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Earlier this year Dynamite announced that it would be launching a comprehensive reprint series of classic Terminator comics. It sounded super cool, especially for long term fans, but what was really exciting about the publisher getting their hands on the Terminator license was the prospect of a new series – one that was later announced to be coming from the creative team of writer Declan Shalvey and artist Luke Sparrow, with Sal Crivelli and Colin Craker handling backup stories.
The first issue of this new series launches next month and it looks terrific – a mean, lean horror thriller that looks back specifically to James Cameron's classic first movie for its inspiration. Ahead of the first issue's release, Newsarama sat down with Shalvey to find out more...
Newsarama: Hi Declan. You've been tasked with bringing The Teminator back with a new series for Dynamite. What can you tell us about it?
Declan Shalvey: The remit of this book is that it's set specifically within the continuity of the first film. I rewatched the original and the core concept of it is so tight and interesting. When you watch the original, there's some cool sci-fi stuff thrown in there, but the limits of technology meant it was more of a thriller, but that's, I think, to its benefit. It's about a young woman being terrorized by a murderer and that's actually the core of it. And yes there's Kyle Reese, he's an action hero, but he's not like Superman – he's just a guy, and he doesn't even live through it! So there's a real cost to it all. There's so much to like about the pulp noir approach of that first film and I thought, yeah, I could do more of this. This would be fun.
So it's new stories, but based on the first movie. Can you tease the sort of tales you will you be telling with this book?
Shalvey: I wanted to lean into the episodic nature of it. When I did Alien at Marvel I was trying to do my own Alien film, but with The Terminator I wanted to lean into the pulpiness of it all, and have a new scenario every issue. My joke is that it's Quantum Leap from Hell, in that instead of trying to put right what once went wrong, it's the robots trying to put things wrong. The recurring character here is the T-800 and, you know, it's not very chatty! I thought it'd be more interesting seeing the robot in different scenarios with different characters. So the challenge for me every issue is to create characters you are going to care about fighting the Terminator.
Are these one-and-done stories, or continuing arcs?
They're basically all standalone issues, but I have a couple of two-parters worked in. In issue two and three the Terminator is in Vietnam during the fall of Saigon – because I've being drawing the covers I drew this badass cover of the T-800 with napalm going off of the background. But yeah, there is connective tissue within the stories, but that's more of a secondary element that will unify the book in general.
Time travel is baked into the premise of The Terminator, so are we going to see lots of different time periods in the book?
Shalvey: Yeah, it's basically one time period per issue. The first issue is a mix of the future and the past and is about an old couple living on this lake, having escaped the nuclear war. Then, out of nowhere, this Terminator walks out of the lake, bloated and decomposed, coming to kill them. For me that's a terrifying drama and that's kind of what I want – I want to find the fear in the book, but also play around a little bit with the time periods. The first arc, for sure, is going to hop around different moments in in human history, but I'm more interested in the scenarios than the lore necessarily. I find a lot of IP stuff gets really wrapped up in lore these days and I just don't think stories about lore are necessarily engaging, you know?
How aware were you of the previous Terminator comics?
Shalvey: Not at all, I am completely ignorant of them. It's something I did with Thundercats too, I go to the source, but from there I don't feel like I need to read 30 different stories to find my own take. There's only so much research I think is necessary, and I think too much research just bogs you down and trips you up. I want to hit it as fresh as I can, really. And that's not to put anything down, I just think that the less that's floating around my brain, the more I'll come to something that's a bit pure.
When I did Moon Knight with Warren Ellis he told me he that read the first six issues of the first Moon Knight book, and that was it. And I thought, "Wow, that's so ballsy." But I do think there's something to just going to the source, rather than trying to do a version of a version of a version of a version.
How has it been working with Luke Sparrow on the series?
Shalvey: Luke is great. I saw his work online a couple of years ago and I really liked it. I just did an anthology for my Image series, Old Dog, which has all these different people working on it and he did a great job with his pages. I remember thinking, if I couldn't draw Old Dog, I'd ask Luke. It's not that he's just like me, but there's definitely an aesthetic and a sensibility that we both have. The Terminator came my way around the time that we were working on that story, so I basically used his Old Dog pages as an audition to get him approved on Terminator. I think he's a fantastic storyteller. His attention to detail is amazing and his environments and backgrounds are so well fleshed out. That's especially helpful on something like The Terminator when we're going to the different time periods.
How far ahead have you planned with this book?
Shalvey: I have 10 issues and I definitely have a plan for the series as a whole. Whether it goes any further than that, I don't know, but at the very least it'll be a maxi series – a good run that'll be a nice collection someday. I'm so happy to have Luke and Colin Craker, the colorist, who's also going to be drawing Sal Crivelli's backup stories. The book's beautiful man. It's more more beautiful than you'd expect from a Terminator book! I'm also glad we have this kind of singular approach to the series. We have a good team and, y'know, it doesn't always happen like that in licensed books. I have to thank [Dynamite editor] Nate Cosby for letting me hand pick the art team on this. I got to kind of own this project, so if the book sucks, it's completely my fault. But I'm really excited for people to get the first issue.
The Terminator #1 is published by Dynamite on October 9.
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