The Gosh! Authority 28.07.21

Hello!

With just over two weeks until Free Comic Book Day, we've been asked a bit about what our plans are this year. Obviously with things as they are we won't be offering our usual schedule of events, and we'll also be administering it a little differently this year to minimise queuing and keep within our current number limits we have in place. Rather than our usual free choice, we'll be offering blind grab bags of 5 comics which will be free with a purchase. We'll also be offering kids bags as giveaways to any children that might be shopping with us on the day. Bags will be available while stocks last.

We appreciate this might be a little disappointing, but rest assured that we intend to return to our regular FCBD antics as soon as the public health situation allows (which will hopefully be next May)!

Sorry about the late blog again this week. Once again there are delays on some products shipping to the UK, and I wanted to be able to provide an accurate list of what's coming (which happily is somewhat balanced out by the missing titles from last week coming through). This does seem to include the Providence Compnedium SC for all of those who have preordered in. Oh, and speaking of MIA titles, a quick note to say that Bermuda #1, Shazam #1 and the second printing of White #1 will all be shipping this week!

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• AMAZING FANTASY #1 - Kaare Andrews gets to play with some classic Marvel toys in this stand-alone mini-series that reinvents Amazing Fantasy, the classic Marvel title that spawned Spidey. Marvel characters are plucked from key points in their timelines and wake on an island filled with magic and monsters.

• BIZARRO COMICS DELUXE EDITION HC - The stone-cold, Eisner-winning classic is available again for the first time in more than a decade in a spiffy new deluxe hardcover. A remarkable collection of skewed takes on the DC heroes by talent such as Kyle Baker, Jeff Smith, Ivan Brunetti, Paul Pope, Hunt Emerson, Carol Lay, Roger Langridge, Mark Crilley, Dave Cooper, Eddie Campbell, Tony Millionaire, James Kochalka, Harvey Pekar, Peter Bagge and more.

• GROO MEETS TARZAN #1 - I still remember buying my first issue of Groo: the Epic Comics #1, purchased with change from some shopping errand I was doing for my mum. I caught hell for spending the money, but it was worth it, kickstarting a lifelong love of the guy (and more importantly, Sergio Aragones). Err...anyway, Sergio teams up with Tom Yeates (and of course Mark Evanier) for a meeting between the moronic barbarian and the jungle hero.

• SUPERMAN SON OF KAL EL #1 - Jonathan Kent finally takes up the mantle he was born for as his old man heads into space. Tom Taylor (who is going from strength to strength right now) and John Timms launch a bold new super-era.

• MELODY OF IRON SC - Digital Manga continue their small-run collections of Osamu Tezuka material with this anthology, headlined by an oddball-sounding sci-fi revenge tale. A man who has unwittingly married into the mob finds himself the target of gang violence, and is left for dead with his arms severed. A mad doctor gives him new robotic arms, the control of which require him to tap his latent psychic abilities. Cue the bloody revenge!

• MAGICIAN A GN - A translation of Natusko Ishitsuyo's sometimes challenging, often uncomfortable look at sex and female sexuality from the point of view of a Japanese woman. The art is striking, and recalls the work of late underground manga artist Kuniko Tsurita (whose The Sky is Blue With a Single Cloud was one of our best of last year). 

And that's it for today! See you next week!

Andrew.