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DECLARATIONS
A biweekly newsletter by artist/writer Declan Shalvey.
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Phew, I sat down to do my week of covers, to get them done so I could concentrate on PROJECT ABBEY, then got totally swamped with more cover offers! By the end of this month... I think I will have done 11(!?) covers . I was so sure I had my shit together this month in order to get story pages done, but effectively this month I've been a cover artist!
One of the reason this has happened is that I took on the offer of providing variants for the third printing of the smash hit HOUSE OF X and POWER OF X first issues.
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They seemed to have done very well, so I was just asked to do variants for the 3rd printings of the #2s also. Not part of this month's initial plan, but something of a no-brainer offer really, making them a big chunk of the unexpected workload. Issue 1 variants are out in the wild (on shelves Sept 4th). Issue 2 variants should be announced soon, starting on them as you read this newsletter.
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Oh, and WEB OF VENOM: FUNERAL PYRE #1 is getting a second printing with a variant of my original cover. Those Venom books are really selling these days, eh?
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As of tomorrow, I'm closing the NICE precommission spots so you have one last chance to secure a commission for that show. Link here.
As of today, I am opening my precommission list for New York Comic Con. Go to this link for your best chance to secure a commission for the show. Link here.
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I'll be all over the World Con in Dublin in the latter half this week. The whole con is a bit of a mystery to me, have heard of it, but never attended... which makes sense as it's in a different country every year. Has huge guests like George R Martin, Sana Takeda, etc. Will be interesting to see what the attendees and show will be like. It's clealy a huge boon for Dublin to have the event and I'm glad they're reaching out to Irish creators as part of the event programming. You can find me at the below events....
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Kaffeeklatsch: Declan Shalvey
15 Aug 2019, Thursday 16:00 - 16:50, Level 3 Foyer (KK/LB) (CCD)
Do we really need all that Spandex?
16 Aug 2019, Friday 11:30 - 12:20, Odeon 3 (Point Square Dublin)
When we think of superheroes, we immediately think about gaudily coloured, tight-fitting outfits. Is this still the right style choice? Even with the shifting trends of pouches and jackets in the 1990s and black leather in the 2000s, we can’t seem to escape from the impractical and revealing four-colour standard. Can we update costumes for the new millennium?
Ms Gavia Baker-Whitelaw (The Daily Dot) (Moderator), Declan Shalvey, Liz Gilio (Barfleet), Liz Bragg (Socratic Theatre Collective)
We love Image Comics!
18 Aug 2019, Sunday 10:30 - 11:20, Odeon 2 (Point Square Dublin)
Outside the ‘big two’, Image Comics is the most successful publisher in the USA and arguably has the most diverse range of titles. Once focused on superhero and fantasy titles, Image now has a policy of promoting creator-owned works – with popular titles including Saga, The Walking Dead, Monstress, and The Wicked + The Divine. Our panellists discuss their own projects and work with Image.
Derek Kunsken (Moderator), Afua Richardson, Sana Takeda, Declan Shalvey, Kieron Gillen
Familiarity breeds… comics
19 Aug 2019, Monday 13:00 - 13:50, Liffey Room-2 (CCD)
There’s no place like home. And that is why comic creators Bryan Talbot (Alice in Sunderland) and Declan Shalvey (Savage Town) chose to set their graphic novels in their respective home towns of Sunderland and Limerick. But was that decision an easy pitch to collaborators and retailers? Did any unexpected difficulties arise? And what did they learn about their homes that they had never known before?
Declan Shalvey, Bryan Talbot
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I would pay attention especially to the Image Comics panel, where I'll have some news....
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I got to read ONCE AND FUTURE #1 this week, written by Kieron Gillen, illustrated by Dan Mora and coloured by Tamra Bonvillain. I had been lucky enough to see some pages from this a long time ago, courtesy of Kieron. I was already blown away by Mora's art when I saw it in black and white but by god, adding Tamra Bonvillain's colours into the mix knocks this book into the stratosphere. The storytelling is clear and brilliantly placed, with a level of detail and draftsmanship that soaks up your eyeballs.
ONCE AND FUTURE is a tale presented in the usual Gillen way; wry and entertaining, with more epic themes at play. Along with the sensational Mora and Bonvillain, they take what could be very dry sword and sorcery and update it with a razor sharp contemporary blade. Issue One is out next week, I encourage you all to pick it up.
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Everyone seemed to really like those HOX/POX covers, and I'm glad as I bust my ass on them! Here they are without the trade dress...
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I nailed the layouts down pretty easy... the X-editors Jordan White and Annalise Bissa specifically asked for the Magneto moment for HOX and offered some different suggestions for the POX cover. I decided to go with the Xavier moment, mainly as I liked the image (it came to me immediately) but I also thought the characters paired well with each other, as did both of the compositions.
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You can also see that I really nailed down the colours in the layouts. I think I've mentioned before that if I can nail the colors for the most part in the layout, it stops me from faffing about too much on the final piece. As tough and work intensive as these covers were, it was all really just the manual labour of it all, the technical drawing of i t all and the layers of painting on photoshop. Conceptually, they came together quickly as they are based on specific moments from the book, where I get to re-interpret them as my own covers. I hope that if you've read the book, that these covers give those moment from the story real impact... a sense of epic-ness. Hopefully that's why people liked them!
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Still reading?
Okay, well I said I'd have some news at the World Con Image Comics panel, and I will... I'll be revealing what PROJECT CASHEL is near the end of the panel. The news will be out come Sunday morning. I've previously teased pages here before, and told you it would be a graphic novel. More news on Sunday obviously, but here's something for you guys and you guys only; the wraparound cover for the book, by myself. For more, keep your eyes peeled on Sunday and by all means, any help spreading the work on Sunday/Monday would be hugely appreciated.
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I'm looking forward to finally talking about this. I may tease this image online in the next week. Feel free to share whatever I put online, but please don't share this final image above until I do.
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August 14th
LOKI #2 SHALVEY BOBG VAR
$3.99
August 28th
WEB OF VENOM FUNERAL PYRE #1 2ND PTG SHALVEY VAR
August 28th
TOMMY GUN WIZARDS #1 (OF 4) CVR B SHALVEY
September 4th
HOUSE OF X #1 (OF 6) 3RD PTG SHALVEY VAR
September 4th
POWERS OF X #1 (OF 6) 3RD PTG SHALVEY VAR
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