The Gosh! Authority 30/07/10

It’s a big’un this week so excuse me if I vaguely bunch stuff together for ease of whatevers. I’m aiming for a sort of biological grouping only less scientific and more stupid: Things That Could Be Pets, People, Vampires, Demons, Bats, Pigs, and Miscellaneous Leftover Bits. Watch this:

Things that could be pets:
Krazy Kat: A Celebration of Sundays is my numero uno this week because everything Sunday Press do is amazing and you know it. You can set sail on their books they’re so big. Patrick McDonnell (whose Mutts is a favourite of mine too, oh yesh!) provides the introduction and quite rightly points out that it’s nearing an astonishing hundred years since Krazy Kat first copped a brick (ZIP!) POW! right in the kisser. This hardcover collects the lovingly restored Sundays in their original size and colour, except for the ones they’ve embiggened a bit for size consistency. Particulars for the particular over at the Sunday Press site.

People, mostly:
Alan Moore’s Dodgem Logic #4 arrived late last week and it’s their best looking one yet thanks to the reliably brilliant Mr John Coulthart who provided the psychedelic Art Nouveau cover. If you don’t believe me you can compare ‘em – we’ve got issues #1, 2 and 3 lined up next to it on the counter. Coulthart talks about the artwork and the long running history of provocative cover art on 1960s underground magazines on his blog.


Moore appeared recently on stage talking about multiple dimensions, alternate universes and the astounding weirdness of science fact versus Hollywood/science fiction. He was joined by Brian Green, Brian Cox, Robin Ince and Jonathan Ross who coincidentally pops up on our new shelves this week with Turf #2. You can catch the recorded show Infinite Monkey Cage on BBC iPlayer until Monday afternoon.

Vampires:
As for Turf, the Sunday Times have exclusive images from tomorrow’s new issue, and over at Newsarama Ross discusses vampires, gangsters and nine-foot tall aliens.

Victor Gischler and Giuseppe Camuncoli set the ball rolling for some of the biggest changes in the Marvel Universe since Civil War by having one of the most dangerous villains whacked in Death of Dracula #1. Lots of things ARE AT STAKE, geddit? Preview.

Tomb of Dracula TP Volume 1 collects the first twelve issues of the Marv Wolfman/Gene Colan Marvel series from 1972, featuring the very first appearance of the now-synonymous-with-Wesley-Snipes character, Blade. Snipes is now somewhat inexplicably writing comics, though I’d reckon it’s probably more down to Peter Milligan (Greek Street, Hellblazer) making a concept work as an actual thing. He talks about After Dark #0 (preview) with Broken Frontier. It’s a post-apocalyptic science fiction miniseries and this issue’s only 75p so give it a go. Also it has demons/evil in it which, conveniently, so do these:

Gosh! Favourite Jill Thompson and Evan Dorkin’s Beasts of Burden is out in hardcover, featuring a bunch of extras that Thompson will tell you all about over here. If you missed the series entirely here’s the both of them discussing it before it all began.

John Arcudi and Peter Snejbjerg begin a new two-parter with Abe Sapien: Abyssal Plain #1 which has resulted in Newsarama and me learning a brand new word. The abyssal plain is a “flat or very gently sloping area of the deep ocean basic floor” and mostly unexplored, making for a cracking title and interesting premise to boot.

“The Abyssal Plain has long fascinated me for the same reason it fascinates anybody. It's part of the world, our world, about which so little is known, and each new discovery it relinquishes is surprising and loaded with information. And as I said before, a hell of a metaphor. "What lies beneath the surface," and all that, but there is actually another reason I chose the title which won't be clear until the end of the series. Keep 'em guessing, that's what I say.”

More of that interview over here, and a preview too.

The Strange Adventures of HP Lovecraft was a four-part series that’s been mentioned on the Gosh! Blog previously because it features the increasingly rare art of the brilliant Tony Salmons. It’s out in trade paperback this week and if you missed the boat entirely on this one you can read the first issue free on the internet. Writer Mac Carter talks with CbR and says of Salmons:


“Can we all just acknowledge, for the record, that Tony is one of the greatest comic book artists alive? In short, his work is [A RUDE WORD] awesome. Google some of his pin-ups – they'll blow you away. So many great artists of today cite him as an influence. The storytelling and images that come out of his head are nothing short of inspired and I can't wait for everyone to see his crazy cool stuff.” Neither can we. Highly recommended.


Bats! Two things doing the batty-bat this week. Batwoman: Elegy Deluxe Edition Prem HC collects the Greg Rucka/J.H. Williams III run of Detective Comics. Rucka talks about it with CbR where there are pages and pages of glorious Williams III art. Kelley Jones provides the illustrations in this week’s instalment of the month-long Joker’s Asylum series – this time it’s the shape-shifting Clayface’s turn. Preview!

Pigs! Spider-Ham: 25th Anniversary Special #1 has a synopsis so eye-crossingly pig-punned that I’m not even going to bother making sense of it. Go forth, ye, to Marvel News where writers Tom DeFalco and Tom Peyer explain themselves. Preview. Theoretically pigs can be pets too. I’m a failed scientist. Anyway, without further ado, the Miscellaneous Leftover Bits:

Ultimate Comics Avengers Prem HC Next Generation collects Mark Millar’s Ultimate Avengers #1 – 6. Earlier this month Newsarama spoke with him here where they all say the word ‘ultimate’ a lot. Then Captain America pops up again in the Karl Kesel helmed Captain America: 1940s Newspaper Strip #1 (of 3) which he (Kesel, not Cap) talks about here. Preview.

Dynamite have added yet another comic to the already unwieldy octopus that is their Green Hornet line, Green Hornet: Parallel Lives #1 (of 5). It’s the prelude to the upcoming Seth Rogen film and gives you the origin of the Green Hornet/Kato team. Preview.

And finally, something strange and pretty from Sonja Ahlers to end on. Selves, a new book from Drawn & Quarterly, can be previewed here.

-- Hayley