Before the con, I took some time to try drawing them to get a feel for how they look. I gave them these two art pieces (that I have put together as one image) as gifts during our meeting at the Marvel booth. They were very sweet and excited to see themselves draw in a superhero style. We had a great time.

The sketch session is up on the WWE site now and posted below.
Nikki and Brie also interviewed me for the Marvel website. I’ll post that link as soon as it goes up.

I have the honor of sharing my table with one of my best pals in the industry, Marvel’s superstar inker/writer, Andy Lanning! He’ll take over my table for an hour or two each day of the con. He’ll have lotsa cool art for sale and may whip up a few commissions as well. So bring your Nova, Guadrians of the Galaxy, and War/Realm of Kings comics to get signed!

I plan on doing my traditional 7.5″x10″ head/bust shots. And I am also going to take a limited number of 9″x12″ figure commissions. Not sure how many of the figure ones I can do during the con, so be sure to hit my table early and see if you can get on the list.

I’m also appearing at the Marvel Booth #2329 for signings, Thursday, July 22, 10 – 11 AM and Sunday, July 25, 10 – 11 AM.

See you at San Diego Comic-Con!

ROM: Space Knight

A few years later, I discovered Marvel had put out a comic series about ROM. I only had a couple of issues that I had gotten when I purchased my friend’s collection (an event that more than doubled my collection that I call the Great 10th Grade Comic Acquisition). I read and re-read those few issues multiple times.

I don’t recall who drew the issues I had. But I did have ROM annual #3, one of the last ROM comics. It guest starred The New Mutants which was becoming one of my favorite comic series. And I loved this Bill Sienkiewicz cover.

Just recently, while perusing my Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, I came across the ROM entry. I remembered reading the comic and being inspired by the art and concept. So I decided to try my hand at drawing ROM. He has a pretty simplistic design. The fun really comes in playing with the metallic textures.

I don’t know who owns the license, but it would be kinda cool to see ROM re-enter the Marvel Universe… Assuming there was a big enough demand for that sort of thing.

This piece was draw with black, red, and silver Sharpie on cardboard.

Also posted on my Deviant Art page and my Facebook Fan Page.

But in the early 1980’s, NBC added Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends to their Saturday morning line-up… Spidey’s amazing friends being Iceman form the original team of X-Men and a brand new character created for the show, Firestar. This show really introduced me to Marvel Universe. It guest starred characters like Captain America, Sub Mariner, Iron Man, and Dr. Strange.

My favorite 2 episodes were the ones where Iceman, and then Firestar, reunited with the X-Men. That was the first time I had heard about the X-Men and they blew me away. It wasn’t long after seeing them in those cartoons that I started reading Marvel Comics to discover more about all of these characters.

In fact, the first issue of my Uncanny X-Men subscription was issue #193. This was the issue that introduced Firestar into the Marvel Universe. She later showed up in 1990’s New Warriors. I really enjoyed the first 25 issues of that series. I lost touch with her as she joined the Avengers in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s. But now she is back in the new series, Young Allies. I think that comic comes out today. So I’m gonna check it out and see what this character is up to.

I’ll be at the Phoenix Comicon this May 27-30.

This show is doing an art auction and I’m working on a piece to contribute. My thanks to my former Teen Titans Go collaborator, J. Torres, for the idea of drawing the X-Men’s Phoenix. Here is the penciled sketch.

Working on the inks right now. I’ll add that pic as soon as it’s done!

I was asked to provide a piece of art for the convention’s art auction. So I decided to do a piece filled with characters I do not usually get to draw. I’ve been getting a lot of Deadpool requests at the cons I’ve been attending this past year. So I thought I’d do up a big shot of him and add in handful of X-Men. The theme I’ve gone with here is “Slice and Shoot”. Every character in this shot is known for wielding some sort of blade, shooting something, or both.

I had a complete blast drawing this piece! And I look forward seeing a whole new crop of fans (as well as others I’ve had the pleasure of meeting at neighboring shows) at Heroes Con 2010.

See the penciled version on my Deviant Art page. And keep up to date with projects/appearance on the Todd Nauck Fan Page on Facebook.

I keep getting nostalgic for the 1980’s. I really liked her all-black body suit with some 80’s fashions thrown on top. Like X-Men meets Flashdance/Valley Girl.

When I first encountered Rogue in Secret Wars, I thought she was a pretty uninteresting character. The I started reading X-Men and she started to round out. When she absorbed Colossus and Nightcrawler’s powers and took on their features as well, she looked so cool. And by the time she was in the Australian Outback team of X-Men, I was a full fledged fan. (And Marc Silvestri’s art didn’t hurt either!)

This piece drawn with pencil, Pigma/Micron and Copic Markers on Bristol board.

See this piece on my Deviant Art page and Facebook FanPage.

I remember first seeing Spider-Woman on the ABC Saturday morning cartoon as a kid. She kind of confused me. I could tell she was a Marvel character. But her cartoon being on ABC threw me.

All Marvel super hero cartoons were on NBC: Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. So why was she on ABC? Is she NOT a Marvel character? Her costume doesn’t look like Spider-Man’s (going off the assumption the female version had to match the male version like DC’s Superman/Supergirl and Batman/Batgirl). This frustrated me and my young understandings of the superhero motifs.

So I didn’t watch much of her cartoon. But she did intrigue me. She flew instead of shooting webs. She shot spider-stings instead to subdue her opponents. And, again, back to frustration…

Glad to see she has a more pivotal role in the Marvel Universe. I do like how simple and strong her design in is. I don’t think she could ever benefit from a redesign.

View this piece on my DeviantArt and Facebook FanPage.