The Gosh! Authority 19/08/09

Greetings Earthlings. I’m back for another instalment of Stuff We Think You’d Like. It’s somewhat slim pickings this week but as always there are a few bits worthy of a mention, like Jeff Lemire’s (The Nobody) Essex County Trilogy – that’s Tales From the Farm, Ghost Stories, and The Country Nurse – which are collected in both soft and hardcover this week. They’re two lovely-looking editions from Top Shelf which not only have the stuff you’ve seen before but added bonus material like sketches, promo art and two new stories Lemire had previously done as 15-page mini-comics. If you like his old stuff you’ll want to make sure his new series from Vertigo is on your order too: Sweet Tooth isn’t out until September but you can read all about it at Newsarama in the meantime.

Speaking of Vertigo, their new Vertigo Crime line launches this Thursday! Each original graphic novel in the series will be a black and white, digest-sized hardback with a cover by Joker artist Lee Bermejo. Bermejo’s partner in Joker crime Brian Azzarello (of the late 100 Bullets) teams up with Victor Santos (Young Ronin) for Filthy Rich, a pulp noir tale about a former sports hero with a gambling problem mixing with the wrong crowd and the wrong girl. If it sounds like old hat cliche to you, you might agree with this reviewer who said “You can not over-state the smug stupidity of this graphic novel.” Or, you might lean towards a more favourable take on it: “...reading Filthy Rich probably won't open any new doors for you, but then, isn't that why noir is its own genre to begin with? Azzarello provides all the facets of a great noir tale, and excels at them. Fans will likely be able to guess who betrays who, and in what order, but ultimately, that winds up being part of the fun.”

The other of the two is Ian Rankin’s Dark Entries featuring ol’ John Constantine. Rankin’s foray into comics caused something of a slinging match over at the Eddie Campbell blogspot some time back, but despite all that Bookslut think it’s an enjoyable read. If you’re in Edinburgh this week you can see Rankin on stage with Neil Gaiman where they’ll be discussing comics and themselves.

Punisher’s also jumping on the noir bandwagon this week with Punisher Noir #1, the first of four issues by Frank Tieri and Paul Azaceta which sees Punisher kicking arse and taking names in the Roaring Twenties. There’s an interview with Tieri at Newsarama and a few preview pages courtesy of Fanboy.com.

If you’re an Alan Moore fan you’ll want to get your mitts on DC’s latest Absolute Edition V For Vendetta. Having been around for twenty-odd years we all know what it’s about so I’ll spare you the recap. This heavy block of a book sports the colouring previously seen in the 2005 hardcover edition only it’s bigger which does indeed make it better. “On the subject of big hardcovers,” says a blogger struggling for a segue, the second volume of Eerie Archives has also arrived on our busy doorstep and will probably be found somewhere near V on account of its size. It’s a year’s worth of 1960s eerie classics from Gene Colan, Steve Ditko, Gray Morror, Neal Adams, and Frank Frazetta.

Andrew’s very excited to see Guy Davis’ (BPRD) late ‘90s series Marquis collected in trade paperback. The first volume Inferno is out this Thursday collecting the first two major stories Danse Macabre and Intermezzo along with an expanded sketchbook section and full-colour cover gallery by Matt Wagner, Mike Mignola, Teddy Kristensen, Kelly Jones, Charles Vess and Michael Gaydos. Davis talks about it at CbR and there’s a preview here if you’ve never seen this thing before.

If you were drawn in by the freebie Viking #1 piggybacked by Walking Dead #64 last week you can pick up the third coloured issue on Thursday. And if you’re a rabid Jason Aaron fan like Andrew you’ll no doubt be excited to know that Wolverine Weapon X #4 is out, giving you another dose of Adamantium Men. In our Blackest Night range we’ve got more grim doings in Blackest Night Superman #1 (of 3) which has something to do with Pa Kent’s grave. And in Daredevil #500, Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark end their popular run on the series. It’ll be interesting to see how they leave it for the next creative team of Andy Diggle and Roberto De La Torre who’ll be doing #501 some time in October. Click here for a preview.

And apart from Ross Campbell’s Wet Moon Volume 5 (preview!) there’s not much else to add.

See you Thursday!
-- Hayley.