Marvel Studios The Art of Ryan Meinerding Review
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has taken the world by storm in just over a decade. There are several aspects that fuel its continued success, such as telling emotional and well-thought out stories, and the time that’s spent naturally weaving characters into many films to tell an overarching story. But something that’s just as important is the visual design of not only characters but the film itself, with scenes. While the comics certainly help with that, having strong visual artists is something that can go a long way. And for Marvel Studios, that team is headed up by Ryan Meinerding.
‘Marvel Studios The Art of Ryan Meinerding’ explores the art of Ryan Meinerding, the current Head of Visual Development at Marvel Studios. He is their Ralph McQuarrie, as he’s had a hand in many of the MCU projects that have come out. His skill has had an enduring visual impact on what the MCU looks like, helping to forge a path that’s both unique but able to pay homage to the comics that first inspired the MCU in th first place.
Kevin Feige provides a forward to the book, talking about Ryan’s brilliance. One statement that sticks out, that Ryan’s work isn’t just concept art that can be thrown away after the project it’s created for is complete, it’s something more than that. It in itself is art, and deserves to be treated with the reverance and love all art is, and should be seen as separate to the films and shows, not just how it inspires the project. It’s this understanding from Feige that allows audiences to see this work in the first place, and it’s something that shouldn’t be forgotten or taken for granted.
The book is written by Tara Bennett and Paul Terry, who interview Ryan about key moments in his life and work. The book takes audiences on a journey throughout Ryan’s life, with his early inspirations, to how Ryan’s perseverance landed him a job working on the MCU and his insights on the many projects he’s worked on. It’s something that helps audiences gain a more full understanding of the art and working as an artist, which in turn helps audiences appreciate the MCU all the more.
Of course, this art book doesn’t just feature text. That would be confusing. The book shows off the many many pieces of art that Ryan has created, right from the MCU’s humble beginning with ‘Iron Man’, all the way to later productions like ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ and ‘She-Hulk: Attorney At Law’ and even designing images for Marvel Parks. There are plenty of highly detailed pictures of characters and fan-favourite moments, something that audiences can spend hours pouring over. The detail is absolutely insane, whether it’s the texture on Black Panther’s helmet or the ground during a fight.
Audiences also get an insight into the design process for these pictures, with less detailed versions being shown alongside the more detailed and coloured pictures. This helps to give a sense of the process that happens behind the scenes during the creation of one of these masterpieces, they don’t come out fully formed. Another example is the many different iterations that are designed in the pursuit of finding the perfect design, the book for example shows the different designs the SSR logo for ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’. It’s something that isn’t usually shown, as studios are fearful of releasing the imperfect image, but it’s a disservice to the artist that created it. It’s fantastic Marvel Studios are doing this.
Picking out a favourite image is impossible. There are brilliant images of Tony Stark building the Iron Man suit, spreads of heroes fighting robots in ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, against one another for ‘Captain America: Civil War’, and finally, a spread for ‘Avengers: Endgame’. That’s even before the dozens of individual character designs, like of Doctor Strange, Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet, War Machine, and much more can be spoken about. There’s not a bad image in this book, a testament to Ryan’s talent.
‘Marvel Studios The Art of Ryan Meinerding’ is a fantastic book, showcasing the immense talent of Ryan Meinerding and how he’s had just as key an impact in shaping what audiences see in the many projects of the MCU as anyone else who’s worked on the films, shows. These are true pieces of art, and for any fan of these characters and seminal moments in film and television history they’re worth seeing. The book is out now, and it’s certainly worth purchasing.
