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David Nakayama
Nakayama at the City of Heroes Panel at the Comic-Con 2010
Born (1978-08-15) August 15, 1978 (age 46)
Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
http://www.davidnakayama.com/

David Nakayama (born August 15, 1978) is an American concept artist and comic book artist. After contributed editorial cartoons and comic strips to the school newspaper at Washington University, he studied at the Joe Kubert School under Adam Kubert and Andy Kubert, before breaking into the industyr at Top Cow Productions, with books including Proximity Effect, Witchblade, and City of Heroes. He went on to produce work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, where he has illustrated covers for Batman, Harley Quinn and Wonder Woman.

Early life

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David Nakayama was born August 15, 1978 in Honolulu, Hawaii.[1] He began drawing at age three,[2] He developed an interest in comics, and in the idea of producing them professionally, when he was in grade school,[3] after discovering comics with artist Jim Lee's 1990s run on The Uncanny X-Men. He was also infuenced by artists such as J. Scott Campbell and Adam Hughes.[2]

As he began to consider this career more seriously, he produced his own amateur books at Kinko's. Nakayama attended college at Washington University, he majored in Illustration, and produced editorial cartoons and comic strips for the school paper.[a] While there, Nakayama was nominated for the Charles M. Schultz Award for Best College Cartoonist. After graduating, he attended the Joe Kubert School in order to improve his comics portfolio, studying under Adam Kubert and Andy Kubert.[3]

Career

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While in his second year at the Joe Kubert School, Nakayama was hired by Dark Horse Comics to work on a Star Wars book, which he did while still in school. He has stated that he would have stayed for a third year if he had not obtained work with Top Cow Productions. After winning Wizard magazine's "Be The Next Top Cow Superstar" contest, he left the school and worked in a six-month internship at Top Cow in Los Angeles under the mentorship of founder Marc Silvestri. His first work wasthe 70-page graphic novel Proximity Effect and he subsequently penciled titles such as Witchblade, City of Heroes, and a City of Heroes Collectible Card Game trading card came published in February 2006.[3]

In 2007 he began doing work for Marvel Comics,[citation needed] including the launch of the series Marvel Adventures: Hulk. He later collaborated with Chris Claremont on a five-issue Big Hero 6 miniseries for that same publisher.[citation needed] Among his cover work for Marvel was the debut issues of Spider-Gwen: Gwen-Verse in 2022.and Spider-Gwen: Smash in 2023.[5] During this time he also produced Red Sonja work for Dynamite Entertainment.[2]

Nakayama spent about 12 years producing work for the gaming industry, during which he discovered digital painting, in particular through the work of South Korean artists, which was a large influence on his work, whose style he views as a mixture of traditional comic book art and modern digital painting.[2]

Among his work for DC Comics were variant covers for Batman #160 (part of the "Hush 2" storyline), Harley Quinn (Vol 4) #51, Wonder Woman (Vol 6) #21, and Peacemaker Presents: The Vigilante/Eagly Double Feature #3, all to be published in May 2025.[6]

Selected bibliography

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Video games

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  • War Commander (KIXEYE, October 2012)
  • Battle Pirates (KIXEYE, October 2012)
  • City of Heroes Freedom (Paragon Studios/NCSoft 2012)
  • City of Heroes Going Rogue (Paragon Studios/NCSoft 2010)
  • City of Heroes DLC—Issues 14-21 (Paragon Studios/NCSoft 2005-12)

Penciler

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Cover art

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Notes

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  1. ^ In the cited Comiccon.con interview at the end of the passage in question, Nakayma mentions that cartoonist Mike Peters went to the same school. Although Nakayama does not explicitly mention Washington University by name, sources confirm that Peters attended that unversity.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "David Nakayama (b. 1978)". Grand Comics Database. Archived from the original on March 8, 2025. Retrieved March 8, 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d Portolan, Marcello (December 25, 2021). "4 nuvolette con: David Nakayama". ComixIsland (in Italian). Archived from the original on March 8, 2025. Retrieved March 8, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c Contino, Jennifer M. (February 3, 2006). "David Nakayama's City Of Heroes". San Diego Comic-Con International. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007.
  4. ^ Cooperman, Jeannette (November 23, 2012). "Mike Peters: The Man Behind Mother Goose and Grimm". St. Louis Magazine. Archived from the original on March 8, 2025. Retrieved March 8, 2025.
  5. ^ "Spider-Gwen: Smash #1". League of Comic Geeks. December 2023. Archived from the original on March 8, 2025. Retrieved March 8, 2025.
  6. ^ Brooke, David (February 21, 2025). "Full May 2025 DC Comics Solicitations: Hush 2 and unlimited Superman". AIPT. Archived from the original on March 8, 2025. Retrieved March 8, 2025.
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