Hypable spoke with Todd Nauck, artist for the upcoming Mystery Science Theater 3000 comic, by and from superfans of the cult series.

It’s a great time to be a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan. In 2017 Netflix brought the classic sci-fi comedy (called MST3K for short) back in the form of MST3K: The Return, hosted by Jonah Ray of Nerdist and Hidden America fame. A long time “MSTie” himself, Ray was the perfect successor to take over hosting duties from previous hosts Joel Hodgson and Mike Nelson.

The format of the show stayed the same, a hapless guy (Ray) and his two robots (Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo voiced by Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn respectively) are forced to watch cheesy movies by mad scientists (this time around played by Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt.) The result is rapid fire wisecracks being thrown at the worst of the worst cinema has to offer.

The 12-episode season 11 Netflix run will lead into season 12, premiering this year on Mystery Science Theater 3000’s spiritual birthday, Thanksgiving Day. Should you choose to leave the comfort of your home for your riffing needs, the second MST3K Live tour kicked off in Portland, Maine on October 9. The tour features Joel and Jonah riffing on The Brain and Deathstalker in front of live audiences.

All of that somehow not enough MST3K action for you? Dark Horse has recently published MST3K: The Comic Book. To translate the audible riffs to the printed page was a daunting task that Joel Hodgson and the team at Alternaversal took on. The solution? Inserting the cast of Mystery Science Theory 3000 into public domain comics with specialized word bubbles representing the added jokes. This clever idea keeps the comic easy on the eye leaving the reader with enough time to laugh at the latest issue of Tom Servo: Boy Detective.

The MST3K Live 30th Anniversary tour is underway and tickets are still available. Netflix and Shout Factory currently stream episodes of classic Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes and Netflix exclusively hosts MST3K: The Return, its second season (technically Season 12) premiering Thanksgiving Day.

Hypable sat down with comic book artist Todd Nauck to discuss his dream job working on the title.

Interview with Todd Nauck

Hypable: I’ve been a long time fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 since I was five. When did you start with the series?

Todd Nauck: When our cable company first offered Comedy Central back when I was in Dallas, TX in high school, it was March of 1992. They were into Season Four and I was surfing channels and came across First Spaceship to Venus, a season 3 episode they were re-running. I was like, oh cool, a cheesy sci-fi movie and then I started noticing the silhouettes and the jokes.

Do you have a favorite season?

I love all the seasons so much. The Joel era, season four is my favorite. The Mike Nelson era, season 8 was definitely my favorite. I loved the narrative of the host segments with them on the run. It gave you something to look forward to. It was like a serial, what was going to happen next? I’m really excited to see season 12. I got to go on set and watch them film a whole episode. My wife and I were just cracking up.

Do you have favorite episode of season 11?

I would probably say Avalanche. Just all the different ice skating moves they were naming off.

How did you get involved with MST3K: The Comic?

When I heard there was a possibility of a Dark Horse comic, I sent a blind email to Dark Horse on their contact page. I didn’t really know any of the editors. I sent the email hoping it would get into the right hands. In the meantime while season 11 premiered in Netflix, I made some fan art because I’m a huge fan. So I posted it and about a month later on twitter I get contacted by Dark Horse saying, ‘would you like to make some Mystery Science Theater 3000 comics?’ I come to find out, Joel Hodgson hand selected me based on my fan art! It’s a fanboy dream.

What is it like working with a mind like Joel’s?

What he’s come up with on how to riff comics I think is genius. He’s come up with something fresh and new and not stale just putting silhouettes at the bottom of each panel. What he’s come up with has blown me away. I got the first script and all the parts of the puzzle just came together.

When I saw there was going to be a comic I was like, how are they going to translate this visually? The small riffing bubbles were the perfect solution. Tell me about the production on your side. You handle the host segments and not the modified comic parts, correct?

Unfortunately I’d already signed on to do a Spider-Man mini series for Marvel, there was no way I could do both. For capturing that retro feel, that 1960s silver age feel, I didn’t think I could pull that off as well. Mike Manley is killing it, he’s made it seamless. Doing the host segments, the Moon 13, the Satellite of Love stuff, I felt was the right fit for me.

For the people that don’t know how comics are made, what is your process? You get the script and then what happens on your end?

I get the full script, I know what’s happening in each panel, I know the dialogue. I get stage direction and dialogue.

Do you get to give feedback if you see something that doesn’t work?

The process is very collaborative. Pretty much every writer I’ve worked with has been open to my suggestions. They know I have to handle the visual chores and know I’m going to bring in my expertise to that. What I love about comics is every artist has their own style. You give the same script to 10 different artists, you’re going to get 10 different interpretations. The writing is really tight, I knew exactly what needed to be drawn. Joel has been really complementary, which the fanboy in me and the pro in me really appreciates.

I’ll visualize [the panel] in my head, pick the right camera angles to allow where the word bubbles need to be, where the characters need to be and what the background needs to be to lead the reader’s eyes from panel one to panel two and so on. And then to keep it interesting and not make every shot the same size. You have close ups, far shots, see you have a lot of different sized images on the same page to keep the eye bouncing. I do the layout sketch, I send it off to Alternaversal for approval, if they need me to tweak anything I’ll go back and I’ll fix it. Once that’s all good, I’ll do the pencil art, then the ink art and then from there it gets sent off and I’m onto the next issue.

You do the inks as well. Do you do that digitally or by hand?

I do the layouts and pencils digitally. It’s really easy to make those corrections. When it comes to inks I prefer traditional. So I print out the pencils in non-photo blue, I do my inks over that. I just feel more confident in my traditional inks than I do in my digital inks.

Do you have any advice for anyone trying to get into the comics industry?

At age 14 I decided to try and make my own mini comic. I had so much fun creating that night, I knew this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. Then I just had to figure out how to do it. I was an ’80s kid, we didn’t have Internet, I lived in a tiny Texas town. There were no resources, I couldn’t just go online. A lot of it was reverse engineering comics, doing what they do. I just made tons of mini comics while in high school, then transitioned into art school. Just start making comics, have fun creating. You don’t have to be perfect.

MST3K: The Comic #1 is available now from Dark Horse Comics and at your local comic book retailer.