The Gosh! Authority 15.07.20

Hello!

We mentioned a couple of of weeks back that as we returned to weekly deliveries, we might occasionally encounter slight delays due to the ongoing issue of limited shipping capacity. This coming week is one of those occasions! The comics will be arriving on Wednesday to go out on Wednesday, so keep an eye on our social media where we'll make some noise as soon as comics are on the shelf. This will also push back all of my jobs for the week, so do be patient if you're looking for a mail-out this week, I'll try and get it sorted as soon as I can!

Some changes around here in terms of the number of people we can have in the shop. With the 1m+ rule in place, we can increase capacity to 13 people in the shop at any given time. To be honest, we've rarely needed people to queue when operating with an 8-person limit, so don't fear the place suddenly being overrun. Also, don't forget the "+" part of 1m+ - we are asking everyone to santize their hands when entering, and while we don't currently require you to wear a mask while browsing, we do recommend it, just to help keep everyone safe.

The excellent Ellie Crewes is going to be popping in this week to paint a window for us and sign copies of the new, expanded edition of her book The Times I Knew I Was Gay, out this Thursday. You can order a copy on the webstore now! Needless to say this is a highlight of our week, which is a marvellous segue into our other...

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• EMPYRE #1 (OF 6) - The big Avengers/FF crossover is here at last, and we're pretty optimisitc about the quality on this if the two prelude issues are anything to go by. Empyre Fantastic Four #0 in particular was a lot of fun. With Al Ewing and Dan Slott writing and Valerio Schiti on art, this promises to be one of the better events we've seen in a while!

• GIANT-SIZE X-MEN MAGNETO #1 - Ol' Maggie gets his time in the sun in the latest Giant Size X-Men one shot, written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Ben Oliver. We're still fully on board for Hickman's X-Men, even if not all the spin-offs have really landed. And it'll doubtless be an essential part of some pay-off 2 years from now, as is the Hickman way.

• SNAKE EYES DEADGAME #1 - Rob Liefeld. Love him or hate him, he's never boring. He's getting his GI Joe on with this 6 issue limited series. We love us some Rob (and you should check out his Robservations podcast if you're a child of the Bronze Age of comics). There are 36 covers available on this issue, but we're only getting one, because we love Rob, but we're not insane.

• SMASH COMICS SPECIAL 2020 #1 - A bit delayed, but we're nearly there with our great 2000AD catch-up of 2020. The classic Fleetway heroes are here: The Steel Claw by Charlie Higson, The Spider written by Rob Williams and drawn by John McCrea, Mytek the Mighty by Suyi Davies Okungbowa, JohnnyFuture drawn by Tom Raney, House of Dolman by Simon Furman and Davi Go, Thunderbolt by Helen O'Hara, and CursitorDoom by Maura McHugh and Andreas Butzbach.

• AIR WAR STORIES #1 - Basically what it says on the box: a collection of aviation-themed war stories by the always relaible Sam Glanzman!

• GRIEVLING #1 (OF 2) - Don't see Steve Niles back in comics too often, but he's re-teamed with October Faction co-creator Damien Worm for a supernatural revenge story.

• STAR TREK DS9 TOO LONG A SACRIFICE #1 - It's the first DS9 comic in a decade, and writers Scott Tipton & David Tipton (the current gold standard in Trek comics) team with artist Greg Scott for a murder mystery starring everyone's favourite shapeshifter, Odo. 

And that's it! Be sure to check out the In Store post for a list of everything shipping to us this week, and drop us an email if there's anything you don't want to miss.

Andrew.