Marvel’s What If was inspired by gay icon painter JC Leyendecker

When Polygon asked Marvel What if…? production designer Paul Lasaine on the inspirations behind the Disney Plus series, the first animated production set in the same world as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, had a name ready immediately.

“It all started with JC Leyendecker, the American illustrator of the 20th century,” Lasaine said. “Super stylish. That was the basis of the beginnings of our style. That really influenced the characters. ”

Two other creatives working behind the scenes at 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 behind the scenes of Marvel) – he told Polygon that they were all on the same page. The first place to look for the Sight behind What if…? was Joseph Christian Leyendecker, preeminent among America’s cohort of 20th century commercial illustrators and inspiration for artists from Normal Rockwell to Alex Ross.

Franck cited Leyendecker third in inspirations for What if…?, after Marvel comics and Marvel movies themselves. “People learned a lot in episode 1 because of the things of the time,” he said, “but it’s even beyond that. It’s in the abstraction of that focus, it’s in the language of forms, it has an elegance and sophistication that elevates it in a way that gives you that lively look that you’ve never seen before. ”

Image: JC Leyendecker / Arrow

Leyendecker, who illustrated the covers of the Saturday Evening Post for more than four decades and made the man with the arrow necklace A household name in the United States of the 1920s, it is a natural place to look for examples of stylized representations that are still recognizable as individual figures. And Meinerding said so.

“What we were really looking to do is find an animated style that felt maybe more realistic than other types of animation that have been featured before, but still had the feeling that it was drawn, still had the feeling that it had some artistry in it. behind it, it had a nice design and a work of nice, well thought-out lines and tones. “

What if…?The source material is a live action film, so the characters must be recognizable as the actors who originated them. But on the other hand, Meinerding said, animation has its own concerns. “You have to do something that is capable of moving. [We figured it out] using the parameters of ‘based on the MCU, maybe a little more realistic’ and mixing the stylization of the American illustration. ”

But there is a certain irony in the image of Marvel and Disney creatives seeking inspiration from Leyendecker’s work. Leyendecker is famous for being the shoes that Norman Rockwell aspired to be in the Saturday Evening publication, for defining the look of early 20th century magazine and commercial illustration. But he is also famous for the undeniable homoerotic tone of his work.

Image: JC Leyendecker

On Leyendecker’s trendy plates, men in the trendiest roaring ’20s attire lounging around in male company, the folds of your clothing exquisitely rendered with weight and texture. Loose robes are parted to leave naked sculpted costumes in interwoven sock ads. They use their fit bodies to compete in college sports, they gaze at other beautifully dressed men, and they never seem to make eye contact with their peers.

Leyendecker was not open about his sexuality, so speculation about it may only be the speculation of historians and casual fans, but it is not. uninformed speculation. The artist never married, but shared his home with Charles Beach, the model who posed for his most famous works, from 1914 until his death in 1951 at age 77. Leyendecker’s will divide his estate between Beach and his sister.

Whether it’s his prowess, his marriage of realism with stylization, or his homoerotic aesthetic (or all three), Leyendecker is a fan favorite, particularly those who enjoy contributing creatively to the ship “Stucky,” linking Captain America with Bucky. Barnes. , the Winter Soldier. Here, artist M refers to his Leyendecker-inspired portrait of Bucky and a pre-serum Steve as “required. “Here, artist Pineapple bread created a tribute to Leyendecker’s “Soccer Player” – a bearded man Steve Rogers wrapped in a rainbow flag – for Pride in 2020.

The artist has inspired countless queer fans of Marvel characters, and is now directly inspiring a separate, albeit multiversally, installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It wouldn’t be the first time that Disney has relied on the work of a quietly queer creative while the company’s production remains nearly devoid of queer representation.

---