#136: ThunderCa- no, Bolts!

But ThunderCats too.

Nov 28, 2023

ALL THE LATEST

Hello all, today I’m packing/tidying/ wrapping up work ahead of my trip to Columbus, Ohio tomorrow. I’ll be doing some drawing at the show, last notice to reach out to Cadence comic art if you’re going to the show and are looking for some art.

-Handed in a pitch for PROJECT RAVEN and got three Marvel covers done, as well as the next cover for a Boom series [more below]. After some feedback, I have to bump it up a bit. Looks like I’ll be starting PROJECT RAVEN once I get back from the States next week

-I also got offered a short story to write and draw for an upcoming anthology. Probably don’t really have the time, but it’s a property I’ve always wanted to work on, so a rare opportunity to dip my toe in with some beloved characters. Need to come up with a story pitch in the next couple of weeks. Gonna call this PROJECT EMERALD.

-Looking for the perfect birthday present this Christmas? Well, obviously get OLD DOG: REDACT ONE and TIME BEFORE TIME Vols 1-4 [!] but for something a little rarer, the THUNDERBOLTS: UNCAGED OMNIBUS is out December 5th!

THUNDERBOLTS was my Marvel debut and my home for a solid year or so as I learned the ropes, tried to do good work and develop a good reputation and make a name for myself. It was a fantastic boo to work on. Dynamic, emotional and fun. Every month, I had to up m game to try match what Kev Walker was doing on that book while doing my best with excellent script after excellent script that Jeff Parker delivered. I loved working on this book [both THUNDERBOLTS, and it’s relaunch into DARK AVENGERS] so much and I’m so delighted that they’ve collected out whole run of over 45 issues in one volume. This fun has deserved this treatment for a long time. Little more on that below…

-My 'Waltz' short story for ELEKRTA #100 with Stefano Raffaele is collected in DAREDEVIL & ECHO collection, out last week.

though I was also told it was already published in the DAREDEVIL: WOMAN WITHOUT FEAR collection last year. I didn’t realise this as it’s the rare book that I’ve been reading the single issues and not picking up the trade. In any case, chuffed to know a DAREDEVIL story I wrote is collected like this.

-BOOM Studios announced a new series by Ed Brisson and Luca Casalanguida called THE DISPLACED. I’m doing B covers for the series [just handed in my cover for #3], below being my cover for Issue One, out in February. Really happy with this one, nice to lean into a spookier/eerier vibe again.

-I have a basic pitch script for PROJECT ARCA, need to fix it up and sent to the artist, can work out the pitch doc while he’s drawing and we put the pages together. This is the main creator owned book I’ll be focusing on for the next few months. Will be working on OLD DOG in the background of course but that’s going to take more time to build up while I get this new thing moving.

-AWA released my cover for the final issue of RIBBON QUEEN. I hope this one feel as creepy to look at as it was to draw. Was great to work with Garth Ennis on these and everyone at AWA was lovely to work with. I enjoyed being the primary cover artist on a mini again, variants are always fun but I like being able to help create a strong visual identity for a book. Check out the whole set below, with the trade tress by Chris Ferguson. I tried my best to make sure the imagery worked around the title dress and that central AWA bullet at the bottom.

Thank you for reading Declarations. This post is public so feel free to share it.

ALIEN

I handed in my lettering for my final issue of ALIEN and just yesterday handed in my final coloured pages. Andrea Broccardo handed in his last pages last week. I’m pretty bummed that our run is over, but also very grateful that myself and Andrea Broccardo got to essentially do a longer form story. I read or heard Jonathan Hickman say somewhere that the benefit of writing a book at Marvel/DC was that you have the opportunity to tell longer stories, seed moments to develop later, etc. With the economy of creator owned book, it’s very hard to do that unless you’re at a certain level. When I was offered ALIEN, I was promised 10 issues with the hope of more. I can only assume sales were not where Marvel wanted them to be as 10 was what I got, but I’m just glad that I did indeed get those 10. A *little* more even, as Thaw #1, the annual and Descendant #1 were all 30 pages. From a writing point of view, it let me tell a larger interlinked story between the two arcs, meaning that myself and Andrea got to do something a little more ambitious than the separated arcs like the previous ALIEN run. We got to do our own story in a pocket of that universe.

As for the new/last series, I wanted to show ye my layouts for the first issue. I really wanted to flesh out the color ideas for this fist issue. Quite liked this first set. I meant to do the same for the next 3 issues but in the end I just jumped into the flatted files as time got tighter as the issues went on, ie the turnaround was faster and after this first set I had a stronger visal feel for the series. I would have liked to have laid out all my pages in one go, but there was a lot more story to write for Andrea, and a lot of waiting on approvals from 20th, so I just worked to the deadline for each issue.

Regarding Issue One, I somehow missed this fantastic variant cover for the issue by Mike Mayhew!

But I can at least give ye a heads up about this Leinil Yu variant cover for #2! I can’t believe legends like these are doing variants for book I’m writing, still pinching myself.

TAPE DEC

Following on from the first ‘Talk’ episode with Danny Earls, my new ‘TAPE DEC TALK’ episode was livestreamed last night, talking THUNDERBOLTS! With the above-mentioned Omnibus, I thought it’d be a good opportunity to talk to TBOLTS writer Jeff Parker. It was Jeff who opened the door for me at Marvel and got me on this book and I’ve long wanted to talk to him about his run, working together, his approach to making comics, etc. Even thoug we stuck to one of the many many books he’s written, we went of for two and a half hours! It was a great chat though, I was able to dig up pages from a few issues, as well as process behind my very first issue. I really, really enjoyed this, hope ye do too.

THUNDERCATS

The solicts for THUNDERCATS are out. Or loose, even. Not only that it your favourite Thunderians are featured on the cover of February’s PREVIEWS. Not too shabby, Shalvey.

Fleeing through space to escape their dying home world, the ThunderCats were attacked en route by their mortal enemies, the Mutants of Plun-Darr. After diverting their damaged flagship to a planet called Third Earth, the surviving ThunderCats now strive to rebuild their society in harmony with the new world's natives. But the Mutants, determined to possess the ThunderCats' mystical gem, the Eye of Thundera, have tracked them down - and they've also forged an alliance with Mumm-Ra, the devil-priest of Third Earth!

Now the ThunderCats, led by an inexperienced Lion-O, must band together as never before to protect their legacy from this combined enemy. But will they be able to withstand the onslaught of Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living, once he sets his eyes upon them?

The triple-threat talents (writers, artists, and ThunderCats superfans) of DECLAN SHALVEY and DREW MOSS join forces to bring this exciting new entry in the ThunderCats canon to life! This premier issue features 24 story pages as well as a host of the finest cover artists the galaxy has ever seen, including SHALVEY, DAVID NAKAYAMA, LUCIO PARRILLO, JAE LEE & JUNE CHUNG, and IVAN TAO!
In Shops: Feb 07, 2024
SRP: $4.99

There’ll be covers aplenty too, with my own in various formats, as well as these fun ones; an ‘action figure’ variant by series artist Drew Moss…

…and a logo variant. Not a lot of logos are strong enough to be cover worthy but by god, the THUNDERCATS one is!

TIME BEFORE TIME

A reader sent me this photo of the whole series. Very, very cool to se them all laid out like this. Hats off to Sasha Head too, who was the one who selected he primary colour for each story arc. Great idea, we did it, it worked.

Did I share the cover for Vol 5 yet..? I can’t remember, so here it is just in case! We just handed in all the files to Image. Out in February.

Will have another TIME BEFORE TIME related announcement in a couple of months. Watch this space.

OLD DOG

The DOSSIER is slowly sliding into shape. I just wrote up material to expand the ‘colour’ section, and Heather Antos is gathering some of her notes from the initial concept stages. I originally wanted it posted out this month but *looks at calendar* that’s clearly not going to happen. Without being specific, there were some unforeseen circumstances with someone on the team which has delayed the book. No one’s fault in any way, it just life stuff that happens. I need to hake a hard look at where we’re at and update backers with a solid delivery date, I’ll work that out in the next week or so.

I have decided to do another OLD DOG related project once the dossier is out. Not a campaign or anything, don’t worry :P

Going to call it OLD DOG: CASE FILES for now, unless I really warm to that title in the meantime. It’ll be a way of keeping OLD DOG going while I work on the next installment and PROJECT RAVEN eats up more of my time.

By the way, if all you guys have read OLD DOG and enjoyed it… perhaps consider giving it a review on Amazon? I hear reviews really help the performance on there so if you have the time and really liked the book, writing a little review could be a great help. Thanks!

Leave an Amazon review for OLD DOG