Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

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Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by BugsySig »

If any of you haven’t been following the story making the rounds, here’s a good story summarizing the reveal by Rob Liefeld that he doesn’t own the rights to Youngblood (and hasn’t for 20 years), and it will soon be published by Andrew Rev (formerly of Comico who also owns the rights to the Elementals), whom Liefeld refuses to endorse:

https://www.comicsbeat.com/rob-liefeld- ... oungblood/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is a tough one for me. I’m all for creator ownership and rights, but Liefeld has screwed up his whole career. He was booted out of the original Image, never met a deadline or finished a series for his own properties that I can remember, his art continues to go downhill (that is if you ever thought it was decent at all) and is mostly known for characters he created but were actually made good and popular by other people (Cable, Deadpool, Supreme, Prophet, Glory, etc.). He willingly invited investors and split up the rights to his IPs and kept that a secret so he didn’t look bad. And Rev’s comments about him only looking for big Hollywood bucks seems accurate based on everything I’ve seen put out by him in the past 10 years.

Then you have the shady business dealings that may have gone down behind the scenes to gain the rights from the legal ownership and a guy in Andrew Rev who’s a bit of an enigma. He’s disappeared for 20 years just to pop back up talking about comics like it’s 1992 again?!?!

But I also wouldn’t mind seeing Youngblood, Elementals and maybe a few other properties return under this “Terrific” banner either.

Oh, and of course Dynamite is somehow mixed up in all this with their habit of registering trademarks for properties they don’t own (see: Valiant, Atlas, Fighting American, Tarzan, etc. ):

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/03 ... go-to-war/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by Chiclo »

BugsySig wrote:Oh, and of course Dynamite (sucks!) is somehow mixed up in all this with their habit of registering trademarks for properties they don’t own (see: Valiant, Atlas, Fighting American, Tarzan, etc. ):

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/03 ... go-to-war/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I thought I recognized the foul stench of Nicky B as soon as I read about trademark disputes.

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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by BugsySig »

Chiclo wrote:
BugsySig wrote:Oh, and of course Dynamite (sucks!) (sucks!) is somehow mixed up in all this with their habit of registering trademarks for properties they don’t own (see: Valiant, Atlas, Fighting American, Tarzan, etc. ):

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/03 ... go-to-war/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I thought I recognized the foul stench of Nicky B as soon as I read about trademark disputes.
Yeah, like rotten garbage and feces mixed with greed and shame.
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by SwiftMann »

I found this fascinating when I read about it the other day. It also explains some of the erratic and confusing behavior, such as "Why was the Netflix deal for those 8 dumb characters?" and "Why does he lose interest in Youngblood mid-storyline EVERY time?" and "Why has he been doing so much Big 2 work lately?"

None of that explains why he chose to sell off the "good" stuff and keep "BLOODSTRIKE, BRIGADE, BERZERKERS, BLOODWULF, Re:GEX, KABOOM, AVENGELYNE, CYBRID." I mean, sweet bejezus, other than Kaboom and (maybe) Avengelyne, that's utter garbage. Or why he hasn't been able to make good on his Brigade Kickstarter in the last six (or is it seven now) years.

The legal ownership and licensing thing is a mess and will likely end badly. Whether that's before an issue is ever published, midway through a story, or sometime long down the road, who knows?

I've got every other Youngblood comic, so I'll probably buy the next one too. Regardless of who owns the IP.
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by nycjadie »

What a nutty story, especially when you read the Cowboys v Aliens thing. Geniuses in marketing. Disasters in ownership and licensing rights. These people need a good attorney. They should hire me before doing these crazy deals.

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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by Chiclo »

nycjadie wrote:What a nutty story, especially when you read the Cowboys v Aliens thing. Geniuses in marketing. Disasters in ownership and licensing rights. These people need a good attorney. They should hire me before doing these crazy deals.
I remember seeing that the right honourable Michael Lovitz Esq. had slithered his way into this somehow.

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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by nycjadie »

Chiclo wrote:
nycjadie wrote:What a nutty story, especially when you read the Cowboys v Aliens thing. Geniuses in marketing. Disasters in ownership and licensing rights. These people need a good attorney. They should hire me before doing these crazy deals.
I remember seeing that the right honourable Michael Lovitz Esq. had slithered his way into this somehow.
It’s a small community of folks, and I know a good number of them, but never heard of this guy outside of these crazy comic fiascos.

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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by BugsySig »

SwiftMann wrote:I found this fascinating when I read about it the other day. It also explains some of the erratic and confusing behavior, such as "Why was the Netflix deal for those 8 dumb characters?" and "Why does he lose interest in Youngblood mid-storyline EVERY time?" and "Why has he been doing so much Big 2 work lately?"

None of that explains why he chose to sell off the "good" stuff and keep "BLOODSTRIKE, BRIGADE, BERZERKERS, BLOODWULF, Re:GEX, KABOOM, AVENGELYNE, CYBRID." I mean, sweet bejezus, other than Kaboom and (maybe) Avengelyne, that's utter garbage. Or why he hasn't been able to make good on his Brigade Kickstarter in the last six (or is it seven now) years.

The legal ownership and licensing thing is a mess and will likely end badly. Whether that's before an issue is ever published, midway through a story, or sometime long down the road, who knows?

I've got every other Youngblood comic, so I'll probably buy the next one too. Regardless of who owns the IP.
If I had to guess the company putting in the majority of the money to back Awesome at the time probably demanded the most valuable IP (Youngblood) in the split up of properties. It sounds like the ownership is pretty legally solid and Rev/Terrific now owns the license to publish it. Who knows for how long or what will come of it ultimately.
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by StarBrand »

I didn’t read the entire article. Are the Elementals returning to print?
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by BugsySig »

StarBrand wrote:I didn’t read the entire article. Are the Elementals returning to print?
That’s the plan. Rev bought the rights from Willingham back in the 90s and is looking to launch a new line featuring Elementals and Youngblood. But Dynamite per their MO filed for the TM for Elementals a few years back in their typical attempt at extortion.
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by BugsySig »

Also, this guy is starting to sound like the crazy uncle who wants to invent the electric car and never heard of Tesla:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/09 ... quentials/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by leonmallett »

BugsySig wrote:Also, this guy is starting to sound like the crazy uncle who wants to invent the electric car and never heard of Tesla:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/09 ... quentials/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I was dumb-founded when I read the BC story and Rev/Terrific's clumsy attempt to engage and 'develop' Stegman.

I think Terrific will publish something, but i suspect not much and mainly to shop around their library.

I am a fan of Youngblood and have enjoyed the last 3 iterations so was saddened by this turn of events, but nonetheless Liefeld made his choice and now that the story is in the open seems to be accepting it was his decision to get into this situation. Given just how Rev/Terrific clumsily reached out to Stegman, and the BC summary of the 4 hour phone call, I can believe Liefeld's view of the disrespect he described.
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by SwiftMann »

BugsySig wrote:Also, this guy is starting to sound like the crazy uncle who wants to invent the electric car and never heard of Tesla:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/09 ... quentials/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
After reading this I think there's only about a 15% chance that they ever publish a full issue. I'm sure there will be previews or ashcans, but super unlikely a full issue. And 0% chance of more than one issue.

And whoever ends up working on this stuff better ask to be paid in advance.




And just this morning we got the update from Liefeld on the Brigade kickstarter (that is six years late) that he's redrawing pages to remove Youngblood characters. Something he wouldn't have had to do if he had gotten this out anytime in the last six years. Also, not something he's going to finish before NYCC like he promises.
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by BugsySig »

The saga of Rob’s Brigade Kickstarter:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/10 ... kers-nycc/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It’s amazing anyone would pay this guy for anything besides maybe some character designs. Yeesh. Hopefully the people who backed this will eventually get something out of it.
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by mramsterdam »

I liked the original image heroes but they never are finished and failures after failures isn't worth reading or collecting. :thumb:
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by SwiftMann »

BugsySig wrote:The saga of Rob’s Brigade Kickstarter:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/10 ... kers-nycc/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It’s amazing anyone would pay this guy for anything besides maybe some character designs. Yeesh. Hopefully the people who backed this will eventually get something out of it.
I backed it.

Knowing that, if nothing else, the never-ending updates and excuses would be more entertaining than any actual Brigade comic. :D
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by BugsySig »

The Drunk Uncle Andy saga continues:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/13 ... utrageous/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He seems to be taking his business/twitter cues from Pres. Trump. But...I mean...that kinda works, right?
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by Chiclo »

BugsySig wrote:The Drunk Uncle Andy saga continues:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/08/13 ... utrageous/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He seems to be taking his business/twitter cues from Pres. Trump. But...I mean...that kinda works, right?
Maybe. Trump did get a hooker to pay him. :hm:

That article suggests more of a Gene Simmons approach - proposition ten, a hundred or more women and get nine, ninety-nine or more no's, if you get one yes, you still got a yes. He is pitching to many well-known comic creators over Twitter - if he asks a thousand and gets four, well he still has four.

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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by BugsySig »

Rob putting together a new team (to replace Youngblood):

https://www.cbr.com/rob-liefeld-new-sup ... ssion=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Says he’s been working on a project including these characters since last summer, so expect to see something around 2027-2028. If ever. :lol:
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by SwiftMann »

Oh, jeez. Yet another distraction for Rob. This is why nothing is ever seen through to completion. He constantly gets distracted by "new" ideas that are just old ideas with different color scheme or accessory.

I don't know who Captain Jacket is (Not-Shaft Jr?) but the middle one is clearly Savage She-Hulk (below) followed by yet another Deadpool clone. And there's a blue line version of another Captain America/Fighting American clone.

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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by BugsySig »

So first Rev was propositioning Brian Wood on Twitter (something Wood May be familiar with :lol: ), now Youngblood: Unchained!

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2019/09/05 ... ut-comico/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by Chiclo »

I feel very comfortable comparing this man to the Duchess of Sussex. I like that.

Might just start referring to him as Princess. That name kind of fits.

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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by nycjadie »

As much as Liefeld is a doosh, the guy commands a queen's presentation at cons. He shows up late, as far as I can tell, every time. There are hundreds of people in line waiting to drop $50+ on a signature, many of them on New Mutants books (surprise, surprise). I wouldn't be surprised if he cleared tens of thousands just showing up to a con and signing a few hours a day. It's a spectacle for sure.

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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by betterthanezra »

Rob has an asking price of $15,000 to come to a show this includes first class air and hotel obviously. Premium spot on the show floor is also a must and then he pockets whatever he charges for autographs and anything else he sells or does at the show

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Re: Youngblood, Rob Liefeld, Andrew Rev and Elementals

Post by BugsySig »

This Rev guy just keeps going. Too much to even keep up with this week. He wants to help bail out failing comic shops, he wants Chris Claremont to write Youngblood, he wants Jim Lee to draw a crossover with DC...there’s almost no chance this guy produces anything in published form.
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