The Gosh! Authority 01.11.23

Hello!

One last hit before Halloween!

Speaking of spooky things, how about some classic kids photocomics? In the late 60's Thunderbirds supremo Gerry Anderson created a comic featuring two children and their adoptive panda parents. Candy and Andy only lasted three years, but if you've seen it, you'll never forget it. Serious uncanny valley stuff. Those comics are pretty tricky to find, but luckily Alan Dein has created a selection of restored plates from the series, published by Four Corner Books as Andy, Candy and the Bearandas. And to celebrate, we've got  Alan Dein and Jamie Anderson (son of Gerry) here this Friday, 7.30-9pm, to discuss this deeply odd slice of UK comic history (and a largely forgottten part of the Anderson legacy). Get the details here.

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• ULTIMATE UNIVERSE #1 - In the wake of Ultimate Invasion comes the Ultimate Universe! This one-shot by Jonathan Hickman and Stefano Caselli is ground zero for the new Ultimate line (kicking off with Hickman and Marco Checchetto's Ulimate Spider-Man in January). Not just a rehash of what came before, jump in here to see what's coming.

• SPIDER-BOY #1 - Spinning out of Dan Slott's End of the Spider-Verse run on Spider-Man, the newest spider-hero on the block gets his own title. Slott is joined by the ever-reliable Paco Medina for new adventures of Spidey's sidekick. (Spidekick?)

• FACELESS AND THE FAMILY #1 - The unique voice that is Matt Lesniewski is back with a new mini that is his typical mix of eye-bending art and mind-bending story. A masked man known as Faceless lives on the Hand Planet, wandering the wastelands, evetually falling in with a crowd of like-minded travellers. Their mission: infiltrate the Finger Cities and uncover the secret behind Faceless' mask. Sure to be one of the weirdest books you'll read this year (and likely one of the best!)

• RETURN OF SUPERMAN 30TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1 - Much like last year's Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special, this retro one-shot reunites the creators of the original stories for an anthology of untold tales from the time. Revisit the Reign of the Supermen, and flick your mullets for the Return of Superman, as Dan Jurgens Jerry Ordway, Karl Kesel, Louise Jones Simonson & Jon Bogdanove take you back to the early 90's.

• CANARY #1 - A supernatural Western (always a sucker for that little subgenre) from Scott Snyder and Dan Panosian. Taking its origins in a true tale of a uranium find and a collapsed mine, the story spins out to tell a horror story set in the dying days of the Old West, one with decidedly Satanic undertones.

• SUPERGIRL SPECIAL #1 - Kara gets a one-shot by Mariko Tamaki and Skylar Patridge, where she tries to figure out what her role actually is any more. Hopefully setting up a new status quo for a new ongoing if the sales permit!

• ALMOST DEAD #1 - A woman draws on the survivialist skills she learned in her trautmatic childhood as she battles infected (read: zombies) up the East Coast of America to find her loved ones. It's a new zombie apocalypse drama brought to you by Galaxy & Ryan Benjamin which they say will "reinvent the genre". That remains to be seen, but it certainly looks pretty.

• WHITE WIDOW #1 - Yelena Belova gets another solo outing thanks to Sarah Gailey & Alessandro Miracolo. It's a new status quo where she tries to figure out what her role actually is any more. Hey...that's weirdly familiar....

And that's it for this week! See you next time, have a fun Halloween and don't lose any fingers at Guy Fawkes!

Andrew.