X-Force #8

Rob Liefeld was pretty close to God to me at the tender age of 10. His work really spoke to me. I loved the jagged lines, the fierce expressions on his characters faces, the exaggerated anatomy, the big ass guns, huge muscles, etc. I was also pretty serious about becoming a cartoonist around this time and his, Spike Lee directed, Levi's commercial was extremely inspiring to me, making comic drawing for a living a tangible goal.

I wasn't really aware of The New Mutants series of comics but when that book changed it's title to X-Force I was right on board with issue #1. I remember picking up issue 1 just because it was polybagged with a collectible trading card. When I broke that bag open and read the issue I was hooked and picked the following issues up with regularity, absolutely loving each issue more than the previous....

And then came issue 8. I took for granted the fact that Mr. Liefeld drew the entire thing so there wasn't much need to look through it until I got home. As per usual I was extremely pleased with a gripping opening page that contained Cable with his glowing eyeball, a big gun, and crosshatched lines wide enough to drive cars in the middle of. Then I turned the page....
...and most of the rest of the book was drawn by some guy I never heard of, Mike Mignola. I couldn't believe this guys work. It was awful. No crosshatching, no constipated facial expressions, blocky figures. It was terrible. This guy defiled a book that was sacred to me!
I made Mignola my enemy for years, never forgiving him for what he did to my favorite book. I vowed never to support his work, he was evil. Why would my boy, Rob, allow this no-name to ruin the coolest book on the racks?
It was heartbreaking that there wasn't much Liefeld art in this issue. At least I could settle for a few great pin-ups that exuded testosterone. Look at that art below! Not that's how you draw the goddamn zappy eye.
For the record, my Mignola embargo has lifted since then.