#159:It's a hell of a town
NYCC report, MYSTIQUE and TERMINATOR smash, SILVERHAWKS reveal.
Welcome to DECLARATIONS a bi-weekly newsletter by artist/writer Declan Shalvey.
This is regular workblog featuring exclusive peeks at upcoming projects with advance releases of original art/merchandise
ALL THE LATEST
-I just got back from a wonderful but intense NYCC. What a crazy few days, my voice did not survive it. I got to catch up with a lot of friends and had a couple of meetings that should plant some seeds and nail down my workload for 2025, even going into 2026. As usual, wish I took more photos.
Some general thoughts from the past few days of conventioneering…
Immediate in-person reception to new books is fantastic. With both MYSTIQUE and TERMINATOR out in the last couple of weeks, it was great to have people talk to me about how much they enjoyed them. Same with fellow creators saying how much they liked either books. Really makes it feel like all the long hours slogging away on the books was worth it. On a creative high because of all that feedback.
People are buying comics. We had a good few variants of TERMINATOR at the table this year, and they did well with it being a hot new book. My Art Deco exclusive did VERY well, I hand-sold a LOT of them over the show. Sold out of MYSTIQUE copies by Sunday.
Paying for signatures has become ubiquitous. I don’t like it. I get having to accommodate for the collector habits and it doesn’t make sense to leave money on the table… that’s practical, I get that and have come around on it. But I’m conscious of the actual readers who have been collecting my work over the years, who pull the books from their collections and make their way to a show where they’re already paying a lot to get in and then get charged on top of that. I don’t want to put my hand in their pocket again. It can be hard to differentiate between both though, which is a frustration I’ll have to deal with. My strategy was to sign five copies for free and charge after that. If I could tell the copies were part of my general catalog, then I can be more confident this is an actual reader, and not someone looking to flip a few copies of an #1 and not charge themat all. Everyone expecting to pay makes it hard for me to constantly turn down money for signing for one or two comics but there’s a line I’m trying my best to draw.
Stephen Mooney and myself can openly duet the Bee Gees on the streets of New York City. And no one bats an eye.
It was great to table with Luke Sparrow. This was his first NYCC and first convention on the other side of the table. Having Luke there with his original pages displayed and able to sign all the copies of TERMINATOR with me was a great way to push the first issue of the series. I think he’s got the potential to be a star and I’m going to hold onto him for dear life before someone else pries him away from me. He was sweet enough to gift me this OLD DOG piece he drew.
OLD DOG by Luke Sparrow NYCC was a blast, it continues to be my favourite show. Was so good to see so many old friends and hear about all the exciting projects they’re all up to. Already looking forward to the next one… once I’ve had a proper night’s sleep.
-I managed to get the next TERMINATOR and THUNDERCATS covers in just before flying off to NYCC. I was hoping to do some writing while traveling, but my brain body decided I needed to sleep instead.
-SILVERHAWKS! Announced last week, spinning out of the success of THUNDERCATS is a new series written by Ed Brisson with art by George Kambadais. Eagle-eyed readers would have spotted a clue this was happening in the recent Issue Eight. It’s really cool to have something like this spawn out of what we’ve been doing in our book and establishing a wider Thunderverse. I’ve been a fan of Ed’s writing for many many years, and have worked with him in many ways over the years so I’m very happy to have him be part of the Thunderverse brain trust between this and APEX. Ed is a massive SILVERHAWKS fan and George has been doing great work for quite a while now, this is such a great pairing. Fair play to editor Nate Cosby for continuing to push this line in fun and exciting places. I do my best to provide a cover for the first issue of all Thunderverse covers [I wasn’t able do one for CHEETARA unfortunately] but had fun with this SILVERHAKS one. Shiny!
-With NYCC over, my nose is back to the grindstone. MYSTIQUE #4 needs drawing, TERMINATOR and THUNDERCATS needs writing and I have some choice covers on my plate, all with Thought Bubble looming. Better get to it…
ART DECO
This week we will have a new original art collection of recent work debuting- our biggest yet. It’ll consist of all interiors from MYSTIQUE #1, new OLD DOG pages and a slew of new covers- including 5 new THUNDERCATS covers.
Early sale for you Decolytes is Thursday at 1pm ET. The store will be locked and can be accessed with a code. Public sale will be Friday at 1pm ET, so ye have a day’s head-start.
The code is ‘PROTOZOA’
MYSTIQUE
MYSTIQUE Issue One was released last week and I happened to be in NYC the day before the con so I wandered up to Midtown Comics to pick up my very own X-Men comic. How cool is that?
Looks like the book is getting a great reception, saw the below review and have to say I was blown away…
Mystique #1 Review: Pretty Damn Near Perfect
Overall, we’re off to a fantastic start here, with one of not just the best books of the week, but of the whole “From the Ashes” relaunch. We’ve still got a few issues to go before we can definitively call this as good — or better — than the Vaughan run. But unlike Mystique’s motivations, there’s no question here: this book is the superhero spy caper you’ve been waiting for.
Mystique #1 Rating:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Can’t really ask for better than that.
Everyone who I met at the show who read it seemed to really love it, and as I said above, by Sunday we’d totally sold out all of our copies. I’ll admit, I’m relieved. You always want a book to do well, but the stakes were a little higher with this, being my fist solo Marvel series. If this book is successful then it opens the door to do more of this kind of stuff in future.
I’m just about halfway through pencilling half of Issue Four, will be hopping on inks tbis week. FOC for Issue Two was yesterday, here’s a little peek from said issue.
Thanks to everyone who picked up Issue One, I’m delighted with the reception. More twists and turns to come.
TERMINATOR
Man, TERMINATOR got a lot of love from people at NYCC too. We sold a LOT of our NYCC variant as well as some other variants. It was very encouraging, people really seem to like the direction of the book. I just did a letting pass on Issue Two, here’s a peek at the issue. I previously showed this Dave O’Sullivan inked page, but it looks even better now with Colin Craker colours.
With the great reception at NYCC from readers, fellow creators and reviews in the past week, we seem to have another little hit on our hands. Pretty cool to follow the THUNDERCATS launch with another banger, and then MYSTIQUE the following week. Seems I’m on a bit of a roll…?
THUNDERCATS
Joe Mulvey has finished his issue last week and it looks really, really fantastic. He brought his A-game.
I’m currently working on the lettering script for this issue as well as the script for Issue Eleven.
Dynamite have been doing great in promoting mine and Joe’s spotlight issue [link] as well as the new arc myself and Drew Moss are kicking off in December [link].
DEC RECS
GROUPIES is a five issue comic book by Helen Mullane & Tula Lotay, being released by Comixology Originals. I got to read the first two issues of the book, which is a wild and weird. Anyone familiar with Lotay’s ethereal and lustful storytelling will immediately be pulled into this story, along with cuttingly crafted dialogue by Mullane. I was really impressed with a specific storytelling device they used too, but you’ll have to read it to see what I’m talking about. Issue One is now available, click below!
OUT SOON
October 23rd
STAR TREK: DEFIANT #20 [VC]
November 13th
TMNT: BLACK WHITE & GREEN TP [W/A/C]
TERMINATOR #2 CVR [W/C]
November 20th
THUNDERCATS #10 [W/C]
November 27th
MYSTIQUE #2 [W/A/C]
STAR TREK DEFIANT #21 [VC]
December 4th
THUNDERCATS APEX #1 [VC']
December 11th
TERMINATOR #3 [W/C]
December 18th
THUNDERCATS #11 [W/C]
December 25th
MYSTIQUE #3 [W/A/C]
