Every once in a while, you come across something that you didn't even know existed, and then you wonder how you ever got along without it. For us, this happened last week when our random surfing of Amazon turned up The Comic Book Greats: Rob Liefeld, an hour-long release from 1991 that profiles the man who was, at the time, the hottest and most successful artist in the industry.

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Clearly, this was something we had to see.

Unfortunately, the fact that it's an 18-year-old VHS tape would make that a little tough, but with the magic of the Internet, we found the entire video on YouTube, and whether you think of Liefeld as the dynamic heir to Jack Kirby or the much-deserved punching-bag of the Comics Internet, it makes for a fascinating snapshot of one of the strangest times in the history of the industry. So join us as ComicsAlllince contributor Chris Sims breaks it down scene-by scene!



0:01 - The first strange thing about this video is the fact that the interview is being conducted by none other than Smilin' Stan Lee. That's right, folks: It's the co-creator of Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Hulk asking the creator of Badrock and Shaft to explain how he managed to pull it off.

0:34 - And here's the man himself: Rob Liefeld. At the time, Rob was arguably the biggest name in comics with a string of successes under his belt (and even more around the corner), but he comes off as more than a little nervous, doodling on a pad during the video's interview segments. And why wouldn't he? Dude was 23 years old and sitting across the table from the guy who's partly responsible for comic books as we know them today.