Fanboy-ism at its worst (the Rob Liefeld incident)

Fanboy-ism at its worst (the Rob Liefeld incident)

While listening to an Earth-2 podcast, they two hosts discussed an incident. They’re discussion caught my attention and I did a bit of research into the story. (Earth-2 the show 333)

First off, I am usually the one that really hates writers or artists and make it be known through my blog postings. I’ve ripped into quite a few writers, reality stars, and actors. I’ve written some mean things, but I’ve done it on the Internet and not to the person face to face.

This encounter between a comic book fan and an artist goes beyond that.

You can read the story here.

Basically, the infamous comic book artist Rob Liefeld was signing and sketching for fans at the Chicago Comic-Con. A certain comic book fanboy walked up to Liefeld’s table said this,

From Squiggly Lines Comics (Because I refuse to link to the actual Fanboy's web, the one behind the stunt.)

((“…I am a huge Captain America fan…” I tell him with jazz hands and a huge fanboy gleam. “…and as such, I demand an apology for Heroes Reborn.” ))

Now, keep in mind that many people generally hate Rob Liefeld's work over the years. You can count me in too. I was never a fan of his work, but he deserves some respect. His work speaks for itself. I’m not going to get into his work too much, but Linkara does a better job expressing the flaws in Liefeld's work than I could ever express.

Heroes Reborn happened around 1996. Why would you bring that up? Really, you’ve been holding this grudge this long? It just shows the mentality some of these geeks have about these franchises.

Here's what Wiki says about Heroes Reborn.

((Following the apparent deaths of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and Dr. Doom battling Onslaught in Onslaught: Marvel Universe, they were "reborn" and certain aspects of their earlier stories were expanded with the intent of telling their adventures anew for modern generations. This was explained, in-story, as their having been transported into a pocket universe by Franklin Richards, the near-omnipotent, psychic son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, to save them, where they lived in the so-called "Franklin-verse", oblivious to what had happened to them. The characters' origins and histories were revised and updated circa mid-nineties for modern audiences.))

You don’t go up to an artist, unless it is a reality star, and piss all over his career and body of work. He’s there signing and drawing all day, at least give him one day not to be confronted by a fanboy that brings up some comic book series from the 90s.

But it gets worst. The fanboy wasn’t through.

To add injury to insult, the Fanboy and his friend purchased How to Draw Comics the Marvel Comics Way. I guess it was a snarky way to show that Liefeld can’t draw. The fanboy signed it with an insulting note.

((Rob,

I know you aren’t willing to apologize right now. This manual will help you in you future endeavors. Please study it carefully, and consult it before rebooting another comic title. If you still wish to apologize for “Heroes Reborn,” you can do so by emailing me at “email removed”

Let’s make things right. ))

The fanboy then tossed the book on Liefeld’s signing table.

Liefeld’s reaction to the book

First of all, why humiliate him and then post the video online? Was the book thing really necessary? It was a foolish move on the fanboy’s part. Even for me, a guy who attacks people all the time, this was in poor taste. I’m sure he thought he would get epic Lulz for his actions, but instead he’s received numerous negative comments and attention.

When you attack someone online, the people you’re making fun of have a choice not to look at it. However, standing up in front of the person and insulting them is something completely differently. You don’t walk up to someone and say, “Your mommy’s fat.”

I’ll probably have more to say about this later.

Side note: (Here's a discussion about the story with talkshoe) The show has even more details. The Fanboy and Rob Liefeld actually call into the show. The Fanboy seems totally sheepish and out of it. Here is the book that he threw to Liefeld.