The Gosh! Authority 27.07.22

Hello!

This Saturday sees the one and only Paul Hudson, former proprietor of the much-missed Comics Showcase and British comics retail legend, celebrating the release of his new book The A-Z of British Newspaper Strips with a signing here at Gosh from 1-2pm! The book is an indispensible catalogue of British cartooning, much of which has been nearly lost to time. You can get your copy signed by Paul and catch up on how he's doing (we know there's plenty of you ex-Showcasers out there). All the details here.

A heads up on a regrettable situation that many of you may have seen coming: we have been informed by Diamond UK that new comics prices are going up from the 1st August. This is due to the various inflationary pressures on the import process that most sectors are also seeing. We've not yet made a concrete decision on what our new prices will be, but we'll make an announcement very soon. What I would recommend, however, is that standing order customers clear any backlog by the end of the month, as the price change will be universal on all new comics product when it comes into place, regardless of when it came into stock. I should also mention that at this point TPB/GN prices will not be increasing.

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• SUPERMAN SPACE AGE #1 - Pretty excited for this one. Mark Russell, whose character-driven, satirical work has consistently impressed, teams with Michael and Laura Allred (a perfect match) to tell a tale that's as much about U.S. history in the latter half of the 20th Century as it is the Man of Steel. The Crisis of Infinite Earths occurs in the 60's, forcing a previously incognito Superman to reveal himself and save the world. Despite the world being seemingly determined to destroy itself. 

• ANT-MAN #1 - Al Ewing brings his light touch to this mini which takes us through the different eras (and identities) of Ant-Man. Tom Reilly, whose work on the recent Thing mini impressed us so much, handles the art chores. His evocation of the early days of Marvel in this issue set in the early days of Hank Pym's career as Ant-Man is wonderful, and it'll be fun to see him adapting his style as we move through Marvel history. 

• GAMBIT #1 - It's Gambit, the ragin' Cajun himself, courtesy of X-legend Chris Claremont and artist Sid Kotian. It's a flashback series, covering Gambit's road to heroism in the company of an age-regressed Storm. So grab your playing cards, trenchcoats and weird purple leggings, Gambit fans!

• WILD CARDS THE DRAWING OF CARDS #1 - While we've previously seen comic stories set in the world of George RR Martin's Wild Cards (an anthology series of superhero novels featuring more than 40 authors), this is the first time we've had an adaptation of its earliest stories, covering the events which granted the lucky survivors super powers (the "aces") and left the others dead or left as hideously deformed "jokers".  Paul Cornell and Mike Hawthorne are the actually decent creative team on this one.

• GENIS-VELL: CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 - Marvel really are loving throwbacks to 80's and 90's series at the moment, and Peter David really has made it into a little cottage industry for himself. Imagine my surprise then to discover that this (quite literal) resurrection of the son of Mar-Vell is a contemporary story! David teams with artist Juanan Ramirez for this mini-series that sees Rick Jones and Genis-Vell reconnect.

• HOLLOWS #1 - Chris Ryall and Sam Kieth return with their story of a dystopian future where a young woman and her peculiar pet work with a disgraced scientist in a post-apocalyptic Japan. With much of humanity transformed into "hollows", husk-like creatures that feed on the souls of the living, the pair must work to find a cure before humankind is lost forever.

• DC MECH #1 - A six issue mini set in an alternate universe where an invasion of parademons post-WWII left humanity dependent on massive mechs, each with their own unique powers. Now Darkseid is returning, and Earth's defenders will need to come to terms with a new alien in their midst who has his own strange mech: Kal El of Krypton. Kenny Porter and Baldemar Riva are behind this one.

And that's that!

Andrew.