The Gosh! Authority 31.07.24

Hello!

No events again this week (don't worry, they're coming back with a vengeance), so I thought I'd take the opportunity to plug our old friends at Thought Bubble! Taking place in Harrogate on the 16th & 17th November, you can buy tickets now to ensure your place at our favourite UK festival. Expect the usual tremendous line-up of guests and exhibitors. You won't see me there, but Tom, Will and Luke will all be there selling their various excellent (non-Gosh) wares. Get all the details here!

(And who knows, a London signing featuring two TB guests might even be in the works...)

Onto the comics! Not a lot to talk about this week, but you still may have to empty those pockets a little...

HIGHLIGHTS THIS WEEK

• HITMAN BY GARTH ENNIS AND JOHN MCCREA OMNIBUS HC VOL 01 - Remember how I mentioned emptying those pockets? Well you may want to for this puppy, a bumper hardcover collection of the first 33 issues of Ennis & McCrea's irreverent and surprisingly touching epic (not to mention a little chunk of their Demon run). We've done a very limited mini-print for the book with brand new art by John McCrea, which he's also signed (see below). In case you missed this when it was announced, we've only done TWENTY FIVE of these prints, and most of them are gone already. I've held a few back for the shelf, but you may want to pre-order here to avoid disappointment.

• FRIDAY TP VOL 03 - Worth highlighting the release of this irregular treat, the final volume in Ed Brubaker, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente's mystery masterpiece. Things have certainly developed in interesting directions since the "grown up child detective returns home" action of the first volume. With increased horror / sci-fi vibes, I'm rather excited to see where the series lands. Sure, I could have read it on Panel Syndicate, but I want that book, baby!

• DEN HC VOL 02 MUVOVUM - Speaking of irregular, the second collection in the definitive, remastered library of Richard Corben's clothing-optional fantasy adventures is here at last! This thing has been seriously delayed, but we're hopeful the rest will follow in short order. I have a confession: in my youth I was quite dismissive of Corben in general, and Den in particular. Lurid trash, thought I, in my early twenties pomp. Well I'm happy to admit that I was a fool. Corben was a genius. Den has enough energy, power, poise and outright insanity to put all the retro-fantasy pretenders in the dust.

• MOEBIUS LIBRARY THE MAJOR HC - And at long last it feels like the Moebius Library series is picking up steam again too! This volume collects one of his later works, serialised between 1997 and 2009. What begins as a playful exercise in surreal spontaneity becomes a self-examination of the relationship between creator and creation. A tight, propulsive narrative this is not, but a work of one of the most skilled, assured creators comics has ever seen it most assuredly is!

• MARVEL & DISNEY WHAT IF DONALD DUCK BECAME WOLVERINE #1 - Ennis? Brubaker? Corben? Moebius? Sure, they're all here this week, but are any of them doing a Donald Duck riff on Old Man Logan? Well Italian comics stars Luca Barbieri and Giada Perissinotto are, so straight to the top of the single issue class for them. Yes, when Mickey Hawkeye and Goofy Hulk coming knocking on the door of the world's angriest duck (now retired) to save the Duckberg wasteland, we get a walk down memory lane through all of Donald Wolvie's greatest comics moments.

• X-FORCE #1 - The latest X-title to emerge From the Ashes (just staying on Marvel message, people!). Forge has formed a new X-force, with himself, Rachel Summers, Betsy Braddock, Sage, Surge and a new guy named Tank. Each storyline also features a guest star hand-picked by Forge for the mission they're on, starting with Deadpool, for some reason. How strange! Anyway, Geoffrey Thorne & Marcus To kick off this new mutant black ops team.

• BLACK WIDOW VENOMOUS #1 - A one-shot by Erica Schultz & Luciano Vecchio which leads directly into the upcoming Venom War mini-event. In case you weren't up to speed, Natasha has bonded with a symbiote and has been putting it to good use. Now she needs to learn that it's more than just a tool to be used in the spy game.

• SUPER-PETS SPECIAL BITENTITY CRISIS #1 - A super-pet anthology special, headlined by everybody's favourite Nightwing-adjacent canine. Creators on this one include Kyle Starks, Alexis Quasarano, Dan Watters, Michael Conrad, Tony Fleecs, Christopher Mitten, Mike Norton & P.J. Holden.

You won't be seeing me next week, but the lovely Bryn will be stepping in for a week to cover. 

Adios!

Andrew.