The Gosh! Authority 30.09.20

Hey folks,

Welcome to the last post of September, believe it or not.

I wanted to take the opportunity to point out that although our in-store events are on hold for the time being, the Gosh / Broken Frontier Drink and Draw and the Reads reading group are both very much alive and kicking in the digital realm!

This Wednesday at 7pm, the folks of Reads will be discussing Tom King & Mitch Gerard's Mister Miracle, one of the most lauded titles of 2019. If you fancy joining in the chat, you can find the group on Skype: a link will be posted on the Facebook Group on the day of the meet.

Then on Thursday it's the currently bi-weekly Drink and Draw, in association with our pals at Broken Frontier. This time we're focusing on creators who have work available from one of our favourite local publishers: Myriad! We'll have three talented folks on hand to give us the drawing prompts through the evening (we're still just finalising the line-up), and you can join in on Twitter or Instagram using the #GoshBFDD hashtag.    

And finally, happy to say that deliveries all look to be normal this week! Let's have a look, shall we?

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• DEPARTMENT OF TRUTH #1 - A new Image title with a lot of heat around it (due in no small part, no doubt, to one-man Batman heat machine James Tynion IV). A conspiracy theorist discovers the biggest conspiracy of all: all the conspiracies are true, and all are covered up by the mysterious Department of Truth. But what's the conspiracy that lies behind them? A twisty, turny thriller with art by Martin Simmonds, it brings to mind a quote by Alan Moore: "The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory, is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory. The truth is far more frightening - Nobody is in control. The world is rudderless."

• GIANT SIZE X-MEN TRIBUTE TO WEIN & COCKRUM #1 - 45 years ago Len Wein and Dave Cockrum released a one-shot story intended to breath new life into a team book that was for all intents and purposes dead in the water. The result was a book that would kick off the best-selling franchise of the 80's and 90's, with a diverse new cast that would attract a broad readership who followed their soap opera superheroics for decades to follow (me included). This celebratory one-shot re-creates that issue, with 37 artists drawing one page each, including the likes of Alex Ross, Kevin Nowlan, Chris Samnee, Marguerite Sauvage, Mark Brooks, Leinil Francis Yu, Javier Rodriguez, Jen Bartel, Michael Del Mundo, and more!

• SHANG-CHI #1 (OF 5) - Gene Luen Yang, Dike Ruan & Philip Tan bring back the Master of Kung Fu in this five issue mini-series. Shang Chi is dragged out of peaceful retirement thanks to the resurgence of the criminal organisation formerly headed by his father.  This was no doubt supposed to be part of the hype build for the movie, which is now pushed back to July next year, but we'll take any excuse for some new Shang Chi.

• IMMORTAL HULK THRESHING PLACE #1 - An absolutely stunning Hulk one-shot by Jeff Lemire and Mike Del Mundo. Bruce Banner is on the trail of a gamma-powered menace whose telltale scent lies on a small Kansas town where a young girl has gone missing. Plays right into Lemire's strengths, and Del Mundo really delivers on the art front.

• DARK NIGHTS DEATH METAL MULTIVERSES END #1 - Perpetua marshals her forces of Monitors and Anti-Monitors to detroy the multiverse, and a brave group of heroes from many worlds, including Owlman, President Superman, Iris West, Captain Carrot, Guy Gardner, and others, make one last stand against her. A Death Metal tie-in by James Tynion IV and Juan Gedeon.

• BATMAN THE JOKER WAR ZONE #1 - A collection of short stories set in war-torn Gotham, featuring Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown, Luke Fox and (in his debut full feature) Clownhunter.

• WONDER WOMAN 1984 #1 - A tie-in one-shot for the upcoming (at some point - apparently around Christmas now?) movie!

• X-RAY ROBOT #2 (OF 4) - Just a reminder Allred-heads: issue #2 is here at last!

And that's me done! See you next time, friends!

Andrew.