The comic book world has had to deal with Rob Liefeld for a long time; the ZRC more recently when he did some of the art for Prelude to Deadpool Corps, and then picked up regular art duties on the main series that followed.

(A review of Prelude is forthcoming, but first we’re retooling our review system here at the ZRC)

Rob Liefeld’s ‘art’ is often seen as no less than a plague upon the human race, like the Black Death or Biblical locusts, only instead of manifesting physically in our world, it attacks the brain, and through it, the human spirit. Fortunately the impact gets somewhat blunted because there’s no core creativity behind the crazy lines and gigantic breasts that populate the Liefeld aesthetic; he’s not actually trying to undermine your core beliefs and shatter your faith in humanity, that just sort of happens along the way, and if you have a strong constitution and a very resilient sense of humor you might even be able to enjoy a Liefeld comic. You know, ironically.

(If you want examples of precisely why Rob Liefeld is so widely hated, you could do worse than to read this guide)

However, with his next project Liefeld seems to have finally found a voice, a cause, something he wants to use his crude mockery of a talent to push, an agenda to advance. Oddly enough, it’s bashing Zombies… using the Bible:

MATTHEW 27:51-52:

The earth shook, the rocks broke and tombs opened and many men and women who had died came back to life again. They left the cemetery and went into the city and appeared to many people there.” THE UNTOLD TALE OF THE 48 HOURS FOLLOWING THE DEATH OF CHRIST!

Following the crucifixion of Christ, supernatural warfare tore apart the Roman Provinces. Zombie Hordes attacked Jerusalem in search of the corpse of Christ. The Disciples were under siege as the Undead tore apart the countryside and an unlikely hero, LAZARUS THE IMMORTAL emerged to combat the Legion of Dead!

The title? ‘Zombie Jesus’.

Yes, this is how Liefeld sees his work, and apparently, religion as well: as a prelude to some pointless, splattery violence. (Knowing Liefeld, there will also be some enormous mammaries in there as well). However now he’s treading on ZRC turf, and we have to object to the whole operation, vigorously.

First, there’s absolutely no support for Rob’s crackheaded notion that this bible passage suggests a Zombie apocalypse. None. Here’s the old King James version of the relevant passage from Matthew 27:

51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

53 And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

54 Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.

That’s it; that’s the whole story. No mayhem, no face-eating or ravenous, ghoulish quasi-Undead. Just some people (described as saints) getting up out of the ground and going into Jerusalem and, presumably, saying ‘Hey, there’s this guy Jesus, he’s coming back too.’

Upon seeing all this, a centurion becomes convinced that Jesus was/is the Son of God. So, you know, Zombies are doing *holy* work in the original narrative. But that’s it for this particular group of religiously-motivated grave escapees; they never turn up again. Liefeld sees this as an opening to wedge a trite Zombie Apocalypse tale into a Biblical setting, ignoring that whole ‘saint’ part, as well as the ‘doing the work of God’ thing.

Reading comprehension is apparently not a core skill for Mr. Liefeld, along with anatomy, shading, linework or perspective.

Now, the Zombie Rights Campaign does not claim to be an expert panel on religion; far from it. We are a secular group working to advance the cause of Equality for the Differently Animated within civil society. But, and I know this is crazy, when I read a Bible passage that states that a group of individuals, nay, a group of SAINTS rose out of the Earth and walked into Jerusalem to do God’s work, I don’t then assume that said work involved eating piping hot brains scooped out of a Roman centurion’s skull.

Because I’m not Rob Liefeld.

Rob, however, despite being a Christian himself, thinks that the Bible needed some padding, and that a Zombie Apocalypse story would fit in just right for that gap between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.

Nevermind that it’s not in the original text, or is in fact directly and obviously contradicting it. Nevermind that it’s defamatory toward the entire population of the Differently Animated.

Rob’s take:

“I don’t consider this in any way blasphemous or contradicting my faith,” said Liefeld, who describes Zombie Jesus as “300meets Dawn of the Dead with the clock from 24 running.” He continued, “The fact of the matter is that the passage in ‘Matthew’ 27 EXISTS! It’s a freaky, crazy, creepy passage. Zombies came out of the ground right after Christ’s death and it’s kind of glossed over like it’s no big deal. I wanted to move on it a year ago when I read it, but I needed time to flesh it out. There are so many mysterious passages in the Bible, and this one may be the biggest mystery of all.”

Actually, the biggest mystery of all is how Rob Liefeld keeps drawing paychecks doing this. Maybe Satan is real, and just hates comic books? I can’t say.

It gets even better though: as mentioned above, Lazarus is now an Immortal superhero Zombie-fighter, and, guess who Liefeld decided leads the Zombie horde?

Judas. Undead Judas. Undead Judas, possessed by Satan.

I’m not making that up; he bases this outlandish twist upon Luke 22:3, which describes Satan influencing Judas to betray Jesus…

Before the Last Supper. While Jesus, and for that matter Judas, was still alive. Not after they both were dead.

Oops; continuity error.

The Zombie Rights Campaign is almost at a loss for words on this one (a rare situation indeed). Rob Liefeld seems to be intentionally misconstruing passages from the world’s largest religion’s holy book in order to justify creating a gory, hyper-violent work of Anti-Zombie sadism. Is this a new phase in Living Supremacist propaganda? Will we now see a wave of fundamentalist pastors denouncing the Differently Animated from the pulpit?

We sincerely hope not, but regardless, the ZRC will be here, on the case, to defend Zombies from these cruel slanders.

Now I’m off to rest my eyes; I made the mistake of looking too long at a Liefeld drawing without the customary welding goggles or pinhole camera.

Tags: Comics, Rob Liefeld

This entry was posted by John Sears on Wednesday, October 27th, 2010 at 10:41 pm and is filed under Zombie Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.