Rob Liefeld Reacts to His Captain America Art Selling for $132,000 (Exclusive)

Rob Liefeld's piece of iconic Captain America art sold for $132,000 at auction and he shared his first reaction to the news. ComicBook.com spoke to the beloved creator during That Collectibles Show. Over the course of our conversation, the topic drifted to that chunky version of Cap. On the Internet, the photo and cover of Captain America has become something of a meme. But, Liefeld has always contended that fans really loved that version of the Marvel hero and most of the negativity around the cover stemmed from the Internet entirely. Here's what he had to say about one of his most iconic images fetching that lofty price.

"I was pleasantly surprised," Liefeld began. "That would be the truth, pleasantly surprised. And then, having talked to a lot of guys who were bidding on it afterwards, because that community is fairly small, you know they didn't hold back on it… I goes back 30 years on how much they dig that Captain America stuff and that Heroes Reborn stuff. It kind of closed the circle. Because, people were like 'That is my favorite Captain America.' I just had to have it, I had to have it. So, that was exciting. But, to answer your original question, man I had low expectations. There's very few things I have a greater expectation for. I generally keep it [gestures to the ground] here."

The Legacy Of This Captain America Comic

Recently, Liefeld did an homage to his Captain America cover for Captain America's new #1. We interviewed him about the history of the Heroes Reborn image at New York Comic Con. "I just wanted to draw a big, bold Captain America. Here's the deal: They blew that up at the Heroes Reborn conference in New York City at Marvel Comics. Jim Lee and myself flew out to New York," he began. "That was the image and people kept saying 'Oh, look at that Captain America.' I didn't hear anything negative about that image until the 2000s. It was like somebody decided, 'I'll meme it. I'll do it!' I don't mind it either. It doesn't shake, rattle or roll me."

He continued, "I'll tell you this, I did not do an homage to that cover for 27 years. I just did one. I finally agreed to do an homage of that Captain America cover for the new Captain America. For the first time at New York Comic Con. You will be getting it for the first time at New York Comic-Con. I'm not sure if they told me there's a foil edition of it. So, we've tricked it out. You didn't know that I was going to give you that answer when you asked that question and I didn't know you were gonna ask that question."

Captain America Cover Helped Break A Record

In a wild turn of events, that image actually holds a very impressive Marvel Comics record. "There has not been a better Captain America number one since I have the top selling Avengers during that time," the artist explained to ComicBook.com. "They have tried to how many, how many times? They tried to outsell that Avengers. They put Wolverine on the team, they put Spider-Man on the team. They actually mixed it with the X-Men and called it Uncanny Avengers, I think twice." 

"Now, Avengers Heroes Reborn? Number one is the best Avengers of all time. Not just the sixties, of all time. Because, that guy on ComicCon.com, he did all the sales figures and he figured it out," Liefeld explained. "So, again, I have a special relationship with that stuff and people have a special memory of that stuff. So, yeah, New York Comic Con, you're gonna see the sequel to the image and I broke it here with you on comic book dot com.

Do you love that Captain America image? Let us know in the comments!