Deadpool Creator Rob Liefeld Inspires Us By Sharing His Story of How X-FORCE Almost Never Happened
For those of you looking for a little inspiration and motivation to keep your dreams alive, I've got a great story here for you from Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld. In a recent Instagram post, he explains how X-Force almost didn't happen. Marvel kept turning down the comic book concept but Liefeld didn't give up and kept pushing for it to happen until one day... it did.
Like many of you, I have a lot of dreams, ideas, and projects that I would like to get off the ground. It's not easy to do as these things take a ton of work and come with a lot of rejection which is so frustrating! Then you get stories like this that reignite that spark to keep pressing forward and not give up.
Here's what Liefeld said in his Instagram post, which is a photo of a fax he received in the Fall of 1990 from then-Direct Sales Manager at marvel Sven Larsen. The fax included some valuable "marketing points" for X-Force, which was originally referred to as X-Terminators before they changed the name.
HOW X-FORCE ALMOST DIDN’T HAPPEN! More than a boring memo from 1990, this contains the battle plan of how to turn the no’s into the all important green light that eventually produced X-Force, referred to as X-TERMINATORS here prior to the name change. Bottom line, DON'T GIVE UP!!
So I came across this original fax from 28 years ago, 1990, where the Direct Sales Manager shared his brainstorm with me after I had repeatedly lobbied to change New Mutants to X-Terminators and eventually X-Force. I had been turned down twice in my efforts to reboot the book. It was frustrating as I was 22 years old, located on the west coast and wasn't able to lobby in person, it was always over the phone or fax. I knew I needed to keep up with my peer group and transforming New Mutants was the key to staying ahead of the pack as well as the right direction as my tenure had increased sales 1000%.
Each turn down was crushing, I was always informed following a meeting in the New York offices (that I wasn't personally involved in) that the committee had turned the book down. But I didn't give up hope and neither did Sven Larsen who was in marketing and key to the push. Eventually we turned the tide and got the green light and X-Force #1 sold 5 million copies and remains the 2nd best selling title in comics history.
Anyways, hopefully you can draw some inspiration from this and be reminded that most things don't come easy and if you feel it's worth fighting for, keep at it. I'm eternally grateful to Sven and all the others behind the scene that worked to transform the direction of the book from New Mutants to X-Force. Creating cool characters like Deadpool and Cable and exciting storylines isn't always enough, it's the grind behind the scenes that produces results. Keep at it, whoever you are!!!
You can check out the photo below. I think this is a great motivational story! Now look where X-Force is at, especially with the excitement building for the upcoming movie! I remember buying X-Force #1 at my local comic shop. I loved it and was immediately hooked! It's kinda crazy to think that it almost never happened.
No matter how hard things get, if you believe in yourself and whatever your dreams, projects and goals are... don't give up!