Comments on: A Month of Art Stars – Steve Lieber

By: DubipR

DubipR — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:57:38 +0000

Great choice!

Steve Lieber is one of those truly underrated artists. As much as I liked Whiteout (like everyone else), Lieber’s best work are his pieces he did for wonderful and much lamented BIG BOOK OF books from Paradox Press/DC (DAMN YOU DC FOR STOPPING THOSE! BEST BOOKS EVER!) His line work in the Big Book of Weird Wild West is some of my favorite work he’s done. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him and he told me he’s extremely proud of those works.

His little run on Detective with Rucka was solid as well.

By: FunkyGreenJerusalem

FunkyGreenJerusalem — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:44:02 +0000

When are they from?

Whiteout was late 90′s or early 00′s.

It was the book that really made me pay attention to Oni.

By: Mike Z

Mike Z — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:25:16 +0000

Based on the Hawkman covers, it seems like he had an Kelly Jones/Sam Keith/Early Jae Lee vibe going on, Though it got toned down between issue 6 & issue 21. The Whiteout examples look like high grade late ’70s early ’80s magazine B&W art (that’s a compliment, honestly) When are they from?

The man has a wide variety of styles, but they all seem to suit him.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:05:25 +0000

Mazzuchelli is a PERFECT example, O!

Much like Mazz, Lieber can do the superheroes and do them well, but they really both excel at drawing down-to-Earth situations.

By: "O" the Humanatee!

"O" the Humanatee! — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 18:08:21 +0000

Lieber’s definitely one of the good ‘uns, working in the tradition of classic adventure comic strip art and the illustration-oriented styles of some of the EC greats: The “ability to draw highly realistic characters without photo references” used to be far more widespread in comic books. At the same time, he’s got modern storytelling chops. That Whiteout page where the lead character’s being attacked is a good example; it reminds me of some of David Mazzuchelli’s work on Batman: Year One and his later work on Daredevil.

By: Tom Fitzpatrick

Tom Fitzpatrick — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 10:21:21 +0000

He also did the last GRENDEL TALES mini. (I forget the title)

By: adam!

adam! — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:36:31 +0000

oh, lieber. he can drybrush and whiteout (haha) the heck out of a page. can’t wait for the third WHITEOUT book.

the guy has a great zine-sketchbook somewhere out there. maybe mr cronin can find scans of it for us somehow…

and the ZERO HOUR HAWKMAN looks a bit like a kelley jones drawing.

By: JR

JR — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:24:00 +0000

I liked that cover image for Hawkman 6 so much that I had it airbrushed onto a t-shirt when I was a teenager (something I probably shouldn’t have just admitted to… but it’s not like I still have it now or anything… heh). Loved his work on the title and the whole post Zero-Hour totemic animal avatar take on the character (which lasted what, 4 whole issues?) is still one of my favorite spins on the concept.

By: FunkyGreenJerusalem

FunkyGreenJerusalem — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:19:53 +0000

And the art on Whiteout is great. Havenâ€™t heard of that series before, but maybe Iâ€™ll have to give it a look.

I’m surprised you haven’t heard of before, but you really should give it a go – it’s good stuff!
I didn’t like the sequel that much, went too far in the action adventure direction, where as the first one has some action, it’s focused more on a murder mystery.
It also works as a prequel of sorts to Rucka’s other excellent series, Queen And Country.

By: jazzbo

jazzbo — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:15:40 +0000

I’m not really familiar with Lieber’s work, but the examples here are fantastic. There looks to be a bit of a Joe K influence in those Hawkman scans, without being derivitive. And the art on Whiteout is great. Haven’t heard of that series before, but maybe I’ll have to give it a look.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:41:53 +0000

Hehe, yes, it was.

By: FunkyGreenJerusalem

FunkyGreenJerusalem — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 06:27:25 +0000

I first came across his work with Whiteout, it was only due to this that I knew he’d done any work, let alone superhero work, before then.

Then again, that ability to depict realism came in quite handy when he he did the Final Crisis tie-in issue of Gotham Central -

I think you’re having a Crisis crisis!

It was the (apparently not so) Infinite Crisis, not the Final Crisis that crossed over with GC!