#169: Comics, Cartoons & Cows

And Commissions!

Apr 01, 2025

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

Despite the beautiful Dingle bay view and the mass confluence of creative people I took only one photo that weekend and it was this:

No wait, there was also this, the seating arrangement for the dinner on opening night. Yes, Stephen Mooney, a million times yes!

It was a very interesting couple of days talking to people in a similar industry to comics, but yet very different. I had good chats with students and producer types, most notably with Ed Moline, the new head of development at Lighthouse Studios about where they are in the adaptation process of SAVAGE TOWN.

I was reminded how lucky we are in comics, that we can make material pretty easily compared to the money and hurdles that come with animation, though it was very inspiring to see so much creativity in one place. I drew a MR KNIGHT headsketch for the charity auction the sold for a good price, I was told.

To the Worklog:

Attended the Dingle Animation Faestival
Halfway through TERMINATOR #10 script
Wrote an outline for PROJECT NEWARK
Wrote an outline for TERMINATOR #8
Worked on outline for future TERMINATOR arc
Roughs for Marvel cover
Rough for convention poster
Pencilled/inked 3 A4 commissions [see below]
Pencilled and inked PROJECT SCREAM short
Pencilled cover-quality commission
Inked and coloured THUNDERCATS #18 cover
Coloured covers for TERMINATOR 10 & THUNDERCATS LOST #5

-Marvel announced a new series; GHOST RIDER VS GALACTUS by J. Michael Straczynski & Juan Ferreyra revealing my variant cover for #1. Was fun to go big and epic for this one. I saw some Ferreya pages as reference for this cover. Some crazy impressive stuff. By Ferreya that is, not me.

-I had a meeting about a potential new writing gig. Not sure if it’ll happen or not though, we’ll see.

-Mad Cave released a cover that I teased here previously, for a new series called ENDLESS NIGHT by Mark London and Tom Derenick.

-Someone in the biz was doing a talk recently and asked if I could share some short, sharp pearls of wisdom. I shared the below with him, thought I may as well include them here…

-Comics are about relationships so build as many as you can. Also build a peer group that encourages your career yet challenges you creatively.

-Walk before you run; better to do four short stories that you can evaluate as you go rather than try a big epic that's impossible to evaluate. You'll always be too close to the big project to look at it objectively (and likely won't even finish). Finished projects are the best way to scrutinise your own work.

-Whatever aspect of comics you want to do, it's wise to attempt the other fields. It'll possibly widen your skill set but most importantly, help you understand the work your present/ future collaborators put in and make you better at your own.

-I found out when MYSTIQUE will be collected in trade paperback, on July 16th.

(W) Declan Shalvey (A/CA) Declan Shalvey
Mystique, one of Marvel's most mysterious and iconic mutants, gets her own series!

How do you track a subject with a history that contradicts itself? How do you stop a force whose motives change like quicksilver? How do you stop a target who can be anyone? That's the question that confronts Nick Fury as he stumbles upon a web of lies and espionage leading back to Mystique. From the ashes of Krakoa, the shape-shifting mutant returns to remind the world exactly who she is!

COLLECTING: Mystique (2024) 1-5

Rated T+
In Shops: Jul 16, 2025
SRP: $17.99

-PROJECT SCREAM is all done, just two sequential pages, but my first two since MYSTIQUE, which is crazy as we’re now in April. They took longer than I thought they would, guess I got a bit rusty on the auld sequentials. Next up is pencilling another [longer] short, PROJECT WESLEY. Should get stuck into that once I get back from the states.

-As ye likely know, I’ll be at C2E2 next week, table H-02. I’ll post table times just ahead of the show. I can say now though, that I’ll be on a panel on Saturday and man, what a panel…

Popverse's Marvel Matters with X-Men's Chris Claremont, Mystique's Declan Shalvey & Ultimate Wolverine's Chris Condon
Sat, Apr 12, 2025
3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
S403-AB
Find out what it’s really like inside the House of Ideas, as three of Marvel’s biggest creators come under one roof (and one panel room) to tell stories, share secrets, and provide wisdom about the place that brought you Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Avengers, and more. Popverse’s weekly Marvel Matters column goes live with host Chris Claremont along with Chris Condon (Ultimate Wolverine), Declan Shalvey (Mystique, Moon Knight, Deadpool), and Chris Claremont (X-Men)

Yes that’s right… I’m gonna be on an X-MEN panel with Chris friggin’ Claremont! And Chris Condon too or whatever. I’ll be throwing Condon under the bus on that panel as soon as possible, in order to make myself look better in front of Mr. Claremont.

-I posted my ‘Work shelf’ a while ago, have since updated it with missing volumes, now including my black/white/red trades, TURTLES: black/white/green, DEADPOOL: GOOD BAD & THE UGLY trade [I had to track down a second hand copy of that one on Amazon as its long out of print] and THUNDERCATS Vol 2. I have another Work Shelf of omnibuses and hardcovers, will likely have to move the 28 DAYS LATER omnibus up there soon to make room for MYSTIQUE and TERMINATOR Vol 1.

ART DECO

I’ve been trying to get going on some commissions for C2E2, my main concern is getting the A4/full figure pieces done first, as they’re more time consuming/ challenging to do. Got a couple done, here’s a MR KNIGHT…

James Harren’s ULTRAMEGA

And a HELLBOY for good measure.

Have one more of these and a handful of headsketches to do before C2E2, ut it has been fun doing these more splashy images for the first time in ages. I’ll soon be posting timelapses for these, but if you like, you can find the livestreams here.

DEC RECS

Been sent some great stuff in the last few weeks. Fist, I’d like to direct some attention to THE SIN BIN by Robbie Thompson and Patricio Delpeche, published by IDW Publishing.

Writer Robbie Thompson is a good friend, someone who has always been very encouraging to me as both an artist and a writer. He was going great work on SPIDEY, VENOM and my personal favourite MEET THE SKRULLS [as well as writing on shows like Supernatural and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds] but I have been pestering him to do something creator owned for years. Well, he’s finally done it, with this wonderful graphic novel illustrated by Patricio Delpeche, an artist I was unfamiliar with but very impressed by in this book. More on the book…

THE SIN BIN is is a father-daughter monster-hunting original graphic novel perfect for fans of Supernatural and Stranger Things.
Dale “Dukes” Duquesne is a washed-up hockey player by day and a ghost, monster, and demon hunter by night. After each away game, Dukes finds the local legend that goes bump in the night and takes it down, locking it away in the Sin Bin. When his daughter, Cat, discovers the truth about his demon hunting, it becomes her dream to follow in his footsteps. As they work their first case together, Cat will learn Dukes’ biggest secret, though. He doesn’t hunt monsters out of the kindness of his heart. He’s searching for someone that was taken by monsters years ago…his wife, and Cat’s mother, Marta! Together, they hit the road to save mankind and reunite their family. From all-star writer Robbie Thompson (TV’s Supernatural, Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man/Deadpool) and rising star artist Patricio Delpeche, your new favourite monster-hunting family is here.

The book is out May 20, the FOC is Apr 14th, [very soon] so pleeeeeaaaaaaaase order the book ASAP, you won’t regret it.

TAPE DEC

I spotlighted this in the last Declarations but bith creators have empires to run so we’ve rescheduled TAPE DEC #13 with Charles Soule & Will Sliney for tomorrow, 10PM Irish time/5PM EST tomorrow. Should be an interesting one, be sure to join the chat and ask the guys some questions.

TAPE DEC #13 livestream

THUNDERCATS

THUNDERCATS LOST come out a couple of weeks ago and I’m delighted to see such a great reaction. It’s not my book of course, it’s by Ed Brisson and Rapha Lobosco. but it’s very satisfying to see the idea I pitched blossom into it’s own thing.

Here’s an advance look at my cover for THUNDERCATS Issue Eighteen. The Knights of Thundera are very fun to draw.

Drew Moss is currently hard at work on Issue Sixteen with some dynamite pages such as below…

While Joe Mulvey is hard at work on the Issue Fifteen one-shot story- our Conan-inspired issue featuring a stranded Lion-O.

I’m currently outlining Issue Seventeen, then jumping into scripting [I’m just trying to work out some TERMINATOR stuff first]. In the meantime, here’s another cover advance look… this one for THUNDERCATS LOST Issue Five

TERMINATOR

I coloured this cover since the previous Declarations, so sharing it here as promised. Quite like how it turned out, channeling those first moments of T2 that I saw as a kid…

This issue will see the return of original TERMINATOR artist Luke Sparrow! I cannot wait to see his pages grace my inbox once again.

I’m circling around the end of the second arc at the moment, having just written the last issue of said arc, now going back to write the preceding issues. Really wanted to nail that landing, then go back and stitch everything together. You’ll see… you’ll all see. Was working out some future stuff with a new collaborator last week, to be revealed at a later date.

The returning David O’Sullivan has handed in pages for his new issue [Seven] and it is looking as bleak and harrowing as I hoped.

I was also sent a PDF of the final Vol 1 collection; ‘Out of Time’. It looks really great, really nice production design… I’m really proud of the finished book. It’s been a great platform to play with darker themes and work with a lot of great artists in a short space of time. I love working on lighter fare like THUNDERCATS but this TERMINATOR series really gels with my storytelling sensibilities. Like THUNDERCATS, it’ll be out in both hardcover and trade paperback. Arriving June 18th.