The Gosh! Authority 29/04/09

Hello there! Andrew here again, one last oh-so brief time before Hayley returns to these balmy shores. I hope you enjoyed the return of young Master Hardy last week. He’s back off to better himself in York at some high-falutin’ schoolin’ place. Like there’s anything Gosh! couldn’t teach you!

So, in case you haven’t heard the news, this Saturday sees two of comics’ most luminescent luminaries taking up a brief residence in our basement to celebrate the release of one of the year’s most anticipated books. Yes, none other than ALAN MOORE and KEVIN O’NEILL will be signing downstairs at Gosh! on Saturday 2nd May, from 2pm – 5pm, scribbling their names across copies of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1910. We’ve especially air-freighted some copies of the book to have on sale the day of the signing (its expected UK-wide release date is now late May). These may be purchased on the day, but please note that we only have a limited number, so we cannot take reservations ahead of time. In addition, those who come in on the day will be limited to 2 copies per person. We wish we didn’t have to make these restrictions, but we want to make sure everyone who comes down can get a copy. So get yourself down to Gosh! on Saturday and join in the excitement!

In other less exciting but still pretty spiffy news, we’ve got the first issue of the new Atomic Robo mini-series this week. Atomic Robo: The Shadow From Beyond Time sees everybody’s favourite Tesla creation going all Cthulhu, as our titular hero receives a warning from the paranormal team-supreme of HP Lovecraft and Charles Fort; a warning which could herald the end of the world. Atomic Robo is a great book, filled with tongue in cheek action and slick, clean art. Each new series is an improvement on the last, and given the level of quality so far, that’s saying something. Check it out.

So, it would be fair to say that when a comics company does some kind of last-minute spin-off of an ongoing event they often don’t splash out on their top-draw talent. I don’t think that’s out of line to say, do you? Well, I’m pleased to say that this week’s Dark Reign: Cabal breaks the Jimmy McNoname & Danny MacNotalent rule by bringing on some of the best that Marvel has to offer. This one-shot, exploring the motivations of the members of Norman “Of Course You Would Trust Me” Osborne’s villainous Cabal, has some serious creative chops. Do the names Kieron Gillen, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Hickman, Rick Remender and Peter Milligan do anything for you? And that’s just the writers. Check out this preview for some pretty, pretty pictures.

Garth Ennis has been seriously on-game lately. His ongoing series The Boys and Crossed, while not to the tender tastes of everyone, have been always entertaining at least. Meanwhile his dramatic voice is as strong as it’s ever been, evidenced best in his series of 3-issue war stories, Battlefields. The latest of these, Tankies, debuts this week, featuring the always welcome Carlos Ezquerra on art duties. The story follows a fractious tank squad during the Battle of Normandy as they push through the hedgerows and forests of the Normandy countryside in a gruelling war of attrition.

Kyle Baker is an underappreciated genius. It’s a fact. If you want testament to that, take a gander at this week’s Modern Masters volume spotlighting the writer/artist, who is responsible for such classics as Why I Hate Saturn, The Cowboy Wally Show and Nat Turner. Versatile, unpredictable and probably the best comics artist whose work you haven’t really seen. For an introduction to the man and his work, you could do a lot worse than picking up this book-length interview, including sketches, an 8 page colour section and truckloads of previously unseen commissions and other artworks.

Rasl is in! It’s been a while since we last saw Jeff Smith’s dimension-hopping anti-hero, and those who are keeping up will be excited to see this new issue. Those who haven’t hopped aboard yet, take the opportunity to pick up the softcover collection of the first three issues and get yourselves up to speed. If you need further convincing, take a look at this preview. It’s bloody gorgeous!

That rascally Sherlock Holmes is all over the place lately! This week sees Leah Moore and John Reppion throw their deerstalker into the ring with the first issue of their new ongoing series from Dynamite. Promising “refined ambiance, carefully crafted mystery and chilling suspense”, it’s all wrapped up under a striking John Cassady cover and should be worth a peek.

And in a general round-up of the week:
- I’d be remiss not to do my standard bit of Kirkman-pimping by mentioning the second trade collection of the entertaining Astounding Wolfman.
- Phonogram 2 #2? Nuff said!
- Uncanny X-Men continues Matt Fraction’s increasingly excellent run on the title. Seriously, he’s going from strength to strength and it’s quickly becoming a must-read.
- The Great Fables Crossover continues in The Literals, Willingham & Sturges’ 3-issue mini starring the literary god-like figures from Jack of Fables.
- Matt Fraction (that guy again) wrote some fantastic Thor stories in the last year or so, mythologically charged one-shots exploring the Thunder-God’s history. They’re collected this week in the highly recommended Thor: Ages of Thunder HC.
- Paul Jenkins and John McCrea head back to WWII with Captain America Theater of War: A Brother in Arms, the latest in a series of wartime one-shots starring Sassy Steve Rogers.
- The new Torchwood TP Rift War collects comics from the best-selling magazine and features people you like! That’s Paul Grist (Jack Staff), Ian Edginton and D'Israeli (Scarlet Traces), and Simon Furman (Transformers). Hot diggity.

Every now and then we pop up a few posts throughout the week which I’d be remiss not to point you toward. This week we had Tusslin’ Tom Hardy talkin’ turkey about Darwyn Cooke’s Richard Stark’s Donald Westlake’s Parker! We had Wily Will Kane waxing wonderfully about Wednesday Comics! And last but most definitely not least, we announced our brand new exclusive Gosh! bookplate for none other than our ubiquitous friend and his absolutely stunning graphically novelised Sherlock Holmes The Hound of the Baskervilles! Ian Edginton and Culbard have seriously outdone themselves with this book, folks. Get your reservations in now before all the tourists snap ‘em up!

We’d like to give a shout this week to Alex Fitch over at Panel Borders, who quietly does a great job promoting our humble medium. His Resonance FM podcasts are well worth listening to, including interviews with many of the field’s top creative talents. Have a pour through the site for the likes of Alan Moore, Garth Ennis, Eddie Campbell and loads more! This week he’s appearing in person at Sci-Fi London film festival and here’s what he’s up to:

On Thursday 30th at 9pm (that’s tomorrow, folks) he’s interviewing Kevin O'Neill about his work on stage, followed by a screening of Hardware (1990) based on his 2000AD short story Shok! Then on Friday 31st at 9pm following a screening of The City of Lost Children (1995), he’s interviewing co-director Marc Caro about his career so far in film and as a bande dessinée creator (with translation by Virginie Sélavy).

On Saturday 1st May there are various panels including:

The Rise Of Steampunk Subculture 12:30PM
Stephen Hunt, Chris Wooding, Bryan Talbot, Paul Duffield

Comics as Sci-Fi Literature 2:30PM
Bryan Talbot, Paul Duffield, Paul Cornell, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey

Robots and reality 5:15PM
Tony Balantyne, Oisin McGann, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey

Alex is chairing the middle one. All events are at the Apollo Piccadilly Cinema, 19 Lower Regent Street. Go have a look at their site!

And lastly, just a reminder that while you’re sunning yourself this coming weekend, sipping martinis on your wonderful Monday bank holiday, make sure you remember that next week’s comics will be shipping on FRIDAY. That’s Friday 8th May, with everything out on the shelves from 10am as per normal. Those who come in Thursday can expect naught more than a pat on the shoulder and perhaps some idle chit-chat about the weather.

-- Andrew