Invincible Universe Easter Eggs

Skybound.com: When we asked artist Todd Nauck if there were any Easter Eggs in the first 10 issues of INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE, imagine our surprise when he sent us this list! Now we’ll hand it off to Todd, who explains how it all began.

Todd Nauck: Back when I was a youngster dreaming of the day I’d break into drawing comics, I noticed Todd McFarlane would hide Felix the Cat in his issues of Amazing Spider-Man. Art Adams would do the same hiding Gumby in his X-Men comics. So that got me to thinking. What would I hide in my comics once I start working in the biz? I decided I’d hide Easter Eggs of my favorite TV show/obsession “Mystery Science Theater 3000”!

I’ve done this in almost every single comic I’ve drawn. There can be anywhere from as few as one to as many as 9-10 MST3K Easter Eggs in any given Todd Nauck comic. I hide other types of Easter Eggs as well: family and friends, references to other TV shows, favorite bands, etc

Here’s a list of the Easter Eggs I’ve hidden throughout my run on Invincible Universe:

Issue 1, Page 7, Panel 1: The child drawing was done by my wife left handed.
Issue 1, Page 12, Panel 4: MST on screen.
Issue 1, Page 13, Panel 5: MST3K on tablet screen.
Issue 1, Page 15, Panel 4: MST on screen behind Robot.

Issue 2, Page 20Issue 2, Page 13, Panel 4: MST on screen
Issue 2, Page 20:
a Hobgoblin doll from the MST3K episode “Hobgoblins” wearing an MST3K t-shirt
a Chevron Gasoline character car
a “Serenity by Jan” candle from NBC’s The Office
a shamrock keychain which was the gift Jim Halpert ended up with in The Office Season 2 episode “Christmas Party”
a NYC snowglobe in honor of the movie ELF
a Science Dog doll
the kids drawings were done by my nieces and nephews
the thumbprint bunny picture was from a craft I did at age 4.

Issue 3, Page 7, Panel 4: Gypsum bran Slivovitz is a nod to the purple robot, Gypsy from Mystery Science theater 3000. She was occasionally called “Gypsum”.
Issue 3, Page 9, Panel 2: MST on a box of cereal behind El Chupacabra.

Issue 4, Page 1: MST on box to the right of Ms. Popper.
Issue 4, Page 2, Panel 2: Bar sign reads “Nelson” (mostly) as in MST3K host Mike Nelson.

Issue 5, Page 2, Panel 1: Protester sign on left of panel has MST in stacked letters on it.
Issue 5, Page 4: Our gorilla controlling bad guy was inspired by McLovin from Superbad.
Issue 5, Page 6, Panel 1: Protester sign on left of panel has MST in stacked letters on it.
Issue 5, Page 7, Panel 2: MST is spread out over 2-3 protester signs in middle of the panel.

Issue 6, Page 13

Issue 6, Page 13, Panel 1: Shapesmith take on the form of a Godzilla-like creature

Issue 6, Page 13, Panel 5: The robot heads of MST3K’s Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot sit amongst the disassembled machine parts. Crow’s head is just to the right of Hunter’s word balloon. Tom Servo’s head is just below the right corner of panel 4.

Issue 7, Page 8

Issue 7, Page 8, Panel 3: The French restaurant “Chez Quirquemanne” was all Phil Hester’s idea. Took me a bit to realize “Quirquemanne” was “Kirkman”!
Issue 7, Page 9, Panel 1: The “M” in the MST on the dumpster was cut off.
Issue 7, Page12: The thug in the green t-shirt is my version of a grown up Bobby Hill (from the cartoon King of the Hill) who made too many wrong choices in life.
Issue 7, Page 20: MST on the chamber Salamander is emerging from, just to the left of him.

Issue 8, Page 10, Panel 2: MST3 on crate behind Claire Voyant.

Issue 9, Page 6, Panel 1: MST on blueprints.
Issue 9, Page 9, Panel 1: Graffiti reading “Olhos Vermelhos” is Portuguese for “Red Eye”.
Issue 9, Page 19, Panel 1: MST3K on corner of the dumpster.

Issue 10, Page 1: I’m sure people caught our nod to Spidey’s Daily Bugle staff: Parker, Brant and Jameson.
Issue 10, Page 3, Panel 4: CAPES artist Mark Englert and wife attend the wedding.
Issue 10, Page 5, Panel 1: Knockout uses MST face cream.
Issue 10, Page 6, Panel 1: Knockout also drinks Dr. Z bottled water. My shout out to MST3K episode “The Blood Waters of Dr. Z”.
Issue 10, Page 7, Panel 1: Former Skybound editor, Sina Grace, attends the wedding. And my former Young justice inker, Lary Stucker tends the bar.
Issue 10, Page 9, Panel 3: Invincible Universe colorist, Gabe Eltaeb and family attend the wedding.
Issue 10, Page 10, Panel 1: Invincible Universe editor, Sean Mackiewicz and his wife attend the wedding.
Issue 10, Page 11, Panel 1: Super Dinosaur artist, Jason Howard and his wife attend the wedding.
Issue 10, Page 14, Panel 1: McLargehuge Supply is a nod to the main character from the MST3K episode “Space Mutiny”. Bix Dugan Diner is a reference to the MST3K episode “The Girl In Lover’s Lane”. There’s an MST3K poster on the window. And my creator owned comic series, WildGuard, has an ad on the newspaper vending box.
Issue 10, Page 16, Panel 1: My wife, Dawn, and I attend the wedding. We’re at the right side of the panel.