The Corner Box

Todd Nauck Draws It All on the Corner Box S2 Ep29

• David & John • Season 2 • Episode 29

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Comic book great Todd Nauck joins the show to talk about his work on Pooluminati, Young Justice, his big break into comics, working at Extreme Studios, keeping the drive through the decades, leveling up with digital, beating the Imposter Syndrome, the Mount Rushmore of comic artists, and Todd’s wish list of characters he has yet to draw. Also, John finds out he’s old, David takes over the interview, and a call to assist writer Peter David.

Timestamp Segments

  • [02:11] Drawing 2 pages a day.
  • [12:33] Is Todd a Wednesday Warrior?
  • [13:04] What’s Todd working on?
  • [14:27] A perfect pairing.
  • [17:44] Moving to LA.
  • [18:41] Getting started in comics.
  • [23:03] The Wildguard mini-comics.
  • [25:34] Join the FunTimeGo campaign!
  • [26:33] Traditional vs digital drawing.
  • [29:47] Winning a talent search.
  • [33:48] Beating the Imposter Syndrome.
  • [39:36] What keeps Todd motivated?
  • [42:02] Todd’s main influences.
  • [46:19] Don’t be Lisa.
  • [47:37] Reading runs in order.
  • [51:38] Todd’s character wishlist.
  • [53:10] Does Todd have a few more runs in him?
  • [56:21] Help Peter David.

Notable Quotes

  • “Stop trying to be what you think people want to see.”
  • “I’m so old, I don’t know how to do anything else.”
  • “There’s always 50 artist that can draw kind of like whatever the hot style is.”
  • “Drawing is a physically demanding job.”

Relevant Links

David's Fun Stuff!
Miss Mina VIP Launches Here!

John is at PugW!
Pug Worldwide

Todd Nauck has the coolest stuff!
toddnauck.com

GoFundMe for Peter David...
Help Peter David

Books Mentioned

Welcome to The Corner Box, where your hosts, David Hedgecock, and John Barber, lean into their decades of comic book industry experience, writing, drawing, editing, and publishing. They'll talk to fellow professionals, deep dive into influential, and overlooked works, and analyze the state of the art, and business of comics, and pop culture. Thanks for joining us on The Corner Box.


[00:28] John Barber: Hello, and welcome back to The Corner Box. I am one of your hosts, John Barber, and with me, as always, my good friend.


[00:35] David Hedgecock: David Hedgecock.


[00:36] John: With us, superstar artist, one of the nicest people around, as well - Todd Nauck.


[00:42] Todd Nauck: Hey. Hi, John. Hi, David.


[00:43] John: Thank you for joining us. Todd’s resume—I mean, I guess, I probably should have pulled something together. David, you usually have that, but […].


[00:54] David: You say this every time, but I thought you were going to do it this time, because—Okay, fine. Here. I'll do it.


[00:59] John: Secrets behind the comics. I have neither eaten nor showered, or anything, today. This has been a nonstop rush of nightmare stuff, and luckily, everybody's in different rooms than me. That's why I have the ball cap on. I'm a mess.


[01:15] David: All right, Todd does not need any introduction, but we're going to do one anyway. Todd's work spans multiple decades, at this point, and his artistic talents have graced all the major publishing companies—Marvel, DC, Image, you name it—He's been there. Todd, correct me if I'm wrong on this, because I'm doing this now on-the-fly, but I believe your career started with Rob Liefeld's Extreme imprint. You started with Badrock and Company, and then did some New Men work. Did you do Youngblood, also?


[01:46] Todd: I did an issue of Youngblood. Pretty much, I did something on almost every title that Rob put out, yeah.


[01:51] David: Total aside, as I'm going to butcher your introduction, but I remember—So, I’m a massive, unapologetic Rob Liefeld fan. I love his work. I celebrate that man's entire catalog. I think he's fantastic—So, my introduction to you, I was exposed to your work, as soon as it hit the shops. The thing that I was always excited about, when I knew that you were going to be drawing one of the books, is that the book was actually going to come out in a reasonable amount of time. That is not to denigrate your work, the images that you were able to put on the page, because that was also wildly acceptable, for me. Loved it. Loved your work, but I was always exceptionally excited that you were drawing something, like “oh, it's really going to come out. This is fantastic. I'm so happy.”


[02:36] Todd: That all spawned from my first comic book convention that I went to, as a fan, in hopes of breaking into comics. I grew up in Texas. I was born and raised in Texas. So, I'd go to the Dallas Fantasy Fairs, which was the convention they had in the late-80s, early-90s. I started going in 1989. They do them three times a year. Thanksgiving, 1989, was my first time to go to a convention with my portfolio. I wanted to learn about the industry. Growing up in East Texas, there was no one who did what I wanted to do. So, my only exposure to the behind-the-scenes was things like Marvel Age Magazine, Comic Scene Magazine, and reading interviews, and things like that. So, that's my first chance to go and talk to people. So, asking a bunch of questions, and maybe a little bit—and by a little bit, I mean a lot of eavesdropping on conversations of anyone who is on the other side of the table. I just assumed, it's like “I don't know who this person is, but they're on that side. So, they've got to be in the industry, in some way,” and I overheard someone say, “well, John Byrne says the Marvel rule is 2 pages a day,” and I'm like, “well, if John Byrne says it, it's got to be gospel, and I better train myself to draw 2 pages a day.” So, when Rob hired me and saw me start churning out 2 pages a day, I blew his mind a little bit. He's like, “this kid is fast.” Pretty much, if a book was late, they threw it on my desk, and I just dive right in. I had no social life. I was working insane hours every day, but having a lot of fun. I was working my dream job. So, I was like, “this is what I was here for.”


[04:12] John: Yeah, that's the secret, I think, behind a lot of people that are very fast, is that they work a lot.


[04:17] Todd: It’s an illusion. We're not fast. We're just non-stop working. There's very little break.


[04:23] David: Everybody else stops at 8-to-10 hours, and the “fast” people just do an extra 6.


[04:29] Todd: Exactly. Yeah. I do not work a regular 8-hour day. It is 10 or more hours a day, but I'm loving it. It’s my dream job. So, I'm having fun.


[04:40] David: That's great. I'm really happy to hear that, because you’ve been doing this for a very long time. It would be awful to hear that you don't enjoy what you’re doing, at this point.


[04:48] Todd: I hope to never be jaded. I hope to never be jaded.


[04:51] David: Alright, let's get back to this introduction. We’ve got to introduce you.


[04:53] Todd: Oh, yeah. We're still in the introduction.


[04:55] David: Yeah. No, it's going to be a while. After Extreme studio stuff, you eventually moved over DC, did some Legion of Superheroes stuff, and then you jumped into Young Justice, and Young Justice, you had a long run. In fact, I was thinking about this. I don't know if this is true or not, but I think you did every issue of Young Justice with Peter David, right?


[05:15] Todd: It is a 55-issue series. I drew 53 of those 55 issues, plus 3 double-sized Young Justice specials. The two Sins of Youth, and the Our Worlds at War specials.


[05:26] John: Oh, wow.


[05:27] David: Jeez.


[05:28] Todd: And half of the Young Justice/SpyBoy crossover with Dark Horse. I drew the first issue, and half of the third issue with Pop Mhan.


[05:35] John: Wow.


[05:36] David: You missed two of those issues. What a lazy, lazy, lazy--


[05:39] Todd: The reason I missed one issue is because we had a late start on the series, and higher-ups told the editor, “You have to get a guest artist for Issue #11 to get the book back on schedule,” and then the second issue, I missed Issue #24, was because I did the two double-sized Young Justice specials. So, that put me a little bit behind. Otherwise, I would have powered through. I would have found a way to draw Issues #11 and #24, to have my completely unbroken run, but it was out of my hands.


[06:06] John: They should do an Absolute, and have you go back and draw those two issues.


[06:08] David: Like Erik Larsen did with the Savage Dragon #13, I think. Then, after Young Justice, you did some Wildguard stuff.


[06:19] Todd: That's correct, yes.


[06:20] David: And that's your creator-owned book that you did over at Image. So, you went back into Image for a little bit there. Did you go to Marvel after that?


[06:28] Todd: At that point, I started working for Marvel, and DC, simultaneously. Peter David got me in as Mike Wieringo's replacement on Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man in 2006, and just prior to that, I was doing the Teen Titans Go! comic book. It's the comic book based on the original Teen Titans cartoon, the adventure comic, not the humor cartoon, but the adventure cartoon. We did the comic book adaptation. So, we had the title Teen Titans Go! first. Such a great title, they used it for the humor cartoon/comic, but I did that for more than half of the series, of that five years. So, I was ping-ponging between drawing in that Glen Murakami animated style for Teen Titans Go!, and then drawing in my traditional style for Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.


[07:08] John: That's where we met, because I remember, David, I remember you on New Men. I remember picking up at Mile High Comics down on--was that on La Brea, or something, or Brea Blvd? The one in Anaheim


[07:20] Todd: Oh, Harbor Blvd. Yes. I'd shop there every now and again, as well, because Extreme Studios was right down the street.


[07:26] John: Yeah. I used to go into the […] Graphics to try to buy my Hunt 102 Nibs, and they'd be like, “no Extreme Studios is in. They're all gone.”


[07:35] Todd: They'd go in, like a herd of locusts for art supplies. Just 7 inkers go in, and just like, “every nib, give it to me.”


[07:43] John: Well, okay. So, I had the opposite thing of knowing that Extreme Studios was within walking distance of my house. It was down the street, but I'm not going to show up there. That’s psychotic. I was just hoping I'd be in Pace at the right time, or something. That never worked out.


[07:58] David: If I had lived down the street from Extreme Studios, John, nothing would have stopped me from going. I would have been there. I would have just been sitting in the lobby until somebody let me in, or even if they didn't let me in, I would find a way in.


[08:10] Todd: It would be pretty easy to get in. The door did not lock. There was no security. I mean, you could have gotten on the elevator, gone up to the 10th floor, and just walked right in. Shannon would have—she’s 5’1”, this sweet little gal, straight from Little House on the Prairie, but had the authority to stop anyone cold, and you wouldn't have gotten past her, but hey, you'd have at least been in the Extreme lobby, and you would been able to have an eye-view of Rob’s office.


[08:39] John: There you go. […] Denton, and then I’m like, “yeah, you run into that guy everywhere. I'm sure he would have been in the way.” I remember you giving me a package of the Wildguard issues that I still have. I remember having that in Ralph's office. You jumped in and did the end of a Wonder Man series.


[08:57] Todd: I did Issue #4, yes.


[08:59] John: Yeah, with Peter David. I think it was the first time we ever worked together. I don’t think we worked together very much at Marvel. That must have been right around the time you got on Friendly Neighborhood.


[09:09] Todd: It's definitely around that time, for sure.


[09:11] John: Sorry, this is a total aside, and you might appreciate this. Wonder Man series, it was, My Fair Lady with superheroes was the premise. I'm in a Marvel retreat, and Alan Fine, who was the president of Marvel Publishing, at the time, I'm there a few minutes early, Alan sits down next to me, and we know each other from being on the elevator together, that kind of thing, and he goes, “you edited that Simon Williams series. That was very good,” and the thing that was amazing, obviously, he called the Wonder Man series by Wonder Man’s secret identity name. Not that it's a secret identity, but just casually refers to Wonder Man as Simon Williams.


[09:49] Todd: When you work with people for a long time, you just get on that first name basis. I know fans that refer to the characters by their real names. It's not Wolverine and Nightcrawler. It's Logan and Kurt.


[10:01] John: I have to correct myself sometimes, because I absolutely do that. I absolutely think about, “it's Pete.” I don't think that way about DC characters. I don't know if that's because of my connection with Marvel, or just because of the way that the characters are set up. Most of the Marvel characters don't even have secret identities. So, 100% feel that way. Sorry. We're still in the intro.


[10:2] Todd: This whole interview is going to be intro, right? It's just all intro.


[10:24] John: That's why it's called an introview.


[10:27] David: No, we're almost done, because I'm going to cut this short. So, you did some stuff for Marvel and DC, and then you went back to Image Comics, because you worked with Kirkman at Skybound.


[10:41] Todd: Yeah.


[10:42] David: Maybe it was before Skybound. Maybe it was before it was Skybound.


[10:44] Todd: It was Skybound. It was full-fledged Skybound, at that point, in 2011. 2012, actually, is when I started on Guarding the Globe/Invincible Universe.


[10:54] David: Loved that. Loved that series. I thought your art for that series was perfect, too. You nailed it.


[11:00] Todd: Oh, thank you. I was a big fan. I was reading Invincible from Issue #1. So, when Robert invited me to come and do the second volume of Guarding the Globe, and then for us to relaunch as Invincible Universe, it's like, “I'm in. I love these characters, love the stories, and I'd love to be a part of this,” and so glad I got to have those two years working with Robert’s team, with Phil Hester as writer, and stuff, to do those comics, and then to see it resurge now, with the Invincible show, and those characters, I think, are starting to be introduced. I'm behind in my Invincible watching, but I have been getting a lot of correspondence, where people are starting to read Invincible Universe, or reread Invincible Universe, because of the popularity of the show.


[11:40] David: People that don't watch animated TV shows, that I know, that poo-poo the animation, “cartoons are for kids” crowd—I know several who are watching Invincible, and are like, “I didn't know it was like this.” They're just blown away. They love it so much, and I'm like, “don't spoil it, because I'm still in Season 2.” I don't know.


[12:01] Todd: I got so far behind, I'm in the Adam/Eve special. So, I’ve got to finish that, and then get two seasons caught up.


[12:07] David: So, you were a fan of Invincible before you got to work on that stuff?


[12:09] Todd: Yeah, when I was doing Wildguard at Image Comics, Eric Stephenson, who I worked with at Extreme on New Men, he tossed me the first issue of Invincible, saying, “hey, check this out. I think you might like it,” and he was very right. I liked it from day one, and added it to my pull list at my comic shop, because I didn't want to miss an issue. Love Cory Walker's work. Loved Ryan Ottley's work. They are both fantastic for that series, and honored to be riding in their wake on Invincible Universe.


[12:35] David: So, it's 2012, and you've already been working in the industry for, probably, 10/15 years, at that point. You're still going to the comic bookshop. Are you still a Wednesday Warrior?


[12:43] Todd: No, I'm not a Wednesday Warrior, unfortunately. Just, work deadlines. I’ve got to draw. I've scheduled, now, my comic shop pull box pickups to coincide when I leave the house to go get a haircut. So, I pretty much go every six-to-eight weeks to get my haircut, then swing by the comic bookshop on the way home, to maximize my time, as much as possible.


[13:04] David: Nice. What's the stuff you're working on right now?


[13:06] Todd: Yeah, let's see.


[13:07] David: You’ve got a ton of covers. I see Todd Nauck covers everywhere at Marvel right now. It's fantastic.


[13:12] Todd: Yeah, it's a lot of covers. I'm doing a series of covers for Marvel, called the Iconic Series, which was started off as a Todd McFarlane Amazing Spider-Man #301 homage, which I'd done for a retailer, and then they asked, “we want you to do this for a bunch more covers, but change up the pose.” So, it moved away from being an homage anymore, because I'm not homage-ing Todd McFarlane’s contorted Spider-Man pose. I'm coming up with all new poses. So, it got rebranded as the Iconic Series. They've started coming out this year. I think we have 7 or 8 now, and I'm slated to do 10 more. I just finished one last night. So, I'm doing that at Marvel. I've got a Deadpool one-shot coming out next week, on March 26th, called the Pooluminati.


[13:54] David: Perfect.


[13:55] Todd: Multiverse Deadpools that form their secret cabal, and that's a one-shot, and it's a lot of fun. I got to create some new Deadpool variant characters, which I'm very excited about, and then, over at DC—


[14:07] David: Are you writing it, too?


[14:09] Todd: I'm not writing it. It's written by Zac Gorman of Rick and Morty. So, he wrote a really fun story. It's a real fun one-shot. You're in. You're out. You have a good time. I mean, it's Deadpool. How do you not have a good time? So, it's got some good laughs, some good action in that. Yeah. Just that Pooluminati one-shot in March, and then, over at DC, I'm drawing the New History of the DC Universe Issue #1. Jerry Ordway and I are the artists for Issue #1, and they'll have a different artist team for each subsequent issue of that 4-issue New History miniseries.


[14:39] David: That looks super cool. When I saw the announcement, it was on my phone, or something, and I didn't know if it was going to be—I wasn't clear on what it was, other than, it was just a thing that was happening, and I thought, “are they going to do some square-bound prose novel to get the History of DC Universe all ironed out in a prose novel? That doesn't make any sense, at all,” and then, of course, found out, “Oh, it's a comic book, also written by Mark Waid,” who has to be the guy that does that. Is there anyone more qualified to do that?


[15:11] Todd: Yeah, he knows his stuff, for sure, and he wrote really fun stuff to draw. I’ve been having a great time working on it. It's been a lot of fun, and it's an honor to be working on a comic with a legend like Jerry Ordway, to see his pages come in, and to have my art style, complementing his art style, I feel like we're the peanut butter and chocolate of comics for this, because fairly diverse styles. I don't think you would get confused if you saw his work versus my work, but it's an honor to work with him, and it's been fun interacting with him over e-mail, about our pages that we're submitting.


[15:42] John: I just learned now that you guys aren't doing the whole series. I'm a little disappointed, because I'm sure they have other good artists, but I just thought, hearing that, I was like, “man, that is such a good pairing, a good placement, a good fit for the series.” I don't know. It's one of those, everything fit together—Mark Waid, History of the Universe, Todd. Jerry Ordway, to me, he's the platonic ideal of 1980s style. Not that he ended there. I don't mean it that way, but I just mean, at that time, he was exactly what I looked at in comics, and I'm like, “I'm not capable of doing that.” Seeing Sienkiewicz, for me, I was like, “I can do sketchy and weird,” not understanding everything behind what Bill was doing. The opposite of that has always been, “Jerry Ordway just draw everything perfectly,” but I thought, I don't know, the two of you together, that sounds like a really nice combo, and I don't know. This has turned into the Chris Farley show, but I'm excited to--


[16:41] Todd: I love the Chris Farley show. I relate to it. I relate to it.


[16:46] David: We’ve been talking a lot about DC lately, in just how it seems like the editorial team over there is really firing on all cylinders. They're making a lot of really smart choices. Their $9.99 program is really cool and interesting. Relaunching Jim Lee into Batman, and actually not relaunching the numbering, I thought, was really interesting, and smart, and made a lot of sense. The Absolute Line’s fantastic, so far. Loving all of it, and obviously putting you guys together with Mark Waid on this new project, they're making some really smart choices over there, I think. I'm really interested in what DC's got coming.


[17:22] Todd: Absolutely.


[17:27] David: You got the covers at Marvel. You've got the first issue at DC. What else are you cooking over there, Todd?


[17:32] Todd: Right now, that's it. That's been the main stuff on the plate. Doing some licensing work, as well, on the side. As far as the comics, that's really the sole focus here, for the next couple of months.


[17:44] David: Cool. So, you mentioned that you were in LA, at Extreme Studio. Did you move from Texas to LA?


[17:52] Todd: Pretty much. After I graduated art school, I moved to Pennsylvania to live with my folks, who had moved there a year prior. So, I lived just outside of Pittsburgh. So, I lived there for a year, and then, when Rob discovered my work is when I moved out to California, because they gave me the option, “you can either work from home and FedEx stuff, or you can move out here and work in studio,” and it’s like, “I just turned 23 years old. I want to go to California. That place looks like a lot of fun.” I mean, I'm enjoying Pennsylvania, for sure, but the idea of living on the West Coast, and being where comics were being made, I wanted to work for Rob in his studio. I mean, I've been a fan of Rob’s stuff since The New Mutants and X-Force. So, I want to be there. I've read all the interviews of the other Extreme guys, or the guys working at WildStorm or Top Cow. It's like, “I want to be one of those guys. I want to be in the thick of it, and work so remote.”


[18:42] David: 23 years old, you just pick up, you're like, “I'm out of here.” Had you done a lot of work for Extreme Studios before you moved out there, or was it just Rob like “I'm hiring you. Get out here.” How did that work?


[18:54] Todd: Yeah, let's see. I started with doing independent publisher stuff, as any young artist often will end up doing just small publisher stuff. So, my first paid published work was for Marvel, when I was still in art school. It was the back cover to Marvel's humor comic, What The--?! Issue #21. Renée Witterstaetter would always come out to the Dallas Fantasy Fairs. She is a Texan. So, she'd come out, so she could see family. So, I'd see her three times a year, and show her my portfolio, and I think I got to a point where I just wore her down to where she's like, “all right, I'll buy one page, one gag off of you to run in What The--?!” and it became Mutant Mishaps. I came up with some ideas. She said, “I like these two. Put them together on one page,” I created Mutant Mishaps, ran on the back cover, and it's like, “wow. My first paid published work is a Marvel piece. Oh, my gosh. It's nowhere to go but up from here,” but I ended up doing some of whatever I could find.

So, I had done some independent stuff that was found for me through the Art Institute. They said, “hey, there's this independent comic publisher. They're looking for artists. Send them your samples.” So, I got this job drawing this comic book based on a rock band from Georgia, called MX, and they had their character, MX-Superhero, where the four band members merge to make the superhero. So, I drew Issues #2, #3, and #4, but only Issue #2 came out, but doing those three issues helped me get my skills a bit better. I was making my own mini-comics, my creator-owned stuff, my Wildguard stuff. So, I was making comics to try to get used to the language of comic book storytelling.

So, when Rob saw my mini-comics, and hired me off of those, as winner of his Extreme Studios talent search, I already had a little bit of that under my belt, but while I was in Pennsylvania, for the two months before moving out there, I was doing covers for Badrock and Company, the series Rob wanted me to start with, and pin-up-type stuff that would end up running in issues of Team Youngblood, and Newsmen, and things that. So, when I got to California, mid-April of 1994, my first Badrock and Company script was ready for me. In fact, I have the page—just posted about this, because last year was my—this was one of the very first pages I drew from Badrock and Company Issue #2.


[20:58] David: That's fantastic.


[20:59] Todd: And I remember sitting at a desk, drawing this page—My first memory of working at Extreme Studios. So, April last year was my 30th anniversary of breaking into the industry full-time. So, that's how it started. A slow start, but when I got to the studio, hit the ground running. It's like, “all right,” and I started doing my 2 pages a day, and Rob’s eyes go wide, like “this kid’s a machine.” I don't know why I had to get almost Stan Lee with that, but that excitable Rob voice.


[21:26] David: I feel like he’d appreciate that. You know what’s really shocking to me, John? Is that Issue #3 of MX never came out.


[21:35] Todd: Or 4.


[21:36] David: The concept sounds perfect. A band that can merge into a giant robot, or a giant--


[21:42] Todd: No, they merge into this long-haired—imagine Iron Man with 90s rock'n'roll hair, and that was the MX-Superhero. So, it was just a normal man. It was more like the Infinity Man from Forever People, how the five Forever People merged to make Infinity Man. This is kind of like that. I still run into the editor sometimes at conventions, and he still has all the artwork. One of the band members contacted me in 2010/15, somewhere around there, saying, “we still want to get that comic book out.” It's 20 years. I don't think if it's happened then, I don't know if you're going to make it happen now. Do you still make music? I mean, they were really nice to me and cool, when I went down there for that week to meet them. I did all those comics remotely, up in Pennsylvania, but I did go to Georgia to meet my editor, and meet the band, and stuff. I didn't get to see them perform, unfortunately, but they did give me one of their CDs, but it was fun to actually do the comic, and do a comic book as a paid published work, or potentially published work. Looking back, I don't mind that those two issues didn't come out, because of how green I was, how my work was still coming together. I'm sure there are a lot of mistakes in that that I would want to try to take back.


[22:56] John: When the Absolute Edition of that comes out […] Absolute Injustice.


[23:00] Todd: Absolute MX-Superhero. Yes.


[23:02] David: Love it. So, you were doing Wildguard mini-comics. You were doing Wildguard before you did the Image version of Wildguard. Was it the same characters, and stuff, in your early mini-comics?


[23:13] Todd: In the mini-comics—I created Wildguard back in 1991, early-’92. I was a big fan of the show, Cops. So, my thought was, “what if cameras followed superheroes, instead of cops?” There were only two reality TV shows back in 1991/92. It was Cops and MTV's Real World. So, that's what I based Wildguard off of. So, I started making these mini-comics with my friends at Art Institute, who wanted to become book artist, as well. We were going to do this anthology book, self-published. So, we each did a 6-page story, and of course, that comic never came out, but Image Comic Studios were putting out their Ashcan Editions of Cyber Force #1, or WildC.A.T.S #1. I think I still have those. I go to the comic shop, and there's this little photocopied comic with a Marc Silvestri cover. It's 10 bucks. It's like, “I'll buy it. Give it to me. $10. That's a bargain. I need it.” So, it's like, “wait, this is just a photocopy. I can do this.” So, I started making my Wildguard mini-comics. I did maybe six or seven of them—two Wildguard comics, and then some spin-offs of solo characters, and just really had fun building that world.

So, after Young Justice, I thought, “hey, it's 2003, and reality TV is crazy with Survivor and American Idol, and stuff. Let's see if we can get Wildguard going as an Image comic, which Jim Valentino and Eric Stephenson greenlit right away, and I re-casted. Some of the characters I created, I reworked. I came up with some new characters to replace those, but Red Rover and Ignacia were always two of the ones from the original two I did in the current Wildguard universe.


[24:42] John: You ever considered going back to it?


[24:43] Todd: I am. I've been working on a one-shot these past—more years than I can count. When I started doing my work, I started incorporating digital art into my workflow to train myself in how to draw digitally. I started as “well, I’ve got this idea for a Wildguard story. I'll just draw it digitally, so it teaches me how to use this clip studio paint tool, and then when I'm done, I'll have a product,” and I keep adding pages to the story. So, my little 20-page story is on the way to becoming a graphic novel, at this rate. So, I'm hoping to get a good 40-page story one-shot, to hopefully come out, as early as next year, if all goes well.


[25:20] John: Oh, wow.


[25:21] Todd: That I've written, penciled, inked, and colored, all completely digitally.


[25:24] John: Whoa.


[25:25] David: Oh, John. Exclusive scoop, John. We got an exclusive scoop.


[25:28] John: That's awesome.


[25:29] David: That's awesome. I'm excited for that. Wildguard was definitely a favorite of mine. I really enjoyed that series.


[25:35] Ladies, and gentlemen, let's give it up for our entertainers. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back.


[25:40] David: Hey, Corner Box Clubbers. David here, and I've got something fun for you. My new Kickstarter campaign is launching soon, and I want you to be part of it. Just head over to FunTimeGo.com, and click the VIP banner up at the top of the site. That's your ALL ACCESS Pass to our new book, Miss Mina and the Midnight Guardians, plus some seriously cool perks. If you sign up for our VIP Package, you're going to get a GUARANTEED Remark Edition of the next book that comes out, you get offers for exclusive discounts and incentives, tons of free giveaways, during and after the campaign, and you also get access to our private Facebook Group where we do sneak peeks, and talk about the podcast, give bad movie reviews, and generally, have a fun time. So, don't miss out. Go to FunTimeGo.com, sign up, and get in on the fun.


All right, ladies, and gentlemen, back to what you came for. Give it up for more of The Corner Box.


[26:34] David: Are you drawing primarily digitally these days, or are you still drawing on boards?


[26:38] Todd: I'm a hybrid. I will sketch and pencil, digitally, and then I will print that out in blue line, and ink, traditionally, and then, scan that in, and send it off to the colorist. I like having that one-of-a-kind piece of artwork. So, I don't want to lose that, but I love the options of starting, digitally, because back in the old days, I’d do a little sketch of Spider-Man, it's like, “Ah, I love the pose, but he's too small on the page, or he's in the wrong place. I have to erase and hope I can recapture the magic.” Digitally, I just lasso tool and slide him over, scale him up or down. I don't have to worry about losing all that I created, to try to get it in the right place. So, the design options just became almost infinite, made my workflow a little bit easier, and faster, in that way.


[27:20] David: How long have you been working in that manner?


[27:23] Todd: I started in, I think it was 2017.


[27:26] David: That makes total sense, to me, because it’s somewhere around that time—for lack of a better term, I will say that artists occasionally level up. I don't know what happens, but through the art, you're at a certain level. You’ve always been at an incredibly high level, but then something happens where like “oh, wow. This stuff is suddenly--something clicked.” Something’s working better, in a way that it wasn't before, and I've noticed that about your work, over the last few years. I noted it, because I was like, “man, Todd has been doing this a long time, and he just leveled up.” It felt, to me, like there was a level of—I don't know how to describe it. You slightly changed your style. This is just my observation. It looks like you slightly changed your style. A little more noodling, a little more gritty. Something along those lines, and I'm wondering if it's around the time you switched your process up a little bit. It freed you up, in some ways.


[28:15] Todd: I think so. I know I took a very deliberate turn to that extra noodle, that extra grit, that extra hyper-detail, on Stargirl: the Lost Children, because we had these kids. So, it's fun to draw the DC teams, but they were on the Childminder’s island, and she's supposed to be creepy and weird, and just scary. So, I started referencing a lot of Bernie Wrightson’s stuff. It’s like, “I want to try to be this hybrid between Mike Wieringo and Bernie Wrightson. You smash them together, and that's what I'm going to try to give you. That fun balance, and then that weird, gritty, more heavily-detailed look to it, and see if I can chocolate and peanut butter that together,” and I had so much fun doing that, and I think it stuck with me to one degree or another.


[28:58] David: That makes perfect sense, to me, that combination. I can see that that's what you're looking at, just thinking about the things that I've noticed about your work. Like I said, I've always been a fan, but I really do feel like, in the last several years, you've gone to another level, for me, in terms of my fandom for your stuff. I'm loving it. I'm fascinated to hear that you've been playing with your technique and your style, because it's working.


[29:22] Todd: Thank you.


[29:23] David: It’s very cool. So, I forgot that—John, you can jump in anytime, bro. I'm sorry. This is how we do the interviews. John starts it off, and then I just take over, and I talk over him, and he can never ask a question, because I'm so down the rabbit hole with my focus.


[29:41] John: I'm waiting for the Captain Carrot question, or whatever you […].


[29:45] David: Oh, we're definitely talking about that. I forgot that you won a talent search to get into Extreme Studios.


[29:50] Todd: Yeah.


[29:51] David: Was it a Wizard Magazine thing, or what?


[29:52] Todd: From a page in the Extreme Comics. Rob’s like, “we're looking for the next generation of talent. Send your samples in.”


[30:00] David: So, you sent them Wildguard samples?


[30:02] Todd: No, I didn't. I drew up some Youngblood three-page samples, and sent in photocopies of that. So, a hidden part of my story here is, back at the Art Institute, I've got my friends who also want to be comic book artists. They're 3 or 4, maybe 5 quarters behind me. So, I graduated when they still had almost a year of school to do. So, we had about four months to hang out and do our comic creating stuff there, in late-‘92. So, one of my friends there is a guy named Jaime Mendoza, who is a longtime inker, inks a lot of Doug Mahnke’s stuff, Duncan Rouleau, back in the day, Pasqual Ferry. So, my friend Jaime and I went to art school together, and we were trying to break in as a penciling/inking team. So, I would draw up sample pages, mail him photocopies, he would use art vellum, and do his inks, and he'd show off our samples at any Dallas Convention he was at.

In January of 1994, he's at a convention with another one of our classmates, Mark, and the two of them get to work security, and they are assigned Dan Fraga, who was one of Rob's first hires for Extreme. So, they're just hanging out with him, getting him water, managing the line, stuff like that. So, that evening, they're hanging out, and Jaime pulls out our samples, and shows him our samples, and Jaime actually calls me on that Sunday night, after the convention, like “Todd. Mark and I, Dan Fraga, this, that, and the other. I showed him our samples.” I'm like, “yeah, what did he say? What did he think? Did he love them?” He goes, “Nah, he wasn't too impressed.” I'm like, “oh, okay.” He goes, “but I pulled out our mini-comics,” and I'm like, “Jaime, I told you, never show my mini-comics, my Wildguard mini-comics to anyone.”

I was so embarrassed by them. I don't know why, because it was—Actually, I do know why, because it was so purely me, and there's that vulnerability on the page, that I was too afraid of rejection. So, I said, “I trust you guys, but I don't trust the rest of the world.” Well, Jaime betrays me. He betrays me, and he thinks differently, and shows Fraga my Wildguard mini-comic, and I think I had two done, at the time, and he goes, “Fraga liked them.” I'm like, “what?” He goes, “he asked if he could take them back to show Rob.” I'm like, “are you kidding me?” He goes, “you might get a call from Extreme Studios in the week.” I'm like, “Jaime, you're my best friend ever. I'm going to name my first son and children after you.” So, that's the Sunday night. Tuesday, I get a letter from Extreme Studios. It's like, “oh, my gosh. They mailed me that fast.” I opened it up. It's my rejection letter from the samples I had mailed in two months prior. So, I was like, “well, he said I might get a call. So, hold on. Hold on.” Wednesday, I get a call from Eric Stephenson saying, “we saw your mini-comics, we liked them a lot, you are our winner of the Extreme Studio talent search, and Rob has a book he wants you to do.”

So, I broke in, in a way that I wasn't trying to, and it also taught me, stop trying to be what you think people want to see, because that was like driving with the parking brakes on. It was muting my true self. Wildguard, that was truly me. I was doing exactly what I wanted to do. No rules. Just write, and I'm going to have fun with it, and that's what people noticed. There was a spark there, and that was my first lesson learned. Don't try to be everyone else. Be yourself, as challenging and as scary as that can be. It's what's going to make you stand out in the crowd, and it was a blessing to have learned that so quickly.


[33:10] David: And you really felt like you took that home from day one, from that?


[33:14] Todd: As best I could. I mean, I still struggled with the “I want to be everyone else,” and I had to fight against that, because as a normal human, we’re going to have our ups and downs, and get caught up in wrong thinking, but it was, at least, a touchstone that I could always go back and remember, “Hold on. Reset your compass here, so you're not trying to be like everyone else.” It is definitely a battle, and it would be a battle for the first, maybe, 15 years of my career, until I finally started to get past that impostor syndrome, to where I could feel confident, and it’s like “I don't have to worry anymore.” That level of artist maturity finally starting to kick in a little bit more.


[33:49] David: So, do you think you have beat the Imposter Syndrome?


[33:51] Todd: I feel like it. I think, from Nightcrawler—actually, Invincible Universe, and into Nightcrawler on, it's like “I'm doing an X-Men book with Chris Claremont. I don't have to be afraid of ‘Maybe I'm not a real comic book artist’ anymore.” I am, and I'm doing a Marvel comic. They asked me to do this with Chris Claremont, and I can just own that, and have fun with that, and not be afraid anymore, and I think that's where it really shifted, for me, and I think really helped me, in my workflow. I don't have to draw from fear anymore. I can draw from confidence now.


[34:20] David: I'm so jealous.


[34:23] John: It's interesting to hear when that happened. I would have thought--


[34:25] Todd: I enjoyed myself. I loved everything I got to do prior. My work on Spider-Man started. Those early days on Spider-Man and Young Justice, especially, but there was still that little nagging, that little devil that sits on your shoulder that wants to whisper the lies to you and try to pump up that insecurity—That was the battle I was facing, but at least, I'm in the arena, and I can battle that while I'm having fun, but when I started to find that freedom, it was definitely a mark to change, for me, personally, in how I could enjoy my day more, in a more free way.


[34:54] John: Yeah. Advisory for both our listeners—If you've created Young Justice, you're doing okay. You're alright. Don't worry. You're good. Just relax. You're on the right track. I just saw an ad in a DC Comic—I don't remember what for, but I'm like, “oh, yeah. You can see the Young Justice influence on this.” I'm sorry. It wasn't you. I don't know who it was, but I was like, “oh, man. I can see that direct influence,” and I'm like, “yeah, that's okay.” That's funny.


[35:22] David: It is interesting that comic books, though, tend to pull that personality style into its milieu. I don't know anybody working in comics that doesn't struggle, at some point, with Imposter Syndrome. I still struggle with it today.


[35:35] John: Well, validly, David.


[35:41] David: That's fair.


[35:42] John: That was a joke. I want to be clear.


[35:46] David: No, I wasn't. You're just finally speaking your truth. That's okay. I think you're right, because I'm still struggling with my Imposter Syndrome over here. No, I think it is something that a lot of creative talent struggle with, and maybe it’s just not in the comic book milieu, just in general, creative talents tend to struggle with that sort of thing, and it's really nice to hear that you have found a way through that, because some people, I don't think, ever get through it, and I think there's a difference between having that Impostor Syndrome drive you, in a way that makes you better, and having Impostor Syndrome that drives you to early drinking and the grave. I don't think that the Impostor Syndrome has to be the thing that wants you to get better. I was listening to an interview with Daniel Warren Johnson, in the last week or two, and I think Daniel Warren Johnson's an incredible talent. The guy is just really blowing the doors off, and he's just been coasting on a real high, the last couple of years, and in the interview, it was really refreshing to hear him speak. He's aware of the moment he is in, and he's not letting it be too big for him. He's just enjoying it, and he's not thinking about whether or not he's part of the industry, or not in the industry, or if the work that he's doing is going to be widely accepted. He's just enjoying the moment, enjoying what he's doing, and focused on improving himself, as a person, and as an artist. I was like, “man, what a refreshing thing,” because not to denigrate other talents, but man, that's a hard thing to be able to do, at any point in a creative career. I think, at least, I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I tend to see that. So, it's really refreshing to hear that you aren't in that headspace. That's fantastic.


[37:30] Todd: It's all a journey. So, it’s just learning how to navigate stuff, for better or worse, whether it's in the creative arts, or just being a human being.


[37:39] John: Whenever I was doing portfolio reviews, I would always ask the person, what do they want? What do they want from comics? Sometimes, it was just the technical side of “your inking's not that good. You want to be a penciler? Just forget the inking,” or “you want to do the whole thing, you really have to concentrate on your inking.” That kind of stuff, but sometimes, you get artists that were really interesting, and I'm like, “listen, I think you're going to have a hard time getting to where you're going with it, but it's more worthwhile than trying to just draw somebody else, and be a faceless number,” because you're so replaceable, at that point. There's always 50 artists that can draw kind of whatever the hot style is, and they're going to be forgotten, or they're going to have to start drawing whatever the next hot style is, later on. Skottie Young's that one I always think of. Skottie was such a great artist, but he was so hard to place at Marvel, around the time. We’re talking about around 2005, 2006, or whatever. Then Skottie clicked. Things worked out, but there were precarious years there of everybody knowing he was good, but not thinking you could put him on an X-Men book, or whatever, and what else do you do with him?

It was funny. I actually was just earlier today talking to a new artist that I'm working with on something, on a comic I’m writing, and Daniel Warren Johnson came up, specifically, because of the Transformers connection that I have, and that this guy I'm talking to had. I think the lesson to learn from Daniel Warren Johnson isn't “draw like Daniel Warren Johnson.” It's that you can draw you, and make it your thing. That's part of the impostor thing, too, I think, or a corollary to it of “I should be drawing like these other people that are doing really well. They're doing really well. I should draw like them, and then I should draw me,” because 30 years later, you're still Todd Nauck. You're not the guy that tried to copy how to draw—You're not a third-rate Dan Fraga. You're a first-rate Todd Nauck. That's much better, and you wouldn't be around 30 years later, if you'd been the other. That went nowhere. Sorry.


[39:30] David: No, that was good. We just didn't let Todd talk.


[39:32] John: No, we didn't.


[39:36] David: So, since you don't have Imposter Syndrome anymore, what are the things that drive you, that motivate you, that challenge you, to keep you interested in what you're doing, and keep you motivated in this job that you have? Because it is a job. It’s still your love. It's still your hobby, of course, but that's also a job.


[39:55] Todd: My first answer to that is fun. I want to have fun, and that's always been my value, from the beginning, even through the early days, and through the ups and downs, and even now, I can still have ups and downs here, even to this day, just by how much I've learned, but it's always been about having fun and enjoying myself, enjoying the process, and having fun, creating. So, my biggest motivation is, I get up, and I'm excited to get back to work. It's like, “I'm sorry that I had to stop working yesterday, because I needed food and sleep. Darn, this limited human body.” I look forward to getting back into the adventure, and creating, and then trying new things, and I think, as a young artist, I didn't want to try new things. I didn't want to be challenged or pushed to try new things. I'd recoil to that idea. Now, as an older artist here, it’s like what I was mentioning before with Stargirl. It's, “I’ve got a vision of how I could do the art a little bit differently than I had in the past, and it could be fun to try to incorporate just a fraction of that Bernie Wrightson rendering in this. What would that look like? How would that contrast between the way I draw my stuff and adding just that little bit of extra Bernie Wrightson-ish linework to my work? What could that be like?”

I found, I was having a lot of fun with it, because it was forcing my brain to think in a new way. So, it was tickling that sense of newness. We enjoy something new. So, it's like, “here's a new toy I can play with,” and it's fun, and it's trying to figure it out, and “how do I work this? How do I morph around that idea of that style, sand how do I use that style to morph around me?” It's this weird symbiotic—it was my personal venom, is what it was. So, those are two of the main factors, and third, it's like, “I'm so old, I don't know how to do anything else.” So, I've got to make the most of the time I have left, because I don't know if I can change careers. I have no idea what I could do. All I know is how to draw comic books.


[41:44] David: There's a little bit of that. That goes around, too. Good. I love it. I think being motivated from a sense of fun, rather than a sense of fear is a really great idea. I should do that. Who have been some of your big influences? Who would you describe as your big influences?


[42:06] Todd: I get this question from young artists a lot, whether it be on my livestreams on my YouTube channel, or interactions at conventions. They want to know
who are your influences?” Because I think every comic book artist is influenced by our favorite comics we read as a kid, because that's our exposure. So, it’s like, “I want to be this person, or these people.” So, as an 80s kid, some of my initial influences were X-Men artists. So, my Mount Rushmore, I've been influenced by tons of people, and inspired by even more, but my Mount Rushmore of influences-- #1, Arthur Adams, who I think influenced tons of artists.


[42:42] David: Yeah.


[42:43] Todd: Rick Leonardi, Walter Simonson, and Alan Davis. Those were the first four that were very impactful, on me, and really helped start to shape the process, and then, as we move into the late 80s, it's the Jim Lees, Todd McFarlanes, Rob Liefelds, Erik Larsen, and it snowballs from there.


[42:59] John: Got the underpinning of those other artists that they were also influenced by, when you came in. Probably some of your colleagues at Extreme Studios, when you were starting, it seemed like there were a lot of people that were being in high school, at that time, they were just kidding those Image guys, all the time. There were a couple of guys that I knew, that were into comics before, and then when Image blew up, I knew a lot of people that were into comics, all of a sudden. That stands to reason. That makes sense. I can see how that works. I bet you're right about who you like.


[43:27] Todd: Thank you for confirming that.


[43:28] John: I think this checks out, David.


[43:31] Todd: You run the DNA test, and the father is Arthur Adams, Rick Leonardi, Alan Davis, and Walt Simonson.


[43:38] John: When you look at those Art Adams issues, the two annuals, I feel like you can go in there, and be like, “well, that's where Jim Lee learned how to draw women,” and Cannonball, and that, is where Rob Liefeld learned—I don't mean it sarcastically--learned proportions, because he's drawing the Cannonball proportions that he was doing.


[43:55] Todd: I'll look at the Classic X-Men Arthur Adams covers, and the front is pieces on the inside, and I look at it, and it's like, “that looks like early Jim Lee. I think I see, he might have been influenced by that,” or Rob Liefeld, I can see just a little bit that makes me go “put that on the conspiracy board. I think I can pull a thread from that to this.” So, yeah. I think Arthur Adams was such a huge influence for so many people.


[44:16] David: Huge. For the small-ish amount of work that guy produced in the early-mid-80s, to be as massively influential as he was, is just a crazy. People will cite John Byrne as an influence, and that makes sense, and John Byrne also drew 170 issues worth of material in 3 years. He's another two-page-a-day guy. Well, you learn—[…]. I think he could draw more than two pages a day. Anyway. So, it makes sense. Because he was so prolific, it makes sense for him to have been an influence to a lot of people, but Art Adams, man, that guy drew literally 2 annuals, and what else did he do? Longshot.


[44:58] Todd: Longshot, yeah. The New Mutants Special, which tied into one of those X-Men Annuals, the first X-Men Annual, and then he had the Evolutionary War X-Men Annual. So, I got used to Arthur Adams on X-Men Annuals. So, I expected it. So, there's Arthur Adams, Arthur Adams, Alan Davis, Arthur Adams, or vice versa, but I remember, 2 years in a row, Arthur Adams. So, the next year, I was expecting Arthur Adams, and that was the one, where it’s the X-Men versus Mr. Jip, back in 1989, and it was not Arthur Adams, and I was crushed. It's like, “No. Arthur Adams is supposed to be here. Who is this guy? I can't. I spent $1.50 on this. Do you know how much $1.50 is to a kid in 1989? This is a lot of money.”


[45:40] David: Could’ve bought a mansion with this money.


[45:43] Todd: Especially, in these places. On the lake.


[45:47] David: Mr. Jip is right.


[45:49] Todd: So, that was where I was like “I guess, I can't expect Arthur Adams to be here every year.” Annuals aren't that regular of--it's more often going to be a rotating art team. So, I'm glad for the three Arthur Adams annuals that we did get, and oh, man-- if I ever find an Arthur Adams New Mutant Special, or he did Web of Spider-Man Annual #2. I remember getting that, summer of 1986, on a trip to Florida, and that's when I first became an Arthur Adams stan. That's my first exposure to his work. Anytime I find that comic in a bargain bin, I buy it. I have so many Arthur Adams specials, one-shots, annuals. It's like, “you're selling this for a dollar? Do you know the gold you have here?” I don't mind. Okay, now I have a dozen of them, probably in a box, right back here. One day, this is going to be currency, and I'm going to be rolling in it, because I've got 7 New Mutants Specials #1s.


[46:39] John: Certain books, every time, I fight the urge to do that, and I always think of this issue of Peter Bagge’s Hate, where Buddy’s girlfriend would buy the Grease soundtrack, whenever she saw it. I don't want to be Lisa. Don't be Lisa. Don't be Lisa.


[46:53] Todd: It's different with comics. If it's a Dollar bin. Even now, $2 bins, that's a bargain. I built my whole John Byrne She-Hulk run out of just buying from Dollar bins. I got them all, but one issue, and I'll never find that in the dollar bin.


[47:08] David: That's fantastic. That's good. That's pretty good.


[47:10] John: Is it the Frank Miller one?


[47:11] Todd: It's the jump-roping one, on the cover. She's jump-roping. That one is, I guess, such a hot commodity that it’s priced at key issue levels. It would never be a bargain bin book, unless somebody puts it there by accident, and I'm ready to pounce. I need to finish my run for $2 or less.


[47:30] John: Then you'll find out what happened to She-Hulk.


[47:33] Todd: That's right.


[47:34] John: You have the TV show DVR’d. You're all ready to go. Got to get the one.


[47:37] Todd: Yeah, I’ve got to finish reading that series. I can't read the last eight issues of that run until I get that comic. So, I can finish reading that, read all the Dan Slott stuff, and then watch the Disney+ TV show. I'm so backlogged, because it has to be in order.


[47:51] David: I wasn't going to say this, but I do that. I definitely have that problem sometimes, where I'm just like, “okay, I can't read the next issue until I read this one, and I don't have it. So, what have I got to do?” Oh, man. What a sickness. What a horrible, horrible--


[48:03] Todd: Well, growing up as a kid in the 80s, and I didn't even have a comic shop when I first started reading comics. So, it was whatever comics were around at the grocery store, 711, three-pack at Target. I just buy it, and I get to read what I get to read, and if I come back the next month, and that issue of X-Factor is gone, well, I guess I’ve got a hole in my story. I'll keep moving forward, and then I built things back. So, I read a lot of things out of order. During the pandemic, I pulled out all—I’ve got all 100 issues of New Mutants, plus Annuals, spin-offs, the graphic novel, and I read. It's like, “I'm going to read this all in order, since I've never read the New Mutants series in order, and I'm going to do this, and see how it was all supposed to go, if I had read it correctly,” and I did that with West Coast Avengers, and that became my new thing. Everything I read out of order—what would it be like to read it in order? Would I understand the story better? Spoiler alert—I did.


[49:02] John: I was working at Marvel by the time I bought a Crisis on Infinite Earths paperback to read it again, and then realized that I'd never, ever read 3 of the issues, because I missed them.


[49:15] Todd: Yeah, I had […] Crisis, as well. I had the Death of Flash, the Death of Supergirl, and a couple of other issues, and that's all I knew of Crisis, until I got the trade paperback. That story, you do need to read in order. It’s an all-encompassing story. The scope is huge. It's enormous.


[49:30] John: Almost infinite.


[49:31] Todd: Almost, and in Crisis. That's a double whammy, in my book.


[49:36] David: I was much like you, Todd. I didn't have a comic bookstore. I lived in a tiny little town. We had two liquor stores in town, one on either end of the town, about 3 blocks away from one another, the far opposite ends of this town, and sometimes, there was a Groo The Wanderer comic book there, and sometimes, there was a Captain Carrot, and yeah, whatever showed up, showed up, and you just bought everything, and hoped for the best, but in my adult years, these days, I am very much stuck in this “I want to read it in order.” So, I will not even jump into a series until I've got the whole thing. I just completed my Dazzler run about a year ago, and started jumping in to read that thing, and oh, man. It's not that good, but I still love it.


[50:24] Todd: Those Sienkiewicz covers are awesome.


[50:27] David: Oh, it is wildly fascinating to see how that series just is going along, just real stayed, and not to denigrate anybody working on the thing, but it was just real average, and then all of a sudden, these Sienkiewicz covers just start popping up. You're like, “this has no right to be here. It is not appropriate for this level of artistry to be on this book right now,” but man, they are good, and then he's off, and it goes just right back down to mediocrity for the rest of it. I love It.


[51:04] John: I remember talking to Ralph Macchio, who appears on one of those covers—Sienkiewicz paints him on one of those covers—about the number of comics that I think Ralph was either directly or indirectly responsible to tricking me into buying, because Sienkiewicz did covers. On one hand you could start with Transformers #1, but remember the Starriors series? He did U.S.1. It’s him or Michael Golden doing U.S.1 covers, and it was definitely Ralph saying “yeah, we were trying to trick people into buying the comic.”


[51:39] David: Todd, you've worked on a ton of stuff. Another fanboy question—Is there a Mount Rushmore of characters that you haven't got to play with yet? Is there anybody up there that you're like, “man, I really want to still want to sink my teeth into that”?


[51:54] Todd: Yeah. Fortunately, I've gotten to at least draw almost everyone I'd want to draw on a cover, at the very least. As far as getting to tell a story, and play with the character, and really make them move on the page, emote, and have an adventure, I'd say the Fantastic Four are up there, for me. She-Hulk, and oddly enough, Power Pack. In fact, when Power Pack had their miniseries, I contacted Marvel saying, “if you have any room for any other variant covers, I'd love to do one. I'm a huge Power Pack fan. I've read the series two or three times. I'm a big Louise Simonson fan, and fortunately, they had an issue for me to hop in on, and […] Mohawk Storm. So, it's double win, and plus, the Brood and Snarks. This is 1985 Todd Nauck’s dream come true to get to draw this image, but it’d just be so much fun to do a Power Pack story, written by Louise Simonson. I would have so much fun with that.


[52:46] John: First time anybody ever called me old was when I posted on Twitter about how I liked Mohawk Storm, and somebody's like, “all you old guys like Mohawk Storm.”


[52:56] Todd: Oh, my God. Well, I'm right there. I am an old guy. I mean, I'm from the late-1900s. So, it's like, “yeah, of course, we’re old.” That's okay. I mean, 80s was an awesome decade. I feel bad for people who didn't get to experience that.


[53:10] David: You did a lot of covers, you're doing the one-shot with Waid, and Gerard Way, but do you think you still have it in you, or do you have any desire still to do a big run? Maybe not a Young Justice-level run, but do you think you have another couple of big runs in you?


[53:27] Todd: I would hope so.


[53:28] David: Drawing is a physically demanding job.


[53:30] Todd: It is, yes. I'm hoping my health allows me to continue to draw, that the eyesight stays sharp enough, and arthritis doesn't overtake me, or anything like that. Hopefully, I'm still years, and maybe even decades, if I can hope—I’m a big hoper--that I can still continue to draw. Like I said, I don't know how to do anything else, but I'd still love to work. So, mostly, I've been doing miniseries and one-shots. So, I did some work on--I did a run on Amazing Spider-Man with Ed McGuinness last year. So, that was fun tag-teaming with him, but as far as getting the chance to do something that's a regular monthly title, I would definitely be down for that. I don't know if I could do it in a Young Justice fashion, where I can be there, every issue, for five years on end. I might be able to do 4-6 issues. Let's have a fill-in artist, while I can get a jump on the next batch. So, I can really take the time to--really, I'm all about wanting to savor anything and everything I get to draw, really enjoy it. Instead of just scarfing it up, I really want to enjoy the fine meal it is than just scarf it down like fast food.


[54:32] David: Cool. That makes perfect sense.


[54:34] Todd: I mean, I love drawing comics. So, any chance I get, any opportunity--So, the Deadpool thing, the New History of the DC Universe--it's always a thrill to get those opportunities to play with characters, and I've now gotten spoiled, to a point where I enjoy bouncing from character to character, because it keeps it fresh and new, for me. So, it's like, “a Deadpool story? Great. Oh, I can do a Flash story? Sounds good. Oh, a Fantastic Four 2-issue miniseries? That would be really cool. Let's go with it.” So, to switch from character to character is real fun for me. It keeps it really fresh.


[55:01] David: Yeah, I guess that's more the question. Which mode of operation do you prefer? The bouncing around, or do you like really being able to dig in, and tell a long-form story?


[55:11] Todd: I'm a huge Nightcrawler fan. He's one of my favorite X-Men, and getting to do that series with Chris Claremont, I did not want to miss a single issue, because it was such a dream project, and I had such a deep passion and care for the character. I wanted to be there for every issue. So, I did everything I could to make sure we didn't have to have a fill-in artist, because I wanted to be there for every issue. So, if it’s a character that's just very near and dear to my heart, then I want to be there, for me, because I don't want to see someone that’s like, “they got to draw Young Justice go to the Olympics or the Summer Australia Games. I wanted to draw that,” but […] did an awesome job. Good for you, but man, I wanted to do that. So, there's that fear of missing out. So, if I got to do that Louise Simonson Power Pack story, I'm going to be there for every issue, as best I can. If we do it for two years, I'm going to do my best to be there for every issue, because of the opportunity, a creator that I love their work so much, characters that I really care about, that tap into my discovery of the Marvel Universe as a teenager.


[56:14] David: Fantastic. John, I feel satisfied. I feel like I've got a full heaping helping of Todd Nauck.


[56:21] John: Just to throw this in there, for listeners, speaking of Young Justice, there's a GoFundMe for Peter David up right now. He’s having health issues for a number of years, and has been dropped by Medicaid. If you Google GoFundMe Peter David, it'll get you right to it. Not to bring things down, but just figured, we talked about him enough here. We should probably throw that out there.


[56:40] Todd: Yeah, Peter David's an amazing guy, an amazing creator, obviously, and getting to work with him--he's the writer I've worked with the most. We've done 71 comics, I think, together, between Young Justice, SpyBoy--the Young Justice/SpyBoy Crossover, I should say, was the only part I was involved with--Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and X-Men Legends--the two issues of X-Men Legends we did together. I think that comes out to 71-plus comics we've done together. He's the one that got me into Marvel. I was not on Marvel's radar in the early-2000s, and when Mike Wieringo left the book, he said, “I want Todd Nauck,” and they were willing to take a shot on me, at the time, and convinced them that “give this Young Justice artist guy a try,” and that started my career at Marvel in 2006, and I'm very thankful for that, because he was a champion, for me. So, yeah, it's been heartbreaking to hear about his health issues. Anything anyone can do, if you've enjoyed his comics, the best way to support him now is to help him with his health. It's just $10. If you’ve got $10 you can float that way, it can go a long way, and really help him, his wife, his daughters out in this really difficult time that's been going on for the past few years, and he's had several GoFundMe's, and now with Medicaid being gone, has put the stress at a much higher level, I guess, if I could take the liberty to use that word. Thanks for bringing that up, John. I do appreciate that, and I'm sure the David family appreciate that, as well.


[57:57] John: If we get a third listener, they'll appreciate it even more. Thank you very much for joining us. It's a pleasure to talk to you, as always. Look forward to the next thing we get to do together.


[58:05] Todd: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Had a great time. It's fun to just talk comics, and geek out on the stuff that we enjoy, and thanks for enjoying my work. I really appreciate that, and maybe next time, you can have me back on, and we can get the Captain Carrot stuff going.


[58:18] David: At the very least, we have to have you back on, so you can confirm that I own the 2 pages of original art where Batman becomes a member of the Zoo Crew. I just need everyone to know that those pages are in my possession, and you will have to pry them from my cold, dead hands, because quite possibly, one of my all-time super favorite pieces of art that I own.

 

[58:43] John: That's displayed in the back seat of your Spawn Mobile, right?


[58:47] David: I didn't buy the Spawn Mobile, John. This was great. I had a great time. Appreciate you coming on. We definitely hope we can have you back again sometime soon.


[58:56] Todd: Thank you.


[58:57] John: And we'll be back next week with more of something at The Corner Box.


[59:02] David: Yeah. Thanks. Bye, everybody. We should hit record now.


[59:05] John: Yes.


Thanks for joining us, and please subscribe, rate, and tell your friends about us. You can find updates, and links at www.thecornerbox.club, and we’ll be back next week with more from David, and John, here at The Corner Box.