#134: On The Road [again!]

Some very cool ThunderCat covers to boot

ALL THE LATEST

As you read this I’ll be in the air heading [or waiting to board a plane] for Lucca Comics & Games, a tremendous festival in Italy. I’ve been once before and had a brilliant time …I’m very much looking forward to having more delicious Italian food, seeing some amazing art and talking with some amazing artists. I’m sure I’ll have lots to say about it here next time.

-I seem to be one of the few pros who didn’t catch Covid at NYCC. Just the usual post-com lurgy. Just as well, as I have been busy working on the last half of my ALIEN pages, a couple of covers and trying to juggle a handful of pitch work at the same time.

-One of those pitches is a work for hire thing. It’s not 100% locked down but something I’m actively working on with an editor so I’m gonna give it a codename… PROJECT RAVEN

-I had a couple of cool covers lined up but the brief I’d agreed to changed after I’d handed in my layouts, to something very different, meaning I’d need to start all over again on both covers that I wasn’t hot on doing. I had to take a look at my schedule and came to the decision that I’d be better off taking that time to concentrate on THUNDERCATS [the schedule for that is pretty tight] and some life commitments, rather than spend more work on new concepts I wasn’t engaged with. I’m in a pretty nice position admittedly; where I’m only really working on things that I enjoy. I knew I just wouldn’t have enjoyed those covers, there were other things that needed my time …so I stepped away. Not saying any of this as a complaint [editor was great], just a speedbump that can happen as a freelancer and knowing where it’s best to spend your energies.

-Marvel released my variant cover for a new CABLE series. Really like how this one turned out, especially as this was the 250th cover I was teasing previously.

-Not Dec-news but worthy of spotlighting. Chris & Laura Samnee’s joyous JONNA AND THE UNPOSSIBLE MONSTERS is not only getting the hardcover treatment, but also a fancy slipcase to accompany it. Numbers are limited, so go hunt them down exclusively at the Oni Press shop while you can!

Chris/ Laura Samnee's JONNA AND THE UNPOSSIBLE MONSTERS hardcover/slipcase!

-I got to see Martin Scorcese’s KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. Holy fuck that was a grind. In a good way, I mean. It was absolutely fantastic. Really beats you around the place emotionally, definitely one of those films that stays with you after you leave the cinema.

-The artist on PROJECT ARCA has sent me phenomenal character designs, I absolutely adore them. I want to have an opening pitch script ready for him when I get back from Lucca so we can finally get a proper pitch together. He’ll be at Lucca too so we can talk it all over more, but really, I need to get my arse in gear on it.

-Keep this to yereselves, as this is due to be released sometime this week from BOOM! Studios, but I like to show ye all stuff a little early when I can, here’s a variant cover I’ve done for SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN #35.

Really enjoyed this one, with the monster-eyes-and-teeth-in-trees of it all, and getting a bit painterly with the background.

-AWA Studios released my cover for RIBBON QUEEN Issue Seven. Hope you like blood…

-Hey, it’s Halloween, right? You should pick up my spooky survival-horror graphic novel BOG BODIES with Gavin Fullerton [of THE CLOSET fame].

I don’t really care about Halloween to be honest, I care more about people buying our book :P

BOG BODIES actually did well when it came out, it sold out within a year and we made money on it, which meant we did a second printing …but that ended up putting us in the red. Would like to get it back in the black again so if you haven’t read it yet, do pick it up, Halloween or no.

THUNDERCATS

So the fear has gotten to me a bit after seeing the enthusiastic reaction since the announcement at NYCC.

Dynamite have since released this phenomenal cover by David Nakayama[above], featuring Drew Moss’ excellent new redesigns [below]

Also, this VERRRRRRRYYYYYYYYY cool cover of the old school ‘Cats by Jae Lee

So yeah. No pressure, Shalvey. From one iconic license to another.

I’ve handed in a whole series outline to editor Nate Cosby, which means I have all the main story elements/beats worked out. I’m about to hand in the first five pages of Issue One as a taster for Drew while I work on the rest of the issue. He’s wrapping up his current GARGOYLES mini-series so I’ll need to have that first script for him very soon. I have the bones of it worked out, but now need to nail it down. I need to get my next cover done pretty soon too, as it happens. I have roughs for the next two that I’m really excited to draw. This is a really cool gig.

OLD DOG

I’ll be honest, I haven’t touched the next installment of OLD DOG yet. The travelling, the book signing, the pitches and the DOSSIER planning have just taken up all my time. I need to get back to this soon though. The signing in Limerick went GREAT by the way, I really did get a kick of seeing the shopfront of O’Mahony’s filled up with OLD DOGs like this.

The turnout was great, more than I thought there’d be, and I was signing/sketching for about two and a half hours, signing some stock too. If you’re looking to pick up a signed book, here is the only place you can for the time being. I should reach out to some UK stores for signings next year.

I really did try smile, I swear. This is the best I can do.

I also found this great write-up about the book over on The Beat.

Old dog. New tricks. Creative force Declan Shalvey plays fetch with his favorite toys over six issues that show an old genre can come back with new twists. Weird spy-fi is always better with a chip on its shoulder and something to prove– this time? Constantly challenging predictability and proving Shalvey can star while juggling design, color, writing, and drawing.

If any of you are inclined, a positive Amazon Review can go a long way…

I just signed off on the Spanish edition to be published by Norma, who also published INJECTION.

I have more headsketches to do for an OLD DOG DOSSIER tier, but below is the livestream recording for my RETRIEVER piece.

DOSSIER-wise, I need to get surveys out in the next week and start getting all the extra material together while Ryan Brewer finalises the book.

TAPE DEC

Hey remember I did a podcast for a bit? No, me neither.

But I had an idea to do a livestream interview with someone I worked with, I have a few collaborators under my bet at this stage, and generally you’re so busy making the book, you don’t have the time to dig into the making of it. Danny Earls is a bright up-and-comer in the past year and sine the ALIEN ANNUAL we worked on came out just about a month ago, I thought it’d be interesting to have a chat about it. I figured Danny’d be into the idea, being a bit of a process nut like myself and …I was right, it was a pretty great chat. Have a watch/listen below, I’d be up for doing more of these, as long as I know people would actually like to watch them! Covid and lack of time killed off the podcast but this talk wasn’t too hard to put together, so I’d be up for doing more. Sound off in the comments if you want to see more, I’m open to suggestions for people to talk to.

ALIEN

On the subject of ALIEN, I did an interview with the good folks at Alien Vs Predator Galaxy about the THAW storyline [which had just wrapped up at the time]. Have a watch/listen.

I’ve handed in my letting notes on DESCENDANT #2 and have just handed in my inks for #3. I’ll be colouring them when I get back from Italy, then onto the last issue!

Speaking of that last issue, here’s the cover by Javier Fernandez!

TIME BEFORE TIME

A rare photo of myself and Rory McConville together …happy…?

Photo taken at NYCC by Tom Smithyman, who also interviewed us about our run on TIME BEFORE TIME and wrapping up the series. Was nice to be able to talk about it like this, I don’ t think Rory and I really would have had this conversation without being interviewed. You can read it here.

We just got the last material together for the Vol 5 trade. Looks like the book will be published in Europe next year too, a publisher your bought the option for the whole series! Can’t say who yet, but very happy about it.

Also got the numbers for the final issue. It’s low, [hence why the series had to end], but I’m glad we kept it juuuuuuust above a certain amount before we wrapped at Issue 29.

OUT SOON

November 01st

WHITE WIDOW #1 [VC]

November 15th

ALIEN #1 [W]

ALIEN: THAW [W]

CARNAGE #1 [VC]

TIME BEFORE TIME #29 [C/W]

November 22nd

THE RIBBON QUEEN #5 [C]

December 13th

DARK RIDE #10 [VC]