Hawkworld #5, Page 19 Original Art

I figured since I made mention of the beautiful rendition of the Shadow-Thief in the pages of Hawkworld by Graham Nolan and Rick Burchett on the last post, I should give everyone an example of what I meant.  And since I do so love black and white art, I thought this inked page would be a perfect showcase.

The page in question comes from Hawkworld #5, during which the Hawks are split up in space, with Shayera piloting the control module of their spaceship to battle a heavy Thanagarian freighter, while Katar tangles with the Shadow-Thief on the main portion.  All of the blacks on this page are fantastic, and there is a lot of them, from the starfield to the Shadow-Thief himself to the shilouettes in the final panel.  Nolan's pencils are pretty tight, showing nice proportions and anatomy -- except, of course, for the Thief!  The third panel, where Shadow-Thief draws his katana to attack Hawkman, is marvelous in the contrast between the realistic look of Katar and the ship and then the flat, elongated body of the Thief.  

I suspect that a lot of my appreciation for the Shadow-Thief comes from his look, which has always appealed to me.  On top of that I also like how his powers -- not being able to be touched -- make him a good foil for heroes who tend to use hand-to-hand weapons.  The Post-Crisis revamp of him which goes down in Hawkworld is subtle but effective, making him an industrial spy and ninja, and giving him some combat skills to make him more of a physical threat.  

In any event this page looks amazing.  I've never bought original art pages before, because money, but this is a nice example which would look sharp framed up in my bonus room.

Disclaimer: I do not own or have possession of this art.  I am simply re-posting it from the site indicated below.
 
Image: Hawkworld #5, page 19, 1990, Graham Nolan and Rick Burchett, image obtained from Romitaman.com.