The Gosh! Authority 31.03.21

Hello!

Few bits of admin to chat about today. First up, we have confirmed shipping details for the week starting Monday the 5th April (following the Easter weekend). Comics will be arriving with us on Thursday the 8th to process and put on sale, so the earliest we'll be able to do click and collect will be Thursday afternoon (and Friday would be preferred if you can hold off a day) and standing order mail out requests will be processed on Friday. Not a massive week, so you may want to hold off until Wednesday the 14th when - all things going well - you can (gasp!) come in the store to collect!

You may have also seen that Marvel Comics are switching up their distribution for the direct market (i.e. comic shops) to Penguin Random House in the US. I can tell you two things about this: 

1) While there will certainly be interesting times ahead for the industry, we can largely only speculate what it means at this point. 

2) It will almost certainly be largely invisible to you (especially here in the UK).

And lastly, an apology if you're experiencing any delays in mail orders at the moment (or do so in the coming week). We've had a sellout item ship last week and have another shipping this week. Less collections, that's about 350-odd parcels that have needed processing, and we still have staff mostly furloughed. So do be a little patient with any orders, and do let us know if it's urgent (for birthdays and such) so we can fast-track it.

Alright, enough of the boring stuff, let's talk comics!

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• CINEMA PURGATORIO COLLECTION - At last, the Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill strip from the Cinema Purgatorio anthology is collected together in one volume! A mad journey through the nightmare history of cinema, all in glorious black and white. We did have a bookplate for this, but it's sadly sold out. But never fear if you preordered it: your bookplated copies are secured. But bookplate or no, this is a must-buy!
  

• BETA RAY BILL #1 (OF 5) KIB - My love of Daniel Warren Johnson gets stronger with every new project he does, and early previews of this mini starring fan fave Beta Ray Bill don't look to change that. It's nominally a King in Black tie-in, spinning directly out of recent events in the crossover (and with Bill fighting a Knullified Fin Fang Foom), but don't let that dissuade you if you haven't been following it. And as a special bonus, it has a backup feature with Johnson in conversation with Walt Simonson! Man, I hope they do one of those treasury-sized editions of this...
  

• HEAVEN NO HELL HC - If this doesn't end up on our best of 2021 list I'll eat a copy of it. It's a sturdy new hardcover collection of shorts from the indie comics powerhouse that is Michael DeForge. With 17 stories under the hood, this book really showcases DeForge's incredible range, from free-wheeling experimentation to tight, classic cartooning. The man really can do it all, and is also served by being a remarkable writer to boot. Not to be missed.

• SHADECRAFT #1 - The new series from the creators of sleeper hit Skyward is an atmospheric horror tale set in small town USA. A teenage girl begins to suspect something is deeply wrong in the shadows of town. Or rather that something is wrong with them, as they seem to be coming to life, and not in a nice way. Tipped as the next Something is Killing the Children, this is one to watch for horror fans.
  

• SILK #1 (OF 5) - A welcome new mini-series for Cindi Moon, intrepid reporter and moonlighting superhero. Maurene Goo and Takeshi Miyazawa have her investigating a series of gangland murders in both her professional guises. You might be surprised to learn that things aren't as straightforward as they seem and there might - just maybe - be a super villainous agenda afoot!

• WITCHBLOOD #1 - We're pretty excited about this new series from Vault, written by Matthew Erman and drawn by Lisa Sterle, mainly because Sterle is the artist of the incredible Modern Witch Tarot Deck (which we also have several signed prints of). Big fans! Anyway, the story follows a witch who is hunted by a vampire biker gang who seek that most rare of delicacies: witchblood.
  

• AVENGERS CURSE MAN-THING #1 - While I'm cursing this three-issue mini by Steve Orlando and Francesco Mobili for complicating my life by existing as 3 one-shots (this, Spider-Man Curse of the Man-Thing and X-Men Curse of the Man Thing), I'm always happy to see the old shambling heap. I was obsessed with Man-Thing as a kid, especially that whole "Whatever knows fear burns at the Man-Thing's touch!" shtick. Orlando is a good pair of hands (making his Marvel debut, surprisingly) and introduces a new villain, The Harrower, who menaces the major cities of the world with supernatural monoliths. Who ya gonna call? A mute pile of semi-sentient swamp vegetation, apparently! I was about to demand that they get MT into the MCU, but I forgot they did do a pre-MCU movie a while back. It...wasn't good.

And with that, I'm off! Have a lovely week, all!

Andrew.