#119
Discover more from Declarations
ALL THE LATEST
Been hacking away at OLD DOG #5, wrapping pencils for the whole issue today, will spend the rest of this week inking the last half, then most of next week colouring before I head off to Paris for my first convention of the year. Lots on my plate, but snuck in some fun too.
I was honoured to be invited to the wedding of Triona Farrell [my ALIEN collaborator] a couple of weekends ago. Had a ball, congratulations to the happy couple!
[Definitely not been drinking for 12 hours; myself, Chris O’Halloran, Stephen Mooney, Jamie Teehan]
-A few days later, I got to attend a very special reading by the dreamweaver himself, Garth Marenghi.
-Otherwise; all work. Besides OLD DOG, I handed in my script for ALIEN #4 and my pages for TIME BEFORE TIME #27.
-My friend Aoife Dooley just released her new graphic novel FINDING MY VOICE, a followup to her smash debut FRANKIE’S WORLD.
-SKTCHD.com did a piece on ‘The Art of the Page Turn’ which I contributed a little. You can read [behind paywall'] here.
-Pt 1 of my interview on Matt Rosenberg’s Ideas Don’t Bleed is up on his Substack, which I highly recommend subscribing to.
-David Harper of SKTCHD.com asked me to design the cover to his SKTCHD BOOK 2022, the latest of his annual of essays from the site. This was an interesting side challenge, with some good back-and forth between myself and David to nail it down. I wanted to have an illustrative element to the design so I drew out the logo from the website and scanned it as I filled it in more and more. I also wanted to make it feel like it was evocative of the site so trued to carry over some of those design elements. The black bar on the right will carry over to the spine, so that the spine can be black to match all the previous books. I don’t do a lot of design stuff, just for my own books mainly. I struggle a bit with it as my confidence wavers in this field but it was a really interesting challenge and am quite happy with the end result. Thanks to David for asking.
-I listened to this very good interview with legendary music producer Rick Rubin, regarding the subject of creativity. A lot of it spoke to me, and I related a lot to the topic of collaboration. If I’m being totally honest, it’s something I felt that I needed to hear at the moment.[link]
-I’m off to France next week for the Paris Fan Festival along with the likes of Garth Ennis, Dike Ruan, Javier Fernandez, Olivier Copiel, Mike Perkins, Ram V, Pepe Larraz, Rachael Stott, Geoffo and LOADS more. I’m going to bring along some creator owned books, some OLD DOG issues, prints and will be doing A4 headsketches for €100. See you there!
OLD DOG
Work continues! I’ve pencilled all of [the very weird] #5, currently inking the last half of the issue.
Also in the middle of writing #6, fleshing out the outline. Strange to feel like I’m getting close to hitting this first landmark of the book, to finish Redact One.
Also chipping away on another OLD DOG/ART DECO related project.
Issue 5 was solicited, here’s all the info…
OLD GOG #5
WRITER / ARTIST / COVER A: Declan Shalvey
COVER B: Paul Azaceta
COVER C: Joe Palmer
JUNE 14 / 24 pages / FC/ -- / $3.99
The exciting action series by DECLAN SHALVEY continues with a brand-new mission!
Some kind of freak accident has set a gruesome creature loose in the halls of Black Circle. Is this an attack? Can Retriever stop this creature before Black Circle is eaten from the inside? Where the hell is Jack Lynch?!
ALIEN
Issue Three god solicited last week, here’s the details in all their glory...
ALIEN #3
DECLAN SHALVEY (W)
ANDREA BROCCARDO (A)
Cover by DIKE Ruan
Variant Cover by MICHAEL WALSH
Variant Cover by SUNGHAN YUNE
SOMETHING WICKED IS COMING THEIR WAY...
The USCSS Boreas has been infiltrated! A chest-burster is wreaking havoc on base, leaving a trail of gore and eviscerated bodies in its wake. With their numbers dwindling, will the Weyland-Yutani security team be able to track the alien down before it becomes something even more deadly? And even if they do, how will they manage the horrors lurking just outside their walls beyond the ice?
What a magnificent cover by Dike Ruan. Looking forward to seeing that Michael Walsh variant too.
As I said below, #4 script is in. I have to do a bit of pitch work on the second arc and am currently nailing down the lettering draft for #2. Andrea has started inking #3, with all the pencils now done. I have to hand it to him, he’s done a fantastic job with everything I’ve thrown at him. Sometime I’m writing this book thinking “man, I wish I was drawing this book” Then I see all the work Andrea has put into his pages and I think “no, it’s much better that Andrea’s drawing all this!”
Marvel sent me the final PDF for #1 and I’m just SO happy with it. Can’t wait for ye all to read the 30 page debut issue. Did I mention it has an ALEX MALEEV variant cover…!?
TIME BEFORE TIME
I’ll reveal our final artist in the next newsletter. In the meantime, here’s a gorgeous page of Wil Morris inks from the standalone #24
PADDYWHACKERY
There’s been a lot of new subs to this newsletter since I moved over to Substack so wanted to give some other work a plug, for those unaware. I’ve written two graphic novels published by Image Comics in an Irish crime genre I’m calling ‘Paddywhackery’. I have a couple more in this genre I’d definitely like in future but I really love both these projects and recommend them. First is SAVAGE TOWN, a kind of ‘Irish Sopranos,’ illustrated by the excellent Philip Barrett and as it happens, has been optioned by Lighthouse Animation to be developed into an animated series.
The other is BOG BODIES, a survivalist horror about tho Irish gangsters stuck in the bleak Irish countryside, illustrated by THE CLOSET’s Gavin Fullerton.
I have a couple of specific stories in this world I’d like to do, one of which I’d like to draw. It’s just a matter of finding the time to work on them. If you haven’t heard of these books before though, give them a shot!
DEC RECS
Been watching more great shows lately. I mentioned I was loving Picard Season 3 but also enjoyed The Boston Strangler [for the hole in your life that Mindhunter has left]. Another film I watched a while back was Aftersun, which left a mark on me. Also enjoyed the hell out of Tulsa King [Stallone is having the time of his life on this, you can tell] and The Night Agent was a ton of spy-hard espionage thrills.
OUT SOON
April 05th
STAR WARS HIDDEN EMPIRE #5 [VC]
April 19th
TIME BEFORE TIME #22 [W/C]
April 26th
ALIEN #1 [W/VC]
May 03rd
MOON KNIGHT #23 [SPIDER-VERSE VC]
]
#119
Nice!