The Gosh! Authority 04/11/09

Predictably, I’m going to shout about our signings for a bit before I start on this week’s swag. THIS SATURDAY Eddie Campbell will be in the Gosh! basement from 2-4pm signing copies of the brand-spanking new Alec: The Years Have Pants Omnibus and whatever other Campbelliana you happen to bring along. Be there! He’s lovely and so is the book. The Saturday after that Gilbert Shelton will be here to sign his new book, The Fat Freddy’s Cat Omnibus. After that I think we might have a wee rest and let you do something else with your Saturday afternoons.








The last chap to sign here has two comics out this week that you might like. With Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente writes the Assault on New Olympus One-Shot which sees multiple Avengers teams fight the gods themselves. The story carries on in Incredible Hercules so don’t miss it if you’re following that one. Plus Jeff Parker’s Agents of Atlas continues as a back up in the one-shot and will continue running in that format beginning in next month’s Incredible Hercules. Pak and Van Lente talk about ridiculousness and improbable word play (the “tools of their trade”) over at Newsarama. (Preview) Van Lente also turns up in Deadpool Team-Up #899 because the editor liked what he did in Deadpool #900 so much. He talks about the Merc with a Mouth over at CbR.

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ Criminal Deluxe Hardcover will be the first creator-owned omnibus to come from Marvel and should probably be the first thing on your list this Thursday too. It collects all the Criminal trade-paperbacks to date (that’s Cowards, Lawless, and The Dead and the Dying) along with a slew of bonus stuff – a Criminal short story, a never-before-printed five pager that only appeared online, illustrations, articles, etc etc etc. Dave Gibbons provides the introduction so he obviously likes it as much as we do.

If indie comics are your thing make sure you pick up the BP Comics Revival 3-Pak #1 – a shrink-wrapped pack from Buenaventura Press featuring three strange titles adding up to over 100 pages of funny arty comics by Eric Haven, Ted May and Lisa Hanawalt. May’s contribution is the third issue of his own ongoing series Injury Comics. There’s monsters, mysterious pilots, love letters and bug sex. What more could you want? A review by Jog the Blog, possibly.

Lots of new things starting this week so here we go:

Paul Grist gives you a Jack Staff spin-off one-shot called Eternal Conflicts of the Cosmic Warrior. Grist is planning a five-issue miniseries featuring the character so this will give you some idea of what’s to come. A preview!

Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love #1 is the first of a six-issue miniseries by Chris Roberson (House of Mystery, Jack of Fables) and Shawn McManus (Sandman, Thessaly: Witch For Hire) about fan-favourite Cinderella who’s secretly a kick-ass super-spy. Spinning out Bill Willingham’s Fables (obviously) the miniseries takes place before the events of the Big Fables Crossover. Roberson talks about it here.

Stumptown #1 is the beginning of the first creator-owned series by Greg Rucka (Whiteout, Detective Comics) since his Eisner Award-winning Queen & Country. “Stumptown is – I suppose the bluntest way to put it is, if Queen and Country was me using a childhood love of espionage and things like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and James Bond and Ian Mackintosh's Sandbaggers, then Stumptown comes out of the childhood love of The Hardy Boys and The Rockford Files, Simon and Simon and Magnum, P.I. That's what this is,” he says in this interview before going on to talk about Raymond Chandler (top marks!) and all sorts. You can read an early review of it here and see a preview too.

If you were a fan of Eric Shanower (Age of Bronze) and Skottie Young’s (X-Men) Wonderful World of Oz you’ll be happy to know they’re taking on L. Frank Baum’s second Oz book, The Marvelous Land of Oz. “What sets The Marvelous Land of Oz apart specifically is the fact that it’s not anywhere near as well-known as the story from the first book, particularly the Judy Garland movie version of that story. Marvelous Land is a good story, but it’s not as straightforward as Wonderful Wizard...” More of that Shanower interview here. Preview.

Scott Ian (yes, he of Anthrax) makes his comics debut with a twisted Lobo story Highway to Hell #1 (of 2) in which Lobo repeatedly punches Satan in the face. Over here you can see a preview of Sam Keith’s (Sandman) artwork which is worth the cover price alone. There’s a huge interview with Ian at CbR where he says this isn’t another celebrity stunt comic, he reckons he’s in it for good.

Paul Cornell (Captain Britain and the MI: 13, deceased) begins a new four-issue miniseries this week with Black Widow Deadly Origin #1 with art by Tom Raney and the reliably brilliant John Paul Leon (Howling Commandos) whose dark inky art we like so much here at Gosh! Cornell says you can expect something fairly James Bond-y (him again)... “Lots of fist fights, high tech battles, the sort of extreme superhero hedonism you expect from the Iron Man movies, pre-titles sequences and movie poster splash pages.” More of that and a review/preview too.

The Great Ten #1 (of 10) is a series by Tony Bedard (R.E.B.E.L.S.), Scott McDaniel (Nightwing, Green Arrow) that revisits Grant Morrison characters from 52 and Checkmate. In the series the gods of Ancient China have returned to destroy communist rule:

“When I went off to college, I really got into Eastern philosophy — Taoism, Buddhism, Zen, etc. Around the same time, I picked up Animal Man and I’ve been a hardcore Grant Morrison fan ever since. So I leapt at the chance to do a Great Ten series, to flesh out these characters Grant dreamed up and tap the amazing storytelling potential in both them and their country. It’s a chance to do a different take on super-heroes, and just like my R.E.B.E.L.S. series, I think The Great Ten is going to take a lot of people by surprise,” says Bedard.

In comics news this weeks there’s a handful of talks and workshops this month courtesy of Islington Library that you should try and get along to. Kevin O’Neill, Ed “Ilya” Hillyer, Steve Marchant and more are all involved, so check out their online leaflet and don’t miss ‘em.

Over at DC there’s a Wednesday Comics podcast featuring Mark Chiarello, Amanda Connor, Jimmy Palmiotti, Paul Pope, Mike Allred, Dave Gibbons, Lee Bermejo and more. The sound quality’s somewhat dodgy but you get the idea. Plus few still have every issue of the series for sale in the basement. (Thanks Nick!)

And that’s about it.

-- Hayley