I kid you not on this; but, the US Army actually experimented with equipment pouches on a thigh strap (circa Vietnam War).  They found that they had to be fixed so tight on the thigh that they cut off circulation.  They eventually developed a suspension rig that clipped onto a web belt, holding a holster or equipment rig, which then had a strap (or straps) that bucked around the thigh, to keep it from swinging around.  The weight was carried on the waist belt, but belted to the thigh to eliminate extraneous motion and place it below other equipment.  Primarily used for Special Operations.  The SAS developed a similar thing to carry equipment more easily, while wearing body armor.



The thing of it is, Liefeld and his generation didn't originate this obsession with gear.  Wally Wood used to draw some of his characters with various web belts and harnesses and such, adding fine details to it.  Steranko picked up on that and used it in Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD......



Thing was, Wood had been a paratrooper and they strapped their equipment to their gear in a variety of ways, for a jump (as can be seen in the jump episodes of Band of Brothers, like for D-Day and Operation Market Garden).  That's why he added it to characters (especially in the THUNDER Agents and MARS Patrol).  Steranko was paying tribute.  The German fallshirmjager paratroops, in WW2, even strapped magazine pouches, for the MP-40 submachine gun, to their shins....



(middle guy)

Liefeld's problem was that he just couldn't do it in a way that looked reasonable and made sense, while "looking cool."  Wood and Steranko made it "look cool" and "functional."  Same with his firearms.  I used to call them "Lego Guns," because they looked like something a kid pieced together with his Lego set.  Jim Lee did big gun stuff; but at least they looked like they could function, in some fashion.....

Of course, that made those comics decidedly short, on reading time.

There was an ulterior motive to that, which I think McFarlane glommed onto first:  pin-up pages sold better, when the original art pages were offered for sale, than story pages.  So, what better way to sell more pages and make extra cash than making more pin-up pages and double page spreads?  McFarlane had a better design sense and still conveyed story, using decorative framing by characters, and other elements, making the entire page a whole image, even when it featured multiple panels.  That was one of the things that actually drew me to his work on Infinity, Inc.  He had things like characters holding up story panels, or logos forming a border around the page, which made them interesting, where the story slowed things down. He said he did it out of boredom, with Roy Thomas' scripts (from a visual sense).

The one thing you could say about the Image founders was that they knew how to do single images and pin-ups; but, that is also the most basic layout for an aspiring comic artist.  Most fans start out doing (or swiping) pin-up pages and poses and slowly move onto storytelling, as they develop (if they do).  I had a bunch of that, in my portfolio for the Kubert School admission, though i knew they would want to see more and also mixed in some architectural renderings (including a sketch of a Frank Lloyd Wright building, where I tried to fudge perspective on a door, which stood out like a neon light) and some basic story layouts.  My attempts at story panels were crap, as I had issues with figure placement and scale.  So, I can understand why Rob often resorted to swiping, especially on story layouts.  By this point, he was using a pretty formulaic layout to his stuff and had a major dependence on stock poses.

I do agree that the Image founders ran into major issues with running their studios and a publishing house, which got them in dutch with Diamond and Capital and retailers.  That was part of the reasoning behind bringing in Larry Marder to handle the business side of things.  Valentino probably had the most experience, based on his indie roots, in terms of self-management, though Larsen was the most consistent at hitting his deadlines (as memory suggests).  McFarlane was fairly consistent, but also wasn't trying to launch an entire line.

I wonder if Rob suffered from ADHD?  His publishing suggested attention problems and he generated lots of ideas; but, the execution was another matter, as was consistency within a single story or across issues.  Makes me wonder about a problem like ADD/ADHD.

My hope is to just review the series just on it’s Merits. I haven’t mentioned anything about feet , just the storytelling choices. I missed all of his work from New Mutants and X-force so I wanted to see what made him one of the top creators for that period of time.

I don’t dispute that. The accomplishment alone gets my attention. He made a fortune from his Marvel work and he parlayed it into starting his own company where he keeps the money for films etc. it’s really impressive. No sad stories about him only getting a movie ticket to a blockbuster movie based on his creation.