The Gosh! Authority 14.08.24

Hello!

This Saturday sees our biggest celebration of Small Press Day yet, with a Small Press Day Festival featuring a staggering line-up of local talent who will be selling their wares and collaborating on a jam comic throughout the day! Come on down and show your support. Details here.

Before that, though, why not pop along to Reads, the graphic novel reading group, this Wednesday from 7-9pm. This month the group are discussing the wonderful Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow. All are welcome, so come along! Details here.

Hefty one this week...

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• POWER FANTASY #1 - Speaking of welcome returns, Kieron Gillen is back in the creator-owned fold this week after his time in the X-trenches. Teaming up with Caspar Wijngaard on art, The Power Fantasy looks at a world where superheroes are weapons of mass destruction, holding the world in a delicate power balance between six national heroes whose conflict would destroy us all. One of our most-anticipated books for the year!

• HOUSES OF THE UNHOLY HC - After playing against genre expectations somewhat with the brilliant Where the Body Was, Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are at it again in this horror-tinged tale, where the consequences of the Satanic Panic play out in the present day. A group of people who were involved in an SP case in the 80s are being bumped off, and one of the survivors must try and track down the killer before it's too late. Any Brubaker/Phillips joint is always a highlight, and this looks to be no different!  

• X-FACTOR #1 - What's better than outcast, renegade mutants? Mutants on the government payroll! So goes the thinking in the post-Krakoan era, where countries race to recruit their own mutant task-forces. In the US it's X-Factor, including Angel, Havok, Frenzy, Feral & Pyro. It sounds like they'll be getting into some darkly satirical waters in this book, and Mark Russell is the perfect writer to do it, teamed here with artist Bob Quinn.

• BABS #1 - Garth Ennis gets very Garth Ennis for this fantasy comedy, reteaming with artist Jacen Burrows. It looks to be one part Red Sonja parody, one part Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, and one part Groo. I didn't see this coming, but I'm here for it.

• DC VS VAMPIRES WORLD WAR V #1 - The vampire Elseworld returns with the usual creative team of Matthew Rosenberg & Otto Schmidt. An uneasy peace has come between Barbara Gordon's vamps and Oliver Queen's surviving band of humans. But Damian Wayne is having none of it, leading a guerilla fight against the vampires. Queen needs to choose between a restless peace or another outbreak of war.

• WEREWOLF BY NIGHT #1 - Blooood! Yep, it's another bagged-up, red-band mini, so Jack Russell can flex those claws for some quality disembowelment. While I appreciated the Jake Gomez version of WWBN, I'm glad Marvel have had the courage to return to the pun-tastic original. Post-Blood Hunt, Jack is on his own, and he's got new enemies knocking at the door courtesy of Jason Loo & Sergio Fernández Dávila.

• GILT FRAME #1 - A new Matt Kindt series, written in collaboration with Margie Kindt. It all sounds very Murder She Wrote as we follow a nephew-and-aunty duo who travel the world collecting antiques and solving murders. On holiday in Paris, the two become embroiled in a brutal murder case, because of course they do. I really like the sound of this, but then I am a child of 80s television...

• IRON FIST 50TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1 - An anthology one-shot featuring tales from the history of the Iron Fist by (deep breath) Alyssa Wong, Chris Claremont, Frank Tieri, Jason Loo, Justina Ireland, Elena Casagrande, Lan Medina & Ron Randall. What I'd really like to celebrate his 50th anniversary is an affordable reprint of the Brubaker/Fraction Immortal Iron Fist run, so make it happen please, Marvel.

• SPIDER-SOCIETY #1 - All of your Spider-Verse needs in one place thanks to Alex Segura & Scott Godlewski. They're promising a brutal, take-no-prisoners approach as the "Spider-Versers" (ookay) are menaced by the multiversal villainy of the Sinister Squadron. I expect we'll see a number of new Spider-Folk introduced and bumped off in short order! 

• JONNY QUEST #1 - The cartoon classic is reinvented once again, as previewed in their FCBD special. But this time Joe Casey is at the helm, along with artist Sebastián Piriz, and it looks like they're going to make things weird (as is the Casey style).

• ULTRAMAN X AVENGERS #1 - Kyle Higgins, Mat Groom and Francesco Manna bring together Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Japan's favourite alien protector. Time for some cosmic punch-ups, as the Earth is menaced by an alien threat.

• VENOM WAR SPIDER-MAN #1 - Peter Parker gets to wear his old gloopy threads in this mini-series that ties into Venom War. Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly and Greg Land get him back in black.

And that's your lot for another week (and a pretty good week at that)! See you next time, panel fans!

Andrew.