The Gosh! Authority 20.12.23

Hello!

One last Authority before Christmas! Which means it's your last week to get that gift buying done, and to assist we're doing some special opening hours from Monday 18th - Saturday 23rd December, when we'll be open until 8pm every evening. On the flip side, we'll be closing at 2pm on Sunday 24th, because we've got Christmas-y places to be!

And of course this period also mucks around with delivery days. Everything is normal this week, but over the two weeks following Christmas and New Year, new comics day will be on Thursday the 28th and 4th, respectively. And the comics will be arriving to go out on those days, so best to leave your trip to the store until lunchtime or so.

And finally in the admin this week, we will indeed be doing a January sale next year! We're kicking off slightly later than normal for Reasons, but the sale - with thousands of massively reduced graphic novels and half price back issues - will take place from the 13th - 28th January. So don't blow all your budget at Christmas!

On with the comics!

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• WHERE THE BODY WAS HC - A week late to the UK, but still in time for a Christmas Day escape! Time for the latest collaboration by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, the salt and caramel of the comics world. It's another delicious combo, and a bit of a departure from the usual hard-boiled tales. During a hot summer in 1984, a small town is rocked by the discovery of a body. But this setup doesn't pay off in the way you might think, as we move, Altman-like, between the stories of the townsfolk. In a way, this book feels like an evolution of where Brubaker started in the indie comics world, with heartfelt character studies at the centre of the narrative. And of course Phillips is endlessly adaptable to it, assisted as usual by his lad Jacob on colours. I'll be honest, it's an instant regret that we didn't include this in our best of the year list: I just wish it had come out a month earlier!

• ANIMAL POUND #1 - Tom King gets all Tom King-y on Animal Farm, with a modern retelling of the classic book, set in an animal shelter where the animals have overthrown the humans and must form a society of their own. King teams up with Peter Gross, whose grounded draftmanship really sells the animals as characters.

• ORIGINAL X-MEN #1 - Christos Gage and Greg Land bring the original X-Men lineup back to the future....again! Kinda. Yes, they're back to their Bendis-era time-traveling antics, only this time they're doing some multiversal traversal thanks to the Phoenix. Far out, daddy-o!

• BOREALIS #1 - A new supernatural thriller by Mark Verheiden, Aaron Douglas and artist Cliff Richards. In a small Alaskan town, a state trooper who has recently returned home has to face up to her past, her traditions, and maybe some kind of murderous monster in the snow. You can never go home, they say!

• AGENT #1 - Mathieu Gabella and Fernando Dagnino introduce to a world of espionage and witchcraft, as a young lieutenant is recruited into a secret occult branch of the French secret service when she discovers she's a witch. Their mission: to battle supernatural terrorism.

And that's it for this week! Have yourselves a lovely holiday and I'll see you next time, when we'll be kissing goodbye to 2023!

Andrew.