Robert Kirkman has encouraged Rob Liefeld to return to his traditional character designs.

The Walking Dead writer is collaborating with the X-Force creator on Image Comics' The Infinite, and told the artist to stop "apologising" for his style.

Liefeld was one of the most successful creators of the 1990s. He is often derided for his character art, which regularly features shoulder pads, large guns and superfluous pouches.

"It's not that he's really apologised for it, but when he did that X-Force series he came back to Marvel for, he was showing me pages and going, 'Check this out! There's no shoulder pads anywhere. What do you think of that?'" Kirkman, who was recently shortlisted for an Eagle Award, told Comic Book Resources.

"And I said, 'I kind of want to see some shoulder pads... that's your thing!' So I told him that if we did a book together 'I want you to cover these guys in gear because that's the thing you do. That's what you did that made you look unique and made everybody excited - big guys carrying ridiculous guns that they could never carry and covered in gear where they more than likely wouldn't be able to walk. That's the stuff that gets the kids excited and looks awesome.'

"As we're moving forward with The Infinite, I'm really excited to say that Rob's charged up and is going to be giving us that kind of stuff. And as a writer, I get to come up with reasons to make all that stuff make sense... I'm basically challenging Rob to come up with something unreal and then putting it on myself to write stories that make those things real."

Kirkman and Liefeld's time-travelling action-adventure will debut in August.

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