#191: BLOOD AND CHROMIUM

More silver, more cats, more thunder, more hawks. More covers!

Feb 17, 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

Greetings from the still very cold and very wet island of Ireland. Christ, January felt like two months. Well, at least there’s lots of work to keep me indoors. Here’s the latest Worklog:

Reworked THUNDERCATS #25 script
Coloured THUNDERHAWKS #2 cover
Coloured Ignition Press cover
Pencilled/inked/ coloured 2x Marvel covers
Writing MUMM-RA #2 script
PROJECT ARCA outline revision.
Writing PROJECT ARCA script
Pencilled/inked THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS pages
Roughs; Marvel cover, Ignition cover, THUNDERHAWKS cover

-I’m about two-thirds of the way through my issue of THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS, into the last stretch now. Should be finished by the time the next Declarations comes out, then I’ll be digging more into scripts for a few weeks.

-PROJECT SILENCE outline has been approved, which is great news. The creative team I wanted is also locked in so I’m really looking forward to get moving on this. I just need to take another look at that outline soon and flesh it out for a full mini-series before I start writing. This will effectively replace the workload space that I’d previously assigned for TERMINATOR.

-DC Comics released my variant cover for ABSOLUTE BATMAN #18 by Scott Snyder, Eric Canete and Frank Martin. I guess if Eric is doing THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS covers, then it’s only fair I do one for his book :P

Really though, I am very happy with this one, great to do a cover for a big hit book like this of course and as of late, I really appreciate that DC have encouraged me to go bold and design-y with the Absolute covers I’ve done.

-I just found out that Marvel are relaesing a STAR WARS: HIDDEN EMPIRE OMNIBUS [out tomorrow], with a Direct Market cover by myself [I did the coves for the original miniseries]. Here’s more info from solicits:

Written by CHARLES SOULE, ETHAN SACKS, GREG PAK, ALYSSA WONG & MARC GUGGENHEIM
Penciled by STEVEN CUMMINGS, ANDRÉS GENOLET, RAMON ROSANAS, MADIBEK MUSABEKOV, PAOLO VILLANELLI, ALESSANDRO MIRACOLO, RAFFAELE IENCO, LUKE ROSS, IBRAIM ROBERSON, MINKYU JUNG, NATACHA BUSTOS & MORE
Covers by PAULO SIQUEIRA & DECLAN SHALVEY
The epic trilogy begun in STAR WARS: WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS and STAR WARS: CRIMSON REIGN concludes!
Collecting STAR WARS: HIDDEN EMPIRE #1-5, STAR WARS (2020) #26-36, STAR WARS: BOUNTY HUNTERS #27-34, STAR WARS: DARTH VADER (2020) #28-32, STAR WARS: DOCTOR APHRA (2020) #22-31 and STAR WARS: REVELATIONS (2022).

-The good people at BAD IDEA sent me THE ENDS, the latest by David and Maria Lapham, looking for a blurb. I am a huge fan of past Lapham work such as STRANGE BULLETS, SILVERFISH, YOUNG LIARS and more. This new edition is a trade paperback of the series complete with extra scenes, alternative endings, etc. It’s dark, it’s complicated, it’s compelling in all the ways that make the Laphams great. Here’s my blurb.

“THE ENDS by David and Maria Lapham is yet another thrilling tour de force from the creative pair. A generational story about love and hate, the slow boil that rises as one pushes against the other and the stark outcomes involved when it finally froths over.”

-I also saw that the launch page for a campaign I contributed to has launched. I provided a variant cover for BIXBY GRANT: FANGS & BRIMSTONE. The writer Patrick Coyle approached me at NYCC last year and showed my the series he had been releasing via Kickstarter, and I was very impressed [especially with the art by Gonzalo Martinez & Arthur Hesli]. He reached out about doing a cover and it was something I was able to take on. You can go to the launch-page here where I believe the previous issues will also be available.

-I’ll be in France next month for the Paris Manga & Sci-Fi Show, on 14-15th of March. I last attended the show 4 years ago so it’ll be nice to be back again. I’ll be doing a signing at Central Comics in the city a couple of later [Mar 17th], then two more down south in Nice at Fictionnautes [Mar 19/20th]. A whole week away in France is exactly what I’ll need after wrapping up this THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS issue, so very much looking forward to it.

PROCESS

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been working on covers for an Ignition Press series…? Well that book has been made public, wanted to show how it came together.

The covers are for TYLER RAKE: AN EXTRACTION STORY, a new miniseries written by Ande Parks, drawn by Ronan Cliquet based off the original Extraction novels. I quite enjoyed the movies and was keen to take this on. Ignition had a specific brief for the covers but were also very open for me to create an identity for the series. I’m always eager to work on projects like that. For me, the issue was doing covers for a known IP, but not use an actor’s likeness, while also creating some kind of identifying elements that will catch the readers eyes. There is no symbol to use, no recognisable likeness or character design/costume to lean into …so I had to make one. I decided that with each cover, I would limit the colour scheme to a spectum of yellow, red and a dark blue. I would obscure the main character’s face and would make the compositions as bold as possible. I felt I wanted to channel my PUNISHER cover work on something like this. My goal being that with each issue that comes out, you can tell this is an EXTRACTION cover. I tried to take my limitations and flip them in order to create identifiers of some kind.

Thankfully editor Jamie Rich at Ignition was into my approach, which I think will be more obvious as future covers re released. Each cover has been a delight to work on, deliveing full mood.

Something different about these covers is that the format is a little wider for Ignition, having a slight wraparound [more album/2000AD sized, I guess]. The comics are still in US format though so their cover art wraparounds to cover a sliver of the back cover, the rest of the back being a graphic element. It means I’m drawing slightly wider so I have to lay out my compositions that’ll work as both a regular US format cover and a slightly wider composition. As you can see, I composed the image to fold behind Tyler’s ear, so the bullets and sparks carry over onto the back section.

Here’s a scan of the pencils and inks.

And finally, here’s the un-cropped version and the solicits for the issue, out April 1st.

Full front/back wraparound [before final design added]

TYLER RAKE: AN EXTRACTION STORY #1
(W) Ande Parks (A) Ronan Cliquet (C) Declan Shalvey
IGNITION PRESS
StockID: 173075 SKU: 81019628023601011

Experience the early days of Tyler Rake in this new prequel series- debuting ahead of the new Extraction film on Netflix!Mercenary in hiding- Tyler Rake- thought he was starting over. But his story- is just beginning...Working as a bouncer in one of Sao Paolo’s most popular nightclubs- Tyler’s world is about to be upended when a tussle with a connected drug dealer goes horribly wrong forcing him to take on a job he never wanted in order to stay hidden.Original writer Ande Parks (Daredevil- Green Hornet) reunites with his best-known franchise- Extraction- to exploring the early days of its star with artist Ronan Cliquet (Nightwing) and colorist Ronda Pattison (Deluge- TMNT)!

THUNDERCATS

Full steam ahead on the o'l’ Thundera train. Tomorrow, THUNDERCATS #24 is out and it’s a special issue with wonderful art by David O’Sullivan. Here’s the gorgeous preview pages…

Drew Moss is working on the last half of THUNDERCATS #25, his final issue. I’d like to show something here but it’s all too spoilery.

Here’s a glorious peekat Danny Earls’ inks for MUMM-RA: THE EVER-LIVING #2. The colours are great but wanted to show off how much work Danny is putting into his inks.

MUMM-RA: THE EVER-LIVING #2 cover inks by Danny Earls

Speaking of MUMM-RA, I’m currently working on the script for Issue 2, looking to wrap it up tomorrow. Below is a page of Rapha Lobosco’s art from Issue 1. There’s a lot of big and weird stuff in this book and Rapha is really working well with it. Less super-hero inspired then the regular ThunderCats stuff, definitely more of a horror vibe with this series.

MUMM-RA: THE EVER-LIVING #1 art by Rapha Lobosco

If ayowne wants to help spread the word, Dynamite made these fun THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS promo banners. Use ‘em!

As for that particular book, I’m in the final leg of my 30 page issue so am eager to get to the finish line. I’ve seen the first 10 pages gloriously colured by Igor Monti. I’ll start writing Issue 2 later this week. It’s all coming together quite nicely.

Dynamite announced yesterday that THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS will feature a new character designed by myself. Chromioum is a new addition to the SilverHawks that featured prominently in my issue of THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS, though will first debut in ROAD TO WAR #1. He’s fun to write and fun to draw. A real treat to be able to add to the SilverHawks mythos a little too.

And as a final peek, here’s a look at Eric Canete’s glorious cover for THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #2.

WOW.

TERMINATOR

The final issue of TERMINATOR: METAL is also out tomorrow! That is the end of my time on the franchise and I had a great time on it. This last issue is drawn by Luke Sparrow, colours by Colin Craker. Here’s the preview pages, with letters by Jeff Eckleberry.

Huge thanks to Rory McConville for joining me on writing duties for this mini-series, it was great to work with him again. At the risk of repeating myself, I loved my time on this series. I wasn’t expecting a book about a murder robot to end up being a vessel to channel more emotional storyelling out of me but somehow it did.

Speaking of Rory, it was just announced that he’s taking over as the writer of RED SONJA in May along with artist Pablo de Bonis. Here’s info from the press release.

“Irish icon Rory McConville has been a rapidly rising star in comics, a key powerhouse in the revived scorching hot popularity of the Spawn mythos contributing to multiple titles, chronicling the latest cases of Judge Dredd, independent titles like Time Before Time and Write It In Blood, and has dipped his toes into the Dynamite pool co-writing The Terminator: Metal alongside Declan Shalvey. Now he’s jumping headfirst into the deep end by taking on one of the publisher’s crown jewels. Rory is joined in this bold new series by artist Pablo de Bonis (North End). The duo and the rest of the creative team are sharpening their swords, ready to present an all-new set of sagas starring the She-Devil.
“The fiery-haired heroine of Hyrkania finds herself caught in the middle of a spring of revolution. A turbulent movement is determined to reshape all of Hyboria in their image, and have no interest in sparing anyone in their way. The She-Devil must protect the last descendant of an ancient bloodline from their scourge. The person under Sonja’s protection, Aretha, is needed for a blood ritual, and Sonja sets out to try to free her from this cursed fate. Questions will arise through this latest quest that will shake the She-Devil to her core!
"I'm thrilled to be journeying to Hyboria for the She Devil's latest adventure," said writer Rory McConville. "As the series begins, Sonja is just trying to enjoy a quiet tankard of ale or three when an old ally's plea for aid pulls her into a revolutionary crisis on the brink of toppling the corrupt kingdom of Koth and unleashing dangers that could engulf all of Hyboria. I'm fortunate to be working with the incredibly talented Pablo de Bonis. When I first saw his pages, I knew readers were in for something special and I can't wait for them to join us on this quest."

This is great news, I can’t wait to see what he does with this. I was previously unfamiliar with de Bonis’ work but what I’ve just seen looks fantastic. Preview pages below.