The Gosh! Authority 29.11.23

Hello!

We've got a big one this week (both event and book) with the launch event for Dave McKean's career retrospective Thalamus! Dave will be here in conversation with author (and frequent collaborator) S. F. Said this Wednesday, 7.30pm - 9pm, with a chance to get your books signed after the event. Get the details here!

One thing I should mention: this book is a big, beautiful thing, but that size has meant there are only so many copies we can carry for the night. If you definitely want a copy to get signed by Dave on Wednesday, I strongly encourage you to preorder a copy now by clicking here.

On with the comics! I'm a bit tight on time this week, so expect brevity!

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• TITANS BEAST WORLD #1 - DC launch their latest mini-event this week, revolving around those formerly teen Titans! Titans writer Tom Taylor teams with fan-fave artist Ivan Reis, putting the heroic spotlight on Garfield Logan - the one and only Beast Boy. An approaching evil known as the Necrostar is transforming people into animals, and threatens to end humanity, with only Beast Boy in its way. No, I'm not sure what's going on either if I'm honest, but it's Tom Taylor so I'm willing to take a punt.

• AMAZING SPIDER-MAN GANG WAR FIRST STRIKE #1 - Meanwhile, Marvel have a little mini-event of their own starting this week. Gang War kicks off here, as New York's criminal underworld explodes in the aftermath of the shooting of Tombstone. Regular Spidey scribe Zeb Wells is joined by Cody Ziglar, Joey Vazquez & Julian Shaw for the criminal hootenanny.

• CRAVE #1 - Now for something completely different. Maria Llovett returns with a new erotic horror centred around an app of unknown origin, Crave, that promises to satisfy all your desires. As it spreads in use as a dating app among the students of an elite university, things quickly take a sinister turn.

• HOWARD THE DUCK #1 - Happy 50th to Howard the Duck! To celebrate, this one-shot by Chip Zdarsky, Joe Quinones and a bunch of guest artists take a What If look through Howard's past, as revealed to him by cosmic entity The Peeper.

• LUKE CAGE GANG WAR #1 - Luke Cage was never going to stay a desk-jockey for long, and with a gang war breaking out on the streets of NYC, he's inspired by his old partner Danny Rand to drop his pen and get out on the streets to protect the innocent. Rodney Barnes and Ramón Bachs bring us the first Luke Cage adventure we've had in a while!

• X-MEN BLUE ORIGINS #1 - A one-shot that tells the true tale of Nightcrawler's origins (which isn't what you might have been previously told, apparently). Simon Spurrier (who has become the chief Nightcrawler scribe over the past few years) is joined by Marcus To and Wilton Santos for this little blue number.

• SPIDER-WOMAN #1 - Recently killed and resurrected during some Spider-Verse kerfuffle, Jessica Drew is back with an all-new series from creative team Steve Foxe & Carola Borelli. It's all that Spider-Woman stuff you want: a dash of Hydra, a splash of the Serpent Society, and a dollop of Spider-Man guest appearance.

• BATMAN 89 ECHOES #1 - The Michael Keaton Bat-verse is back with an all new mini-series by original screenplay writer Sam Hamm and artist Joe Quinones. Gotham is aflame as citizens take the law into their own hands and Batman is nowhere to be seen. What the heck is going on? Don't ask me, read the book!

And that's me done! See you next week, all!

Andrew.