The Gosh! Authority 09.10.24

Hello!

October keeps October-ing!

This Wednesday, 7-9pm, we'll be hosting the launch of In the Garden: Giggles in the Greenery, a great new anthology looking at the relationship between humans and plants. Dominica Harrison, Kim Noce and Ben Thompson will be here to discuss the book, sign your copies, and even present a little animated short! Details here.

And then on Saturday, 11am-1pm, our old pal Edward Ross will be in for a very special launch event for his new instructional book Graphic Novel Builder. Edward will be running a workshop for budding young creators, as well as signing copies of his brilliant book. Details here.

Still no sign of this month's DC Currents catalogue, I'm afraid. Hopefully we'll see them soon, but in the meantime those wishing to peruse DC's December listings can find a digital version here.

But enough of all that.  I know what you folks are really wanting this week....

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• ABSOLUTE BATMAN #1 - It's been a long time since we've seen a book with as much excitement around it as Absolute Batman. Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta (an artist long deserving of a big book like this) kick off DCs new Absolute Universe with this reimagining of Batman. This Bruce Wayne didn't grow up in the privileged halls of Wayne Manor. He grew up with nothing, but is willing to sacrifice everything to bring justice to the streets of Gotham. Snyder's bringing a nice mix of gritty, street-level combat and OTT superhero craziness (that big square Bat-symbol on his chest? It's an axe-head.) We got a decent little stack, so do give it a try!

• SENTINELS #1 - Old pal of Gosh Alex Paknadel has some fun in the From the Ashes era along with artist Justin Mason. The Sentinels as we knew them are no more: now the nanotechnology behind them has been used to create a peacekeeping force of super-cyborgs to police the worst of both human and mutantkind. First up: that rogueish Russian, Omega Red!

• TERMINATOR #1 - Speaking of cyborgs (though to be honest the Terminators are just robots, right?)  Declan Shalvey and Luke Sparrow are on board this new series celebrating those Skynet heroes. With the ancestors of the resistance foiling their time travel plots to kill the Connor family time and time again, it's time for a new strategy. Just kill the rest of them! Terminators are sent out through time across the globe to take down the operatives of the resistance before they (or their parents) even know they're going to fight.

• TOXIC AVENGER #1 - Been a while since Troma's premier superhero had a comic (remember Marvel's book released to captialise on the wildly improbable cartoon series?) But with a new movie in the offing (currently stuck in some kind of releasing hell) that time has come once again! Expect something more akin to the original in the levels of highly inappropriate content as Matt Bors and Fred Harper bring a much higher-than-you-might-expect amount of craft to proceedings!

• BLADE RED BAND #1 - Marvel's go-to vampire killer is back in a new red band mini-series. You know what that means, gore fans: blood a-plenty! Why just stake a vampire when you can eviscerate them first as well? Bryan Hill and Carlos Fabian Villa give you what you want, you deranged sickos.

• GREEN LANTERN CIVIL CORPS SPECIAL #1 - A one-shot that lays down a new era for the Green Lanterns as agents of Thaaros come to take the Dark Star Ring from John Stewart, unleashing a series of events that will require the combined talents of Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Jeremy Adams and Salvador Larroca to tell.

• SEANCE IN THE ASYLUM #1 - In 1865, a fake medium gets more than she bargained for when she's summoned to a mental hospital to work with the patients there. She quickly finds there's no fakery required when it comes to drawing the traumas and mental ailments out of her clients. A spooky season horror from Clay McLeod Chapman & Andrea Mutti. 

• MURDER KINGDOM #1 - Fred Van Lente and Chris Panda unleash bloody murder on a fairytale theme park in this new series. A killer is targeting the cast members of the Storybook Kingdom theme park, using the gruesome deaths of the original Grimm fairy tales as their modus operandi. It's up to Tanith, part-time princess and now amateur detective, to get to the bottom of things before the killer kills again! 

• CONQUEST 2099 #1 - Those bloody vampires are at it again! In 2099 this time, where a world-conquering Dracula returns to earth and comes fang-to-face with Spider-Man and Nova (2099 versions). Steve Orlando, Ibraim Roberson and José Luis Soares Pinto go back to the future.

• STAR WARS EWOKS #1 - I know you Star Wars fans are a nostalgic lot, with even the once-notorious prequels now taking their place as revered movies of people's childhoods. But a celebration of the 40th anniversary of Caravan of Courage? Come on people, there are limits! Full disclosure: my friend Darren Bleyenga and I snuck into Wellington to go see CoC when it was released, but I lost my money and had to sit in the park opposite the cinema while he went and watched it. So yes, I have a particular reason for CoC to taste like ashes in my mouth. That was a very long afternoon in Pigeon (now Te Aro) Park, let me tell you. Err...anyway, Steve Orlando, Laura Braga and Álvaro López produce what I'm sure is a very fine comic in tribute to those little furballs.

And with that, I bid you adieu!

Andrew.