The Gosh! Authority 16/12/09

Blimey! It’s snowing! It’s also a week ‘til Christmas and this one’s arrived just in time if you’ve blanked on what to get people and have decided to give them stuff you want so you can borrow it off them in January: The Rocketeer Complete Collection is the entire long out-of-print saga of Cliff Secord and his mysterious jet pack in one fancy definitive hardcover. It’s all re-coloured by Laura Martin who was chosen by Dave Stevens before he died (she talks about it over at Comicbook Resources) so the 1930s look extra shiny.

More classic stuff of a considerably grimmer variety is collected in the Tomb of Dracula Omnibus Volume 2. There’s over 800 pages of fang and Transylvanian demonic nonsense from the likes of Marv Wolfman, Steve Englehart, David Kraft, Gene Colan, Tom Palmer and Virgilio Redondo for you to peruse while scoffing your mince pies and waiting for a Morecambe & Wise special.

It’s an odd one to follow but I’ll stick it here anyway: Marc Ellerby popped in earlier this week to load our shelves with his self-published comics. We’ve now got more of the first issue of Chloe Noonan plus the brand-spanking #2 which is a few pennies more expensive than the last but considerably bigger and beefier. You’ll also find all three volumes of his autobiographical Ellerbisms which are about all sorts of things. All in all, they’re the best looking small press things around and more than worth their measly cover price. He’s redoing his website at the mo so it’s temporarily stripped down to the bare essentials but you’ll still find links to previews and stuff.

Mark Waid’s Incorruptible #1 is hot on the tails of his smash hit series Irredeemable, a study of caped morality at the end of the world. This series sees the irredeemable Max Damage attempt to turn over a new leaf after witnessing the Plutonian’s worldwide destruction and starts by changing his name to Max Danger. There’s a preview of it here.

The Next Issue Project is the series that sees top modern comics creators draw and write what they imagine would be the next issue of classic cancelled titles from the 1930s-1950s. You saw the first one in February of last year which featured Joe Casey, Erik Larsen, Mike Allred, Kyle Baker, Frank Cho, Bill Sienkiewicz, Howard Chaykin, Steve Niles, Phil Hester, Jay Faerber, Steve Gerber, and Jim Valentino. Pages from that one are still banging about on the web if you missed ‘em and there’s a review too. In the latest issue you’ll find Erik Larson (him again), Paul Grist, Steve Horton, and Michael T. Gilbert paying homage to the Golden Age greats. Comixology have five lovely looking preview pages for you.

It’s a smallish week so that’s about it comic-wise, but there is one last bit of news. Thunderbolts #139 is the first of a two-part story written by Jeff Parker starring Agents of Atlas. Parker’s taken over the Thunderbolts writing job so you can expect more from him.

Lastly, Alex Fitch has a few interesting bits in his bag of Panel Borders podcasts. First up you can find Reinhard Kleist talking about his graphic novel Johnny Cash: I See a Darkness (of which we still have a few bookplate editions if you’ve still got presents to buy for Cash fans), then you can hear Logicomix author Apostolos Doxiadis talking smart about all sorts of things, and finally you can catch the last in Fitch’s series on British Mavericks - graphic designer Rian Hughes. He’s on there talking about the early days of small press and beyond. Have a poke around on the Panel Borders site. I’m sure you’ll find lots of stuff I’ve missed.

Christmas Opening Times! Business as usual except for a few funny ones: Christmas Eve (which is also New Comics Day) we’re open 10-4pm. Closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. New Year’s Eve we’re open 10-4pm and closed on New Year’s Day.

That’s all folks.

-- Hayley