For some reason, Rob Liefeld’s been making a mini-comeback in the mainstream media lately, this time popping up with a pretty decent sized article/interview in the OC Weekly. It’s a total fluff piece, avoiding any genuine lines of questioning, but it does provide those of us that are familiar with Mr Liefeld’s spotted past with a few chuckles, not the least of which is this insanely ridiculous self-portrait which he obviously spent twice as long on as he would a typical piece (note: he has feet).

Among the more amazing quotes from the article is this one, where he doesn’t understand why he’s a controversial figure:

To this day, Liefeld is described as “controversial”—it’s one of the first things you’ll see on his Wikipedia page—but he isn’t quite sure why. “I ask people, but no one really has a good answer,” he says. “It’s just one of those things, like, ‘I’m controversial!’ I’ve never gotten out of a limousine without my underwear on. I haven’t been pulled over for any DUIs. . . . I think the success that I had when I was young ticked a lot of people off because they eventually told me so.”

He also claims he was pulled off Heroes Reborn because he refused to accept a paycut because that would force him to pay his sub-contractors less. Of course, I wonder if that might have been preferred by them to being yanked off their books entirely…

Liefeld, however, disputes that account, feeling that the story has been consistently mistold. “If I tell you this, get it right!” he insists. “Marvel went into bankruptcy—as a contracted player, they called me on Dec. 26, 1996. ‘Rob, we’re filing for bankruptcy tomorrow. We’re just calling all our contributing players, trying to give you a heads-up, and we just want you to know that your contract will not be affected.’ And I hung up the phone, and my wife goes, ‘Well, what does that mean?’ I said, ‘That’ll mean that my contract’ll be pulled in about two weeks.’” Sure enough, they called back and asked Liefeld to take a cut rate, as Jim Lee apparently already had. He refused, not wanting to have to force the people working for him to take the loss, and was removed from the book.

Oh, Rob - you may be a mildly talented, completely overrated hack, but you never fail to entertain. Thanks for the last decade and a half of insanity!

Spread the word!