#168: Dublin nights, Knights and Red Shirts
No sleep and all play makes Dec a tired boy.
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.
ALL THE LATEST
Welcome back to your bi-weekly Declarations. I’m inbetween two appearances in Ireland; back from Dublin Con and about to head to an animation festival. Not bad! But, work also needs doing so as usual; my worklog:
Wrote TERMINATOR #10 script
Wrote THUNDERCATS #16 script
Lettering notes for THUNDERCATS #14
Handed in roughs for 5 x Dynamite books [TERMINATOR,2x THUNDERCATS, THUNDERCATS LOST, unannounced project] and one for Marvel
Layouts for PROJECT SCREAM [short story]
Inked pitch cover for PROJECT LAZARUS
Coloured cover for a Dynamite book
Pencilled/ inked/ coloured covers for two secret Dynamite books
Pencilled/ inked coloured cover for PROJECT NEWARK
Pencilled cover for IP crossover project [waiting on approvals]
Pencilled/ inked cover for TERMINATOR #10
Pencilled cover for THUNDERCATS #18
Pencilled/ inked cover for THUNDERCATS LOST #15
Tabled at Dublin Comic Con
Yes I was at Dublin Comic Con over the weekend and had a blast. Too much of a blast, maybe. It was a bit more unique as Marvel EIC CB Cebulski was a guest. CB was over here a lot in the years before [and while] I was starting out at Marvel and hadn’t been over in over 10 years so was a treat to have him back. I had a panel with him and artist Danny Earls, moderated by Big Bang Comics’ John Hendrick that went quite well.
I got to meet DC editor Brittany Holzherr too, along with the US guests Emma Kubert and Anthony Marques. Emma essentially taunted me all weekend when she found out I was a superfan of her dad, Andy Kubert. It was embarrassing, but deserved.
A lot of the Irish professionals made it into town too so it was great to catch up with them all. Shared a room with Nate Stockman [no more will be said about that] and even caught up with the elusive Stephen Thompson. I got to talk to a lot of young kids who were tabling at the show this year too. It was very cute and sweet to see so many kids table with their art. I was even gifted a Mr Knight by one of the kids …it even melted my stone cold heart.
Made it back from the show on Sunday night and I’m exhausted. Need to take care of some work this week before I head off to the Dingle Animation Festival this coming Friday…
-I’ll be on a panel at the Dingle Animation Festival this coming Friday talking about what Lighthouse Studios have been doing regarding their adaption of SAVAGE TOWN, my graphic novel with artist Philip Barrett, especially in lieu of the new EP they’ve brought on to deal with their original programming. Here’s the panel in question, to be moderated by Will Sliney and will include Stephen Mooney, Nick Roche, Estrela Lourenco and Dee Stevens.
10.30: Ink to Animation: The Comic Book Artist’s Journey to The Screen
It’ll be really interesting to attend an event like this. Not a convention, so not my natural habitat but I think it’ll be a great experience. I’ll let ye know how it goes.
-I’m getting out of the house a lot this year, it seems. I’ll also be at Forbidden Planet’s Free Comic Book Day event at their Wolverhampton branch May 4th. Will Robson and Jimmy Broxton have also been announced, some more to be announced soon.
-Great news! TIME BEFORE TIME has been included in Image Comics’ Image Firsts program. This means a new edition of #1 of the book will be rolled out to retailers at a price point of $1 with the goal of getting the attention of new readers who might then check out the series. I’ll be banging the drum about this for the next couple of weeks as the FOC is April 7th. If you’re a fan of the book, please do let your retailer know about this to help awareness. Or, if you haven’t read it and are curious, well here’s a very cheap way of seeing what you think. Details below…
IMAGE FIRSTS TIME BEFORE TIME #1
FOC Date: 4/7/2025
In-Store Date: 4/30/2025
UPC: 70985304373700111
Lunar Product Code: 0325IM816
-I recently got offered to relaunch a new ongoing title as writer. I entertained the idea over a weekend as it could potentially be really cool, but I ended up turning it down. I’m in this nebulous area where I’m getting close to being pretty much a full time writer/cover artist [which, is a crazy thought] meaning I wouldn’t be much drawing pages anymore. I just don’t want to get to that stage …the project would really need to be worth it. I’m very fortunate to have books with longer runs like THUNDERCATS AND TERMINATOR at the moment but they take up a significant amount of time and the remaining headspace is precious. I want to spend that headspace on actually drawing comics. I just have to be realistic, I need to concentrate on setting up the next ‘Primary’ project. If I took this new shiny book, I think that might derail me somewhat from doing so.
UPDATE: I potentially got offered a different book …one that might actually be worth slowing down on my sequential page output. Have a meeting about it this evening, will see how it goes. What a roller-coaster!
-IDW announced a new set of STAR TREK comics, one of them being RED SHIRTS, for which I illustrated the above retailer incentive variant cover. This was a bit different for me, going for a B-movie feel for STAR TREK but I enjoyed it a lot. Experimented a bit more with textures on this one. Got a great reaction to it online actually which doesn’t often happen with my Trek covers.
-I have a few covers I’d like to show early here, but they’re mostly for unannounced series, so I have to keep them back ‘til announced, like the Trek cover above. I can tease this upcoming cover a litle though…
-I’m currently pencilling PROJECT SCREAM. After that, I’ll start drawing an eight page story for PROJECT WESLEY. It’s for a great creator owned series by a creator I’m a big fan of. He reached out a while back to see if I’d draw a short story he wrote for his book and since he was good enough to draw something for me once, I felt it was only fair I return the favour. It’s also just fun to jam on someone else’s project without having to do so much thinking beforehand, like with Stephen Mooney’s HALF PAST DANGER special a couple of years ago. Just have fun drawing something fun. I’m writing so much at the moment but nothing for myself that’s ready yet, so between this and PROJECT SCREAM it’ll be fun to switch back to the process of working on someone else’s script for a change. I’ve committed to a short for another creator this year too but otherwise, anything I’ll be drawing after this will be for my own stuff .
ART DECO
After my flurry of commissions last time, this Declarations I have… not much, as I was concentrating on my cover workload. I’m about to get started on my C2E2 commissions though. In the meantime, enjoy this MYSTIQUE/WOLVERINE headsketch timelapse.
TAPE DEC
Next Tape Dec livestream will be tomorrow, 9pm GMT/5PM EST. It’ll be double-trouble this time as I’ll be talking to Charles Soule, AND Will Sliney to talk about their upcoming Image series THE COLD WITCH, the next installment of their SHROUDED COLLEGE saga. Charles and I worked on RETURN OF WOLVERINE together and while technically Will and I haven’t worked together, we both started out in comics at the same time so have a shared story. I think that’ll be fun to get into too. Make sure ye pop in and ask the guys some questions.
THUNDERCATS
Just handing in the full script for Issue Sixteen, I’m feelinging very in-gear with this new Knights Of Thundera arc for the book. Sometimes we play with old T-Cats lore, sometimes we play with new ideas and this is very much new stuff. I feel we can really go to fun places now, having earned the trust of the readers.
I’m also currently inking the cover for Issue 18, I can show that off next time.
Drew Moss is already working on the first scene from Issue Sixteen at the moment and I love the energy he’s bringing. Working so close together in the production of a book has its stresses but one of the cool things is jiving off each other as pages come in.
TERMINATOR
I handed in the script for Issue Eight a couple of weeks ago. It’s definitely the darkest thing I’ve ever written. I’m a bit nervous about it to be honest, but I think that’s a good thing. I’m nervous because I pushed myself a bit more on this one so I’m hoping it’ll pay off in the final comic. The best thing about this series is being able to take a core story idea and channel it through the ‘format’ of the TERMINATOR core concept. It’s been a great way to play with different ideas.
Issue Five came out a couple of weeks ago and seemed to go down well, which is great. I really loved how Joe Mulvey’s pages looked for this series …so different to say, THUNDERCATS but it worked. A testament to Joe’s versatility. I’m very excited to see the reaction to Lorenzo Re’s issue later this month as he knocked it out of the park. I have to colour the cover for Issue Ten but in the meantime, here’s the inks.
Some good news… this book was originally offered to me as a certain amount of issues but the sales on TERMINATOR have been so good, the series has been extended. More on that in a future Declaration.
OUT SOON
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]
So glad Terminator has been extended! Really love this book. always wanted more terminator stories but not necessarily Sarah/John Conner stories, so this book has been a breath of fresh air. Also dynamite artist you’ve been collaborating with.