But he’s also famous for undeniable homoerotic tone of his work.

Leyendecker is famous for being the shoes Norman Rockwell aspired to fill at the Saturday Evening post, for defining the look of early 20th-century magazine and commercial illustration. using the parameters of ‘based on the MCU, maybe a little bit more realistic’ and mixing in stylization from American illustration.”īut there’s a certain irony to the image of Marvel and Disney creatives pouring over Leyendecker’s work for inspiration. “You have to do something that’s going to be able to emote. But on the other hand, Meinerding said, animation has its own concerns. What If.?’s source material is live-action film, and so the characters have to be recognizable as the actors who originated them. “What we were really looking to do is find an animated style that’s felt maybe more realistic than other types of animation that have come before, but still had the sense that it was drawn, still had the sense that it had some artistry behind it, that had nice design and nice thoughtful linework and tones to it.” Leyendecker, who illustrated covers of the Saturday Evening Post for over four decades and made the Arrow Collar man a household name in 1920s America, is a natural place to look for examples of stylized renderings that are still recognizable as individual figures. It’s in the abstraction of that approach, it’s in the shape language, there’s an elegance and sophistication to it that elevates it in a way that gives you this animated look that you’ve never seen before.” A 1907 Leyendecker illustration for Arrow Collar shirts. “People picked it up a lot on episode 1 because of the period stuff,” he said, “but it’s even beyond that. The first place to look for the look behind What If.? was Joseph Christian Leyendecker, preeminent among America’s 20th-century cohort of commercial illustrators and inspiration to artists from Normal Rockwell to Alex Ross.įranck cited Leyendecker third in inspirations for What If.?, after Marvel comics and the Marvel movies themselves. Two other creatives working behind the scenes on What If.? - animation supervisor Stephan Franck and character designer Ryan Meinerding (who, as Marvel’s head of visual development also produces those painted concept art pieces you see in behind the scenes Marvel looks) - told Polygon they were all on the same page. The best What If.? stories in Marvel history

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