As you may have guessed, “Injection” is a comic we’re pretty hyped for. This title acts as a follow up to Declan Shalvey, Warren Ellis and Jordie Bellaire’s triumphant six issue run on Marvel’s “Moon Knight” and promises to take everything to the next level, thanks to complete creative freedom at Image and bringing on another exceptional collaborator in letterer/designer Fonografiks. The book is set to arrive May 13th in quality comic shops everywhere, and while we talked to Shalvey about what’s in store for us back when the title was announced, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk a little more about what the team has up its sleeve.

Today, Shalvey talks with us about how the book is coming together as they near release, what he’s learned about crafting a creator-owned comic so far, what working with such an impressive creative team is like, and much more. Most importantly, though, we also are pleased to reveal the cover you see at the top. This is the “Haunted” variant, and these covers are the B variants that will ship with each issue. It’s a haunting (naturally) piece, and something that truly looks unlike anything else on the stands. I for one can’t wait to own a copy with that cover myself, but sadly, we have to wait. However, you don’t have to wait to order it. If you love that cover, reach out to your local shop and give them the Diamond Code MAR150469 and say you want it. Or if you want the (also amazing) A cover, share the Diamond Code MAR150468. It’s that simple.

Now take a look below for our full interview with Shalvey and feast your eyes on preview pages from the first issue of “Injection”.

DS: Yeeeaaaahhhh….. It seems to be actually happening now, which is, y’know… terrifying. It’s hard to say man, I didn’t want to be banging the drum too early on the book, as we announced it in July of 2014, and it’s not actually out until May 2015. I didn’t want to be going on and on and on about it otherwise people would be sick of it by the time it came out! But, now that we’re finally showing some artwork, and more importantly having issues in the bag and moving full steam ahead, I’m eager to actually get the word out. Promoting a book is an extra job on top of actually making the book. I remember losing some time while halfway through Moon Knight just because all of the press that was done to promote it. It all adds up, but it has to be done, y’know?

I’m very proud of the book, of the work I’m doing, and the decisions we’re making. We’re taking chances, and that’s exciting. Means you have to stand my those decisions though, and I do get anxious the closer and closer we get to the launch.

The dream of creator-owned has a lot of fans and others openly wondering why everyone doesn’t do it. But there are very real reasons why some don’t, especially artists. For you, what has the experience been like transitioning into this new direction, and have there been any surprises or difficulties that have risen along the way?

DS: The gestation-period of the book was probably the biggest surprise, I couldn’t just start drawing’ the book, there was a long period of psyching myself up, and fleshing things out.

I like to think of myself as being more indie-minded and not very mainstream but the reality is, I’ve been working for mainstream companies for over 5 years now; I’ve done nothing of my own aside from a couple of short stories. I like taking known properties and tweaking them to suit my sensibilities. Starting from scratch though? It took a LOT longer. Gathering inspiration, building things from the ground up, tweaking them, constantly ironing things out until they’re ready, etc…. it was a time-killer. I have to admit, while I pride myself on being reliable and on-time, it took me a lot longer to do than I thought it would, but once that first issue was done, I felt like i had a proper foundation, and now I’m just building on top of that with each issue.

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Nailing down my schedule has been difficult too. I used to pester and pester my editors for schedule, but now that’s something I need to be responsible for and I’m feeling the pressure there. It doesn’t make sense to meet work for hire deadlines and then NOT do the same for a project that you own.

It’s also weird to not have to ask permission, which sounds strange, but it’s true. Marvel have always been pretty hands off, but there would inevitably be a time where I need to ask my editor something, and that hasn’t really been an issue in Injection…. sometimes it freaks me out. I’ll run something by Warren sometimes and the answer is ‘if that’s what you want to do, that’s what we’re doing’. It’s hugely liberating.

DS: Well it was a conscious career move on my part that when I wrapped Moon Knight, I would take as much cover work as I could. As an artist, if you’re not seen regularly on the shelves I feel the audience will forget about you, so I felt it important to have work hitting the stands while not regularly releasing monthly comics. Marvel have been consistently offering me various covers, and they’ve been great fun to do, not to mention having something to show for myself while working on Injection. What I wasn’t expecting though, was the many many requests for covers off various people for various publishers. Again, spotlight and enjoyment are great reasons to do covers, so I said yes a LOT. So much so I got a little overwhelmed and it ended up being a distraction from Injection. I’ve recently capped that though; have had to say no a lot more and be a lot more careful so now I’ll only allow myself to do a small amount of covers a month. I love doing covers but I love my book more. Also, I’m doing 2 covers a month for Injection. It all adds up.

You mentioned how odd it is to not have to ask for permission, and I totally get that. While the freedom is appealing, I imagine the structure of working on a book like “Moon Knight” allowed you to focus on the task at hand…drawing the book. With “Injection”, do you find yourself taking your work down any paths you haven’t really before due to that freedom? Or is it more about finding a way to apply your own structure to this process?

DS: On Injection, I’m embracing the same storytelling approach we had on Moon Knight, so in a way it was practice for Injection. I’m definitely applying the previous structure to this book; I think it will feel the same, while being a very different format (not one-shot issues). This is a much bigger and sprawling story, and I’m finding my footing as we move along. I’m used to knowing what’s coming ahead in a story, but every script I get from Warren is a fresh story to me, so I don’t really know what’s coming. Again, that’s similar to how we worked on Moon Knight.

A bigger problem for me, was the logistics of using greywash. It’s a lot more time consuming and I had to think whether or not I should keep using the technique on Injection. I was really happy with the results, but I didn’t want to have any schedule issues with my output. In the end, I managed to come up with a solution that resulted in me keeping my output high, while still using greywash to really enhance my work.

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DS: All the Injection covers, variants included, will be done by myself. I love seeing variants by other artists, but I think Warren and I would like to keep the vision of this book more pure, if you know what I mean. I want a more singular vision to the book, and would prefer to use variant covers in a different way, rather than taking up anyone else’s time. There is one very special exception though, #1 will have a variant by a Very Special Artist that I haven’t yet revealed.

Every issue of Injection will have a variant, or ‘B Cover’ done by myself and Jordie, done in the style above. We’d like to use variants to illustrate a different kind of image, that look distinctive from the regular covers. if you prefer the look of the variants, you’re welcome to chose them If not, that’s cool too. I like the idea of using variants to try something different and more stylized. Like with this cover, it’s a little hard to see; everyone I’ve shown looks at it, but then has to lean in in order to figure out what it is. it also gives more freedom to our letterer/designer to come up with different takes on the logo. Again, it should result in some weird covers, but since they’re variants, they’re a great way to experiment with cover design.

While this is a new experience for you, you have not only Warren’s vast creator-owned expertise to lean on, but in studio, you have Jordie’s sprawling and diverse knowledge of how to make one of these books work too. What has it meant to be able to turn to Jordie and pick her brain on how other projects she’s worked on have worked? Have you felt that this gives you a leg up on an artist who is feeling their way out themselves, at least in avoiding common pitfalls others might have fallen for?

DS: Yeah, I’m very much the newbie, Warren and Jordie have more creator owned projects that I could possibly think of! I’m probably the only member of the team who’s thinking about every single aspect of the book in ridiculous, annoying detail. Jordie has told me to shut up about the book MANY times at this stage. It is difficult to play it cool, as I’ve been watching from the sidelines of this Image Revolution, and now that I’m on the other side of the fence, I’m constantly over-thinking it.

It has been a HUGE advantage to have Jordie to talk me through a lot of this stuff, like the best day to contact Image, when they need stuff in, etc. mainly, since she’s been on so many projects there, she’s seen where various books have made mis-steps of gone off the tracks, so she gave me a lot of advice from the very beginning; Don’t rush the book’s release (will only lead to stress down the line), don’t take your lead time for granted (once it’s gone, it’s GONE), get some extra covers in the bag (they’ll inevitably be used for promotion/second printing and those always end up being a last minute thing that need to be done asap, stressing everyone out), etc. Lots of little things to to early, to avoid headaches down the line. It’s been great to have that kind of info, I’d never know all this without her. It probably has given me a leg up, yeah, but at the same time, I need that leg, as I’ve seen how late books screw with Jordie’s schedule (and our lives), so I CAN’T be one of those guys.

DS: Yes, it’s tough being the weak link in this chain of Warren, me, Jordie and Fonografiks!

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We all had a lot of conversations about the cover treatment originally and have played around with a few things (as you can see with this cover). We’re keeping Injection pretty minimal as regards design, going for a certain clean and retrained design aesthetic, on top of these more organic, painterly imagery. Not much in the way of interior design pages either as we’re keeping the page count low, to keep the price point low. I had a few ideas design-wise and I think I’ve a decent eye for design, but Jordie has got better sensibilities than I do, and Fonografiks is… well… just brilliant. I’ll generally go with what he wants, but he always seems to take an idea of mine and make it way, way better.

We are trying to use the variants in a more experimental way, by making completely different imagery, nearly a second visual identity to the book, yet keeping it from the same art team. I don’t know if it will go down well, but I like the idea of using a variant as a graphic design exercise; if we’re gonna do it, we might as well do something different. That’s the whole point of doing something creator owned, right? I showed someone the variant cover and they looked confused, then had to lean in to the image to see what it was, and I thought that was cool. Instead of an image that grabs your attention like most covers, the variants should be an image that give you pause, and draw you in.

We were given a lot of leeway with the look and design of Moon Knight by Marvel I have to say. But it’s pretty damn cool to just do WHATEVER WE WANT on Injection.