Nightwing 21 page 5 splash by Scott McDaniel & Karl Story

A fantastic splash page of Nightwing by Scott McDaniel and Karl Story.

Incidentally, my first McDaniel piece even though I have been enjoying his art since the Daredevil days.

To me, when/if done right, Nightwing is basically DC’s version of Spider-Man.

I read the first regular serie penned by Dixon then Devin Grayson late (in 2014). I had heard many good things about it and they were right. Great character driven writing by Dixon and splendid art by McDaniel whose art really exploded on this serie and later stellar contribution from Rick Leonardi.

I have been longing for a representative piece of that initial run ever since. I was mainly thinking about a commission or maybe a nice published example but those were long gone.

Then this splash popped from CAF to ebay and I bought it.

It’s close to perfection imho in the sense it has everything you would want when you think about McDaniel’s Nightwing. You have a very athletic Nightwing diving from the Blüdhaven tops to the ground, fearless and enjoying himself (another trait that is essential to the character). McDaniel was one of the first artists who really incorporated his gymnast background in his body language. You have that here as well with the spread legs and slick musculature. The crazy perspective was also a trademark of the serie. Check here with a circular composition to boost. And then the flying bats that followed McDaniel on his Batman run. Check!

And let’s not forget the incredibly slick inks of Karl Story.

Very happy with this one and many thanks to Kelly for this one ;)