Practitioners 23: Leinil Yu

Leinil Francis Yu (born July 31, 1977) is a filipino comic book artist, working, prominently, in the American Comic Book market.

In an in interview published in Mavel’s Daily Bugle Newsletter, he has described his style as ‘Dynamic Pseudo-realism.’ This seems fair as his grasp on Human anatomy is compounded by his considerable capacity for presenting it kicking ass!! His compositions are always wild and aluring, appearing spontaneous and explosive but within a moment present a much more impressive grasp on detailing and nuance that imbeds the image with more natural feeling. Its a circular effect that feeds both aspects of his style and zeroes in on minute detail in mad action sequences.

Leinil Francis Yu was first recognised after winning Wizard’s Drawing Board Contest, his first published work. Signed up initially by Whilce Portacio to do some work for Wildstorm, that work fell through unexpectedly. Portacio passed on Yu’s work to Marvel who immediately hired him to take on the Ol’ Canucklehead himself, Wolverine in one of its flagship titles. Few artists have catapulted so quickly to the forefront of one of the largest comic companies in the world but the decision was well justified. Yu’s combination of one-two knock out action sequences and ferocious line work gave him considerable notoriety among fans. Mostly positive, his loose lined inking style drew a more scattered and abstract look from his work which more story minded readers struggled to get to grips with. Artistically however, this was powerful, forceful stuff, the more vivacious line work offering more emotional punch to the action, communicating more than the panel might have with a more steady hand. Innovative work however can polarise and while many more were drawn to Leinil’s unique style some were put off (Dan Thompson of BTB for one).

Following his run on Wolvcerine he moved on to work on Marvel’s flagship X-Men title in 2000, written by legendary X-scribe Chris Claremont. Yu blazed a trail with his pen through the upper echelon of Marvel titles such as Fantastic Four, Ultimate Wolverine Vs Hulk and New Avengers working with the foremost creators. In the same period he co-created High Roads with writer Scott Lobdell at Cliffhanger, Superman: Birthright with Mark Waid and Silent Dragon with Andy Diggle at DC Comics.

Individual legends of the medium were queuing up, most likely to see their character drawn in the Yu style. It was different than what had been seen before and his wave of effect can be seen across the comic book fermament. New artists now offer greater naturalism and can apply more artistic flare perhaps following the arrival of Leinil Yu. His artwork representing a higher plateau of draftsmanship in mainstream comics, augmenting the existing standard into visceral and at times abstract line work. Movement depicted in high detail, not with cross hatching but with disparate, fractal scattered lines sometimes following the line of air across a moving figure or to emphasise effort and movement, light and shadow.

Leinil Yu worked on the edgy incarnation of the Avengers with New Avengers, featuring perhaps for the first time a team of outsiders to the Marvel Universe, Dr Strange, Luke Cage, Spider-man, Hawkeye (now Ronin), Jessica Drew and Echo (from Daredevil). His work matched well the disparate, kinetic and edgy nature of these characters and his line work became more clean and commercially accessible perhaps than before. Somehow, rather than being a shame it enhanced Leinil’s work and certainly broadened his appeal. His work on Marvel’s New Avengers finished with issue 37 so he could begin with Secret Invasion with New Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis. Secret Invasion involved every major character in the Marvel Universe pitched against an insidious Skrull invasion. His depiction of the Marvel cast against the highly individual Skrull warriors makes clear how good Yu is. More than 100 figures occupy a double page spread and Yu’s composition maintains speech bubbles coherently keeping the various battle cries and Bendis’ dialogue functional and understandable throughout.

Leinil Yu continues to go from strength to strength and has now matched luminaries like Romita Jr, both Kuberts and Epting as synonomous with quality and unflappable content no matter the requirement. Though he carries more zest and raw vigour than the afore-mentioned artists he still instills the same values in his artwork. His work is reminiscent of sketch works by Master artists at the same time as encapsulating what makes a legendary comic artist.