Rob Liefeld On His "Spastic Artistic Vision & Energy" On X-Force #1

Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: cable, deadpool, fabian nicieza, hello kitty, rob liefeld, x-force

Rob Liefeld On His "Spastic Artistic Vision & Energy" On X-Force #1

Rob Liefeld on his "Spastic Artistic Vision & Energy" on X-Force for X-Force Day, published by #Marvel Comics 35 years ago

Published Fri, 26 Jun 2026 07:57:12 -0500
by Rich Johnston
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Article Summary

• Rob Liefeld marked X-Force Day on Substack, celebrating X-Force #1 and thanking fans for backing his artistic vision.
• His use of “spastic” drew attention again to the slur's very different reception in the US and the UK across pop culture.
• Rob Liefeld’s X-Force #1 sold 5 million copies, launched Cable and Deadpool, and helped define 1990s Marvel comics.
• From trading cards to Italy’s sunglasses giveaway, X-Force #1 remains a landmark hit with a lasting comics legacy.

Rob Liefeld celebrated X-Force Day yesterday, posting to his Substack; "Happy X-FORCE Day!! 35 Years Ago Today! June 25, 1991. X-FORCE kicked down the door and never looked back! If you were 12, you're 47 now! I should know, I was 23, I didn't need glasses yet!! A $3 Billion dollar franchise was born. 35 years of cartoons, toys, statues and video games! Where were you 35 years ago? Where'd you buy your copies? Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for believing in my spastic artistic vision & energy."

Two countries separated by a common language, right? Is this going to be Transformers, Brian Bendis, Weird Al Yankovic and Batgirl all over again? And as long as you don't count the sales of Dogman, One Piece, the Raina Telegemeir comics, the Asterix comics and the rest… "5 MILLION copies, the #2 best selling comic of all time. CABLE! DEADPOOL! DOMINO! SHATTERSTAR! A group of characters that are deep seeded in Marvel's lore! A roster of Characters that simply did not exist 18 months earlier took comic books by storm! If I never sell them to Marvel, they don't exist at all! It's more mind blowing to me today than it was back then. Love hearing your memories of X-Force. I'll share mine over the course of the day. Thanks again, these characters and your passion for them changed my life!"

I mentioned X-Force #1 the other day in light of the new Hello Kitty comic book from IDW, shipping with polybags and one of three sticker sets. Because that's what X-Force #1 did, with one of five trading cards for the X-Force characters. And yes, I bought all five. And more impressive than the eight million-ordered X-Men #1 from Jim Lee and Chris Claremont that same year, it drew attention to a comic book that had taken a pre-Liefeld low-selling X-Men title, New Mutants, and rejigged it all to be far more appealing. Although it seems that in Italy, they got something else. Reader Alessandro Apreda3h shared "Fun fact: the Italian version of X-Force 1 book didn't come with collectible cards… but with a pair of sunglasses for the beach :)" But more than anything else, Rob Liefeld's New Mutants and X-Force are responsible for what we now see as "nineties" comics, and the kids buying Cable and Deadpool comics then are the ones greenlighting the movies now… so happy X-Force Day, Rob Liefeld! And also to X-Force #1 co-writer and Deadpool co-creator Fabian Nicieza, who is taking Kickstarter late pledges for a new comic book launching at San Diego Comic-Con called Deep Down, with a very familiar-looking cover and logo, which is not a million miles from X-Force Day…

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