The Gosh! Authority 07.10.20

Hello!

We're hard at work on our Christmas prep for the webstore, with curated lists and our annual Best of the Year picks, so do please spare us a thought when you're working through your naughty and nice list this year. Look for updates later this month. Also, we're constantly trying to make the webstore as useful as possible, and we're always up for hearing your suggestions on how we can make the experience more user-friendly, so don't be shy about giving us feedback!

Speaking of gift ideas (maybe even for yourself), if you've enjoyed Enola Holmes on Netflix this past week, we've restocked on all three of the excellent graphic novel adaptations by Serena Blasco. The Case of the Missing Marquess, The Case of the Left-Handed Lady and The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets can all be ordered for mail order or collection now.

Okay, on with the show! Fairly decent sized one this week.

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• MTSYRY OCTOBRIANA 1976 ONE SHOT - From Jim Rugg, creator of Street Angel, Afrodisiac, co-creator of the Plain Janes, and one half of ace podcast channel Cartoonist Kayfabe, comes a love letter to "outlaw comics". Making use of an infamous, subversive Soviet-era character, Rugg spins a tale of revolution, Robot Stalin, nuclear destruction and wanton violence, all delivered with a sheen of day-glo psychedelia. We were desperate to get copies of this when it was on Kickstarter, but the shipping just didn't work. Thrilled to now see it distributed courtesy of Adhouse. 

• NEIL GAIMAN NORSE MYTHOLOGY #1 - You know the drill: P Craig Russell takes the work of Neil Gaiman (in this case his reworking of the classic Norse myths) and expertly adapts it to comics. Russell is on pretty familiar territory here, considering his excellent adaptation of Wagner's Ring Cycle. He's joined by a pretty impressive line-up of artists who presumably dip in to deliver specific myths. This issue sees Mike Mignola and Jerry Ordway popping up. 

• WALKING DEAD DLX #1 - Go back to the beginning with this reprint series of the Walking Dead, now in full colour thanks to Dave McCaig, and with bonus material in each issue, including scripts, abandoned plots and more. 

• AMERICAN RONIN #1 (OF 5) - A new mini from Peter Milligan and ACO, the team who brought us the criminally overlooked Nick Fury series from 2017 (seriously, that book was killer). In a corporate-controlled future, an enhanced operative - pledged to uphold the world order - goes rogue. Can he bring the system down before he's brought back to heel? There's only one way to find out... 

• LON CHANEY SPEAKS GN - This looks nice: a graphic biography of the Man of a Thousand Faces, Lon Chaney. It's Pat Dorian's debut GN, but you'd never know it looking at his classic, confident style: his Instagram shows all kind of influences, from the great New Yorker cartoonists through to Osamu Tezuka. Looking forward to this one!

• MISTY & SCREAM HALLOWEEN SPECIAL 2020 - The annual resurrection of the classic horror titles, with new stories by Cavan Scott, Vincenzo Riccardi, Alec Worley, DaNi, Kek-W and Simon Coleby, along with some classic reprints!

• SPIDER-MAN MARVELS SNAPSHOT #1 - Howard Chaykin writes and draws this story of a low-level thug working in NYC, dealing with the kind of day-to-day hassles you do in his trade: police, gang warfare, kidnapped teenagers with powers of light and darkness and of course a certain web-spinning wall-crawler.

• OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF CONAN UNIVERSE ANNIVERSARY EDITION - This is fun: a reprint of the old 1986 Conan handbook, with character profiles and some lovely art by a host of brilliant talent. Nice Kaluta cover too.

• AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #49 - I think you mean AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #850! If they got the maths right, which is no guarantee of course. But hey, let's roll with it and enjoy a story drawn by a whole host of Spidey artists past and present, not to mention back-up stories by Kurt Busiek, Tradd Moore (and who wouldn't want to see a Tradd Moore Spider-Man?), Saladin Ahmed and Chris Bachalo.

• AMERICAN VAMPIRE 1976 #1 - Scott Snyder and Raphael Alberqeurque's breakout series returns for one last arc, set in an America broken in the aftermath of Vietnam and Watergate. Fun! If you were down for American Vampire in the past, fret not: this will get picked up for you. 

• CHAMPIONS #1 - Bit delayed, but the relaunch of Champions, continuing the Outlawed storyline, is here at last. Eve Ewing & Simone Di Meo come aboard to do the honours!

• GETTING IT TOGETHER #1 (OF 4) - A new dramedy by Sina Grace, Omar Spahi & Jenny Fine about a group of 20-something Bay Area friends whose comfortable relationship is rocked by a momentous decision by a couple in their group.

And that's it, comics fans! See you next week...

Andrew.