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Im a Legion of Superheroes fanatic. I first
became familiar with Todd Naucks work from the
fill-ins he did for Legion. I was very impressed
with his work there. I was reading Impulse and
because of that, my comic shop owner threw Young
Justice in our subscription box. Boy, am I ever glad
he did! Its a cute series and Naucks work is
downright gorgeous. I met Todd Nauck at San Diego
Comic Con in 1998. I spent some time talking to him
while he drew a sketch of Impulse for me. I kept
thinking he would be very interesting to interview,
but I never saw an interview with him. So, when I
heard he was going to be at the Dallas Toy Fest, and
that I was going to be able to attend it, I started
making plans to ask him for an interview. He was nice
enough to let me interview him thirty minutes before
the con started Sunday, and so without any further
adieu, here it is:
Sidra:
How did you become interested in art?
Todd Nauck:
I was pretty much born with an interest.
My earliest memories are of drawing, and its just
something thats come naturally to me.
Sidra:
Did you have any formal art training?
Todd Nauck:
Yes, I took art courses through elementary
school and high school. I attended the Art Institute
of Dallas, graduating in 1992. I started pursuing
comics after that.
Sidra:
When did you first become interested in
comicbooks?
Todd Nauck:
When I first became really interested, I
was in eighth grade and I started with buying a three
pack of Secret Wars comics from Target. It
snowballed from there.
Sidra:
When you were a kid did you ever think you
would grow up to be a comicbook artist?
Todd Nauck:
Well, kids want to be all sorts of things
growing up, but it wasnt until I started high school,
a year after I started collecting comics, that I
decided I wanted to be a comicbook artist. And Ive
wanted to ever since.
Sidra:
How did you get started in the comicbook
industry?
Todd Nauck:
I made some ashcans, homemade mini
comicbooks, of my own creator owned characters, and a
college buddy of mine showed them to Dan Fraga from
Extreme Studios at a Houston comicbook convention. He
liked them, and took them back and showed them to Rob
Liefeld, who liked them. They hired me off of seeing
those. I had no idea my buddy had done this until I
got a call from Extreme the following week asking me
to do some work for them. They hired me to do a
series for them and I moved out to California to work
in their studio. That got me solidified in the
professional side of the business.
Sidra:
People tend to villainize Rob Liefeld. What do
you think of him and what to you think of their
villianization of him?
Todd Nauck:
Well, what I personally think of Rob
Liefeld, he gave me a break when I was just a year out
of college and still had a lot to learn about comics.
He was letting me do comics for him. I guess I had
enough skills to work professionally, but I felt I had
a lot to learn. I got to do a lot of learning and
cutting my teeth on his characters, his books, and
then he paid me really well for it. This was still in
the time when comics were doing really well and so I
got paid well for as young of an artist as I was at
the time. Unfortunately, the industry is not doing as
well as it was in the early nineties, but thats okay.
So, I cant fault the guy because he gave me a break.
He gave a lot of young artists a break, and paid them
well. Ive heard a lot of stories about how people
have villianized him. All Ive heard are rumors, and
I cant really comment on or act on rumors. Just from
what Ive experienced, hes been good to me.
Sidra:
How did you get your jobs doing fill-ins for
Legion of Superheroes?
Todd Nauck:
Well, after working for Extreme for a couple of
years, I started sending out my samples to Marvel and
DC. The DC offices liked what I was doing. I was a
big fan of Impulse, and I was sending in Impulse
sample pages. Since Impulse and the Legion are both
teenagers, the editor thought my work would look good
on Legion and they started me off working on doing
those. Those were my first DC pieces.
Sidra:
What did you think of having to draw that many
characters?
Todd Nauck:
I like drawing team books. Thats what I
did at Extreme drawing The New Men, New Force, and
doing fill-ins on Youngblood and Team Youngblood. Im
not afraid of them. X-men was one of my favorite
comics growing up. I liked the team interaction. I
like lots of different characters. So, I think it
would almost be too difficult to draw a solo
character. I like drawing the team books.
Sidra:
How did you start working on Young Justice?
Todd Nauck:
Thats kind of an interesting story. When
I was sending out my samples, they were considering
several different artists for Young Justice. I didnt
know this at the time, but I was one of five artists
that they were considering for Young Justice. The
current writer of Young Justice at the time, Todd
Dezago, was also the Sensational Spiderman writer. He
liked my work enough to ask me to do a couple of
fill-ins with him for Michael Wieringo, who was the
current artist on that book. So I did two issues of
Sensational Spiderman. When the editor of Young
Justice was talking with Todd and Todd showed him
those Spiderman pages, that cinched me for the job of
Young Justice. He liked my work on Spiderman, and
that put me over the top. He called me up and said,
"We saw your Spiderman work we want you to do Young
Justice." I was all for it.
Sidra:
Were you reading any of the characters books
before they became members of Young Justice?
Todd Nauck:
Oh yes, I was a big Impulse fan, and also
a big Flash Fan where Impulse first appeared. So, I
was there right when Impulse first showed up. When
he first got his regular series, I was there with
issue one. Im a big Humberto Ramos fan, and a big
Impulse fan. That was the first draw to Young
Justice, because Id get to draw Impulse. Then
Superboy I enjoyed on a semi-regular basis. I didnt
really collect his series, but I was familiar with him
and I liked the character. Robin I didnt think much
of, but after working on Young Justice Ive become a
big Robin fan.
Sidra:
What do you like best about working on Young
Justice?
Todd Nauck:
Id have to say working with Peter David,
whos a cool writer. He writes really fun stories,
and puts in plenty of information for me to be able to
convey the story visually, but is easy-going enough to
let me change things or add my own things to the
story. My own personal takes to the story: whatever I
feel needs to be done. The editor is incredibly nice,
constructive in his criticism, and has helped me to
grow in my art. And the characters are a lot of fun.
Plus, being able to start a series from issue one for a
company like DC is a real honor.
Sidra:
What is the most difficult part of drawing for
you?
Todd Nauck:
The most difficult part of drawing? Id say
horses. I hate drawing horses, and many other
animals, but thats just one of my weak areas. The
most difficult part of drawing is kind of hard to say.
I grew up with a love for drawing. Its something
Ive always wanted to do. Its almost like breathing.
I cant not draw. If Im not drawing for work, Im
drawing for pleasure, for my own fun. So I dont
really see it as difficult. I guess the most
difficult thing would be tight deadlines.
Sidra:
Do you have a favorite character in Young
Justice that you like to draw the most?
Todd Nauck:
Like I said, Impulse was my favorite one
to read and Robin was my least favorite. So, I
focused a lot of attention on Robin at the beginning
because I was so unfamiliar with the character. In my
focusing so much on him, I started reading his regular
series and then Peter Davids take on him. I really
started to grow fond of the Robin character and he
quickly became my favorite, as well as Wonder Girl.
Sidra:
What title has been your favorite comicbook?
Todd Nauck:
Overall, Id say the Giffen Justice
League: JLA, JLE, JLI, Ambush Bug, and Power Pack.
Im one of those Power Pack people.
Sidra:
If you could work with anyone in the comicbook
industry, who would it be and why?
Todd Nauck:
Its unfortunate that Todd Dezago was not
able to write the Young Justice series. He started out
Young Justice: The Secret, and JLA: World Without
Grownups, but was unable to do the regular series.
Thats when Peter David came in. So, I was really
excited to work with Todd, because he did some vicious
Spiderman Five. Hes doing Tellos now. Hes a really
fun writer. I really like the way he approaches the
characters. I like his work on Impulse. Id like to
get another shot to work with him. Hes a really nice
guy.
Sidra:
One more question, what do you want to work on
next?
Todd Nauck:
Id like to work on Superman next, and
fortunately with the Young Justice editor being the
Superman editor, I hope to have a shot at that here
somewhere in the next couple of years. Hopefully, in
the not too distant future.
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