Chad Burdette
Fleeing through space to escape their dying home world, the ThunderCats were attacked en route by their mortal enemies, the Mutants of Plun-Darr. After diverting their damaged flagship to a planet called Third Earth, the surviving ThunderCats now strive to rebuild their society in harmony with the new world’s natives. But the Mutants, determined to possess the ThunderCats’ mystical gem, the Eye of Thundera, have tracked them down – and they’ve also forged an alliance with Mumm-Ra, the devil-priest of Third Earth!
Now the ThunderCats, led by an inexperienced Lion-O, must band together as never before to protect their legacy from this combined enemy. But will they be able to withstand the onslaught of Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living, once he sets his eyes upon them?
This latest chapter in the ThunderCats mythos spearheaded by writer Declan Shalvey and Dynamite Comics to bring this exciting new entry in the ThunderCats canon to life!
Declan sat down with Comic Watch to talk about his adventures and plans for the inhabitants of Third Earth.
Comic Watch: How did you get in to comics as a reader and professionally
Declan:
I’ve read comics as far back as I can remember, generally tie ins to cartoons, like the turtles or Duck Tales, etc, eventually graduating up to Asterix, etc. It was the Saturday morning cartoons that caught my imagination, so when the X-Men, Spider-Man and Batman cartoons of the 90s caught me, I sought out the source material. I was essentially already drawing comics already by the time I managed to get my hands on the actual Marvel/DC comics.
Professionally, I was always wanting to become a professional comic artist but didn’t know how. It wasn’t a very realistic option to a kid growing up in the West of Ireland. Regardless, I went art college, got a degree and started working on samples, eventually going to comic conventions in the UK and then the US. I got little breaks here and there until I got a fill-in gig on Thunderbolts for Marvel thanks to writer Jeff Parker. Everything that’s followed since has been an unexpected bonus.
Comic Watch: what is your history with Thundercats
Declan:
Like most, loved the cartoon as a kid. Had the toys and everything. It had been a long, long time since I’d watched the cartoon when editor Nate Cosby approached me about writing it so it’s been interesting to go back and look at it with fresh eyes.
Comic Watch: What was it about writing the Dynamite series that appealed to you?
Declan:
The opportunity to tell stories with a vast landscape, while getting to take characters I loved from my childhood and re-introduce them to the pop culture landscape. It’s a unique opportunity and a massive creative challenge, to honour what’s come before while putting your own spin on it… channeling your own creative sensibilities while not corroding the original concept and characters that made the property great.
Comic Watch: Thundercats has been a licensed property that has bounced around various publishers, are you taking any elements from those or did you start with a blank slate aside from the original established properties?
Declan:
Total blank slate as regards anything after the original series. As for that original cartoon, it’s very much a re-imagining but keeping to the core concept and characters.
We’re building a new, accessible mythos for new fans to discover, and old fans to rediscover.
Comic Watch: What new aspects do you feel like you have brought to the Thundercats sandbox
Declan:
A more constrained and focused approach, if I may be so bold. Looking back on the original… it’s wild!. I wanted a somewhat more grounded take on the property, and land us on Third Earth with the characters, much like the original, and slowly build the world from there. With that approach, we can dig into the characters we know and develop some underused ones, as well as introducing brand new ones.
Comic Watch: What is the elevator pitch for your run? Is this a miniseries or an ongoing that you are doing a certain number of issues for. If it’s a miniseries is there other Thundercats stories you want to tell?
Declan:
‘ThunderCats via Lost In Space’, was my opening pitch, suggesting all the above. The series was originally pitched to me as a year-long run, so initially I was planing on relaunching the property in that year, and then see what happens.
What I couldn’t have predicted, was that the series had a HUGE demand with amazing sales, now meaning that we are continuing as an ongoing. Which is amazing for me, as I could see there was a much wider scope for stories in this world, and now I get to creatively capitalise on what I’ve been building.
Comic Watch: Amy Soo is writing the Cheetara series which is a prequel to the current Dynamite run, how or what if any cross collaboration have the two you done together to expand the scopes of the two series?
I think we need to be very careful with any projects outside of the main ThunderCats book. I want to keep the main title as it’s own thing, and have anything else be additive, but doesn’t end up constraining the main book, so my feeling is to have a light touch with any other book. Soo, Nate and I had a big chat before she started as to what she wanted to do and how I saw the overall ‘Thunderverse’ elements.
Related: Getting Up To Speed On Thundercats: Cheetara from Dynamite Entertainment With Soo Lee
After that, left it to Soo to work things out, giving some light notes on scripts. I wanted her to have as much freedom as possible, and it’s let to a beautiful book with Domenico Carbone. Cheetara does a great job of showing us the lives our characters had before while building up the mythos in a way that I think would cause the main book to lag. Saying that, if you read both books (and I encourage you to do so!) you get to see more layers to all the characters and even some connective tissue bleeding across both books.
Comic Watch: Which Thudercats character do you enjoy writing the most and is there a particular character that at first you simply included but grew on you and made you want to delve deeper into.
Declan:
There’s somethign fun about all of them, to be honest, as they all have strong, established personalities. I do like the no nonsense sensibilities of Panthro, it’s fun to write a badass. On the other hand, the Wily twins bounce off each other in fun ways that you can’t do with say, Panrthro.
Comic Watch: Was there anything storywise that you wanted /want to do but just not able to do due to editorial constraints?
Declan:
Honestly; no. Editorially, the field is amazingly open. I thought there might be some issues from the licensor I’d be constrained by, but they too have been fantastic. It’s such a rare treat to have this level of creative freedom on a licensed book, but it’s also scary as there’s no one to blame if I mess it up 😛
Who are the rest of the creative team and can you give insight into the creative process with them.
Declan:
Martina Pignedoli is the colourist who is adding such vibrant tons and creating so much atmosphere. She’s just nailed it from the start, so there’s only a little back and forth there, same with the great work of Jeff Eckleberry, who is the letterer of the book.
The main creative force is Drew Moss who is knocking out great page after great page at an amazing pace. I write the book with Drew’s skills in mind because I know he can do anything. We hit a great creative stride from the start and it’s great to keep that momentum going into this second arc (and beyond)! I have a larger story in mind, but I’ll check in with Drew and see if there’s something he’d like to draw. The Thunder Duel stemmed from that for example. I have to be careful to make sure I’m moving forward with the overall story but this is a monthly book and I think the key to a good one is making sure the artist is engaged as I think that enthusiasm trickles down to the reader. Nate Cosby, the editor of the book, is also an important creative element behind the series. Myself and Nate bounce a lot of stuff off each other. Doesn’t always get to the page, but he’s created a very open playground and will often push me to think wilder than I might naturally do on my own.
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Declan recently wrapped up the latest stint on Aliens and is bringing out an anthology project in the world of my OLD DGOG series at Image (OLD DOG: OPERATIONS #1) in September, and in October the first issue of my MYSTIQUE miniseries will be out from Marvel, a project I’m writing/drawing.
I’m on Twitter and Instagram at @declanshalvey and you can subscribe to my biweekly newsletter via decalnshalvey.com
Thundercats #7 arrives in shelves on August 21st and issues #1-6 can be found at your local comic book shop.
