The moment I saw this for sale, which is the pen ultimate chapter in the Judas contract story by Marv, Wolfman and George Perez, I knew I had to take my shot. Never any shade on the legendary Artist, God rest his soul, but I always felt the original cover revealed too much about the interior story. It was more than just a chapter in a comic book plot; it was the transition from sidekick to hero for Dick, Grayson, shedding the role of Robin to become Nightwing. To that end, I felt that it should've been a teaser image that didn't reveal too much and yet drew the viewer or reader to the book. I decided to go with my gut and try my luck at such an image. Here you have the silhouette of the main antagonist, Deathstroke, and in the foreground you have a blue, yellow and black garbed figure doing an acrobatic move in that silhouette. I deliberately left the facial features blank because, again, it would've given away too much because this is a very unique look that you don't really associate at first with Dick Grayson. The lack of detail on the black areas of the costume I borrowed from how Ethan Van Sciver drew Green Lantern. Without that added detail, the eye is instantly drawn to the blue and yellow. But since I still needed to show the angle of the figure, a white outline was needed. And finally, almost completely by accident, I stumbled on the idea of making the yellow background a sunset instead. The deep reddish orange at the bottom could symbolize the blood on Slade Wilson's hands. I'm very proud of this piece in the execution as well as how long it took me to complete it. Nightwing is one of my favorite characters and this is the first time that I've ever drawn this costume. While I'm not a big fan of the first suit, it was an interesting experiment sketching it in this way for this cover. Expect the cover to be put up for sale within 24 hours In my "arch for sale" gallery.
