The Gosh! Authority 12.05.21

Hello!

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has been collecting their outstanding S/Os since we've reopened. At their worst we had eight longboxes of orders overspill beyond the capacity of our normal shelving, and as of yesterday that's now been cut to just under four. Of course that still leaves around £4000 worth sat there, so if you are aware that your order has been building up please do get in touch!

Just in case you missed it being announced a while back, we now have a Recycled Books section on our website! It's a mix of liquidation stock, second hand books and even some great rarities (I can't believe no-one has snapped up the Existenz TP yet!) There's stuff being added all the time, so check back regularly.

We're also slowly but surely getting all the Small Press in-store up on the website, and are constantly receiving new material there, either from local artists or international micro-publishers. Often tends to be small-run stuff, so don't snooze on it.

Okay, on with the week! It's another one where I'm having to work from the preliminary shipping list, but they've proved mostly accurate so far. It's another fairly small week, but plenty of new stuff to talk about.

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• SECRET OF SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH HC - At last! The multi-award winning Alison Bechdel is back nine years on from the publication of Are You My Mother, and it's worth the wait. The Secret of Superhuman Strength is a memoir of fitness, an obsession that has consumed her throughout her life well beyond any simple pursuit of health. Bechdel uses excercise as a means of finding some kind of inner peace, a kind of physical and spiritual nirvana being her ultimate goal. But as she gets older and the world around her changes, she's forced to confront the idea that perhaps what she's looking for might be found in places she's taken for granted all along. Not for nothing was Bechdel granted the MacArthur “genius” grant for “changing our notions of the contemporary memoir and expanding the expressive potential of the graphic form” back in 2014. Her work continues to evolve and challenge, and is essential reading. And while stocks last, our copies also come with a signed tip-in courtesy of the good folks at Jonathan Cape!
  

• TIME BEFORE TIME #1 - Writers Rory McConville & Declan Shalvey and artist Joe Palmer launch an all-new ongoing sci-fi crime saga with a bumper-sized first issue. In a dystopian future, those who can afford it are able to escape a world with no future thanks to a criminal organisation which is able to send people back to the past and set them up with a new life. Two friends who work for the syndicate make a plan to steal one of the time machines and make their own trip back, but things don't go quite as planned in the worst possible way. (And yes, the influence of Looper is acknowledged, but the team definitely put their own spin on the idea.)
  

• X-CORP #1 - The latest X-launch delves into the corporate side of Krakoa courtesy of Tini Howard and Alberto Foche. Warren Worthington and Monet St Croix  are the cutthroat heads of mutant business, brokering deals with those who want to partner with Krakoan interests. I won't lie, it's an odd concept for a series, but that does certainly make it stand out among the current sea of X-books. Also, Jamie Madrox is one of the leads, so I'm in!
  

• DC FESTIVAL OF HEROES ASIAN SUPERHERO CELEBRATION #1 - A bumper-sized anthology celebrating the Asian and Asian-American heroes of the DC Universe. There are a bunch of shorts in here by the likes of Bernard Chang, Marcus To, Audrey Mok, Marcio Takara, Amy Chu, Dustin Nguyen, Ram V., Gene Luen Yang and more. It also introduces the Monkey Prince, the DC take on the Monkey King character from Chinese classic Journety to the West.

• JUSTICE LEAGUE LAST RIDE #1 - Chip Zdarsky (who seems to be making a bit of a cottage industry of this kind of outside-of-continuity series at the moment) and Miguel Mendonça tell a story of the League's last days. Having disbanded in the past under a cloud of mistrust after a tragedy, the JLA must come together to stop DC's greatest villains foiling a momentous murder trial. This 8-issue mini is actually Zdarsky's first substantial work for DC, so it'll be interesting to see where he goes from here!
  

• HEROES REBORN PETER PARKER AMAZING SHUTTERBUG #1 - The first of two Heroes Reborn one-shots coming this week, this one looks at a non-powered Peter Parker whose photography job at the daily bugle allows him to cultivate a friendship with his favourite hero: Hyperion. Unfortunately for mild-mannered nerd Peter, that might get him a lot more trouble than he bargained for. Marc Bernardin & Rafael de Latorre do the honours.

• HEROES REBORN HYPERION AND IMPERIAL GUARD #1 - And our second one-shot this week takes us back to Hyperion's teenage years and his last adventure with the Shi'ar Imperial Guard. What starts as a simple hop into the Negative Zone for one last mission ends as something unexpectedly horrific. Ryan Cady & Michele Bandini are on this one!

• FUTURE STATE GOTHAM #1 - Journey back to the Future State era of Gotham City with creators
  Joshua Williamson, Dennis Culver and Giannis Milonogiannis. This ongoing black & white series will jump around the entire Bat-family, following their adventures beyond the Future State event. In this first story, Red Hood is enlisted by the Magistrate to bring in non other than Batman himself. Err...Next Batman, that is.
  

• WHITE #1 - A sequel to the critically acclaimed Black with Kwanza Osajyefo & Jamal Igle returning. In a world where only black people have superpowers, the US reacts by electing a president who promises to establish harsh controls on the black powered community. Kareem Jenkins and his allies must fight to preserve their freedoms in this terrifying new political reality.
  

• HOUSE OF LOST HORIZONS #1 (OF 5) - Paranormal detective Sarah Jewell and her associate Marie-TheréseLafleur , standout characters from the Rise of the Black Flame mini-series, get their own supernatural murder-mystery mini! It's pretty classic Agatha Christie stuff: manor house; private island; mysterious murder; everyone a suspect; people getting picked off. But you can bet there's some kind of occult twist in what promises to be a fun little jaunt.

And that's it for this week, pals! See you next time!

Andrew.