Super Heroes #1 variant cover

Hello and welcome!

If you watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on Sunday, February 21 starring KISS as they joined the EM:HE team to help out the Wagstaff family, then you probably saw the art I created for their son, TJ.

TJ is an aspiring young artist. I was contacted by Marvel Comics to create an original piece of art featuring TJ alongside some of Marvel’s heavy-hitters: Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. This piece of original art was for TJ’s room along with lots of other cool Marvel stuff. But the art will also be used as a variant cover to the first issue of Marvel’ new all-ages series, Marvel Adventures Super Heroes coming out in April.

I have been a comic creator for the past 15+ years working for Marvel Comics and DC Comics. I’ve been the artist for such series as Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Teen Titans, Young Justice, and my creator-owned series WildGuard, to name a few. Most notably, I was the artist that drew the historic and top selling Spider-Man team-up with President Obama that ran in Amazing Spider-Man #583.

I am currently continuing my work with more Spider-Man projects like Spider-Man: Clone Saga and Web of Spider-Man. Read more about my career in the ABOUT section.

You can follow me on Twitter and my Facebook Fanpage to  get updates of my next comic book conventions and store appearances, and the upcoming comic book projects I am working on.

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Last weekend, I was taking it easy and started noodling on a sketch of Iron Man.I ended up drawing this shot by the time I had to move on with my day.

Last night I decided to throw some color on it via Photoshop.

I really like this Iron Man design.  It’s the armor I first saw him in as a kid in the mid1970’s. I had gotten a Slurpee cup with him on it. (I was pretty disappointed it wasn’t Spider-Man… the only Marvel Superhero I knew of at that time.) I had never heard of Iron Man. Didn’t know if he was a good guy or a bad guy. All I knew was, he looked scary. Crazy scary!

I hated that cup. But loved the delicious Slurpee inside. I would drink it with the image of Iron Man turned away from me so I wouldn’t have to look at that emotionless faceplate.

I remember seeing that cup days later at home. It was like a horrific image that I couldn’t stand to look at yet couldn’t turn away. The question running through my 5 year old mind… “Who are you, Iron Man?”

The cup disappeared (probably thrown away) and was never seen again (unfortunate, because now it’s a pretty sweet collector’s item. Been tempted to track one down for nostalgia’s sake).

Years later, I would rediscover Iron Man as a guest star on an episode of the 1980’s cartoon, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. I was now 11 years old and could handle a more “edgy” character. I got to learn who Iron Man was. The scary man was now quite cool. I’d soon get the Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars Iron Man action figure. That led to picking up the Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars comic book series (issues #7-9 in a 3-pack at Target), thus starting my passion for comic books.

Like I said, I really like this design. It’s retro but still holds up today. In my opinion, one of the best superhero designs in comics.

You can see the black-and-white pencil version on my DeviantArt page: http://toddnauck.deviantart.com/art/Iron-Man-pencil-sketch-135303759

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