#192: Chipping Away
Plus: A new series by TIME BEFORE TIME alum Joe Palmer
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 pretty stretched at the moment, but the sun is starting to shine and it’s helping my overall mood.
I’m in a mode where I’m writing four books in different stages [from outlines to actual pages] while doing covers and drawing pages. It’s a lot, I think what’s nagging at me is that it’s hard to feel like you’re making much progress on any one thing as you’re trying to nudge everything along. I’ll be finished drawing a book soon though, so I’m hoping I can get a good go at pushing each project through more before I start on my next solo project. Have a bit of travel booked for a couple of months so that’s always good for me to get my thinking hat on and make more writing progress. In the meantime though, my Worklog:
Finished MUMM-RA #2 script
Roughs for indie cover
Writing, PROJECT ARCA
Full outline for PROJECT SILENCE
New outline edit for THUNDERHAWKS X SILVERHAWKS #2
Pencilled/inked THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS pages
Pencilled/inked/coloured Marvel cover
Pencilled/inked/coloured THUNDERHAWKS #3 cover
Pencilled/inked/coloured MUMM-RA #3 cover
Coloured THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #3 cover
Podcast interview
Lettering notes for THUNDERCATS #25
-Just handed in more THUNDERHAWKS X SILVERHAWKS #1 pages, it’s all taking a bit longer than I was planning for, but that’s what happens when you are also doing scripts and covers, I guess. Just finishing the last pencils today and then inking. Should have the book wrapped by the end of the week.
-Have committed to a UK show in a couple of months. I had told myself at the start of the year that since I did a chunk of US shows in 2025, I should try go to other countries in 2026 and weirdly, that’s how things have happened to work out, with France in a couple of weeks and another show in a European country I haven’t been to before in April.
-I saw a bad resolution version of this cover online, so I’m posting a better version of it here. It’s for SPIDER-GWEN: THE GHOST SPIDER #9. My first time drawing her, it was fun and always great to do any kind of Spider-cover. Tried to do something that was a mix of design-heavy but also with a dynamic pose. Happy with the colours too.
-I’ve handed in a proper detailed outline for PROJECT SILENCE. This will be a very different project, nothing Thunder-related. More in line with the feel of TERMINATOR, in a way. Challenging but also with an art team I very much trust to pull it off. Now that the particulars are worked out, I’m looking forward to getting stuck in though I expect the outline will need another draft before that happens as it has to go through editorial and a licensor.
-Once this crossover issue is done I’m going to be getting ahead on covers/scripts [he says, again] and working on some small commissions ahead of my trip to France, working on some scripts while travelling. When I get back from France, I imagine I’ll start writing PROJECT SILENCE and PROJECT LAZARUS.
-Was shown this image online recently, supposedly from a promo banner for some Spider-Man: Brand New Day licensing material. Noticed a more movie-looking version of my Boomerang design… looks like it might be in the movie…? We’ll see.
-Joëlle Jones shared pages from our BARONESS one-shot with me. I’ve never written anything for Skybound before so I’m too chicken to show a peek here but the pages are amazing. So much tonal work gone into every page, beautifully rendered set pieces… wow. Can’t wait to show them off, but wait I shall.
-Here’s my cover for TYLER RAKE: AN EXTRACTION STORY #2. If you recall my cover for #1, between them both you might better notice my general approach to the series [bolder compositions, obscuring the main character, limited colour palette, etc]. Again, very glad with the freedom that editor Jamie Rich has given me with these covers and this might be my favourite one. Here’s the full composition, factoring in the partial cover wraparound.
-I’m chipping away on writing pages for PROJECT ARCA, the main creator owned project that’s currently in the works. Hard to do alongside paying work/deadlines so while this will take a while to come together, I’m glad I have something personal that’s being worked on alongside everything else. Would really like to clear some time to make more progress on this, though.
-The excellent Joe Palmer, who was the original artist and co-creator of TIME BEFORE TIME has a new series coming out from Oni Press in May called DESTINATION KILL.
I got to get a look at this a long time ago as Joe was getting ready to pitch it, I’m so glad to see it’s getting out into the world. Joe is a truly original voice, and we need more books like this out there. Here’s a quote from the press release.
Oni Press has revealed Destination Kill #1, a four-issue dystopian action thriller written, illustrated, and hand-lettered by British cartoonist Joe Palmer (Time Before Time). The 40-page debut arrives May 13, 2026, with a $5.99 cover price and a lineup of high-profile variant covers.
Set in the year 2125, Destination Kill unfolds in a London reshaped by the all-powerful corporation Overcon. The company’s robotic workforce handles everything from serving drinks to dispensing medication, while Central City is rebuilt into a gleaming corporate stronghold. As Overcon celebrates the one-year anniversary of its Paradise Loop, a transatlantic train capable of reaching New York in under 60 minutes, tensions erupt.
Displaced human workers, pushed aside by automation, flood the streets armed and ready to strike during the gala celebration. Caught in the middle are Gina Serene, an overworked detective struggling to stay afloat, and her ex-partner Lance Wingman, now a private investigator. Together, they stand between a corporate empire and a city on the brink of violent upheaval.
And some absolutely banging preview pages.
-I was offered a gig last week and I was about to send a “sure, I’d like to do a cover” reply when I re-read it and realised I was being asked to draw the actual book. Glad I had another read of the e-mail before replying! It was a cool gig but nothing I could consider as A) I’m booked up for the rest of the year on a DREAM gig but also, B) that I still just want to draw stories that I write. There are definitely some exceptions out there [for some day in the future] but deciding to pretty much only draw for myself has been a path that has really paid off for me. I can’t see me changing that approach any time soon, until the inevitable day comes where my brain is rattled from writing and I just want to draw for a while… I’m sure it’s coming. I mention this not to gloat, but to remind myself that I’m very lucky to be in such a unique position and I’m trying to stay the course on doing work that’s more personally fulfilling, be it work for hire or creator owned.
THUNDERCATS
I was hoping to be finished drawing THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #1 by now but as I was saying above, I’m juuuuust wrapping it up this week. Just have the last handful of pages to ink, really. Was slowed down by a couple of covers that needed to be handed in.
The FOC just passed last week for THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS: ROAD TO WAR, a prelude one-shot that sports a variant cover of my hand-drawn logo for the project. I love that I got to design this for the the crossover and even more so that I got to do it by hand. Get it.
Dynamite announced that THUNDERCATS artist Drew Moss will be joining me on THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS from Issue 2.
From the PR:
On Thursday, Dynamite announced regular ThunderCats artist Drew Moss will join writer Declan Shalvey on the second issue of ThunderCats X SilverHawks, the flagship of the three miniseries comprising the crossover event between the titular teams. Shalvey took both writing and art duties on the premiere issue. “I felt it was the right opportunity to invest into the franchise a little more. Why let Drew have all the fun…?” he said in a statement. “I was also looking to write and draw something again, not having drawn a whole comic in nearly a year. The planets aligned, I guess, or Third Earth specifically aligned.”
Moss added, “I am really excited to be working with Declan again and with these characters I grew up with … Drawing the ThunderCats for two years and now getting to work with the SilverHawks too is a dream come true!”
“Drew and I launched this book together and he has built this larger saga with me brick-by-brick over the last couple of years,” Shalvey continues. “I knew if I was going to do art duties on the first issue of this big crossover series, there is no one else who deserves to draw the rest more than Drew. I’m very excited to see what Drew will do on an event-level book like this and it’s so cool to be drawing a series with him, and not just writing for him.”
There really was no one else who could do this book with me, Drew has been with me every step of the main series so it makes total sense to have him on this apex crossover event for the line. Will be an honour to share this book with him not just as an artist but as a co-artist.
He also finished his work on THUNDERCATS #25 , I just did the lettering pass before posting this Declarations. I can’t believe we did a 25 issue run together [with a little help from our friends Stephen Mooney, Joe Mulvey, Alice Leclert and Dave O’Sulivan].
I’m currently writing his first issue [#2] while he takes a breath, then I’ll be going over my pages [for #1] and fleshing out the script. I worked a little looser on this issue by mostly ‘writing’ in the layouts.
Above is an advance look at my cover for THUNDERHAWKS #2. I am trying to create a consistent feel across the covers while also spotlighting each main character for the mini. So each character gets a cool hero shot, while I use the futuristic city and its colour scheme to knit the covers together as a set. The next cover is in the bag, looking to do the cover for Issue 4 before I hit the road.
Lastly, I believe Vol 3 of THUNDERCATS will finally be out on May 13th. This one was delayed quite a while unfortunately, so I’m glad to see it get a new release date.
MUMM-RA
While MUMM-RA is a THUNDERCATS book, it is also it’s own mini-series and deserves it’s own spotlight here.
Series artist Rapha Lobosco has handed in all his pages for Issue One and it looks fantastic. Looking forward to showing his stuff off here.
Danny Earls’ fully coloured cover for #2 was released a week or so ago to great applause, so I wanted to again show the inks for his next cover.
Danny’s work is always great in final but I really do love his stuff in black and white so happy to show it here.
Also released with Danny’s cover was John Amor’s cover for Issue 2, I wanted to show it without all the title dress as I love the use of space in this piece.
I’ve been a fan of John’s work for a long time after finding him on Instagram a year or so back. He’d reached out about THUNDERCATS covers a while back but all the slots were filled up by editorial. He reached out again with a MUMM-RA concept right around when we were working out this new MUMM-RA book. It felt like good timing [which is how most of the behind-the-scenes stuff works] so I tried again with editorial and it panned out okay. Doesn’t often happen so it’s great when it does. John just handed in his next cover and it’s SO great, even heavier on the atmosphere.
While I’m at it. May as well show my own cover for Issue 2.
I’ve finished the script for said issue, if it’s not clear from the covers, we get a better look at the Ancient Spirits of Evil. I’m really enjoying writing something a little darker in this corner of the ThunderVerse and I’m looking forward to seeing what Rapha does with the rest of the issues. I feel a full mini-series for this character has been very much justified, especially as I dig into the story more. Here’s more in the issue, from the earlier PR…
Elsewhere in the crossover, Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living #2 by Shalvey and Rapha Lobosco sees the sorcerer awakening on Second Earth. Stuck in a cycle where he is both ever-dying and ever-reviving, Mumm-Ra must “make a pact with the Ancient Spirits to learn their magics, and discover the dark cost of immortality.” And in ThunderHawks #2 by Ed Brisson and Vincenzo Federici, the now-SilverHawk armor-clad ‘Cats make preparations to escape from the dystopian future they landed in and “it will take a massive diversion, considerable power … and a sacrifice that will rock the team and the entire comics franchise to its core.”
I’ll be starting on the next script as soon as I can, first I need to concentrate back on the main crossover.
Mar 11th
ABSOLUTE BATMAN #18 [VC]
Mar 18th
THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS: ROAD TO WAR #1 [VC]
MARC SPECTOR: MOON KNIGHT #2 [VC]
March 25th
THUNDERCATS #25 [W/VC]
April 1st
BARONESS #1 [W]
TYLER RAKE: AN EXTRACTION STORY #1 [C]
April 8th
THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #1 [W/A/C]
April 15th
MUMM-RA #1 [W/C]
April 22nd
THUNDERHAWKS #1 [C]
APPEARANCES
Paris Manga & Sci-Fi Show, March 14 & 15th
Signing, Central Comics Paris, March 17th
Signing, Fictionnautes Nice, March 19/20th
