NIGHTWING #80 pg. 22 by Bruno Redondo -1st App: Heartless

NIGHTWING #80 pg. 22
by Bruno Redondo
Written by Tom Taylor
First Appearance of Heartless
Digital Screen Print, edition of 1
Signed verso and includes C.O.A.
Not For Sale

Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo had previously collaborated on DC's Injustice and Suicide Squad - both of which earned accolades, but on Nightwing they caught the zeitgeist and won multiple Eisner Awards to boot. 

Taylor retconned Dick Grayson's origin story not by changing it but by expanding it. Every great hero needs a great villain and Heartless is to Bludhaven what the Joker is to Gotham. Heartless is an organized crime boss and serial killer who preys upon street kids, runaways, and orphans - which hits home for Dick Grayson. 

This page is the first full view of Heartless, who appears only partially in a couple of panels prior within this same issue, and this Splash page is beautifully composed as powerful reveal. 

Bruno Redondo had transitioned from analog to digital illustration back on hid fan favorite Suicide Squad run, and so this unique digital proof was created with a digital silk screen process that still very much bears the creative control of the artist, preserving archival inks on high quality art board that has the texture and depth of a handmade drawing.