The Liefeld Fallacy – Creator Says Creators Don't Matter

In the last couple of days, Robert Liefeld has been hogging the headlines quite a lot in comic book websites. Liefeld's loud and grandiose exit from DC's New 52 opened a whole can of worms, but also some healthy discussion about what is going behind closed doors at DC. The musical chairs of creative and editorial teams was, understandably, too much for Liefeld and others. However, in his latest Twitter soapbox, Liefeld is saying that creators don't matter. Hit the jump to read more.

In case you aren't up to speed, here's a quick summary of the events so far. Robert Liefeld, poster child of the excess of the 90's, was brought in to DC to kickstart sales of some titles of the New 52 that were lagging behind the rest. While working on Deathstroke, Hawkman, and Grifter, Liefeld ran into lots of conflict with his editors. This is not surprising or unheard of, seeing as how lots of other writers and artists have spoken about the apparent troubles at the DC editorial offices. George Perez, John Rozum and Greg Capullo, just to name a few have given light to some of the problems and inner turmoil of editors clashing against others. By all accounts, it's kind of a madhouse in there, and it's not that shocking that people wouldn't want to work in such an environment. I know I wouldn't, but the story doesn't end there.

Describing some of the issue he ran into, Rob loudly quit and proclaimed he was getting off the DC wagon. In the process, however, he managed to speak ill of his now former editor, Brian Smith, and other creators rose up to defend Smith. Among those was current Batman writer, Scott Snyder. A discussion arose between the two creators, but I particularly want to focus on a couple of Liefeld quotes, where he basically argues that Snyder's contribution to Batman is negligible and that the character would do fine without him. As part of a larger private conversation (which Liefeld then posted and you can see here and here), Snyder said that he was the head writer of the Batman title, and Liefeld went on a long public rant on his Twitter account (I've only reproduce the important bits here)...

@robertliefeld: Been berated in DM's by @Ssnyder1835 this morning. Excuse me if I don't marvel at your amazing abilities to write Batman. Piss off.

@robertliefeld: I'd like to think that if your going to wave your ego around on Batman you'd remember all that came before you. Holeee crap

@robertliefeld: Average Batman book sells 80k. 'Nuff said.

@robertliefeld: So let me re-iterate again, it's BATMAN.

@robertliefeld: My grandma would crack [50K sales] on Batman

@robertliefeld: Batman is the number one selling character in the history of the biz. Period. End of story. Will endure beyond creator careers.

What Liefeld is implying here (if not flat out saying), is that creators don't matter. He says that anyone on the Batman title would lead to automatic sales. While on one hand, there is some truth behind this, there are collectors that will buy certain titles regarding of quality, this argument cannot be so easily deployed, as there is plenty of evidence against it.

First of all, let's start with Batman. A quick search through the Diamond numbers that we have available shows that before the relaunch the Batman title, under the care of Tony Daniel, was selling around 50-55 thousand units. This is a huge difference from the current series, helmed by Snyder (who we interviewed some time ago) with art by Greg Capullo and others, which is selling consistently around the 130 thousand units. It's the same character, so all those sales must have come from somewhere. The story, and the creators behind it, are clearly the driving force behind this change. The character of Batman will, of course, endure beyond creators, but without those creators to keep the character interesting to readers, it would soon be relegated to the minutiae of history. This is far from the only example, and I'm sure most of you can think of others.

Numbers are not everything though, fan reaction counts too. After all, you can artificially inflate numbers on an incredibly unmemorable book (remember the Amazing Spider-Man issue with Obama?) but Snyder's Batman run has been getting tons of positive reactions and critical acclaim. Once again, the character of Batman can last through decades, but after decades of stories, it's the memorable ones that stick with the readers, that inspire people to continue reading. I'm sure anyone here can tell me their ten favourite Batman stories, but that doesn't mean that they love every story ever to feature the character. Putting an average Batman title might get you 80k sales, as Liefeld puts it, but that doesn't mean that creators shouldn't aspire for greatness, trying to craft great stories. Putting the best creators possible and letting them create the best stories benefits everyone. Ironically, I'm pretty that's what Liefeld was trying to do on his titles before quitting because of his problems with editorial. I'm sure if you ask anyone reading Batman right now, they will tell you that the creators do matter, or which one they prefer.

Fans and numbers would disagree, then, with Liefeld's assertion that titles sell because of a character in it, but it's even more problematic when you consider the fact that even Liefeld himself disagrees with it. Or at least the younger version of him did. He was one of the founders of Image Comics, whose whole purpose was to give creators the right and freedom they deserve. To come out twenty years later and say that the creative team of Batman can be interchangeable goes clearly against what Image stands for. As a matter of fact, not that long ago, Image Comics launched a promo campaign highlighting the impressive range of creators they have.

Like I mentioned above, there is some degree of truth in what Liefeld says. Some collectors and fans will buy Batman regardless of what is inside of that comic, but taking such a defeatist view on the matter is counterproductive. By that logic, we should always try to appeal to the lowest common denominator, something that the comic industry no longer needs. In my opinion, and I think the fans and numbers would agree, creators are the driving force behind the success of specific comics. In other words, his argument does not have a leg to stand. Or, in this case, a foot.

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