Heroes Reborn posters by Liefeld and Lee

I'm part of a group on Facebook called Pittsburgh Comic Talk. It's kind of like a private message board for comics fans and creators in the Pittsburgh area, as well the hosts and fans of the YIBR podcast and webcomic (which isn't a Pittsburgh specific thing by any means... but, uhh, look... it's complicated, okay?).

Point is, we were discussing some New 52 art and the Heroes Reborn initiative came up. Most people didn't have fond memories of the late 90s attempt to revive the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. But me? I did!

I'd stopped voraciously reading current superhero comic books in 1993, around the time I finally realized Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld weren't coming back to draw the X-Men (I was young... it took me a while to piece things together). I still followed X-Factor and Excalibur, but most of my efforts turned towards digging up books printed in 88-92, back when the Image founders still drew for Marvel.

So I was shocked when I stumbled into my local Fairport, NY comic shop in 1996 and saw a Captain America cardboard cutout drawn by Rob Liefeld. I bought Captain America #1 on the spot and loved it.

Around the same time, my sister was living in New York City and working in-house for a graphic design firm. She knew how much I loved comic books, and she'd saved a ton of posters and promotional materials for me.

Among the jewels she gave me were these beauties:

Heroes Reborn Captain America Rob Liefeld

Heroes Reborn Fantastic Four Jim Lee

Heroes Reborn Avengers Rob Liefeld

I was smitten! Up until this time, I'd never even seen what a Marvel Comics art board looked like. But now I had three glossy mini-posters by my art heroes, printed out as mock art boards, just with a little added color and text.

Now let me bring things back to the present. A couple of hours ago on Pittsburgh Comic Talk, I was gushing about these posters in our Heroes Reborn talk. I went to Google to try and find some pics of them... but I couldn't find a single image!

So I took pics of my own. And now here we are. Please forgive the crappy quality of the pics and poor condition of the posters. I hung these on my walls through out most of high school and college, so they've seen a lot of action.

I don't know if these ever made it out to the general public or if these were just prototypes. I've never seen them hanging up in comic book stores, and I've never seen them at a comic book convention. If you know what their deal is, fill me in!