Tuesday, June 3, 2014

ARTIST INTERVIEW: Todd Nauck at Long Beach Comic Expo 5/31

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1. When did you decide to become a comic book artist?

I was fourteen years old when I realized that I wanted to become a comic book artist. I'd a grown up always wanting to draw even as a kid. In 8th grade I started collecting comic books starting with Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars and X-Men. A year later, as a freshman in high school, I tried making my own comic book by folding some printer paper in half and writing and drawing my own characters and it was so much fun I realize that night that that was what I wanted to do for a career. So I taught myself how to draw comics and how to get good enough at it to get a job.

2. You tried raising awareness for child hunger with Spider-Man And The Avengers #1. How did you chose a charity?

Well, I wasn't aware of the cause originally. The cause was teamed up with William-Sonoma to do the comic. Of course, William-Sonoma was putting out Marvel-licensed products at the time. So William-Sonoma/Marvel and No Child Hungry had gotten together and came up with this project and I was approached to draw this one-shot comic. That was my first exposure to it [No Child Hungry] and I learned more about it and joined the website. I think it's great and I was happy to help as much as I could.  I appreciate that I could find out more about the cause when I might not have previously.

3. You've drawn many notable characters in your career. What's one character you'd love to have the chance to draw professionally?

For me, I'd say Booster Gold. I'm a huge Booster Gold fan and I'd loved the Blue Beetle/Booster Gold stories from Justice League International.  It was some of my favorite stuff growing up. I think he's just a really fun character and I like that kind of action/adventure stuff that those characters would bring. So, yeah,  a Blue Beetle/Booster Gold type of book would be a lot of fun to do. I would say X-Men, but I'm doing an X-Men book now so I have to go with my number two.

4. Can you tell KSR readers what you're working on now and what's next?

As I mentioned, I'm doing an X-Men book now, drawing the new Nightcrawler series. It's a new series written by legendary X-Men writer Chris Claremont, who I grew up reading as a kid, so it's really exciting to be working with such a legend in one of my favorite X-Men characters.
Nightcrawler is back from the dead and he's back in the Marvel Universe learning how to navigate the new X-Men universe as they've changed with Cyclops and Wolverine having two competing schools and ideology, but still capturing that fun, excitement and swashbuckling adventure that Nightcrawler is known for. So it plays on the classic X-Men motifs as well as dealing with the current that the X-Men are having.
That's my current project for the foreseeable future.

5. Would you like to continue with the reality show theme with characters other than your original Image comic Wildguard?

If I were to do another reality themed comic I probably would continue with the adventures with Wildguard, but there were other characters I created in Wildguard I would tell non-reality TV type stories with, so there are other charactersv that didn't make the team I would like to try things with. I don't think I can see myself doing another reality TV comic that would be different from Wildguard.

6. If it were possible in real life, which superheroes and villains would you like to see in a Big Brother or Real World type of reality show?

Justice League International. Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Fire, Ice, Guy Gardner. They were such a mix of personalities in that comic back in the day that I think they would pay well in a Big Brother type of TV show because there's always that kind of mix of personalities on that show to begin with. You know, the nice guy, the jerk...so I think that group would work well.

7. Thank you for participating in the interview! Can you please leave the readers with three things that may surprise them about you?

Let's see...I'm a huge Charles In Charge fan! I have all five seasons on DVD and I listen to them all the tone while I draw. Who knows how many times I've gone through the series but I'm about to finish season four...again!
My work area is incredibly dusty. I work so much and I let stuff pile up so much around me. Stack of comics, action figures and art are all around my work station that it's too hard to get through the layers of dusty I let accumulate!
I don't think I can think of a third thing! The Charles In Charge is a big one, though!

Find Todd Nauck online via:

Official site

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Deviantart

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Facebook (LIKE page)

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