As a kid I always loved superheroes. Superfriends being a favorite cartoon.

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.

Here’s the inked version of the Phoenix Comicon auction piece I’ve created.

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

I will be appearing at the Phoenix Comic Con this May 27-30. This is a great show that just keeps growing!

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’m attending Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC for the very first time this June 4-6. I’ve heard so many great things about this show, I’m glad to finally be able to attend and meet everyone.

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.

This the original character design I did of Cassie Sandsmark the second Wonder Girl for Teen Titans Go #54.

We went for a younger, spunkier type of Wonder Girl for TTG.

I was unfortunately not able to draw the issue she appeared in (though we were able to work her into our last issue, #55, so i could get a chance to draw her in action).

Wish we got to do more with her!

See the color version on my Deviant Art page.

I was flipping through my old Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe comics looking for reference the other day. I came across the Rogue entry. She was wearing this costume. It reminded me of how much I enjoyed the simpler look she had when I started reading X-Men as a kid.

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.

This is a piece I started sketching on during my warm up times. Then I started throwing on some inks. It’s fun to watch an image evolve just playing around with the lines and shapes a little bit at a time.

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.

I did this piece for a friend, Dann McN. I was in search of the elusive Vision action figure from the Marvel Universe 3.75″ line. He had an extra Vision figure he didn’t need. So we did a trade at the Long Beach Comic Expo one day show last month. Action figure for a piece of art. He requested Ms Marvel from the Dark Avengers series.

I really like how Marvel is incorporating classic costumes into the current universe. Like this 1970’s Ms. Marvel costume, now worn by the villainous Moonstone posing as Ms. Marvel on Norman “Green Goblin” Osborn’s Avengers team.

And my Vision action figure stands proudly amongst the other Marvel superheroes and villains I’ve collected on the shelf above my drafting table.

Pigma and Sharpie Marker on 6.5″x10″ art board.

Gotta say, I miss this costume Havok originally wore. I think his power signature with the circles play off the black suit in ways that are fun and challenging to draw.

Never understood the head ornamentation. But he made it his.

Havok was a part of my favorite team of X-Men back when I was in high school. The Outback X-Men team was Wolverine, Colossus (stuck in metal form), Havok, Longshot, Dazzler, Psylocke (pre-ninja), Rogue, and (the newly re-powered) Storm.

Maybe I’ll try to draw that team sometime.

See the inked version of Havok on my DeviantArt page and Facebook FanPage.