A Line Has Been Broken

[Koete]

I first walked into the main floor at WizardWorld with joy and wonder. Then Mike stopped us.

“Dude,” he snapped. “Liefeld’s here.”

We all sprung into crisis mode.

“What do you mean?” said a surprised August. Liefeld was not on the list of guests, but about three booths to the right of the door was “Liefeld” in that sketchy, completely linear Rob Liefeld font.

“Oh shit!” said August. He still has a soul, so he worries about other people and their feelings. I, on the other hand, have nothing but my dreams, and apparent they came true. I knew what to do. We were joking about this on the car ride over, what to say if Liefeld were to magically show up. I knew what to do.

I walked up to him and spake: “Hi, my name is Ryan Coons…”

“Hey!” said Rob Liefeld. He didn’t even look up at me; he just kept sketching away at yet another blocky, disproportionate, and overly-linear picture of one of my beloved childhood heroes. This time, it was Wolverine, in a mirrored swipe of Jim Lee’s cover for X-Men #11.

“…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.”

Rob stops. He gives me an action hero sneer and said, “Hey, it was nice to meet you,” and followed it up with a fuck-off get lost nod. You know, the upward one. I walk off and hyperventalate for a while, because I can only process a set amount of awesome at one time. That’s why it took me four hours to watch 300 the first time.

Rummaging through the boxes when I came across a copy of Lee & Buscema’s seminal text How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. We were in awe.

“Coons! You need to buy that!” shouted Mike. I was thinking about it, because I’ve wanted a copy of that for some time now. “You need to give it to him!”

“You’re right! Rob needs it more than anyone!” I said.

“That’s why we’re here Coons,” said Mike. “The planets have aligned.”

“What’s this?” asked Javier, the dude who was working the booth we were at.

“We’re going to by a copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, then he’s going to give it to Rob Liefeld,” said Mike.

Javier was awestruck.

“How much is this?” I ask.

“All trades are five dollars, but if you’re giving that to Rob Liefeld, then I…I…well, I can chip in,” said Javier, digging through his wallet. “Here’s two bucks.”

I give the man three.

“I’ll be back,” I tell Javier.

I waited for a bit, I wanted him to forget about me, I wanted him to think he was in the clear and have him let his guard down. Also, I fully expected to get thrown out for these shenanigans, and I wanted Mark Millar to sign my copy of Superman: Red Son, and that wouldn’t be for another few hours.

In the mean time, I took the time to personalize his gift.

On the blank front page, I wrote:

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 YellowHatGuy@gmail.com.

Let’s make things right.

Sincerely,

Ryan Coons

Then, I slipped my business card in between the pages, to make sure that Liefeld knew my name, website, email address, and cell phone number. Then I put his gift in a nice bag…

…and I was ready.

“So, you’re going through with this?”

“I have too. It needs to be done,” I said.

“What are you going to say to him?” asked August.

“I’m not going to say anything,” I told him. “I’m just going to set it in front of him, and then walk away.”

“…and then what?” asked August.

“I don’t care,” I sad. “I don’t care what happens. You can watch if you like.”

I started sweating pretty bad, and started to hyperventilate. “You okay Coons? You gonna make it?” said August.

Immediately, I regain my composure.

“No, I have to do this. I’ve waited thirteen years for this,” I tell August.

So I walked over to Rob Liefeld, who was busy ignoring everyone in the entire convention center. I set the package in front of him, and patted it a few times, and the walked away. According to Mike, the following ensued:

“Rob didn’t look up, but the bald guy did, and pulled it out and showed it Liefeld. He shook his head and got all pissed off. Then the bald dude opened it up and red the inscription, and busted out laughing, and laughed for like, five minutes straight, and Liefeld’s face just tightened up and he just got more and more pissed off.”

I’m not a bad guy. All I want is an apology.

There's no longer a difference between the internet and the real world.

[Dread]

Fuck these guys. What a bunch of fanboy douches. Fuck them.

This commentor said it all: "I’m sure that Rob Liefeld is just writhing in sleepless agony over the wicked ice burn you guys laid down on his giant pile of money"

I don't like Liefeld's art either but the guy who goes out of his way to publicly humiliate the man WHILE HE'S WORKING and WHILE FANS ARE TALKING TO HIM AND THANKING HIM is a waste of skin.

[Koete]

It's part of fanboy internet culture to say "I hate so and so's writing" or "so and so's art sucks," but to attempt to humiliate a creator to their face, in person? I didn't think someone could be that classless.

[SuaveStar]

Liefeld may be a prick and a terrible artist, but that was just, what's the word I'm looking for.

Gay, really, really gay.

[Molly]

Yeah, Liefeld is, not a great creator, but he seems to be a perfectly serviceable human being. Acting like this is just... awful.

[SteveJRogers]

Strangely kind of similar to what happened last night on Entourage. Though with a different execution. Tom Brady made a guest appearance, and the character Turtle is one of these ahole sports fans (you know the type) that talk shit about players and teams they hate. Turtle gives Brady a cold shoulder, and while his golf game is taking a turn for the boring, he decides that he must confront Brady and tell him that he "sucks balls." He even talks to his girlfriend, Jamie Lynn Sigler (yes, Meadow Soprano as herself, whom in real life is dating the guy that plays Turtle). She tries in vain to persuade him not to make an asshole out of himself and such, but he is having none of it.

So anyway the big moment comes, Brady realizes that he knows Turtle's face from a charity thing he (Brady) did with Jamie and talks her up and sounds like a good guy. This starts to break Turtle's resolve, and the turning point is when Brady suggests a double date between Turtle, Jamie, Brady and Brady's current love interest (a model of course). So by the end of the episode Turtle is nearly acting like Brady's BFF!

[KnightWing]

Eh. I think both sides were a little wrong.

[Dread]

Eh. I think both sides were a little wrong.

How about if someone came in to your work and gave you shit in front of people for something you did 15 years ago...at work?

The point is the motherfucker bought the book, didn't he? He should go and fuck off.

[KnightWing]

How about if someone came in to your work and gave you shit in front of people for something you did 15 years ago...at work?

The point is the motherfucker bought the book, didn't he? He should go and fuck off.

Hmm. Yeah, that's true.

It's funny; on the blog where that was posted, all the commentors are hailing those guys as heroes. Nerds can seriously be jerks sometimes.

[Koete]

From Twitter, here's Rob's side of the story:

@mikechoi, both Marat and the rest of my crew were witness, Valentino too. I was drawing commissions, making a dent in the list...

when this mumbler comes up, trembling, I saw his friends filming so I figured it was a set up. Mumbler studders his Cap statement, I shrug..

Seriously,@mikechoi, this guy couldn't seem more nervous, like he was gonna piss his pants. I could barely hear him, told him thanks...

Said it was nice to meet you, and he was STUNNED. Guy wanted a reaction, he got zip. There was no face tightening. Valentino said to him..

"Glad you got that off your chest" as he wandered away. Later, he zipped past the table, you can see on his vid, I didn't see it...

But I felt the breeze and the bump on the table. Marat smiled and said that mumbler ran up and put his book on the table. He opened it..

We laughed and he said "Great, I needed one of these since my house burned down." I said it's yours and we continued....

Later, Marat flipped through it and we saw the note and laughed. Now dude writes a blog where he's this BMOC, acting like he was bold..

Guy looked like someone I wouldn't trust around my kids, could barely speak, almost pee'd his pants, and now he's bold. I don't thinks so.

And I love that the video doesn't match his descriptions. I'm smiling. Because that's what i do. I'm always smiling.

[Venneh]

Can we just say they're both assholes in their tellings of their side of the stories (though I actually feel sorry for Liefeld)?

Commenters on page are right, though. He owes Liefeld an apology for being such a dick.

Reality check plz, fandouches.

...And yet, somehow, this doesn't reach the level of awfulness that I've seen at an anime con (please remind me to tell you about yaoi paddles at some point).

[Molly]

You know, I never thought I'd say this, but: Good for Liefeld.

[Koete]

Rob was just added to the Baltimore Comic Con guest list. I'm going to stop by his table, get my Spider-Man #16 signed, and shake his hand.

[SuaveStar]

Yeah, why not make a blog about it, you acting respectful and post it online, and see how many people send you comments like "Good one, I'm going to do that with mine next con I see him at" or "Damn, wish I'd thought of that, I'm going to bring my issue of that X-Book with the first appearance of Deadpool in it"

[Koete]

I can toss in some images and video too. And act all brave even though I'll probably be just as nervous as when meeting other comic creators.

[SuaveStar]

Don't forget to do a play by play analysis of his reaction to you giving him the comic to sign for you.

Don't forget to make the play by play the complete opposite of what actually happens in the video and with the pictures, don't forget to make them as blurry as possible, to protect the annoynimity of Liefeld at his booth, you know, the one that has his name on it, with him drawing pictures and signing autographs.

[illogicology]

I don't get people who do this kind of thing, I don't particularly like Liefield's style but the guy's his own man and does his job his way; I respect that. You don't have to buy his work if you don't like it, to go out of your way to make him into some kind of crook for drawing how he pleases is baffling to me.

[prez]

This is a seriously douchebag thing to do. I hate Liefield's "work." I thought this was funny at first, but upon thinking about it a bit, this guy is a pissant.

[Venneh]

YHG "apologizes"

[Dread]

YHG "apologizes"

Wow...double-douche two days in a row. Grow a spine you socially retarded fuck. My God...

Edit: also, the even more cowardly retards telling him he was right about Liefeld and a pussy for "apologizing" need to be lined up and shot if this medium is ever going to be given any credit as an artistic form. He wasn't "right" about Liefeld. Liefeld is an artist and art is subjective. Know what he was doing there? Sketches, for people willing to pay a hell of a lot more for a con sketch than I am. People who want a piece of his art and are willing to pay huge amounts of money for it.

[SuaveStar]

What self righteous emo prick.

The way he could have took care of the problem was to delete the post and pretend it never happened ot even say "It wasn't the smartest thing to do" this is just him being a tool, which he is.

Fuck this prick.

It's the way he says "I can't apologise cause that's not me" that annoys me.

Edit:

Heres how he should have wrote it.

"I was a prick, seemed like a good idea at the time."

Then ended the post, none of this "It wasn't Liefelds fault that he wrote Heroes Reborn" was just him justifying his actions.

Des is right, people enjoy his art, and if they do, good for them,it's not your place to just act like a prick for no reason. "Liefeld wasn't on the list, and he's here," oh sorry, we lost your e-mail and forgot to tell you a name is coming to a con you ass.

The half hearted explanation/reply pisses me off more than the actual incident which is ironic in a way.