#142: Green

PROJECT EMERALD revealed. Plus; a brand new ThunderCat!

ALL THE LATEST

Greetings again from the banks of the River Fergus! I don’t know if it was the new art store launch, or the amazing THUNDERCATS sales but this newsletter got a lot of new subscribers in the last couple of weeks. So for those newcomers, let me welcome you to this newsletter where I stare my Declarations; a space where I talk about everything I’m working on. Sometimes it’s through lightly veiled codewords, sometimes I’ll show a peek at an unseen cover, I’ll answer questions in the comments and just share some general musings. Okay, back to it.

-On the subject of thinly veiled codewords, I’ve started to get stuck-in on PROJECT RAVEN. Which, involves taking the approved series outline and breaking down the first issue. This is the tough part. I’ve been trying to clear other work first but mainly, wanted to get the latest THUNDERCATS issue done, to clear some mental headspace.

-Just wrapped a slate of covers, all fun stuff. Three for Marvel and a STAR TREK cover. Have one for THUNDERCATS to do today and an OLD DOG one right after. I have a few more to do in order to cover my arse while I go on the road next month. Here’s a cover I did for MIDNIGHT SUNS: BLOOD HUNT, a new mini-series. Been doing a lot of Blade recently!

And a variant cover for WOLVERINE #44

Wait… On the road? What did I mean by that…? Well first…

-I’ll be at Dublin Comic Con [Spring Edition] next month, March 9th/10th. Will be doing an ‘Eclectic Mics panel on Sunday, details here…

Eclectic Micks: The Irish Creators panel

Come join a selection of Irish comics professionals as they discuss their careers to date. With a range of disciplines and experience across all the major publishers, hear the perspectives of Irish creators working in the mainstream comics industry. It’s an eclectic micks of talent.

Panelists include Stephen Mooney, Chris O’Halloran, Ellie Wright, Danny Earls and Gary Moloney, moderated by Declan Shalvey.

Sunday March 10th, Geek Ireland Panel Room, Level, 12PM

-While I’m stateside for GalaxyCon Richmond, I’m also going to do a little mini-tour! I’ll be hitting…

• Third Eye Comics in Annapolis, March 20th

• Brave New Worlds in Philadelphia, March 21st

• Midtown Comics in New York City, March 22nd.

I did something similar a few years ago when pushing SAVAGE TOWN, this time I’ll be pushing THUNDERCATS, TIME BEFORE TIME and OLD DOG for the most part. A ‘Raining Cats and Dogs’ tour, if you will. Looking forward to seeing everybody.

-Image are presenting a new retailer award at NYCC. A smart move I think, and with so much of my stuff published at Image, wanted to spotlight here for ye all to…

-The good people at the INKPULP podcast had me on a while back for an overall comics chat. Got a lot of really nice feedback to this one. I’m a fan of the pod and the open and honest chat from the hosts Shawn Crystal, Matteo Scalera and Eric Canete [all fantastic artists] and it brough out some honest chat from myself too.

-Colin Craker is a young creator I think is gonna go far. He has a new campaign on Kickstarter for the latet installment of his AGENCY FILES series. He’s just shy of €400 with just over a week to go so ye should give it a look, I’ve already pleged myself.

-Finally… REVEAL! PROJECT EMERALD is TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: BLACK WHITE & GREEN. More below…

PROJECT EMERALD

Yes, it was announced last week via Nerdist that I’m writing/drawing a short story for TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: BLACK WHITE & GREEN #1, also providing a cover for the debut issue. This really has been such a joy to work on.

I first heard rumblings of this at NYCC last year, thinking how every artist I knew would want a go at this book, not actually thinking I’d end up being invited to contribute to the first issue. I’m currently in the middle of inking my story, should have that done over the weekend, colour it all next week, leaving me free to work on my next OLD DOG episode. I’m really happy with them so far. I decided from the start, as a nod to the original black/white/red TMNT comics, to make all the bandanas green. Until the announcement, I didn’t know who else was on the book but I can see that I wasnt the only on to have this idea.

I was such a Turtles nut as a kid, I have to say between working on his and all the THUNDERCATS buzz, it’s been a really surreal start to 2024; mainly working on two properties I loved as a kid. Getting to write, draw and colour [it’s a limited palette but I’m going to end up working with a lot of greytones too, as seen in the cover] these characters was really a dream come true. Thanks to editors Maggie Howell and Nick Nino for offering it to me.

THUNDERCATS

The Thunder-train continues to streamroll hard! Not only do we now have a second printing for Issue One but we’re also debuting a brand new ThunderCat character for our series. CALICA will join our crew in the second issue. Below is a special variant I was asked to do to spotlight her.

[Psst, yes, she was inspired by my own calico cat, Buffy]

More about Calica here. The FOC for this [Cover X] has passed but as well as the above dressed version. There’ll also be a virgin version, a B+W version and a foil version. My regular cover for Issue Two is also getting the virgin/B+W/ foil treatment. I have to admit, I’m a sucker for this stuff.

We have a design cover by Drew Moss. Also, gotta love this new Rob Liefeld cover for the issue. Are they both trying to eat the sword…? Hell if I know.

I see my cover for Issue Four is out too. Was dying to draw me some MUMMMMMMMM RRRAAAAAAAAAA…

Again, I’m delighted with and baffled by the amazing reaction to the book. Drew is firing on all cylinders though, here’s an inked page from #2. Don’t tell anyone I showed you this, but I wanted to show off the lovely colours by Chiara Di Francia & Martina Pignedoli at Arancia Studios and how fantastic Drew’s inks are too.

We got a great book on our hands, so we do.

I had a big call with series editor Nate Cosby about how the book is doing and future plans. I initially took this book as I thought it’d be a fun year-long but now it’s shaping up to be something far more long term, which I’m very excited by. There’s a lot to explore in this new Third Earth and it looks like I’ll have plenty of opporunity to do so…

ART DECO

As of the last newsletter, the ART DECO Web Store is officially open! My first release is a curated collection of original art from my work on various DEADPOOL and WOLVERINE titles. Both pages and covers are available, so collectors on any budget should have a shot at getting something. Although the store runs on a cart based system, I am offering payment plans for bigger purchases (over $500 USD) so you can write me to discuss terms and conditions.

Availability of this collection may be limited as we already have more original art and merchandise plans in the works for ART DECO so act fast and stay tuned! Newsletter subscribers will always have a head start on any of my drops, such as the upcoming Turtles pages, once that issue is out. I’m also going to try and do some A4 pieces while livestreaming once a month [starting in April?], and offer the original art via the store. Will see how this more curated approach goes, I like how more focused it is, as opposed to having my name on a big list with others. The results will speak for themselves, I guess. Below are the pages that are already out the door to some sweet sweet buyers.

But wait, there’s more! The original art for TMNT: BLACK WHITE & GREEN is available! Snap it up now if you want it as there’s already some interest…

By the way, just wanted to say thanks to Diana Kou who sorted out the webstore as well as tidied up my website for me. Behind the curtain was a mess as I did the whole thing myself and was figuring it out as I went, to varying degrees of success. It looks much better now!

TAPE DEC

Episode 6 of TAPE DEC with Justin Mason is up on my Youtube page. Was a really good chat were we showed some unseen pages from our [very short!]stint on DIE!NAMITE

Apologies to anyone waiting on the audio versions, I just haven’t had the time to record new audio intros as I was very much finding my feet when I restarted this. I’m on it though!

Tomorrow is the livstream with THUNDERCATS artist Drew Moss!

Hop in on the stream with any THUNDERCATS questions you have as we look at the making of #1, tomorrow 8PM GMT/3PM EST

OLD DOG

I’m currently working on three new OLD DOG stories, one of which I’m drawing myself. Need to finish writing two of them this week. This OPERATIONS project is coming along quite nicely, though I need to get some pages done soon before I more over to my next project.

Hmm, what’s this…?

Stop me is you’ve heard this before, the DOSSIER is nearly done! Just finalising the cover with the designer now. Hoping for it to be off at the printer by the end of the week.

STUDIO TOUR

As promised, here is a tour of my studio.

1 Cupboard, filled with comp boxes, trades, artboard, packaging, etc

2 Arm for recording process video

3 Desklamp

4 Microphone, for podcastsing/interviews

5 CUP OF TEA. Mandatory.

6 My drawing board. Have had it maybe 15 years. Has a GHJK underneath that raises the angle for when I’m drawing

7 My desktop computer with too many files on the desktop. Logitech camera on top for video/podcasts

8 My A3 scanner/printer. have had it since 2010. One of the best investments I ever made, along with my drawing chair [not pictured]

9 Various drawing tools

10 Container boxes for art materials, various bits and bobs

11 Recently finished pages/ pages in development. Eventually will store them away/ send them to art dealer, but keep them handy for a while so I can keep track of where I am with my workload

12 HJKL where I store my drawing tablet, headphones, other such hardware

13 A mix of my absolute favourite collections, and newer books that I keep closer to read tsoon/for inspiration

1 Captain America shield, because I HAD to have it

2 Sculptre gift from an artist friend, Stephen Murphy

3 Gift from my sister of me and my two friends Jamie Teehan and Stephen Mooney as Simpsons characters.

4 Various drawing tools

5 Bin. For all my artwork, just kidding!

6 A mix of my absolute favourite collections, and newer books that I keep closer to read soon/for inspiration

7 My award! Did I mention I won an award…? The 2023 Golden Romic

8 My Sword of Omens! Gift from Declarations reader :)

9 My Star Trek ship collection.

10 Rifle replica for reference

11 Batman: The Animated Series Batmobile and Batwing

12 Batman: The Animated Series character figures

13 Hardcover collections of my work [Injection, Deadpool, All Star Batman, Thunderbolts] and excess copies of Old Dog

14 All the paperback collections of my work

15 All my Artist Edition books; Kevin Nowlan/Marvel Heroes, Bill Sienkiewicz, JP Leon/Wintermen, Samnee/Daredevil, Mignola/Hellboy. Mazuccelli/ Daredevil Born Again, Miller/Dark Knight Returns, etc. Have a Williamson/Alien not pictured.

1 Marvel Legends action figues, both my Moon Knight armour covtume and the Mr Knight version from the TV show.

2 The only Batman: Black and White statues I own; Mike Allred /Mike Mignola /Sean Murphy.

3 Mr Knight/Khnshu custom figures I saw online and really wanted.

4 Moon Knight Legos! Thanks to my friend Jamie Teehan for tracking those down

5 My vanity shelf! All my trade paperback collections, not including bulk collections for the most part. I seem to be missing the regular Deadpool: Good/Bad/Ugly trade for some reason, I’ll have to track that down.

Hope ye all found that interesting. Not pictured [because I forgot] is a second desk below my big framed OLD DOG poster, but that’s visible in every bloody podcast I do, same with my whiteboard that’s on the cupboard door, so don’t worry about it.

OUT SOON

February 28th

DUKE #3 [VC]

RIBBON QUEEN #8 [C]

March 13th

THUNDERCATS #2 [W,VC]

March 20th

DISPLACED #2 [VC]

April 10th

THUNDERCATS #3 [W,VC]

WHEN THE BLOOD HAS DRIED #1 [VC]

April 17th

DISPLACED #3 [VC]

April 24th

BLADE #10