The Gosh! Authority 21.08.23

Hello!

This Thursday, 7-9pm, sees Friend Of Ol' Gosh Gary Northfield here to celebrate the launch of his latest book series Leif the Unlucky Viking! Come help launch Saga of the Shooting Star, have a drink, and meet one of the best (and loveliest) UK kids authors (in comics and prose) working today! Get the details here.

And then keep those kids book vibes rolling as Dapper Dan White hits Gosh on Friday, 7-9pm, to mark the release of the Oni Press edition of Cindy & Biscuit! Get yourself a signed copy of monster-bashing goodness, and get all the details here.

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• THE PENGUIN #1 - Tom King does love to play around in the Bat-verse, and he's indulging what I can only presume to be a love of gangster films in this new series. Oswald Cobblepot returns from the (supposedly) dead, working his way back into the Gotham City underworld. His twin children now run the Iceberg Lounge, and plenty of people would rather see him dead (again). Plus there's the secret he's not letting onto his crooked buddies: he's now an informant for the intelligence community. Looks this this penguin...is a rat! Thanks, came up with that one myself. Take that, DC marketing!

• IMMORTAL THOR #1 - Al Ewing and Martín Cóccolo bring the Immortal vibe to Thor in this new relaunch. Sounds like Ewing is leaning heavily into Big Mythology on this, while drawing on those same horror vibes that made Immortal Hulk do so well. Expect a fresh an interesting take on Marvel's most famous blondie.

• X-AMOUNT OF COMICS 1963 WHENELSE ANNUAL SC - Remember Alan Moore & company's unfinished Silver Age spoof 1963? Originally published in 1993, this loving homage to the early days of Marvel was a series of one-shots that were supposed to finish with a bumper-sized annual. The annual never happened....until now! Kind of. 1963 contributor Don Simpson has gotten tired of waiting and produced his own, utterly unauthorised conclusion to the saga. See homages of homages play out the storylines that were set up in the original comics and at long last get some kind of closure!

• JEAN GREY #1 - Louise Simonson and Bernard Chang take Jean Grey on a trip down memory lane, as she does some soul-searching in the wake of the disastrous Hellfire Gala. Simonson is one of the editors and writers of the golden era of X-Books, and has plenty of experience with Jean in the pages of X-Factor, so this should be a treat for fans.

• REALM OF X #1 - Speaking of the Hellfire Gala, some of the escapees of that fateful night have wound up in in Vanaheim after Magik's powers malfunctioned. Magik, Mirage, Marrow, Dust and Typhoid Mary become embroiled in some Norse hijinks in this Fall of X serirs by Torunn Grønbekk & Diogenes Neves.

• MARVEL UNLEASHED #1 - Throg the Frog of Thunder, Redwing the Falcon, Chewie the Cat Flerken, Lucky the Pizza Dog, Bats the Ghost Dog and a new guy named D-Dog team up to rescue Lockjaw from the clutches of Kraven. The Pet Avengers are back, courtesy of Kyle Starks & Jesus Hervas.

• THE SCHLUB #1 - Ryan Stegman, Kenny Porter and Tyrell Cannon tell the tale of a hapless dentist whose life is falling apart and the world's mightiest superhero that he's body-swapped with at the time of Earth's greatest peril. Bit of superhero satire to take the edge off!

And that's it folks! I'm off to Croatia for a bit, so you'll have Paul taking the reigns next week. See you in a fortnight!

Andrew.