Art by Ryan Meinerdine

Ryan Meinerding doesn’t spend much time looking back. The head of visual development at Marvel Studios thinks about the question “What happens next?” every day. Because he helped create the biggest movie franchise of all time. But in a rare moment of reflection, Mainardin reflects on his book journey Marvel Studios: The Art of Ryan Meinerdine.

Abrams’ 300-plus page tome traces Meinerdine’s journey from an art-obsessed kid growing up in Ohio to collaborating on a work with Jon Favreau. John Carter The Movie That Never Happened, Follow the Filmmaker iron manthe film that launched the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since then, Meinerdine has helped the company go through the Infinity Saga, into the TV streaming era, and now into the multiverse.

The book contains 500 Meinerding illustrations, many of which became the basis for some of the MCU’s most iconic shots (such as Mjolnir striking Captain America’s shield in Thor) the Avengersor Tony Stark wearing the Infinity Gauntlet Avengers: Endgame).

There are also moments that didn’t make it into the movie. Remember when Smart Hulk used a satellite dish to save a bunch of people at the beginning? Avengers: Endgame? Or Vision takes out a giant Ultron robot Avengers: Age of Ultron? No, because those scenes didn’t happen in the movie. But Meinerdine spent a lot of time developing these great ideas and putting them into the book. He estimates that for every four movies he makes, maybe one or two resemble his big concept, only to fall by the wayside.

“Whether it’s in a movie or not, I can create a piece of art that I’m still excited about,” he said, adding that he’s grateful Marvel allowed him to show what could have been.

The book took several years to complete, with Menardin pitching the idea to Marvel boss Kevin Feige Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: endgame Heading to the theater. Mainardin worked closely with writers Tara Bennett and Paul Terry, former journalists on the book The Marvel Studios Story: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

McNardin has been a fan of Norman Rockwell’s work since he was a child and drew inspiration from the great American painter’s “Captain America,” a hero whose costumes have led those outside Marvel to wonder whether they could be faithfully translated to the screen. . Meinerdine took this as a challenge and ended up designing multiple suits for Captain America, ranging from Captain America: first avengers (2011) via endgame (2019) (plus set by Sam Wilson The Falcon and the Winter Soldier)..

“This is a very, very unique opportunity that I’ve had in this place. I don’t know anywhere else that this happens,” he said of spending years with the same characters.

After nearly two decades at Marvel, Meinerdine still had plenty of gas left in the tank and realized it was unusual for an artist to have a book retrospective mid-career. become famous Star Wars Storyboard artist Ralph McQuarrie has many books, but many of them are posthumous, he points out.

As he rose through the ranks, Meinerdine took on more of a supervisory role, so the book doesn’t feature much from the Marvel streaming era since he didn’t personally have that many illustrations. However, he noted that there were still pieces he was eager to show that were not ready by the book’s deadline.

“I would love to put Wolverine in it,” the artist said.

Captain America: Civil War

Avengers: Endgame

Avengers: Endgame