDonald’s and critique how you flip the burgers? It is never cool to try and get attention by tearing down another person. At best this is juvenile behavior, but what else would you expect from grown men reading comic books.

  12. Todd:

    I’m sad to hear that. I was hoping it was a fashion choice and not enthusiasm over comics.

    Other than that, I think “Yellow Hat” just became a new term for fandumb.

  13. If he had just got Rob to sign the book, that could have made for a funny post with plenty of snideness/

    Starting with an insult and returning with the gift? Lame.

  14. At the Cactus-Con in Phoenix, Rob Liefeld had the longest lines for any of the guests. I had a booth opposite his, and he was really nice.

  15. It was appalling for me to read the original blog post for two reasons: the first being, as stated by many people, the galling sense of entitlement Yellow Hat displayed. Liefeld is not curing cancer, or rescuing people from burning buildings, or starting wars – he is providing a diversionary bit of entertainment that the consuming public can take or leave. For a “fan” to DEMAND an apology from him for producing what he considers “sub-par” work is mind-boggling. How can a grown man walk around in life expecting total strangers to prostrate themselves before him for the crime of NOT making excellent work? Who else “owes” this man-boy an apology?

    The second reason this struck me so intensely is the fact that I’ve tabled many a show, and if EVER someone came up to me and behaved this shamefully to my face, I don’t even know how I would react. I would like to think that I’d be able to handle it as well as Liefeld (who, in all honesty, must have born his share of deflecting jokes and barbs at his own expense for quite some time now). But it was all too easy to put myself in his shoes. No one should be championed for bringing more nastiness and hate into an already socially-frought and often difficult arena, and the glee and lack of self-awareness Yellow Hat displayed in his post should not be ignored or, yes, tolerated. It’s time to grow up and start treating people with courtesy, not acting like an internet troll in real life and bringing the common denominator of interpersonal interaction down to the level of twelve-year-old boys running free without chaperones. I was glad to see the community swoop down on this person. To sum up: BEHAVE!

  16. …he could go around criticizing superheroes for having fighting skills he doesn’t approve of, passes out copies of Chuck Norris work-out videos be bootlegged from the local video store while issuing snide little petty redundancies. His weakness– yellow snow. He looks like a douchebag comics nerd in a yellow hat, hence the codename.

    There’s millions of dollars just sitting there, waiting for someone to pick it up and run with it.

    Morrison? Ellis? Moore? Gaiman? Clowes?

  17. Rob is a grizzled vet when it comes to this sort of nonsensical stuff. He is by nature a kind-hearted guy who always gives more than 100% when he is at a convention, a signing, or meeting fans. He has never forgotten what it was like to be a fan and approach his heroes at a con or a signing.

    Unfortunately, the history of comics is littered with the debris of young guns who believed they were destined to be the world’s greatest penciler and wasted no time shooting off their mouths running down the top talent of the day in fanzines or at conventions. There isn’t much new about Yellow Hat’s behavior beyond his ability to disperse it into the viral winds of the internet at light speed.

    Which of course was Yellow Hat’s mission wasn’t it?

    The current state of the internet means that a person who does something foolish or indiscreet has no place to run; no place to hide.

    That is a fairly new phenomenon. In the old days this sort of stuff, good or bad, just sorta disappeared. Am I personally aware of people that today are near the top of the talent pool that used to run down the Image guys in the early days of the internet on AOL and Compuserve forums?

    Sure I am.
    Some of them even publish through Image now.
    They at least have the advantage of the fact that their indiscretions (more or less) vanished into the ether as the original forums dissipated.

    And I’m sure they have to sometimes listen to the same sort of criticism that they once dished out.

    All one has to do is take a look at the news and recognize that public behavior is becoming increasingly coarse and rude. Yellow Hat’s behavior seems to be indicative of the path we are going down as a nation at the moment. I suspect that there may well be more of this sort of thing in the future.

    And so what?
    What some jerk says across a skirted convention table has absolutely nothing to do with what occurs when a fan spies your book at the point of purchase and plunks down their money in order to commune with your work.

    At the end of the day, for me, that is what it is all about.

  18. What bothers me about the Rob defenses is that most of them say “well I don’t like his art but he’s still a human being.” Aside from that, not many people are noting that Rob is an exceptionally nice and professional human being (and exceptionally humble considering his level of success). I would argue that there actually are some human beings who deserve to get treated like jerks if they are jerks themselves. Rob is entirely the opposite.

    Not only does he go out of his way to accommodate his fans today, but I remember trying to meet him when I was a kid and he was at the height of his Marvel career. After waiting in line for over three hours he ignored every restriction on signing limits to make sure we all got what we waited for. He even posed for pictures, staying long after he was scheduled to leave.

    Sure, I don’t read comics like that anymore, nor do I read his, but I also read lots of RL Stine books as a kid that I don’t anymore. No one walks around decrying RL Stine as the worst thing that ever happened to literature just because we all grew out of it. Let the man live in his particular genre and kind of storytelling. And please, I think he deserves some respect from the industry as a whole that’s long overdue, not just a bunch of backhanded defenses when a jerk insults him at a show.

  19. Robb Irrgang said:

    “…I might have to assume you’re an idiot and a jackass.”

    So you are telling me not to judge others, yet you are willing to judge me.

    And you called the other guy a douchenozzle.

    Can’t we all just get along?

  20. “So you are telling me not to judge others, yet you are willing to judge me.”

    That was tongue in cheek. Sorry, haven’t quite mastered emoticons for those tougher-to-depict deadpan moments.

  21. I wonder if a lot of the Hat’s resentment had to do with the way the Image creators — Liefeld, Lee, McFarlane, Silvestri, Larson, et.al. — enjoyed a Viking celebrity’s honeymoon after Image came on the scene in 1993. Those Image guys were so popular, they never actually set foot in the Chicago convention venue, the long gone and lamented Ramada Hotel near O’Hare Airport. Instead, they signed their titles in a tent outside the hotel.

    What’s more, the lines for these guys, by Image guru Jim Valentino’s estimation (not mine), stretched about 1.5 miles. Over three days, 26,000 conventioners passed through the Image tent (hopefully putting the faux Twilight controversy at SDCC into greater perspective). Read the TCJ feature about the Image era, including interviews with Larry Marder and Jim Valentino here.

    My wife and I watched the tent show from a distance, disgusted by the faux funnybook superstar spectacle that was Image back then. Didn’t buy the Kool-Aid back then, and certainly not now. So when the Marvel heroes were “reborn” by the Image guys years later, if you followed comics at all you couldn’t resist watching the train wreck about to unfold.

    So, that historic, long-standing resentment toward Liefeld and company may have been behind the Hat’s motives. Maybe, maybe not.

    Maybe, those SDCC crowds of 125,000 aren’t so bad after all….

  22. This reminds me of a fictional chart I used to say existed into which funny book folks could be divided:

    Good Guy – Good Book
    Good Guy – Bad Book
    Bad Guy – Good Book
    Bad Guy – Bad Book

    GGBB was someone I would meet, either on line or at shows, who was very nice and cordial and what not, but I just didn’t like their work, so often had to try to make small talk without being mean about not partonizing their work.

    BGGB was a person that I did not care for personally but did good work, which often brought a dilemma: Is the book good enough to know that I am indirectly put money into the pocket of a “bad guy?”

    Of course, this kind of list is enitrely subjective and YMMV.

  23. I read that Chicago tent thing as more of a symbolic act: “We’re outside your regularly scheduled comics mainstream,” more than “We are so popular we’re too good for your convention.” Just a run-of-the-mill publicity stunt.

    Aside from your personal likes or dislikes of the comics themselves, it can be safely argued that the Image founders saved the industry from mediocrity. They showed everyone that not only COULD you self-publish successfully (like Dave Sim, Wendy Pini, etc. before them) but you could do so to amazing success and creative fulfillment. Look at everyone that has come out of the House That Image Built (and continues to build) and you see a robust comics industry that wasn’t exactly there at that time.

    Thus, why I think Mr. Liefeld is important and commands respect. :)

  24. If you want to study anatomy get an anatomy book, if you want comicbook ART read Rob’s comics: a true comicbook ARTIST. Sure, the panels don’t look that great when taken out of context, but as part of a whole they sing. They are appreciated as they are supposed to be appreciated -exciting and fun as your eyes “reads” the page. His legacy will live on for as long as there are funny books.

  25. “…but as part of a whole they sing.”

    Like a bunch of 4-year-olds trying to sing Christmas songs for Mommy and Daddy. It’s enough to make wolves howl.

  26. i may not care for rob at all but yellow hats actions were rude and childish and shows why comic book fans seem to be looked down on as much as star war fans . – and props for not giving the guy any more publicity for linking to his site. and rob showed that yellow hat guy behavior was not worth him getting up and tracking the guy down and kicking his butt the bigger man in the thing is rob. for having more class to just keep on working and letting the yellow hat guy think he is king by doing that to him

  27. Thus, why I think Mr. Liefeld is important and commands respect.

    Unfortunately, Liefeld’s accomplishments as a businessman and promoter don’t have much to do with the quality of his artwork. An artist’s reputation should be based on the quality of his work, not on his skill in promoting it or on peripheral issues. The criticism that Liefeld doesn’t know how to draw in perspective — that failing alone should have rendered his work unpublishable. It’s not as if a person can’t study the subject.

    The energy his artwork may have had/has doesn’t matter. Publishing it on that basis alone hurt other artists who wanted work, drew exciting, dynamic scenes, and had better command of technique.

    One of the worst systemic failings in the comics industry might be that editors go with artwork or writing that they think is exciting or superficially dramatic, but is severely lacking in quality. The editors will be pleased with negative reactions as well as positive ones: “Look, they’re reacting! They feel something!” Readers might like inferior artwork for a while, but after repeated exposures to it, they begin to notice the artist’s limitations, and the artwork’s appeal disappears.

    Suppose that you’re an editor and in the position of deciding whether to hire Liefeld as the penciler for a series. Would you hire him, and if so, why?

    SRS

  28. Steven,
    what you are saying is why Artists, “high art” artists, look down upon illustrators especially comicbook illustrators -why comics are not considered “art”.
    Here’s to small feet!:)

  29. “So, that historic, long-standing resentment toward Liefeld and company may have been behind the Hat’s motives. Maybe, maybe not.”

    If they are? That makes him a bit more pathetic…I mean, that’s a terrible defense. It’s sixteen years later…LET. IT. GO. He needs to grow up.

  30. Compare and contrast:

    1. Giving Rob Liefeld a copy of “How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way”
    2. Giving a creationist politician a copy of “On the Origins of the Species”

    Flame on!

  31. Steven, as an editor I definitely wouldn’t hire Rob to do any penciling — as I said above, I don’t personally think his artwork is good.

    I was making a point about his — and the other Image founders’ — contribution to the general evolution of the industry from a business standpoint. And expanded business opportunities of course leads to greater creative expression (see “Walking Dead,” “Invincible,” “Mice Templar,” “Viking,” etc., etc.).

    My larger point was that people unnecessarily conflate their dislike of his artistic ability with any other possible result of his influence on comics (kind of like what you just did).

    Also, now that I think of it, was Rob’s art style even that much of a negative influence on the industry? What about the 4 dozen other artists who drew just like that at the time?

  32. In all seriousness. I love John Buscema and don’t even believe him when he says he just did it for the money and that it was just a job. But that “How to” book might be a little stiffling. And it isn’t anatomically correct either. If the editors had been more open minded maybe John could have incorporated some elements of his first love, which was “painting”.
    And if say Lynda Barry did superhero comics, wether or not she knows anatomy, it wouldn’t ruin my enjoyment or my appreciation of the comic ART.
    I’m just saying there are faulty arguments at work here.

  33. The question, “If you were an editor, would you hire Rob?” is without context and thus incompletely posed. If I were an editor with a new, high-energy superguy title at a mainstream publisher I might very well hire him. The intent of this particular theoretical editor is to produce books that sell, period. Rob has a proven track record in that regard, and could very well be just the guy for such a title. If I were an editor for a smaller publisher whose primary interest is in producing Capital A Art with a title whose intended direction was slice of life realism, the answer would probably be different.

    It’s all a question of context. Let’s cut to the bottom line of this topic: does Rob deserve to be dissed by complete strangers at a convention, or for that matter, in an online discussion like this one? Of course not. As shown at more conventions than I can count, Rob is a gentleman and treats all and sundry as such. I think he deserves to be treated with as much respect as he shows his fans. Does his art have some anatomical quirkiness? Yes, and so did Jack Kirby’s. There was a time that Kirby had his share of detractors and some of them were editors at DC Comics. Did their reluctance to hire Jack Kirby mean that his art was without merit?

  34. An anecdote:

    I saw Liefeld at the IMAGE tables an hour before SDCC ended on Sun. He was the last of the IMAGErs there, everyone else around him having closed up shop, but he was still signing autographs for the last of the Con attendees hanging around. There was someone besides him trying to pull him off and head out— but Liefeld made sure everyone got their signature from him…

    Including me. I didn’t have any of his books, but I queued up and got his scribble on another book I did have. I saw how he smiled and THANKED the fans who lined up for him before he finally did take off. Say what you like about his Art and *ahem* idiosyncratic anatomical choices; but this looked like a dude who genuinely appreciated fandom. (Unlike a lot of the other autograph-signers I met at the Con, say, who seem to view THAT as a task to be suffered through.)

  35. Cary Coatney —

    Somehow, I doubt that. If Ellison was going to get involved, he’s man enough to do it himself.

    And how similar your needless attack on Ellison is to the needless attack by Yellow Hat.

  36. A false impression that Criticism and an act of Creepiness being the same thing. If an overwhelming number of professional comic creators from a wide spectrum of tastes, styles and publishing history are informing you that you acted like a cadmium yellow asshat. Man Up and say you chose the wrong way to show your displeasure rather than listen to all the enabling often anonymous “fans” egging you on. That’s what got you in trouble in the first place. There’s friends who warn you not to jump off the bridge and then there’s friends who drive you to it and film you leap off for youtube.

  37. The good of this? It shows that the comics community really pulls together to defend their own, and to condemn this “ambush” stuff. Liefeld was a class act in his response to this stunt.

  38. The question, “If you were an editor, would you hire Rob?” is without context and thus incompletely posed. If I were an editor with a new, high-energy superguy title at a mainstream publisher I might very well hire him.

    The point of the “editor” question re Liefeld was that he could be considered to lack necessary skills in his chosen profession, presuming that the criticism directed at him re anatomy and perspective is correct. Those gaps in his skills wouldn’t be apparent in individual panels, in sketches, or in a short story, but over time, a writer and editor would discover that he wasn’t capable of doing requested scenes well, while artists who did have those skills could do them well. In that respect, Liefeld as an artist would be no different than an actor, singer, programmer, or other professions in which there’s competition for work and those with complete skill sets are better equipped.

    ***************************************

    Comparing Liefeld’s style to a more cartoonish style, whether it’s Lynda Barry’s or, say, Scott Adams’ isn’t relevant, IMO. Cartoonish styles suit humorous strips and other types of content very well, while physical conflict, action scenes, and dramatic sequences benefit from anatomical realism. I find it hard to imagine Adams drawing a multi-page car chase or a dramatic fistfight. Alice’s “Fist of Death” works wonderfully well in Dilbert but would be repulsive if drawn realistically.

    I doubt that individual responses to scattered examples of a person’s artwork are very meaningful, in a critical sense.

    SRS

  39. “Rob, you should have that last laugh on the Yellow Hat…auction the book off to raise money for the Hero Initiative or CBLDF.”

    Actually, since this man’s actions are being condemned on the ground of being Bad Manners- assuming, you know, the assembled professionals coming to Rob’s defense are enlightened enough not to condemn a dude for the crimes of Having Negative Opinions About Stuff or Giving Somebody a Book -etiquette demands that a gift that is not wanted be returned.

    So how about it?

  40. I’m a fairly young guy, and I have been known to hyperbolize my dislike of certain stories, and by extension, their creators….

    I’ve come to realize that it’s just not worth the effort, and really wishing that much ill to someone is just unnecessary.

    I’ve met Rob Liefeld a few times, and each time, he was nice and courteous to me. And I have liked a lot of his work in the past, he did create or help create Cable and Deadpool, two characters I enjoy immensely. I’m going to leave it at that… I think it’s so easy to tear someone down and rip their work apart and then personally attack them… none of this is necessary. I want to be able to tell someone I liked something they did and that I want to work with them someday. It’s so hard to get into comics as is, if people understood that, maybe they wouldn’t be so critical?

  41. Alan Coil – I wasn’t attacking Harlan. I was making a freakin’ joke for cripessakes! This is the second time in a row you’ve taken a jab at me.

    I was just recalling a phone call I had with Harlan back in 1998 when I asked him to come talk at a comic book library function for kids in LA of which Eugene Mandelcorn hired me to do and the only way he told me he would go if Rob Liefeld wasn’t there.

    That’s all. No friggin’ big deal.

    ~

    Coat

  42. I don’t think the argument’s got anything to do with Liefeld’s style. Or playing armchair editor-in-chief, for that matter.

    It’s just a matter of common decency and civility. If you don’t have anything decent to say to the man, don’t say anything at all.

    I’m not a huge fan of Liefeld’s, but I daresay he’s done a hell of a lot more for comic fans than Yellow Hat has.

  43. The good of this? It shows that the comics community really pulls together to defend their own, and to condemn this “ambush” stuff. Liefeld was a class act in his response to this stunt!

  44. Isn’t the usual arguement that people who bitch on the Internet would never have the courage to do it in person? Now a guy with a yellow hat does what everyone dared Internet bitches to do and suddenly it’s a lack of decency. Moving the goal post is serious business.