The Gosh! Authority 22/07/09

If everything had gone according to plan the first sentence of this week’s post would read: Darwyn Cooke’s The Hunter Bookplate Edition is now in store! Instead, thanks to delays at the printer and further delays thanks to Cooke being incredibly popular and busy at San Diego Comicon, we now have the books (which are very tasty indeed) but not the signed, numbered, Gosh! Exclusive bookplates which are currently on their way to Mr Cooke to be signed and numbered. So here’s what we’re gonna do: Given that you probably can’t wait to read the thing (and do head over to the wonderful World of Kane if you don’t know what I’m on about) you can go ahead and buy it, and we’ll stick your name on our bookplate reserve list while you go home and await further instruction. We’ll get one to you as soon as Cooke posts ‘em back. It’s like a military operation, this. Anyway, that aside, there are already enthusiastic reviews rolling in and if you’ve not yet laid eyes on the thing head directly to this preview without passing Go.

The other big graphic novel out this week is The Nobody by Jeff Lemire (The Essex County Trilogy) which sees an isolated village take in a stranger covered head to toe in mummy bandages. It’s based on H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man but a review over at CbR suggests it has more in common with the recent Swedish horror flick Let the Right One In. I’ve not read it yet so I can’t say, but I can tell you that there are preview pages at Lemire’s blog and they look smashing.

Another mention-worthy hardcover is Jeff Smith’s latest offering Little Mouse Gets Ready, a kids book with no nookies in it unlike last week’s Rasl #5. This one’s all about a little mouse getting dressed, wrestling with buttons, velcro, and underpant tail-holes. Judging from the previews it’s a lovely little book which you can tell yourself you’re getting for your kid or something.

The third issue of Gosh! favourite (premature? We think not) Wednesday Comics is hitting the shelves the day after Wednesday, as is the fashion outside the US. The series was previously mentioned on this blog here and here. We’re getting another bundle of #1s and #2s so if you thought you missed ‘em think again! You can buy all three in one go and roll around on their enormous pages in your underpants. Though my guess is you’ll probably want to keep them. They’re rather nice.

Forget your Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men – this crossover promises to ‘rock your face off’: It’s Dethklok Vs The Goon in a one-shot story by Eric Powell. Dethklok are a fictional/virtual death metal band from Adult Swim’s Metalocalypse whose album has been a favourite of Powell’s for a long time. Powell says “…the only way this comic could be more metal was if the art were laser-imprinted onto slabs of iron.” It’s also a Dethklok story that’ll never be animated so if you’re a fan of the show you’d best grab a copy. I mention this only for non-Goon fans because Goon fans don’t need telling. Incidentally, you can read the rest of that Powell interview here, and if you didn’t check out the preview pictures from the animated feature (produced by David Fincher of Se7en, Fight Club and the rest) last time this popped up on the blog you can still seem them at Ain’t it Cool News.

Jason Aaron (writer of Scalped, Wolverine and object of Andrew’s fanboy affections) teams up with Mico Suayan (Moon Knight) and Travel Foreman (Cla$$war) in a series that gives the Immortal Weapons their very own miniseries. The focus of the five-issue run is the origin of Fat Cobra, of whom Aaron says…

[Of all the characters there’s] something about Fat Cobra seems the most colourful and outrageous. He's just a big sumo guy whose most famous line is, "Bring me my wenches of waiting!" I like the chance to do the fun stuff, but also subvert it a little and show, like I said, sort of the dark side to his origin story. More of that here.

Incredible Hulk #600 is so exciting Marvel wrote the solicitation entirely in capitals. Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness and Fred Van Lente are all here, plus Tim Sale pops up in a Hulk: Gray #1 reprint. Preview!

And finally, I keep rabbiting on about it but they’ve got naff all in the way of a promotional budget: Go see Moon. It’s like one of those sci-fi films that don’t get made anymore. You’ll like it.

-- Hayley