#200: Ride the Lightning

Plus; first chance at getting my ABSOLUTE BATMAN cover art

Jun 30, 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

It’s been hot. Ive been drawing flames and lava during a heatwve which is …less than ideal. On the other hand; there’s ice cream. I just finished pencilling/inking a 5 page story [PROJECT LIGHTNING] as I do more research for PROJECT LAZARUS …having a lot of fun, despite the heat.

First, my worklog:

Lettering draft, MUMM-RA #5
Inked PROJECT ARCA cover
Layouts/ pencils/ inks PROJECT LIGHTNING short story
Research; PROJECT LAZARUS
Coloured A QUIET PLACE #3 cover
Roughs, A QUIET PLACE #4 cover
Roughs, A QUIET PLACE #5 cover
Lettering notes MUMM-RA #3

-I sometimes have been asked if I write this newsletter myself. I’ve been confused as to why I’m being asked, apparently some people have people who do this for them. I can confirm; I do indeed take the time to put this newsletter together myself every two weeks. How can I prove this…? ALL THE FECKING TYPOS! I swear to god; I comb through every post for typos, fix all the ones I find, hit ‘publish’ and then in the posted newsletter, I immediately find something like 10 typos! Or Stephen Mooney points them out to me. I do apologise, I partly blame the lack of spellcheck on Substack but let’s face it; my own incompetence is to blame. I really do try my best and will continue to try my best but let’s face it; some typos will continue to slip through the net here on Declanations. See what I did there…?

-PROJECT LIGHTNING, a short story [for …ah, I can say it’s for Marvel I guess] is now all pencilled/inked. I’ve very much enjoyed drawing this quite fun and visual short, getting to work with a writer I’ve known a very long time yet never properly worked together. Just getting the inks prepped/ flatted for colour now while I work on a cover and then I’ll hop on colours.

-I took on another short art gig. It’s just a single issue that I’m not writing, again something with a great writer I’ve never worked with before. Something fun and very visual with a character I love. Will be something to pay the bills while all the research/early writing/designs on PROJECT LAZARUS is in the works. Going to call this PROJECT WHITEOUT.

-Dynamite Comics announced a new FIREFLY ongoing series written by Mark Russel with art by my former TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR: METAL collabrators, artist Lorenzo Re and colourist Colin Craker. I was very happy to be asked to contribute a variant cover for the book, I am a massive fan of the original TV series and have recently started a rewatch …god it’s so good. Ive had a peek at some of the pages from Issue One and the book looks bold and stylish, it’s really fantastic. So glad I can finally show off this cover as I drew it back in 2025.

I haven’t show much process stuff in a while, so here’s the inks/pencils/roughs…

-I had a big chat with the artist of the upcoming PROJECT AXIS about our plans for the book. All very exciting, he’ll be able to start development in about a month, so I’ have to get my arse in gear and get moving on a script.

-I have officially started on PROJECT LAZARUS. Still deep on research part of the project …I am five books deep in my reading list of [currently] sixteen. Once I’ve read/re-read all those, I’m going back to my original pitch and reworking out a new outline. I’ll be in this research stage for a bit longer before I’m ready to write, but it’s hard to believe I’m actually doing this.

-Ignition Press have released my cover for TYLER RAKE: AN EXTRACTION STORY #5, the last issue of the series. This was a very fun cover-run, I’ll try put together a process post about them in a future Declarations.

-My pal Gavin Guidry [and artist on the excellent FLASH series] recently revealed that he has signed exclusive at DC Comics; congrats Gavin! Was very happy to see it… exclusive contracts [ie, contracts offered by publishers that lock talent down to work for them excusively for a set amount of time] havent gone anywhere, they just don’t seem to be talked bout much these days? With that in mind, I’m encouraged to see publishers continue to lock in promising and hardworking talent by put them on big ongoing books. I think it’s a great way to show readers that they have confidence in their creators, in their characters and that they’re investing in their various titles. I think it really adds buzz to books, to know that publishers are really getting behind their initiatives and also gives creatives an incentive to get behind publishers too. The public facing exclusivity makes creatives compedative with each other, wich leades to more energy in the work, I think. It’s not for everyone of course [I was once offerered one and turned it down], I just think it’s something that I’d like to see publishers make more fanfare out of.

-Bad Idea sent me the first issue of their upcoming book WARBIRD for a quote. It’s a series very up my street. And man, this book is beautiful, definitely worth cheacking out. My blurb…

“With Kolstad and Vendetti channelling old school Cold War espionage via a stylish contemporary lens, WARBIRD becomes a delight in Euro-infused visual storytelling from masters Maleev and Ribic.”
-Declan Shalvey [Old Dog, ThunderCats]

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ART DECO

I’ve had some inquiries about this piece and on the back of the news of an upcoming animated series, I’ve just put my ABSLOLUTE BATMAN #18 variant cover art up on the Art Deco store.

As usual, you Decolytes have first shot at snapping it up today but I’m going to publicly post this link tomorrow [in 24 hours]. I’m only offering it for ONE WEEK so if interested, jump on it asap.

ABSOLUTE BATMAN #18 VARIANT COVER ART

A QUIET PLACE

-I recently handed in my cover for A QUIET PLACE: RISING TIDES #3 and it’s one of my new favourite pieces. Working on the next cover rough now [Issue 4], I’ll be working on the script for it soon too.

Artist Luke Sparrow is currently working on Issue 2 and it’s looking phenomenal. I loved working with Luke on TERMINATOR, my only frustration was that they were sporadic issues in the overall run, the schedule was just too manic on that title. I really wanted to do a whole arc with him so when A QUIET PLACE was offered to me, Luke came to mind immediately. We have a great venn-diagram as regards our storytelling sensibilities so I felt with doing a book that is largely silent, I really needed someone I was very in-sync with which is why I asked for him on this. I’m very happy to report, not only did editor Heather Antos make it happen, Luke has raised the bar even more with this series. Seeing him develop a story into more issues is both incredibly satisfying and rewarding.

THUNDERCATS

So there’s some big THUNDERCATS news! Seems Warner Brothers are looking to make a new animated feature film.

Warner Bros. Officially Rebooting 41-Year-Old Fantasy Classic With New Movie.

Pretty class. I should stress, I know nothing about this. Do I think the should use mine and Drew’s run as a template? Yes! Will they…? God knows. In any case, it’s great news for fans of both Thunder and Cats.

Back to the comics! Dynamite have recently announced a new CHEETARA ongoing series by Saladin Ahmed and Andrea Ancari.

Don’t miss a bold new beginning for the Thunderverse from Eisner Award-winning writer SALADIN AHMED and amazing artist ANDREA ARCARI! Cheetara is used to hearing what others can’t…but this is different: Bold, relentless voices that contradict the Book of Omens and praise the Mu’Tants. Cheetara is fast, but even she can’t outrun these new visions that threaten to send her on a journey of discovery and danger… This issue features a PREMIUM MYSTERY BLIND BAG which contains three limited editions of the issue selected randomly from a range of variant covers exclusive to this offering. Please Note: The number of Blind Bags is limited. Allocations may occur.

Have a look at some great covers by Mark Spears, John Amor, Karen S. Darboe and Will Robson

THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS Issue Four is out next week!

Thunder-bro Drew Moss is currently drawing the final issie of THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS. Spare a thought for him, because this last issue is no joke, drawing-wise. There’s a LOT going on and this will be a punishing issue to draw. Cant wait to see what he does, though.

MUMM-RA

Issue Three of MUMM-RA: THE EVER-LIVING is out now! Rapha Lobosco, Roshan Kurichiyanil and Jeff Eckleberry did amazing work, as usual.

Issue Four went to print last week, also looking great. I am so happy with how this book has come together. Saying that, Rapha is [unfortunatley] starting on the final issue at the moment.

With us nearing the end of production of this project, I’m looking back at this mini and I think it’ll will be a really interesting companion piece to the rest of the THUNDERCATS saga we’ve put together. A quality book from top to bottom because of the lovely work by Rapha with Roshan, as well as the fantastic Danny Earls covers and variants by John Amor and Erica D’Urso. Here’s their covers for the Issue 4 [as well as mine].