#198: London, You’re A Lady

I don’t know if anyone noticed, but Declarations missed a week! Truth be told, I was just back from London MCM and in the middle of hosting my BARONESS collaborator Joëlle Jones around Ireland a little, so I just didn’t have time to wrap up this edition on time. Apologies!

So yeah, I had a great week away, some of it being a very sweaty London MCM. Had a great time at the show [heat aside], more an that below.

My latest Worklog:

• Did a podcast interview

• Pencilled/inked PROJECT ARCA cover

• Inked a commission for London MCM

• Wrote MUMM-RA #4

• Wrote Negative Burn short story

• Wrote THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #4 script

• Coloured PROJECT SILENCE #1 cover

• Roughs/pencils/inks PROJECT SILENCE #2 cover

• Lettering notes, THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #3

• Gave notes on a friend’s pitch/script

• Attended London MCM

• Press interview for PROJECT SILENCE

• Roughs/pencils/inks PROJECT SILENCE #3 cover

• Notes, PROJECT SILENCE #2 script

-As the ThunderVerse crossover winds down, I’m looking to what’s coming next. All of it codenames for now.

PROJECT SILENCE: Writing, 5 issue miniseries. Artist TBA

PROJECT LAZARUS: Writing/drawing, 6 issue miniseries

PROJECT ARCA: Writing, 3 issue miniseries. Artist TBA

PROJECT AXIS: Writing, ongoing series.

All projects are in the early stages at the moment, except for PROJECT SILENCE which I’m two scripts deep, with the first issue drawn as of this week. Here’s an advance peek.

I’ve the first three covers for the series inked, and the first coloured. I believe the series will be announced in a week or so and out in November.

Everything else may take a while to come out, PROJECT LAZARUS won’t be out until 2027, as well as the rest. In a week or so, I’m going to start proper on LAZARUS, my long ago teased project, which is effectively a dream/bucket-list project. I have built a reading list [nearly a whole shelf-worth!] to go through before I take my initial pitch and flesh it out more.

PROJECT ARCA [above] is moving along, we have some coloured pages now and I couldn’t be happier. This is going to be such a beautiful book.

PROJECT AXIS is a book that will be published at Image Comics. I’ve been bouncing around on the concept a lot but recently gave it a good shake and have landed on something strong. Doing a LOT of development work at the moment so that everything is nailed down by the time the artist is ready to get moving. Having two creator owned projects in the works at the moment feels great, I must say.

-London MCM was a great time, got to catch up with pals like Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Lee Garbett, Joëlle Jones, Babs Tarr, Jock, Caspar Wijngaard, Tula Lotay, David Lopez, Pepe Larraz and more. I showed some of the above my cover for PROJECT LAZARUS and got such a great reaction to it, that I am feeling very excited to really get started. You can forget a great thing about conventions for creators; the opportunity to bounce stuff off other peers you respect and come away with more inspiration.

I decided to bring more ‘DIY’ work to the show, that is instead of selling books you can buy anywhere I brought more self published material. I sold out of Art Deco sketchbooks by Saturday morning and sold copies of the TIME BEFORE TIME Process Edition and OLD DOG Process Editions. Sold all of my THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #1 copies too, most of my TERMINATOR trades, most of my OLD DOG OPERATIONS copies [The Tula Lotay covers sold first of course!] and gave away a lot of OLD DOG bookmarks.

Despite having a seat of its own [above], I somehow lost my hat on the way home.

-I handed in my short story for Negative Burn’s new anthology. It’s with the artist now, I’ not sure if I can say who it is just yet, but it’s a young artist I’m a really big fan of, who will be familiar to Declarations readers.

-Image Comics released my variant cover for Issue 3 of Lorenzo De Felici’s RED ROOTS hot on the heels of news that Issue 1 is sold out and going back to print. Congrats Lorenzo! It’s a stunning book …one of those books that really make you feel crap about your own work. “What’s that Lorenzo…? You’s like me to follow Ryan Ottley and Paul Azaceta with a variant cover? Suuuuure, no problem.” Well, this is what I came up with.

-Ignition Press have released my cover for TYLER RAKE: AN EXTRACTION STORY #4. Was very much going for a Michael Mann’s Heat vibe with this one.

-I somehow missed this, but the trade for STAR TREK: RED SHIRTS by Christopher Cantwell and Megan Levens is out now, sporting a cover by myself. I was particularly happy with this unusual variant so it’s very cool to see that IDW Publishing used it as the cover for the collection.

On the subject of STAR TREK, I recently saw IDW will be pulling out a Hardcover collection for Star Trek’s upcoming 60th anniversary, which will collect the upcoming STAR TREK #500 as well as STAR TREK #400 in the STAR TREK: 60th Anniversary Special – The Deluxe Edition HC. It will include ‘Soldier On’ the Miles O’Brien short story I wrote with art by Seth Damoose.

-Finally, huge congratulations to Joe Palmer [artist & co-creator of TIME BEFORE TIME] for Issue 1 of his solo series DESTINATION KILL selling ut at the distriburor level. If you missed out, you can now get a copy of the second printing. Don’t miss out on this exceptional and original book!

I got this AGENT VENOM commission done ahead of London MCM. This was fun to do, I hadn’t drawn him properly in a long time.

Here’s a timelapse for my recent BATMAN piece…

…which I saw was liked by …Jim Lee!

NOTE: In the next Declarations I’ll be taking on open commissions ahead of Florida Supercon. I’ll be looking to do them at home over the next weeks, then post them out when I’m in the states in July to keep postage costs down. So, keep in mind they won’t be posted out until late July. I’m only going to offer 4 spots here, so you’ll have to jump on them as soon as you can. Declarations readers: you’ve been alerted!

I’m currently working on the final issue of the THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS crossover series. All the spinning plates are crashing down now and I’m trying not to get cut by all the sharp pieces. Issue 3 went to press last week, both Drew Moss and Igor Monti having pulled out all the stops. Have an early look at Page One…

I drew this for a friend recently, the true star of THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS; BB!

If I had any smarts, I’d colour this and make a mini-print out of it.

I forgot to share this, my awkward and fidgity performance in a promo for THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #1…

I’ve now wrapped up all my art for the crossover project, the last piece being this cover for THUNDERHAWKS #5

This thing has taken over my life for the last few months, feels good to be over the halfway point production wise and wrapping it all up writing-wise. It’s been a huge challenge and I feel great about what we’ve achieved so far. Still more to come!

Issue Two of MUMM-RA: THE EVER-LIVING came out last week. Art by Rapha Lobosco, colours by Roshan Kurichiyanil and letters by Jeff Eckleberry.

[Just to note, I think the colour profile/saturation in these preview pages is a little off. Happens with online previews sometimes.]

Very happy with this issue, everyone knocked it out of the park, Jeff really went to extra effort with this one [I asked that each of the Ancient Spirits of Evil had a different lettering style and he really delivered]. I got to write some weird dark monster stuff in this section that I really enjoyed.

Love seeing the slew of covers for this book, all handpicked by myself on this book. It doesn’t always work out this way, but feels great when it does. Covers by Danny Earls, myself, John Amor and Erica D’Urso.

I Just have one more issue to write, I’ll be bummed when it’s over as Rapha is knocking out some great stuff. Was just looking at his pages for Issue 3 and they’re really something. Here’s a peek…

June 6th

THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #3 [W/C]

June 17th

MUMM-RA: THE EVER-LIVING #3 [W/VC]

SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY #2 [VC]

June 24th

THUNDERHAWKS #3 [VC]

TYLER RAKE: AN EXTRACTION STORY #3[C]

July 8th

THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #4 [W/VC]

July 15th

MUMM-RA: THE EVER LIVING #4 [W/VC]

July 22nd

THUNDERHAWKS #4 [VC]

Aug 12th

THUNDERCATS X SILVERHAWKS #5 [W/VC]

Aug 12th

MUMM-RA: THE EVER LIVING #5 [W/VC]

Aug 26th

THUNDERHAWKS #5 [VC]

Florida Supercon, July 10-12th