The Gosh! Authority 23/12/09

Considering New Comics Day is also Christmas Eve we were hoping those ol’ comics publishers would be gentle with us and make it a nice easy week. Unfortunately for us they were only thinking of you lot and have thus landed us with a huge truckload of stuff, so there’s no way you’re going to run out of things to read over Christmas and get stuck watching Showboat for the 47th time. You’ll also get to see the ghosts of Gosh! past and scoff the remaining chocolates on the counter so it’ll probably be a good day all round. Don’t forget we shut at 4pm so get in early if you’d like to see our cheery faces.

So here’s what we’ve got:

Eric Powell begins his first new creator-owned series since The Goon with Chimichanga #1 (of 3), a story about a bearded girl, a rubbish travelling circus (see Randy – the man with the strength of a slightly larger man or Esmerelda and her amazing two-eyed goat) and a pet monster. It’s a quirky tale with a Goon-like atmosphere, kid-safe but not just for kids, says Powell. Previews are non-existent for this one so you’ll just have to wait ‘til Thursday. Speaking of Powell, his original Goon graphic novel Chinatown & The Mystery Of Mr. Wicker is finally out in softcover this week.

The lovely Christian Ward and Nathan Edmondson’s Olympus is collected in trade-paperback so if you missed it the first time round you can give it a go over Christmas. Edmondson talks about it with CBR where you’ll also find a bunch of preview pages.

Rick Remender’s got a pile of stuff out including Last Days of American Crime #1, the first of a three part series about a terrifying not-too-distant future. “At its heart it's a classic heist story with touches of science fiction and socio-political business around the perimeter of it. The story takes place in America eight or nine years in the future where a few spats of domestic terrorism have caused a spike in public paranoia,” says Remender.

“In this climate the U.S. Government, in secret, has been developing a broadcast that neurochemically inhibits anybody within the range of the broadcast from doing anything they know to be unlawful. Their response is to seize every radio tower in the country, broadcast this beam and no more crime, no more illegal activity, no more jay-walking, no more anything.” But there are two weeks to go until that happens and it’s the last chance for everyone to get their yah-yahs out. There are loads of interviews for you to read and a preview too.

Garth Ennis’ war stories continue with Battlefields: Happy Valley #1, a three-parter about an Australian member of the British bomber crew in 1942. Ennis talks about it here and the artist Paul Jason “PJ” Holden gets his turn too.

Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield? is a one-shot by Ed Brubaker which will see the shield returned to Steve Rogers or left with Bucky Barnes. Or maybe they’ll share it, with Bucky having it on weekends and every other Friday. Have a preview.

Andrew is very excited about the More Than Complete Action Philosophers! TP which is pretty much what it says on the tin plus four all-new stories that you won’t find anywhere else. Fred Van Lente talks about how it all began in this interview. Supergirl Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade TP comes highly recommended by Andrew too. It was a six-issue all-ages miniseries and you can see a preview of #1 here. Ridiculously good fun.

Mike Mignola and Richard Corben give you another one-shot Hellboy collaboration a year after their Hellboy: The Crooked Man. Hellboy: Bride of Hell sees a nineteen-year-old girl kidnapped in order to be offered to Asmodeus, King of Demons. But Hellboy’s here to make it all better. Preview!

And finally, this week sees the release of the 300th issue of the Comics Journal! There’s loads of stuff in this one which is probably just as well because it’ll take you a week to read it and you won’t notice the lack of comics on New Year’s Eve (I’ll get to that in a second). It’s a collection of interviews by creators with creators – the idea is that an established, influential type talks with a rising-star type and they print the results. So you’ll get Kevin Huizenga/Art Spiegelman, Zak Sally/Jaime Hernandez, Frank Quitely/Dave Gibbons, Alison Bechdel/Danica Novgorodoff, Denny O’Neil/Matt Fraction, Hitchcock/Truffaut (maybe not) and more. David Mazzucchelli talks with Dash Shaw (Bottomless Belly Button) and you can read a bit of it here.

Right, so next week: No comics are shipping except for Blackest Night #6 and Origin of Siege. But there’s still a reason to get off your post-Christmas arse and that reason is the Gosh! sale! From the 28th of December you’ll find loads of recent hardcovers going for half price or more, plus a whole heap of other books we felt like throwing into the mix. No tat here, it’ll be worth the trip, with fresh stock added regularly. Look for the sale sign!

Probably won’t be a mail-out next week, what with there being no comics to talk about and all, so I’ll see you in two weeks.

Merry Christmas, Bedford Falls!

-- Hayley