#189: CLASHing hard

ARCA tease, PYRAMID talk and TERMINATOR wrapping up.

Jan 20, 2026

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

I’m just back from MegaCon Dublin last weekend, and a signing in Forbidden Planet Belfast yesterday. Met a friend from work at the show.

I’m pretty wiped, but gotta get back to the drawing board. Here’s my latest Worklog.

Writing PROJECT PYRAMID #1 script
Pencilling/inking PROJECT CLASH pages
Pencilled/inked/coloured Ignition Press cover
Wrote some press for PYRAMID and CLASH
Attended MegaCon Dublin
Signing Forbidden Planet Belfast

-I’ve mostly been keeping my head down at the drawing board while working on sequential pages for PROJECT CLASH. Been about a year since I’ve done so many interior pages and I’m doing my best to focus on that. I’m currently about a third of the way through Issue One.

-This week I want to do more writing work on PROJECT ARCA as the artist will need more material to work from soon. They’re nearly done with the initial/preview pages, will be moving onto colours and letters after that. I’ve very excited to have a creator owned project in the works. Still a ways off from revealing this but here’s a teaser…

-Joel Meadows is getting ready to launch a Kickstarter campaign for STRIPWIRE PRESENTS, collecting strips he published in his Tripwire magazine from years ago. I have a strip in there, done around the time I was working on 28 DAYS LATER, I think. Go to the launch page and click to be notified, there’ll be a lot of other [and better] artists with stories collected there.

Stripwire Presents [launch page]

-I’m nearly finished writing the first script for PROJECT PYRAMID, working with a new artist. Have known him a long time so it’s really cool to work on an actual book together. He’s already shared covers and layouts, very excited to see how the pages come out. He’s had to start drawing before I’ve finished writing the issue, I really don’t like it when that happens but I I can’t have him waiting on me when he could be working. I’m just finishing off the last pages today/tomorrow. This project will be revealed very soon. Here’s a peek at some layouts, for now.

-It’s been a long time since I’ve shared what I’ve been watching recently. Here’s a list of stuff I’ve seen over the past few months.

Film: The Accountant 2, Under The Silver Lake, Leave No Trace, Reptile, Red Riding Trilogy [1974/1980/1983], Pavements, Superman, Fantastic Four, Black Bag, Companion, Flight, A Quiet Place, A Quiet Place 2, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Play Dirty, September 5, The Nest, Thief, F1, Tornado, Marty Supreme, The Housemaid

TV: Tires S2, The Waterfront, The Bear S4, Ballard, Murderbot, 1932 S2, Alien: Earth, Escape at Danemora, The Terminal List: Dark Wolf, Landman S1, Slow Horses S5, Death by Lightning, Pluribus, The Newsreader S1, Tehran S1

-As I was saying above, was at MegaCon in Dublin where I got to hang with Erica D’Urso, Will Robson and Reece Hannigan. Has a fun couple of days, was nice to get a weekend out of the studio after the flu related grind over the holidays. Great auld chats were had. Myself and Erica popped up to Belfast yesterday for a signing that went great.

A very talented artist. Also pictured, Declan Shalvey.

-The announcements of CLASH and PYRAMID will be pretty soon, if not the end of this week, then next week. It’ll be a relief that I don’t have to talk around this stuff anymore.

DEC RECS

SIRENS: LOVE HURTS Book One is the first part of a new Black Label series written by Tini Howards, art by Babs Tarr and colours by Miguel Muerto.

SIRENS: LOVE HURTS is a Gotham murder mystery that somehow manages to be gloriously moody while also basking in confectionery hues. Howard is clearly having fun with the characters and the energetic dynamic between them all. Babs Tarr’s pages are bursting with boldness, vibrancy and buxom bodies that peer at us past heavy eyeliner, wonderfully painted with Muerto’s fluorescent pop sensibilities.

THUNDERCATS

After some notes back from editor Nate Cosby I have a little reworking of the script for Issue 25 to do. Want to get this to Drew Moss asap so he has plenty of time to work on our last issue of the book but also want his last issue of the book to be the best it can be.

Drew has been posting his latest covers for the book, wanted to spotlight one here.

Artist David O’Sullivan is just wrapping up Issue 24, and it’s really something special.

THUNDERCATS: LOST IN TIME #1 is out this week, by Ed Brisson and Chris Campana. This will be leading onto the next stage of THUNDERCATS so it’s very much worth checking out.

I’m not sure if you’re noticing how I’m talking around the upcoming plans past Issue 25 but all will be more clear very very soon…

TERMINATOR

Artist Luke Sparrow is currently drawing the final issue of the series, with Colin Craker weaving his usual colour magic. Have a look at that magic below.

At the signing yesterday, a handful of readers told me they were disappointed not to see any more of the Tex character from Issue One in the series. Us too guys, us too. That guy became way more popular than we thought he would. Had we gotten more issues, he definitely would have returned, I can say.

Of course, we’re not done yet, the previous issue drawn by Fabio Gallo is out next week. This is a really great story, one which co-writer Rory McConville really took the lead on. It was his initial idea and he fleshed it out into something really compelling. Here’s another peek of art from the issue.