#167: Commissioner
Final MYSTIQUE art, and a look back at VENOM
ALL THE LATEST
Welcome to DECLARATIONS a bi-weekly newsletter by artist/writer Declan Shalvey.
This is a regular workblog featuring exclusive peeks at upcoming projects with advance releases of original art/merchandise.
NOTE: these newsletters go a bit long so may not fit into your email every time. I therefore recommend you click through to the newletter link to make sure you get the full Declaration.
Latest worklog:
Resubitted edited roughs for PROJECT NEWARK
Submitted cover roughs for THUNDERCATS LOST, TERMINATOR 9 and licenced crossover project.
Submitted roughs and pencils for two new Dynamite books
Inked cover for one of those Dynamite books [inking other today]
Wrote script for TERMAINATOR #7
Did my lettering notes on TERMAINATOR #6
Pencilled, inked and coloured cover for THUNDERCATS LOST #4
Pencilled, inked and coloured cover for TERMINATOR #9
Pencilled piece for PROJECT LAZARUS pitch
Drew [livestreamed] two headsketches [see Art Deco]
Pencilled & inked three overdue commissions [also see Art Deco]
-I took on another short, just two pages for an anthology project. Not written by myself, by a good friend featuring a character I love. Gonna call this PROJECT SCREAM. Should be drawing this next week, I think.
-I coloured this above ROBIN drawing my cousin’s kid drew. He spent a couple of hours in my studio and I helped him draw this based off a Juni Ba drawing. He afterward opened up all my cupboards and asked what every piece of art was for, and why I wasn’t using whatever art material he found. It was an inquisition in my own house! He nailed the drawing though, he’s only six.
-I’ll be back at Dublin Comic con next weekens [March 15th & 16th]! As usual, I lost track of when the Spring Edition was on, but reached out in time to get a table. Come pick up some THUNDERCATS Vol 1 & 2 for your kids [but really for yourself].
-DC Comics released my variant cover for Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s BATMAN & ROBIN: YEAR ONE #7. I put a lot of work into this and was very happy with the final piece. I did this before Christmas hand have been dying to show this off.
-I had recently reached out to a publisher about doing a dream gig that could have been my ‘primary’ project for the year.. Heard back from them last week to hear they weren’t able to make it happen. Disappointing but hey, I’m due a ‘no’ after all the great stuff that’s ome my way of late. Maybe it’ll happen down the line, but it was worth reaching out about. Means I can concentrate on the PROJECT LAZARUS pitch while I work on the next OLD DOG installment.
-My latest graphic novel haul from Big Bang Comics.
-I sent my rough pitch for PROJECT LAZARUS to a writer friend to get some feedack notes. He gave me good ones, so I’m going to have to work it out some more, currently working on a pitch cover.
-Letterer and frequent collaorator Clayton Cowles has a newsletter. You should suscribe to it.
-ABSOLUTE MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1 by Deniz ‘He’s so hot right now’ Camp and Javier Rodriguez. had it’s FOC yesterday but you should still order the hell out of it/ I got to read an advance copy and man, it is some ambitious comics from two creators who are firing on all cylinders right now.
-Ye Decolytes know I like to show some advance work when I can. Here’s an early look at a cover I did for a new project. I can’t say what it is/who it’s for though. Since the above BATMAN & ROBIN YEAR ONE cover, I’ve been playing arounfd with Layer Mode settings in Photoshop more, which has been interesting new ground to play with, including with this cover.
-Talked to an artist about coming up with a creator owned project. Probably a ways off but I’m happy to make a start on something else new, something after PROJECT ARCA.
-I’m still not on top of all the scripts I need doing, but I have caught up for the most part. Next step is to take care of some covers, finish the owed commissions and draw the PROJECT SCREAM pages. In the meantime, I’ll have to circle back to start THUNDERCATS’ fourth arc, the next TERMINATOR script as well as the PROJECT NEWARK script, all while while chipping away on PROJECT LAZARUS. By then, I’ll likely be back drawing pages for PROJECT WESLEY and can start work on the next OLD DOG script [I’ve talked to editor Heather Antos about that]. Then, I want to start writing some of PROJECT ARCA, to get more comfortale with it and make some headway.
Man, I keep thining as I’m not drawing any pages that there’s not a lot on my plate at the moment, but there really still is.
ART DECO
The finale to my run on MYSTIQUE has been on the stands for a couple weeks, hopefully giving you all time to catch up for the last Art Deco original art drop for the series!
On Thursday, 3/6 at 1PM ET, we will be releasing all the interior pages from issue #5. The last issue of the series comes with some big payoffs, so I hope those of you that have been waiting to snag a page or grabbed one from an earlier installment will check this one out. The penultimate issue #4 will remain active through this drop and as always, multiple pages can be combined for free shipping and payment plans are available through my reps at Kinetic Collectibles.
Joining the Mystique finale will be the next batch of covers- including some of my new DC covers, which I imagine will interest quite a few of you. We'll also have some new THUNDERCATS and THUNDERCATS LOST pieces available for the very first time.
Although the public drop is set for Thursday, all newsletter subscribers can get a 24 hour head start this Wednesday, 3/5 at 1PM ET with the code ‘DESTINY’.
We sold out of C2E2 full figure and headshots from the last Declarations! Thanks to everyone who ordered one. Looking forward to getting into those, now that all my previous headshot slots are taken care of.Speaking of, here’s a timelapse of one of those an MF DOOM headhsot.
There’s more over on my YouTube channel. Go subscribe so you don’t miss any of my timelapses and drawing livestreams.
I finally completed a few long-owed cover sized commissions. This first one is a reward for my good friend Jeff Parker’s BLIGHTER Kickstarter campaign from over three years ago. The book was illustrated buy one Drew Moss, I wonder whatever happened to him…
The other was a MR KNIGHT commission, also for a friend’s Kickstarter project, The CATCH AND RELEASE graphic novel by Ed Brisson and Lisandro Estherren. Brisson, that sounds familiar, I wonder what he’s working on right now…
With those both done, I’m working on the owed cover-sized commissions for my own OLD DOG DOSSIER Kickstater. More recent than the others, but still long owed. Here’s another MOON KNIGHT…
…just a couple left that I should be able to get done next week [need to hop on some covers this week]. Once the last one is done, I’ll get started on the smaller A4 sized commissions for C2E2.
VENOM
Hey, remember when I used to draw VENOM? Well Marvel do, and are putting out an omnibus with all my issues in there in May.
AGENT VENOM OMINIBUS HC TONY MOORE COVER
Written by RICK REMENDER, CULLEN BUNN & ROBBIE THOMPSON with JEFF PARKER, ROB WILLIAMS,
DAN SLOTT & CHRISTOPHER YOST
Penciled by TONY MOORE, TOM FOWLER, LAN MEDINA, DECLAN SHALVEY, THONY SILAS, KIM JACINTO & ARIEL OLIVETTI with HUMBERTO RAMOS, STEFANO CASELLI, LEE GARBETT, SANA TAKEDA, JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO, KEV WALKER,
MARCO CHECCHETTO, REILLY BROWN, KHOI PHAM, PEPE LARRAZ, JORGE COELHO, GERARDO SANDOVAL & MORE
Covers by TONY MOORE & MIKE DEODATO JR.
Collecting Amazing Spider-Man (1999) 654 (B story), 654.1; Venom (2011) 1-42, 13.1-13.4, 27.1; Venom: Space Knight (2015) 1-13; Minimum Carnage: Alpha (2012) 1; Scarlet Spider (2012) 10-11; Minimum Carnage: Omega (2012) #1.
1,464 PGS./Rated T+ $150.00
ISBN: 9781302966270
Trim size: 7-1/4 x 10-7/8
Working on VENOM was an interesting time for me. It was my second ongoing book at Marvel, so I felt like I had ‘graduated’ onto a bigger book after having done good work on THUNDERBOLTS. It was my TBOLTS editor Tom Brennan who brought me over to this book, starting with Rick Remender’s final issue. Rick was doing amazing stuff at Marvel at the time and I was loving it all, so getting to work with him was SUCH a treat [on a very emotionally harrowing story]. I remember I was so excited that I did this VENOM piece to help sell me on the book [and try sell myself as a cover artist… didn’t work on that front]
I then became a ‘co-ongoing’ artist on the book with writer Cullen Bunn as it was double shipping, like TBOLTS was. I got to essentially do one whole arc ‘Toxin With a Vengence’ and part of a crossover ‘Minnimum Carnage’, all collected in this new omnibus. I got to tweak TOXIN’s design and also got to draw CARNAGE, which as an old-school Mark Bagley fan, was VERY cool. Even got to co-create MANIA with Cullen who is now a friggin’ toy! MANIA that is, not Cullen.
It’s where I also eventually managed to wrangle cover work out of Marvel, pushing to do the covers to my issues, something I was really adamant about securing. There’s a story behind that, I’m not sure I’ve shared before, but I’ll get to it in future. Really felt I hit a stride with that cover run though by the time three of my covers were printed on my issues, I was off the book and moved onto DEADPOOL. And then I proceeded to do variants for everyone elses books.
Seriously though, it was a big step to becoming better known as a cover artist.
Getting to basically do a ‘dark SPIDER-MAN’ book was a great experience, and the VENOM fanbase seemed to stick with me, many following me to DEADPOOL it seems.
But wait… there’s more! Seems that Hot Toys are making an AGENT VENOM figure. It looks great, reckon I’ll splash out on one myself.
Now, I didn’t design this costume, it was Tony Moore who came up with this great look well before I was on the book but the hardcore cans at TheVenomSite pointed this out to me…
Uuuuuh, looks like Hot Toys looked at my VENOM run too [I can see a cover in the licened artwork, fwiw]. Pretty class!
TAPE DEC
The proper edit of TAPE DEC #11 is up on the YouTubes, with TERMINATOR #5 artist Joe Mulvey. This was a very fun one, ye should check it out.
As mentioned in the vid, Joe is back on THUNDERCATS with a special one-shot story in Issue Fifteen, more below…
THUNDERCATS
Because of Diamond/distriution shennanigans, it looks like Issue Thirteen has been moved to tomorrow, March 5th.
In the meantime, some news; Issue Sixteen kicks off our Knights Of Thundera storyline. After the fallout of events from Issue Fourteen, the ThunderCats get a new look…
Going to some wild and crazy places in Year Two. Will talk more about this soon.
Had a bit of a chat with Ed Brisson about where his THUNDERCATS LOST book is going and my plans for the main book, just to make sure we weren’t bumping into each other’s stories. oR, bump into each other where we want to. We’re planning to have a proper call with editor Nate Cosby soon to nail things down. Most of the stuff we talked about in our last call are now about to see print so we need to work out where the next steps are going.
As announced in the TAPE DEC episode above, the artist for Issue Fifteen will be the returning Joe Mulvey [who also drew Issue Ten]. We chatted a bit about the story in that episode, describing it as ‘A Lion-O/Conan tale.’ Joe played around with some designs for how he’ll appear in the issue, loosely based off how I drew him on the cover.
Here’s an advance look at the cover for THUNDERCATS LOST #4, featuring LIGON!
Drew is wrapping up Issue Fourteen in a herculean effort to get the book in early, with a little help by Joe too. I really don’t know Drew he does it. I was hoping to take a breath on THUNDERCATS but being the machine that he is, he always needs pages pronto!
TERMINATOR
Because of Diamond/distriution shennanigans, it looks like Issue Five has been moved to tomorrow, March 5th.
I recently handed in my cover for Issue Nine and I’m quite happy with it. Why did it take me NINE issues to come up with the most obvious cover idea for a TERMINATOR cover…? Well anyway, here it is, in all its gruesome detail.
I finished the script for Issue Seven. There’s a few moments in this issue that probably make it the darkest issue I’ve ever written. This has been a challenging book to write but the moments where it really clicks have been very rewarding.
If you saw the solicits for Issue Eight, you woud have seen Colin Craker is also providing the main art for that issue. He did some really lovely work on the backup with Sal Crivelli in the first arc so it’ll be great to see him take on a whole issue.
All the art is in for Issue Six. Damn, Colin makes every artist on this book look so good… here’s the first 3 pages of the book so you can see how good he and artist Lorenzo Re are together.
It was very satisfying to finally write a little story set during the War with the Machines but even more satisfying to see it when the art looks this good. The lettering draft for the issue is all done too, so this is officially locked.
OUT SOON
March 05th
TERMINATOR #5 [W/C]
THUNDERCATS #13 [W/VC]
March 12th
HELLHUNTERS #4 [VC]
March 19th
THUNDERCATS LOST #1 [VC]
ABSOLUTE FLASH #1 [VC]
March 26th
TERMINATOR #6 [W/C]
THUNDERCATS #14
WEAPON X-MEN #2 [VC]
April 02nd
ICE CREAM MAN #44 [VC]
April 16th
TERMINATOR #7 [W/C]
May 07th
THUNDERCATS LOST #3 [VC]
May 21st
TERMINATOR #8 [W/C]
THUNDERCATS #16 [W/VC]
BATMAN & ROBIN: YEAR ONE #7 [VC]
Damn, dude! Just keep getting better and better!