The Gosh! Authority 05/08/10

Bonjour or sumsing! I have returned and I have eaten all of the cheese in France. Y’know, France: famous for its artists which is why The Rocketeer Artist’s Edition gets top billing this week. Aah? Aaaahhh? See? Relevant.

IDW have excelled themselves with this one – a mammoth 12” by 17” hardcover full of actual-size reproductions of Dave Stevens’ original Rocketeer art. It’s black and white but was scanned in colour so you’re going to get all the blue-line preliminary sketch stuff you wouldn’t usually see in the final product. It’s a hefty book and carries a pretty hefty pricetag too (£100!) but these two chaps think it’s worth it. They’ve got preview images too for the benefit of your eyeballs.

McSweeney’s have released the comics section of the enormous San Francisco Panorama all on its lonesome so you don’t have to buy the whole lot then throw out the sports section just to get yourself some Chris Ware Rocket Sam. Loads of brilliant indie comics creators pop up in this one so it’s well worth a go: Art Spiegelman, Adrian Tomine, Dan Clowes, Gene Luen Yang, Kim Deitch, Seth, Erik Larsen, Keith Knight, Jon Adams, Gabrielle Bell and of course Mr Ware himself. That said, we’ve still got some copies of the original newspaper if you’d rather go for the whole shebang. Here’s the comics bit action:

Gosh! Favourites abound in this week’s delivery so there’s going to be blatant favouritism for the next couple of paragraphs. Matt Fraction, Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon’s Casanova #2, the long awaited third volume of the series is out and you should read it. Fraction talks to GQ about the recent hiatus here and there’s a preview of the new issue at Comics Alliance.

If you’ve been following the twins on twitter you will have seen Moon’s Blog War collaboration with Craig Thompson (Blankets, Carnet De Voyage). Moon headed to Portland after the Comic-Con where he hung out with the comics folk there and blogged their activities in cartoon form, a back-and-forth dialogue with Thompson a bit like the Top Shelf/James Kochalka Conversation minicomics. There are four parts and they’re lovely. One. Two. Three. Four. Spot the special guest stars! No prizes ‘cos they’re bloody well labelled.

Ian Edginton (Scarlet Traces, Hound of the Baskervilles) appears twice on our shelves this week, bibliographically speaking. Aladdin: Legacy of the Lost TP collects the recent miniseries that took the old classic and turned it into a ‘a thundering sword and sorcery epic’ (Previously, on the Gosh! Blog). Then there’s Kane & Lynch #1, the first part of a six-issue miniseries based on the best-selling videogame. Here’s a preview of the art by Christopher Mitten (Wasteland), a man with an excellent name.

The also brilliantly named illustrator Laurence Campbell has a trade-paperback out rounding up four of his top-notch Punisher one-shots written by Valerie D’Orazio, Rob Williams, Jonathan Maberry and Mike Benson. There’s Butterfly (preview), Get Castle, Naked Kill (preview), and the Punisher Max 2007 Annual. D’Orazio described Campbell’s art as “jaw-droppingly visceral, detailed and beautiful” and we rather like it too. Highly recommended.

Maberry also writes Marvel Universe Vs. The Punisher #1 (of 4) this time illustrated by Goran Parlov (Hellblazer: Lady Constantine) in which a worldwide plague has turned everyone into sadistic cannibal predators. Cheery preview this way.

Plague’s in this week, evidently. Baltimore: The Plague Ships #1 (of 5) comes courtesy of Mike Mignola and Witchfinder artist Ben Stenbeck, based on Mignola and Christopher Golden's 2007 novel Baltimore, or The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire. Says he, “If you've read the book, there's a hole in the middle of the book where the character takes off after the man who ruined his life, and that's where the comic picks up. There's this giant chunk of years from the middle of the novel that hopefully this series of miniseries will fill in the blank for.” Judging from the preview images floating about on the web you can consider this an antidote to the oh-so-dreamy R-Patz variety vampires.

Deadpool #1000 is out this Thursday and boy, didn’t those hundred issues since last year’s #900 fly by like THAT. It’s another milestone clusterf*ck of creators, eleven of ‘em if you’re counting. “Once the word was out I was doing another jam book, the calls flooded in. Dean Haspiel even did a shirtless audition. Or was that a sweater? Whatever,” says editor Axel Alonso. Here’s who called: Paco Medina, David Lapham, Jerome Opena, Matteo Scalero, Denys Cowan, Howard Chaykin, Philip Bond, Dean Haspiel (him again), Michael Kupperman, Peter Bagge and Tim Hamilton. It has Hot-Pants Zeus in it. That’s really all you need to know. Preview.

This blog is set to become unwieldy so how about I just do a lasso round-up of the notable notables. I’ve got news at the end as well. Important news about Scott Pilgrim:

- Black Comix: African American Independent Comics, Art and Culture HC is the first book of its kind with over fifty contributors and creators between its covers. It got a great write-up in Publishers Weekly last month.

- Captain America: Forever Allies #1 (of 4) written by Roger Stern and
illstrated by Nick Dragotta and Marco Santucci. Stern words over at CbR and a preview at Comixology.

- Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love by Chris Roberson with art by Shawn McManus is collected in trade-paperback this week. There’s also iZombie #4 by Roberson and Mike Allred hitting the shelves so grab one of them while you’re at it. Comics with brains.

- Hellspawn Complete Collection HC includes the entire series by Brian Michael Bendis, Steve Niles, Ashley Wood and Ben Templesmith along with unseen art and a cover gallery all wrapped up in one oversized hardcover. Preview.

- Shadoweyes is the lastest graphic novel from Ross Campbell of the chubby goth extravaganza Wet Moon. Preview and early review over at CbR.

- Shadowland continues with #2 of the series as well as the first of the tie-in one-shots, Shadowland: Bullseye. Writer John Layman (of Chew fame) talks about it with CbR and there’s a preview too. Mark it off on your Shadowland checklist.

- Spitfire One-Shot is the latest from Paul Cornell (Captain Britain and the MI:13, Doctor Who) who spills the beans over at CbR. Preview.

- Torchwood #1 is a comic to tide you over until the next Torchwood series. It’s even written by its leading man, John Barrowman. Tommy Lee Edwards (Turf) is in charge of the drawings so it could be good but I can’t find a preview. You’ll just have to wait and see.

- Aaaand Superman: Last Family of Krypton #1 by legendary Superman writer Cary Bates, art by Renato Arlem (Stormwatch). Bates interview over here and a preview there.

Right then. News. That Neil Gaiman/Eddie Campbell/Fourplay Sydney Opera House Thing I mentioned a few weeks back is happening THIS WEEKEND. If you’re in Sydney, you should go. I love their old school marketing – they’re like rock stars. My pal in Sydney has been snapping these photos in his travels:

Good hat.

Ed “Ilya” Hillyer (Best New Manga) curates a month-long show at the Whitechapel Ideas Store from now until the 5th of September. He says: The show is called MANGA UK and seeks to put authentic Japanese manga in context for the general public, as well as to reflect the vibrant manga scene here in the UK. It features work from Manga Jiman competition grand-prize winners past and present, Best New Manga contributors and even - gulp - examples of my own strips. Gulp indeed! More information here.

There’s also an exhibition over at the No Brow gallery featuring the works of Matthew the Horse and Jon Boam, a collection of insane, absurd, humorous and horrific things that they promise will make your eyes bleed with joy. Maybe they will.

This is the Scott Pilgrim bit I promised you earlier:

My favourite cinema in London is putting on an Edgar Wright double bill (Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz) in the lead-up to the release of that film everyone keeps going on about. Two movies for the price of one regular admit! I love the Brixton Ritzy and went there many times in my pajamas before moving north of the river. Go keep this place alive and buy your tickets now.

Film magazine Little White Lies have a new free-to-attend nationwide film club sponsored by Grolsch beer which means get a free film PLUS free booze to go with it (A+). Their first screening is Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World on the 19th of August with a Q&A with Edgar Wright himself at the Curzon Soho. You need to sign up in advance to win tickets. Win tickets? I guess that’s what you’re doing. Go do it.

This seems as good a place as any to remind you of the Bryan Lee O’Malley signing happening TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY. Make sure your boss knows you’re skiving off work that afternoon.

And finally, here’s a sketch from friend-of-Gosh! Richard Sandling: the absolutely completely true story of how Iron Man got greenlit by the film studios. Something looks familiar here.



I get roundly told off if I put my feet up like that.

-- Hayley