JOE CASEY’S ROB
LIEFELD’S YOUNGBLOOD
A
guest post by Tim Callahan
To
fulfill my self-appointed role as Youngblood
archeologist and once-and-future Rob Liefeld acolyte, I dug through my
longboxes to find my original (First print! Collect-them-all!) issues of the
1992 series so when I sat down with the Joe Casey/Rob Liefeld Youngblood redux hardcover, I could do a
fascinating side-by-side comparison.
And
maybe I will do that. But I can imagine your exhaustion as you approach the end
of this 24-hour blogathon. I’m writing this well in advance, so I don’t even
know if this will ever go live, or if you’ll crack under the weight of
responding to comic book punditry from all sides and cramming your brain with
insights and allusions and analysis ranging from “Who is the best
green-or-blue-colored superhero?” to “If Robert Kirkman traveled back in time
to the middle ages, what comic book series would he launch and what
distribution methods would he use?”
Were
those actual topics in the blogathon? They should have been. I think your
responses would have been amazing.
So
keep your spirits up, Chad Nevett. The
light-at-the-end-of-the-home-stretch-tunnel-is-barelling-toward-the-break-of-day.
It’s almost over. You can rest soon enough.
But.
First. YOUNGBLOOD.
Boy
I’m curious to read what you have to say about this 2008 hardcover edition of
Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood, as
rewritten by Joe Casey. I’ll probably be asleep by now. Dreaming of Kirkman’s
Battle of Hastings/Zombie Jesus mashup tapestry. But I’m still curious.
I’m
guessing that you read the Youngblood
hardcover with some interest, looking at how Joe Casey played with the
superhero-as-celebrity motif that he has so often examined in his own comics
work. And even with that beacon to guide you, it was difficult to make it to
the end of the Youngblood volume. You
lost interest soon after John Prophet was introduced, and the rest of the book
slipped away even as it shouted at you from a distance. Oh, you finished
reading the book, I’m sure, because you are a blogathon champion. But you read
the last half of it with disinterest. Reminding you of why you’re so glad to
walk away of this ridiculous not-really-a-job of writing about comics that you
wouldn’t normally want to waste your time with.
Or
maybe I’m projecting.
Because
I know I found that Joe Casey revision of Youngblood
pretty difficult to digest. I read every single page. But I don’t remember most
of them. I remember it being self-referential, and defiantly aware that it’s a
comic that was once ridiculed for its bad writing and so Joe Casey puts in a
lot of “aha! Look at this ridiculous scenario and/or pose” dialogue to make
light of the whole thing, while staying true to the originally-stated, if
originally-not-quite-conveyed premise of Shaft and Badrock and friends becoming
some of the first of the celebrity superhero breed. Casey hams up that angle,
as he should, given the circumstances of the comic, and the pages that were in
the Hank Kanalz/Rob Liefeld original first issue pop with verbal vibrations
that they never had before.
But
here’s a secret – and this is where my honorary Associate’s Degree in
Youngbloodology comes in handy – the original issues are better.
You
wouldn’t know that, I assume, because you likely ignored the original Youngblood series when it came out (you
were too young, or your father had refined taste, or you just hated fun) and
never dared to go back to the source. And it was safe to stay away. Sure.
Common practice.
But
since I went through all the trouble of digging out the first few original Youngblood issues, I took the next
logical step and actually re-read them (after I had recently read the Joe Casey
revision in the hardcover) and, yes, they are clumsily written and completely
direct and without any kind of subtext, but they are amazingly,
hideously-beautifully colored in their original habitat – something the
hardcover strips away and replaces with Frank D’Armata-meets-Justin Ponsor
computer stylings which are all the rage in the 21st century.
But
Youngblood isn’t a 21st
century comic. It’s a 1992 comic, born out of a diet of Legion of Super-Heroes
issues and James Cameron and Joel Silver movies and pen and ink and the
imagination and passion of the teenage Rob Liefeld. Sure, Liefeld was no longer
a teenager by the time Youngblood #1
was released – and kicked off the entirety of Image Comics, let’s not forget –
but the series was born out of teenage Rob’s mind, and if there’s one thing Rob
Liefeld has been able to do in all the years he’s been working in comics, it’s
his ability to tap into his teenage psyche.
The
“Awesome” appellation was never a pose. It’s an essence.
So
the 1992 comic, which lacks the self-awareness and
meta-sophistication of the Joe Casey rewrite, is a knuckleheaded comic. But
it’s a comic meant to punch you in the teeth with a barrage of images and
characters and motion lines so dynamic that they often shatter the very panel
borders designed to contain them. It’s five fists of superhero science, coming straight
at you from twenty-plus years in the past. Rob Liefeld. To take you home.
[Don't forget to donate what you can to the Hero Initiative (Details in this post)! After you do, let me know via comment or e-mail (found at the righthand side) so I can keep track of donations -- and who to thank.]
