Comic book artist Dustin Nguyen talks ‘Batman Tales,’ ‘Descender’/’Ascender’ and missing comic conventions

It’s been years now, but Dustin Nguyen still remembers what it was like to illustrate his first-ever issue of “Batman” — No. 626 in 2004 — as a young artist for DC Comics.
“It was really intimidating,” he says from his home studio in Fountain Valley. “My first Batman run was right after Jim Lee’s Batman — no, Eduardo Risso’s Batman, who was another hero of mine. So super-intimidating.
“But you know, the great thing about jum