The Gosh! Authority 29.01.25

Hello!

Events are back on the menu, folks! Yes, this week sees the start of our 2025 events programme with one which is an absolute pleasure for us to do. AOS of London is a collection of works about the artist Austin Osman Spare, the often-overlooked artist who is central to early 20th Century occultism, and whose influence looms large in British art. The book includes a transcript of an Alan Moore interview on the topic of Spare, as well as maps of Spare's London, and illustrations by Ben Thompson. Thompson and fellow contributor Stephen Pochin will be here this Friday, 7-9pm, to celebrate the launch. Get the details here!

And then on Saturday, get yourselves down here for the start of our FEBRUARY SALE! Yes, while away the dark February weeks with some of our sale graphic novels, going for absolutely insane prices. Got £50 to spare? You'll be walking away with a pretty decent stack of books. Got a spare £3 in your pocket? No problem, there's something for you, too! Lots of absolute bargains to be had across the month of February from our usual sale table by our kids section. Definitely worth a trip for fans of classic strip material: we've taken in a substantial collection of them to sell at knockdown prices in the sale. As usual, it's first come, first served, with no reserves and in-store only. See you Saturday!

I should also take the opportunity to plug our launch event for Power Fantasy Volume One! The book is coming this week, but if you're patient we'll have Kieron and Casper both here on Wednesday 12th February, 7-9pm, to celebrate the release of probably our favourite Image title running right now! Details here. (And preorder that sucker with an exclusive bookplate!)

Speaking of Image, sharp eyes will notice a number of Image titles that were supposed to ship this week being absent. Industry buffs will know about all the ructions that have happened in comics distribution over the past couple of weeks, but I'm happy to say that the stalwart folks at Diamond UK (a separate business that is a subsidiary of Diamond US) have managed to secure future supply of Image titles. So they'll all be coming, but the next two weeks might see delays on titles.

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• RIPPERLAND #1 - Steve Orlando and John Harris Dunning team up with artist Alessandro Oliveri for a satirical-edged thriller set in a future England. After spiralling into economic irrelevance, England has farmed itself out to the States as a Victorian theme park, but it's not all garden parties and corsets. After an American citizen is killed, a local detective has to team up with a US cop to track down the evidentally responsible party: Jack the Ripper.

• BEHIND THE HORROR AND DEATH - NOSFERATU TP - Here's a curiousity: a landscape-formatted graphic novel about the history of F. W. Murnau's expressionist classic. From its production through to its rediscovery and restoration, Nosferatu had a pretty dramatic journey, and artist and writer Marco Fontanili has created a beautiful chronicle of it. You can check some of the interior pages out on its crowdfunding page here.

• DC’S LEX AND THE CITY #1 - I wouldn't normally place one of these DC seasonal anthologies so high on the list, but whoever came up with that title deserves some kind of recognition. It's the DC Valentines special, with romance-themed tales of the DCU by a host of different creators (and a story featuring Superman as Lex's "one that got away").

• STAR WARS A NEW LEGACY #1 - A celebration of 10 years of Star Wars back at Marvel, with a one-shot featuring all the heavy hitter creators who have worked on the book. Jason Aaron, Kieron Gillen and Charles Soule all contribute stories with art by Leonard Kirk, Ramón Rosanas and Salvador Espin. 

• SUPERMAN LEX LUTHOR SPECIAL #1 - Joshua Williamson and Eddy Barrows put Superman on the horns of a dilemma. Dare they restore the memories of Lex Luthor (wiped during the House of Braniac) to unlock information crucial to solving a world-threatening situation, given that it might mean the return of Lex in all his villainous glory (and undo Lex's newly found happy life)? 

• STORM LIFEDREAM #1 - A Storm-focused Marvels Voices anthology, featuring Angélique Roché, Alitha Martinez, Brittney Morris, Curtis Baxter, and Charles Stewart III. As intergalactic historians trawl back through the history of one of Earth's greatest mutants, we're treated to versions of Storm from across the Marvel eras.

• DC POWER RISE OF THE POWER COMPANY #1 - As the "Waller Was Right" crowd attempt to Make Earth Human Again, Josiah Power, attorney-at-law, assembles a team of Black heroes to protect his community from existential threats. Brandon Thomas, John Jennings, Vita Ayala, Zipporah Smith, Andrew Dalhouse, Anthony Fowler Jr., Atagun Ilhan & Caanan White introduce the team in this anthology one-shot.

And that's the lot!

Andrew.