Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: dan buckley, rob liefeld

Rob Liefeld – Marvel, Fire Dan Buckley, David Bogart & David Gabriel!

Rob Liefeld tells Marvel Comics to fire Dan Buckley, David Bogart and David Gabriel to fix their X-Men comic books

Published Tue, 22 Apr 2025 07:57:08 -0500

Rob Liefeld recently posted about quitting Marvel Comics forever after the end of his most recent Deadpool comic book. He gave plenty of reasons here. But he has more to say, to coincide with his new Robersvations podcast about why the X-Men sucks now. "One Year into the most recent re-launch, drowning in canceled titles and falling sales, we offer 5 fixes before it's too late!" adding "The X-Men are in crisis! About a year into their much publicized relaunch, the titles are being canceled right and left. In my history following the X-Men, this is their rock bottom worst! We offer solutions and suggestions as to how best restore the broken legacy!" To promote it, he posted on X, saying,

"Man, I can't make folks go on the record – but I can tell you, based on my DM's, that comic book professionals en masse agree about the train wreck the X-Men office is. Sad. Was once the GOLD standard of comic book storytelling. The guys at the top of the executive suite in publishing have to go – Buckley, Bogart, Gabriel. These guys have no new moves, they are spent and tired and it shows. Start over. My career has been across 7 EIC's. Seen it done way better by brighter and more focused minds. The Marvel QuotaVerse is what is crushing publishing. Always a slew of new #1's with limited life, quick cancellation. We are closer to all new #1's each month, every month."

They would be Marvel execs Dan Buckley, David Bogart and David Gabriel. Dan Buckley joined Marvel in 1991, moved to Fleer/Skybox in 1995 as the Director of their Marvel Trading Cards and Games line, moved back in Marvel in 1997 as their VP Marketing, left Marvel in 1998 to be VP Operations at GMR Marketing and then VP Operations at The Radiate Group, before returning to Marvel in 2003 as their President & Publisher of Print, TV & Digital and then President in 2016. We are looking at almost thirty years at Marvel all in. Dan Buckley recently talked about approving Marvel Comics for ten issues at a time rather than six or seven. He was also the man who demoted X-Men Group editor of the Krakoan era, Jordan D White, before appointing Tom Brevoort to that role in addition to his Executive Editor and SVP roles. Brevoort and Liefeld have a thing going back decades and is still smouldering away today.

David Bogart hired me to write a comics gossip column for startup geek website NextPlanetOver, The Gutter Press, edited by Eric Stephenson, which lasted all of four weeks before I was cancelled by Mark Waid and Kurt Busiek. But he will be better known as EIC of Harris Publications publishing Vampirella comics by the likes of Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Mark Millar, Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner and Grant Morrison from 1994 to 2001, before becoming Marvel's Vice President of Business Affairs & Editorial Operations in 2005, Senior Vice President, Business Affairs & Talent Management in 2008 and Senior Vice President of Operations & Procurement in 2011, where he has stayed till date, racking up twenty years on the Marvel clock.

David Gabriel was Office Manager, Publishing Dept at Sanford C. Bernstein from 1998 while adding Founder and President of the New York City Comic Book Museum in 1999 before being appointed SVP Print, Sales & Marketing of Marvel Publishing Worldwide in 2003, and has been there ever since, 22 years later.

I did point out to Rob Liefeld that X-Men sales have definitely been higher of late, with the main books and solo spinoffs topping the charts, but he poured scorn on those figures… to quote Stewart Lee, "you can prove anything with facts." We'd love to hear some of the en masse go on the record, of course. After all, it doesn't seem to have done Rob Liefeld any harm.

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