Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Image | Tagged: rob liefeld, youngblood

Rob Liefeld Returns To Youngblood From Image Comics In 2025

Rob Liefeld returns to Youngblood after seven years, writing and drawing a new series from Image Comics in 2025

Jim Lee is back on Batman… and now Rob Liefeld is back on Youngblood. What kind of day is this? Once upon a time, in 1992, Rob Liefeld published Youngblood, the debut issue of Image Comics. At some point, as various deals were done, as studios such as Extreme, Maximum, Awesome and others were funded, Liefeld ended up handing the rights to Youngblood to producer Scott Rosenberg, the investor and producer behind Malibu Comics, Platinum Comics, Men In Black and Cowboys And Aliens, now owned by Rip Media Inc, with Rosenberg and Glenn Egert as co-Presidents. And then Scott Rosenberg sold them to the recluse publisher of Elementals and Comico, Andrew Rev, along with Supreme, as Rev launched a new publisher to put out new Supreme and Youngblood comics, all of which came to nothing.

And while Rob Liefeld did not have any kind words for Rosenberg or Rev, and spoke about saying goodbye to Youngblood, it seems that needs must when the devil drives.  And so now, in 2025, Rob Liefeld will once again return to Youngblood, writing and drawing a new series for Image Comics, fo the first time in seven years and in conjunction with Scott Rosenberg and Rip Media Inc. "It's so great that I can run into the comfort of characters that I created, that launched a movement. They carry such history. I love Youngblood so much. These characters are my absolute passion."

Image Comics will publish Youngblood Vault Edition, their version of Scott Dunbier's Artist Editions, with high-res scans of the original art from the first Youngblood series, in a deluxe oversized hardcover. There will also be a facsimile edition of Youngblood #1 timed to its 33rd anniversary in April 2025.

"Rob and I are a fantastic team, and I'm as excited now for Youngblood's relaunch as I was in 1992 for its initial launch," said Rosenberg, adding, "I'm excited to bring them to audiences old and new with their original creator, Rob Liefeld." Kind words, considering what went down. Previously, Rob Liefeld told me, "I have nothing to do with YOUNGBLOOD. It's dead to me". And in 2020, it looked like he was creating his own Youngblood-alike property EKO 92 though this didn't go far.

Youngblood was Rob Liefeld's media-influenced superhero comic, and it was the comic that saw him break away from success at Marvel Comics. Initially advertised as coming from Malibu Comics and promoted as created by him and current DC SVP Hank Kanalz, by the time it was published, it was the first Image Comics title and Hank was just the scripter of the first issue. Selling millions, it was soon followed by Spawn, WildCATS, Savage Dragon, Shadowhawk, Wetworks and Cyberforce. It transformed the direct comics market overnight, showed creators that they could have a big success away from the Big Two and was the basis of an entire studio from Rob Liefeld. It has been revived a few times over the years , switched publishers, was even written by the likes of Kurt Busiek, Mark Millar and Alan Moore for some time, and was also promoted as being picked up by Netflix. And then not anymore. We were meant to get Youngblood Bloodwars, but without joy. And then Andrew Rev failed to deliver as well…

A few years ago, looking back on 1992, Liefeld said, "If you happened to walk into a comic store on April 17, 1992, chances are you encountered an all-new comic book from an all-new comic label. This was the day that YOUNGBLOOD was launched and Image Comics officially arrived. 28 years ago today, y'all showed up in overwhelming droves, to the tune of 1 million copies, we even sold out early that morning! I was stunned at the reception. The morning started out with me preparing for a signing at @gapplecomics to launch the book, and it ended with me being on a talk show later that evening. It was a whirlwind of a day that I'll always remember as if it were yesterday afternoon. Youngblood was born of true love, pure passion for comic books and an evolution of all that I'd started at Marvel with Cable, Deadpool, Domino and a whole bunch of characters you had never heard of before I created X-Force. It was time to share more of what was in my notebooks and control the creative destiny of all those ideas and concepts. There was no animosity with Marvel, I will always be gratefully for the folks I worked with who let my young ambitions fly free. I just had an instinct that this was a time to let all the ideas fly. Youngblood sells a million copies without a single variant or speciality cover or gimmick of any kind. Can you imagine that in today's market? There was no Youngblood before April 1992, it was fresh out of the gate, we were the gimmick that drove sales, the talent that fans rallied around. Youngblood was the incubator for an entire universe that followed: PROPHET, BRIGADE, BLOODSTRIKE, BERSERKERS, and so many more. I viewed it as my Fantastic Four, which birthed Black Panther, Inhumans& Silver Surfer. Thank you to all of you that showed up in 1992 and stayed all the years that have followed. While the rights to Youngblood are a hot mess, the result of a bad deal I did with people who are not terribly bright some 20 years back."

Has some sense been made of that hot mess? Talking of which, it is also the eleventh year of his still incomplete Brigade Kickstarter. He last posted an update in the summer, saying, "The BRIGADE HARDCOVER is going to press and will be available in June! All hardcover pledges will be sent this summer. The HC is 170 pages long and has Bloodstrike issues that connect to Brigade. It also includes the Brigade Remastered Edition and assorted extras. Remember, crowdfunding isn't crowd selling. People are contributing to a fund to make something great.   That takes time, but the product is ALWAYS worth it.". No hardcovers have reportedly been sent out or have arrived.

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