League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969 - Gosh! Exclusive Bookplate Edition

We’ve been waiting so long for this book that not only has the dinner gone cold and been thrown in the bin, we’d very nearly turned out the lights and gone to bed. To celebrate its long awaited and very welcome arrival on our doorstep we thought we’d do something mighty special indeed.

The latest installment of Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s hit series is on the presses as I type and due to be on a boat leaving Hong Kong on the 19th of June. It should be in all UK book and comic shops in the week of the 25th of July providing no pirates or fans gone mad with impatience inexpertly commandeer the ship and crash it on foreign shores, littering the sea with psychedelic colours and leagues of extraordinary gentlemen.

Gosh!’s Bookplate Editions are usually limited to just the one volume of a series or stand-alone graphic novel. Never before have we done what we’re about to do. The talented Mr O’Neill is busy illustrating a triptych of mini-prints for each part of the current series, available exclusively at Gosh! and limited to 1000 copies of each. It’s a mighty hike up from the usual 200 copies but that’s just because the demand for this thing is so deservedly huge, and we hate to see disappointment on your wee faces.

Each plate is A5 format. 210cm x 148cm

Details on how you can get your mitts on all three prints after this other bit of exciting news: a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen art exhibition right here in Gosh!

When O’Neill handed in the first 20 pages of the third and final part of the book (he is currently at his desk drawing the next batch) he also dropped in 10 internal pages of Century: 1969 -- the volume currently being printed in Hong Kong. From Monday the 13th of June you’ll be able to see those pages on the walls of Gosh! which I’m sure you’ll agree is far more interesting than a regular old Internet preview. Pay us a visit, have a sneak peek at the new book, and while you’re here you can put your name down for a reserved copy.

So, here are the details on the bookplates and how you can get them:

Plates for Century: 1910 and Century: 1969 will both be released on the same day (the week of July 25th) and given away free with a purchase of the book while stocks last. If you already have a copy of Century: 1910, you can request a separate bookplate for it when you’re putting your name down for the next bookplated volume, Century: 1969 (though we will ask for an extra £2 to cover our costs).

To ensure you don’t miss out on the third and final volume, Century: Let It All Come Down (currently slated for summer 2012) leave us with your contact details so we can get in touch with you when it arrives.

All customers who have a standing order for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at the time of Century: 1969’s release will automatically receive the first two plates for free (ie. no extra £2 for the first bookplate) and be at the top of the list when the third plate arrives. So if you’ve been thinking about starting a standing order with us, perhaps you’d best get on it.

Confused? Here’s all that broken down for monetary clarity:

League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910 with mini-print - £5.95

League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969 with mini-print - £7.99

League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969 with first 2 mini prints – £9.99

If you'd like to reserve a copy send us an email saying so to info@goshlondon.com.

There’ll be more League news in the coming weeks, so keep an eye on the Gosh! Blog, add us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, subscribe to our RSS feed or camp under our window if you’re that way inclined.

Only available in store at Gosh! (no mail orders on this one, sorry) and from the looks of it: only available for a ridiculously limited time. Pirates willing.

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Demo Volume 2 TP – Gosh! Exclusive Bookplate Edition

Another addition to our stellar line-up of Gosh! Exclusive Bookplate Editions is the second instalment of Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan’s Eisner-nominated Demo. This trade-paperback collects all six issues of the hugely popular second series, complete with an amazing Gosh! Exclusive Cloonan-illustrated bookplate to make you want it even more.

The original influential indie series was made up of twelve isolated stories all revolving around the lives of young people: their relationships, emotions and lives. Wood had intended to focus on characters with supernatural powers, but this side of things wasn’t as heavily present as it is in this second series: “These stories have a lot more of a supernatural flair than anything else,” he said, in an interview with Comicbook Resources. “It’s not so much superpowers, it’s supernatural.”

Demo Volume 2 #1 sees a woman haunted by a recurring premonition, but you won’t see any Volume 1 characters recur in this series. “They’re all original. That’s actually a line I don’t think I’ll ever really cross. I feel like that really undermines the integrity of not only the actual concept of Demo, but also the integrity of the old stories,” says Wood.

“I was a big fan of the first 12-issue series and looked forward to the six-issue Vertigo second volume ever since it was rumoured/announced, and it didn’t disappoint. This volume has been more minimalist in its writing, allowing Becky Cloonan’s gorgeous art to take centre stage. Each issue has been like a short film or prose poem, a work of allusions and demands that the reader meet the work partway.”
-- Comicbook Resources

Since the indie days of self-published Demo, Wood has gone on to write DMZ, Local, Northlanders, The New York Four and several other notable notables. Cloonan has worked with the likes of Steven T. Seagle on American Virgin, and Gosh! favourite Brazilian twins Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon on the gripping tale of urban horror PIXU: The Mark of Evil. We even had her in the shop for a signing for a signing last year with Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie of Phonogram. Over at Panel Borders, Alex Fitch talks with Cloonan in a podcast about Demo, Pixu, and her first foray into manga with East Coast Rising.

We’ll have a strictly limited 200 copies of the Demo Volume 2 TP Gosh! Exclusive Bookplate Edition signed and numbered by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan for the standard cover price of £13.50. If you’d like to reserve a copy or arrange a mail order (postage rates below) just drop us a line at info@goshlondon.com. While you’re at it, we’ve also got a very limited number of McCloonan jam prints left, which she and McKelvie produced just for their Gosh! signing. I’d snap ‘em both up before they go the way of the disastrously delicious dodo.

Postage Rates:

UK/Europe: £5.00
Australia/New Zealand: £7.50
USA: £7.50

(We're well aware that people do live in places other than the ones I've listed so just send us an email and we'll give you a postage quote of your very own.)

On Sale March 23, 2011

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iZombie Volume 1 Dead To The World TP - Gosh! Exclusive Bookplate Edition

We’re huge fans of Mike Allred here at Gosh! so if you’ve been paying attention you might have seen this coming.

Chris Roberson, a long-time fan of comics, wrote several novels and short stories before breaking into the business with last year’s Fables miniseries, Cinderella: From Fabletown With Love. He’s since gone on to write a comics prequel to Philip K. Dick’s most famous novel, in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep: Dust to Dust. More importantly though, he’s collaborated with the top notch Gosh! Favourite Allred on Vertigo’s “urban fantasy romantic dramedy” iZombie, about a twenty-something gravedigger called Gwen Dylan.

"Gwen quickly learned that, unless she ate a human brain once a month, she would lose her own memories and personality and quickly become a shambling zombie straight out of a George Romero film. But she doesn’t want to hurt anyone, so instead of attacking the living, she gets a job as a gravedigger at an eco-friendly cemetery (because embalming fluid tastes icky), and once a month she sneaks in and digs up the freshest body for a quick bite," says Roberson, in an interview with Newsarama.

For a whole week after eating the brain Gwen shares her headspace with the memory and personality of that dead person. If they left any unfinished business she sets about finishing it for them.

“It could be that the dead person was murdered, and Gwen is compelled to catch the killer. Or it’s a single mother whose last will and testament has gone missing, so Gwen has to find it so that her kids are sent to live with her sister out-of-state, and not to an orphanage. Or a guy who dies before reconciling with his estranged father and Gwen has to find a way to mend fences between the man and his dead son.”

Laura Allred provides the colours, as usual, so it’s a visual feast to boot.

Still not sure if it’s up your street?

"I think it will appeal to two groups of people: Those who like zombie books, and those who don't like zombie books," said Roberson. “There’s a lot going on in iZombie, and if a reader isn’t crazy about the kick-ass kung-fu scene, there’s a tender romantic moment in just a few more pages. Or if they get bored with the scene with two girls talking about their favourite kind of food, hang on a minute because one of them is about to eat a brain."

iZombie Volume 1 Dead To The World TP contains the first five issues of the series, plus the prequel that appeared in the House of Mystery Halloween Annual which you can read online at Comicvine. Points for anyone who spots the Madman reference.

We’ll have a strictly limited 200 copies of the Gosh! Exclusive Bookplate Edition, signed and numbered by Roberson and both Allreds for the standard cover price of £10.99. If you’d like to reserve a copy or arrange a mail order just drop us a line at info@goshlondon.com.

POSTAGE RATES:

UK/Europe - £5.00
USA/Australia/New Zealand - £7.00

If you'd like it posted anywhere else in the world let us know and we'll give you a quote.

Available from the 16th of March, 2011.

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Daytripper TP Bookplate Edition – Exclusive to Gosh!

Gosh! Favourites Gabriel Bá (The Umbrella Academy) and Fábio Moon’s (Casanova) first creator owned series from Vertigo made huge waves in the world of comics. It’s about a young guy called Brás, a writer of newspaper obituaries. Each of the ten issues looks in at a different moment in his life – from 32 to 48 to 18 and so on – letting the reader take a daytrip in one man’s existence. And at the end of each issue, he dies.

"A lot of the stuff that happens to us happens to everybody. Everyone tries and struggles to find out what they want in life. There are defining moments when you are growing up that tell you who you are and what you're going to do for the rest of your life. And those are the types of moments that are in the comic."
-- Fábio Moon

The story is set in Bá and Moon’s natural Brazil, which sets it apart from every other comic out there. "When you're done, you actually feel like you've been to another land. You get the flair and flavour of another culture. And they sing to your heart. You read the story, and every character is alive. Everything is pulled from real life. And you get Brazil. You get the culture. You're seeped in their daily lives, and you feel like you've taken a trip into another culture," said editor Bob Schreck in an interview with Newsarama.

It’s a book about one man’s everything, from his loves to his deaths and all the things in between. If you’ve not read it before you can have the first eight pages for free. Craig Thompson (Blankets, Carnet De Voyage) provides the introduction to the collection.

In February, we’ll have a strictly limited 200 copies of the Gosh! Exclusive Bookplate Edition which features art by Fábio Moon. It’s signed and numbered by both Bá and Moon and you can have it for just the standard cover price of £14.99. If you’d like to reserve a copy or arrange a mail order just drop us a line at info@goshlondon.com.

Due February 3, 2011.

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GONZO: A Graphic Biography of Hunter S. Thompson – Gosh! Exclusive Bookplate Edition

“Myths and legends die hard in America. We love them for the extra dimension they provide, the illusion of near-infinite possibility to erase the narrow confines of most men’s reality. Weird heroes and mold-breaking champions exist as living proof to those who need it that the tyranny of ‘the rat race’ is not yet final.”

Everyone’s heard of Hunter S. Thompson – the man was mythical in his own lifetime, undoubtedly more so now he’s gone. His legendary adventures birthed a style of journalism now synonymous with his name. He’s an icon and a vital force in the history of the 20th century. But you know all this.

Newcomers Will Bingley and Anthony Hope-Smith fill in the bits you maybe don’t know in their debut graphic novel Gonzo from the same publishing house that brought you that other excellent biography, Cash: I See a Darkness.


“Of course everyone is painfully aware of Hunter’s persona in popular culture and to an extent the Gonzo mythos is a terrible mis-representation of the man,” says Bingley.

“Thompson caricatured himself to the point of self-parody, and it sadly became the perception among his many detractors that this was indeed the man himself. We wanted to reflect that aspect of his character, where relevant, but to also peel back the curtain to show the man,” says Hope-Smith, whose beautifully European styled artwork is totally Gosh! approved.


The book is reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, and over at the SelfMadeHero website you can see both Bingley and Hope-Smith blogging about Thompson, the book, and their working methods. In fact if you’re thinking of writing a comic yourself Bingley gives you his Nine Rules of Writing Comics that he implores you to ignore.
We have a strictly limited 200 copies of the Gosh! Exclusive Bookplate Edition signed and numbered by both authors for just the standard cover price of £14.99. If you’d like to reserve a copy or arrange a mail order just drop us a line at info@goshlondon.com.

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Grandville Mon Amour HC Bookplate Edition - Exclusive to Gosh!

The announcement of any new work by Bryan Talbot is always something special, a testament to the importance of the man to comics both within the UK and on the international scene. Bryan’s last book, the hugely enjoyable Grandville, was no exception, and certainly lived up to expectations. Delivering a rip-roaring steampunk adventure that playfully yet respectfully tips its hat to European comics tradition, the book is a core stock item for any self-respecting comic shop.

With that in mind, it’s with tremendous pleasure that we can announce the Grandville Mon Amour: Gosh! Exclusive Bookplate Edition! Featuring a signed and numbered colour print featuring exclusive art by Bryan Talbot for the standard cover price of £16.99, this edition is strictly limited to 200 copies.


The second in a planned series of books, Grandville Mon Amour returns to the world of Detective Inspector Archie LeBrock, a world Bryan himself describes as "like Jules Verne and Sherlock Holmes directed by Quentin Tarantino-with animals!"


Set three weeks after the events of the first book, LeBrock once again travels to Paris, but this time in active pursuit of his old enemy Edward “Mad Dog” Mastock. After Mastock, a former guerilla fighter for the British resistance, violently escapes the executioner’s blade and begins a murderous rampage toward Paris, Brock is forced to resign his post and take the law into his own hands to see justice done.


It’s all entertainment of the highest calibre, and there’s even a trailer, embedded below for your viewing pleasure (or at this link, if you prefer).

The book is due for release on 2nd December, 2010, though Bryan will be officially launching the book at Thought Bubble on the 20th November, at Saviles Hall in Leeds. Bryan will be there all day to sign copies. On Sunday he will be giving the Grandville Presentation in the Hepworth Room at the Leeds Art Gallery at 3.30pm - 4.30pm. Admission is free.


Bryan’s books always do very well for us, so my recommendation is to get in fast and nab yourself a copy. If you’d like to reserve a copy or arrange a mail order, drop us a line at info@goshlondon.com.

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At The Mountains of Madness Bookplate Edition - Exclusive to Gosh!

Gosh! Favourite Ian Culbard (Dorian Gray, A Study in Scarlet) is no stranger to the bookplate edition. You’ll no doubt remember his last one from the Hound of the Baskervilles by Ian Edginton, a sell-out success and not just because of the Gosh! Comics cameo on said bookplate.

This time ‘round Culbard steps out on his own in a new adaptation from Self Made Hero. At the Mountains of Madness is a tale of Antarctic terror by the master of unspeakable horrors, H.P. Lovecraft. First published in 1936 and now in graphic novel form some 74 years later, this is one Lovecraftian horror worth seeking out.

The barren, windswept interior of the Antarctic plateau was lifeless or so the expedition from Miskatonic University thought. Then they found strange fossils of unheard-of creatures, carved stones tens of millions of years old and, finally, the unspeakable, mind-twisting terror of the City of the Old Ones.

“I could not help feeling that they were evil things – mountains of madness whose farther slopes looked out over some accursed ultimate abyss.”

“There's been a lot of Lovecraftian work over the past few years, but [this] may be the best of them all.”
-- Pornokitsch

I could tell you a vigintillion times over that Culbard’s work is remarkable but instead I’ll point you at several early reviews lavishing praise on his latest effort: The FPI Blog, Butterfly Hunt, and Geek Syndicate.

At the Mountains of Madness: Gosh! Exclusive Bookplate Edition boasts a signed and numbered print featuring all-new art by Ian Culbard for the standard cover price of £14.99. As a gentle nod of respect he’s done a portrait of Lovecraft himself, in blues and blacks and probably colours out of space too:


If you’d like to reserve a copy or arrange a mail order, drop us a line at info@goshlondon.com.

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The Night Bookmobile Bookplate Edition – Exclusive to Gosh!

Audrey Niffenegger made headlines a couple of years back when the follow-up manuscript to her first incredible novel The Time Traveller’s Wife wound up in an unlikely and fierce bidding war at a time when publishers, like the rest of us, weren’t really buying anything. She’s not only an amazingly successful novelist but a talented artist to boot: The Three Incestuous Sisters, her first published “novel in pictures,” is a strange and macabre Gorey-esque story about three sisters who live in a lonely house by the sea. You’ll no doubt have seen it on the Gosh! shelves alongside The Adventuress, a gothic, dreamlike romance about an alchemist’s daughter who escapes a kidnapping by turning into a moth.

Her third graphic novel The Night Bookmobile was syndicated in the Guardian, occupying the space usually reserved for the very excellent Posy Simmonds (Gemma Bovery, Tamara Drewe) and her satirical takes on literary masterpieces. It’s a shadowy, nocturnal story about a woman who periodically encounters a bookmobile on a quiet Chicago street very late at night. In it she finds every single thing she’s ever read – every book, every instruction manual, classified ad and cereal box.

"From Jane Austen to Paul Auster, from Betty Crocker's Cookbook to The Raw and the Cooked to my college biology textbook, every book on the shelves was familiar… And then I saw my diary.”

It’s a strange premise but I like the idea that somewhere some quiet, balding librarian is keeping track of everything for us. It’s a book about the perils of reading too much; a book about books, about obsession, and about our innate desire to recapture what is lost. Niffenegger says the idea originally sprung from the classic H.G. Wells short story The Door in the Wall (online here), a tale of a man obsessed by an enchanted garden he had glimpsed as a child.

If you read the Wells story, you'll see that it is about longing, and I wanted to carry that over into my story. Longing prevents us from being entirely in the present and often leads us to make bad decisions. It's a great theme of literature, especially in the 19th century (see: Henry James, Edith Wharton, Proust, etc.) and seems relevant to a 21st-century America that's getting wistful for its past glories.

“At heart this romantic, melancholy tale is a paean to reading and to the life one person lives through books.”
-- Publishers Weekly

"The Night Bookmobile is a love letter, both elegiac and heartbreaking, to the things we have read, and to the readers that we are. It says that what we read makes us who we are. It's a graphic short story, beautifully drawn and perfectly told, a cautionary fantasia for anyone who has ever loved books, and I hope the story of the library, of Alexandra, finds its place on the shelves of the night bookmobiles of all of us who'd care. It's a treasure."
-- Neil Gaiman

The exclusive Night Bookmobile Gosh! Bookplate Edition features all new art created just for us, signed by Audrey Niffenegger herself and is limited to just 200 copies -- all for the cover price of £16.99. If you'd like to reserve one or arrange a mail order, drop us a line at info@goshlondon.com.

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Cages TP Bookplate Edition - Exclusive to Gosh!

After years of publishing limbo, Dave McKean’s magnum opus Cages has finally returned.

McKean is best known for his numerous collaborations with Neil Gaiman: Violent Cases, Signal to Noise, Mr Punch, several children’s books and, of course, the iconic covers for the phenomenally popular Sandman series. In Cages McKean is both writer and artist, constructing an entire universe in 500 pages. It is an incredibly rich story about life, death, art, religion, philosophy, birds, a black cat, and the cages we build for ourselves. It has won several awards and broken even more bookshelves.



"Cages has all the qualities of a real universe - sprawling yet contained, chaotic yet organised, mysterious yet discernible, comedic yet serious. Assuming you have a re-enforced bookshelf, $50 [old edition! - Ed.] doesn't seem too much to ask for both a universe and a work of art.”
-- TIME

"One of the most important works of comic art in the last decade."
-- The Comics Journal

“Mesmerising.”
-- Terry Gilliam




The ten-issue tale first appeared in late 1990, published by the ambitious Tundra whose exceedingly high production values meant that the enterprise never became a profitable one – as sales rose, so did losses, and the whole thing collapsed a few years later. It found its next home in Kitchen Sink Press who picked up the reigns for the last three issues. The massive tome was released a couple of times by two different parties (in 1998 and 2002), making it available again for a brief moment before the print run would sell out and the book would eventually go for incredible amounts on eBay. Too many books have a similar history.

This week Dark Horse release the first affordable softcover edition of the behemoth and you can thank your lucky stars you won’t be carrying home the 2002 hardcover (getting that home on the bus was a mighty feat and no mistake). Fully remastered and redesigned, it even boasts an all-new cover by McKean.

The Exclusive Gosh! Bookplate Edition features art created just for us, signed and numbered by the man himself for no more than the £22.50 cover price. There’s only 200 of them around so you’d best get in quick. Given how long it’s been out of town it’s due an enthusiastic welcome home.

If you'd like to reserve one or arrange a mail order, drop us a line at info@goshlondon.com.

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Vern & Lettuce Bookplate Edition - Exclusive to Gosh!

If you’ve not come across the work of Sarah McIntyre yet you’re in for a treat. From the same publishing house as the incredible Mezolith (another of our Gosh! Bookplate Editions) comes McIntyre’s Vern & Lettuce, a comic strip that originally ran in the highly lauded though now sadly defunct DFC.

It stars a sheep and a rabbit who live in a tower block in a neighbourhood in south London. While Lettuce the rabbit is watching a talent-spotting show on telly, she suddenly decides she wants to be famous, and scoots her best friend Vern off to the big city, despite his protestations that they need to work on getting a talent first. They are both hugely inept at doing most things, but while reading, you hope that the strength of their friendship will help them survive in dark and dangerous places.
--- Sarah McIntyre, in coversation with Philip Reeve at the Solitary Bee.

There’s a full page of Vern and Lettuce’s furry escapades still available online at the Guardian where it ran for 12 weeks. With its soft colours and round-faced characters it feels nostalgic and English in a brilliant after-school-telly sort of way.

Have a nosey about on Sarah’s blog where where she posts new drawings pretty much every single day straight from the Fleece Station in South London, the studio she shares with fellow DFC-er Gary Northfield (Derek the Sheep), Ellen Linder (Undertow, Whores of Mensa), and Lauren O’Farrell (of Stitch London). I’m convinced she’s ordering big boxes of time off Amazon; I have no idea how she manages to churn out so much amazing stuff.

The Gosh! Exclusive Vern & Lettuce Bookplate Edition is limited to 200 copies, featuring a signed and numbered plate with all new art by for not a penny more than the standard cover price of £9.99.


If you'd like to reserve one or arrange a mail order, drop us a line at info@goshlondon.com.

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