The Gosh! Authority 24.07.24

Hello!

No events this week, so I'll take the opportunity to give an early shout out for our absolutely insane Small Press Day Festival happening on Saturday 17th August, from 11am right through until 6pm. We'll have 39 (THIRTY-NINE!) small press creators exhibiting in shifts through the day on our signing table, signing and selling their wares and workshopping a collaborative zine! Get the details here and mark your calendar.

Lots to get through this week!

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• NICE HOUSE BY THE SEA #1 - Time to return to the apocalyptic world of James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno's Nice House on the Lake. I dunno, do we call this the Nice Housiverse? Anyway, this sequel sees another house populated by old friends of a mysterious figure who has invited them to gather. But there's a twist. These folks know what's coming, and imagine themselves as worthy of saving, their success a clear indicator of their deservedness to live. With a lovely bunch like that, what could possibly go wrong?

• HELLO DARKNESS #1 - It's the battle of the horror anthologies this week, and it's difficult to argue against the line-up in Boom's entry: Garth Ennis, Becky Cloonan, James Tynion IV, Werther Dell'Edera, Brian Azzarello and Vanesa R. Del Rey all contribute to this first issue. Expect a mix of shorts and serials with twists in the tales and nasty denouements. 

• EC EPITAPHS FROM THE ABYSS #1 - Don't rule out Oni press, though. Their resurrection of the EC Comics brand starts with this issue, and they've got Brian Azzarello (the hussy), Chris Condon, J. Holtham, Stephanie Phillips, Jorge Fornes, Phil Hester, Peter Krause, and Vlad Legostaev on board for 40 pages of ghoulish tales.

• TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #1 - It's been teased for a while, but here it is: no more preludes or short stories, Jason Aaron & Joëlle Jones launch a new era for the Turtles. The boys are disbanded, each pursuing their own interests out of the city. But an attack on a jailed Raphael is a sign that there's trouble coming for them, whether they are looking for it or not.

• BIG BURN #1 - The latest DSTLRY title, by Skyward creators Joe Henderson & Lee Garbett, sees Hell imagined as a kind of infernal casino, where souls are tortured in gamblles where the house always wins. Two career criminals, lovers of a good heist, are saved from a sticky end by the Devil in exchange for their souls. But now they're going to pull off the ultimate heist in order to get them back: assemble a crew of the damned and take the most infernal score of all.

• NYX #1 - Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly and Francesco Mortarino launch the new street-level X-book as part of the From the Ashes initiative. Ms Marvel, Wolverine (the Laura Kinney one), Anole, Prodigy and Sophie Cuckoo are all learning to live life post-Krakoa, one threat at a time.

• ABSOLUTE POWER ORIGINS #1 (OF 3) - John Ridley and Alitha Martinez give the definitive account of the tragedy that would go on to shape the worldview of Amanda Waller. A worldview that would culminate in the assembly of the Trinity of Evil and the catastrophic events of Absolute Power.

• THORN THE COMPLETE PROTO-BONE COLLEGE STRIPS 1982-1986 SC -  Back before Jeff Smith self-published the first issue of Bone, beginning one of the most formative comics of the 90s, he had a much more humble precursor. Thorn was a strip he drew over the course of 5 years for his college newspaper, a story that he would considerably rework the following decade for his smash hit series. Now the whole thing is collected, with extensive notes and extra material!

• COMICS JOURNAL YEARBOOK BEST OF 2023 - A collection of essays and reviews from the Comics Journal website highlighting some of the best writing on comics in 2023. 

• FLASH GORDON #1 - Jeremy Adams and Will Conrad bring back Flash Gordon, imprisoned on a mysterious planet, knowing only that Dale Arden is marked for death. Time for a prison break!

• NEMESIS ROGUES GALLERY #1 - The return of Mark Millar's anti-Batman, with artist Valerio Giangiordano. The Big Game storyline, a convergence of all the Millarworld characters, didn't work out too well for Nemesis. Nursing his wounds, he starts the serious business of planning his revenge.

• GREASER GEMINI BLUES #1 - Darick Robertson passes the drawing pencil to Stephen B. Jones and flexes his writing muscles for this sci-fi series. A young mechanic scrapes out a living in an alien-conquered future. But he must fight to defend himself and his grandma after dangerous contraband is dumped in his yard, and the owner comes looking for it.

• BRZRKR A FACEFUL OF BULLETS #1 - Jason Aaron and Francesco Manna get in on some of that Keanu Reeves-themed ultraviolence as this one-shot follows our immortal antihero into the age of the Old West.

Not a bad little bundle of goodies! Enjoy, and see you next week!

Andrew.