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You’ve put our Jaime Hernandez signing in your diary, right? It’s a week from tomorrow. 29th of May. I’ll remind you next week but by that point you might have agreed to do something else that’s hard to weasel out of. Do it now. Diary. Now.

I will begin this week’s missive with a fun tip: don’t Google-image search “Gengorah Tagame” on your work computer. Don’t do it, hypothetically, at the till in front of an entire shop. It’s a bit late to find out he’s the master of gay erotic manga by that point. A bit late. It’s rude. Rude in the Tom of Finland sense of the word. But (and the fact that I had to google him basically proves this) his comics are massively overlooked outside of Japan which is why PictureBox have gone and rounded up a bunch for a book called The Passion of Gengorah Tagame: Master of Gay Erotic Manga, the first collection of his work in English. In this volume you’ll find ten short stories dating from the late ’90s right up to last year, plus a new one commissioned by Chip Kidd who designed the book (interview here) and wrote an essay for it too. Edmund White provides the intro. PictureBox have a preview.

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Click the full post link below for a list of items in store this week.

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Wait, wait. Hold up. We’ve got some books to tell you about, sure, but everything can wait because we’ve just announced another signing. Jaime Hernandez (thassright, JAIME HERNANDEZ, as in one third of the Hernandez Brothers, as in the guy who draws Love & Rockets, as in Jaime Hernandez) is coming to Gosh! to sign some books for you good people. It’s happening in TWO WEEKS which is not very long at all, which means there is no chance of you getting tired of the idea before it happens, like Christmas or weddings or whatever. Two weeks. Clear your diary. Go dig out your Love & Rockets. Come wait in a line on Wednesday the 29th of May, 5pm to 7pm. All details through here.

(He’s also doing a talk the following day hosted by Comica and BD & Comics Passion over at the French Institute. It’s only a tenner and tickets are selling fast. Details this way. Make sure you look at everything else that’s going on over that weekend, the French Institute festivals are great.)

Thank you to everyone who came to the absolutely packed Stephen Collins launch party. He is a thoroughly nice dude and a ridiculously good cartoonist and if you’d like a copy of The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil: The Bookplate Edition you’d best get in quick. Speaking as a person at the frontline I can tell you with utmost certainty that this one is going to disappear very quick. Still on the fence? WHY? Have a 12-page preview.

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Click the full post link below for a list of items in store this week.

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Welp, this is a big one. Jaime Hernandez is coming to town to do a talk at Comica — about comics, inspiration, creative process and his punk rock girls, Maggie and Hopey and the rest of them, from the very excellent, much-loved Love & Rockets — and we at Gosh! are feeling pretty lucky right now because he’s coming to our shop too. For two hours on Wednesday the 29th of May (the day before the talk) Jaime will be signing comics at our signing table. And you are invited, obviously.

(This signing and the Comica talk are Jaime’s only two engagements in London so catch him at one or both or miss out entirely! The demand for the talk has been so huge that it’s been moved to a larger venue — you’ll now find him at the French Institute, hosted by BD & Comics Passion. Details for the talk this way. It’s only a tenner.)

Love & Rockets first turned up way back in 1981 as a self-published thing by Jaime and his brothers Gilbert and Mario, before Fantagraphics took it on board and still publish it to this day. There is so much Love & Rockets in the world now that Fantagraphics have provided us all with a much-needed reading guide (to which I point new readers at now). Three years ago Abrams published a beautiful hardcover called The Art of Jaime Hernandez: The Secrets Of Life and Death, a must-have brick of a book full of family photos, gorgeous sketchbook work, childhood drawings and the story of Jaime to date. We have all of these things in stock and if you’ve never experienced Love & Rockets before, it is high time you did.

A little bit of admin to save our inbox and my own personal RSI: as yet we do not have a limit of how many things can be signed other than the usual ‘Please be polite to your fellow fans and do not bring a suitcase full of stuff’. We’ll have a look at the line on the day and see if we need to put a limit on – if we do it will probably be something like three items. Also! Because we’ve only got Jaime for a couple of hours we will not be able to take signed requests for this one, sorry. If you can’t make it just bribe your friend with beer or chocolate (those new Malteaser bars are pretty good) or owe them a dinner. If Jaime’s got a spare ten minutes before he’s whisked away to his own dinner we will ask him to sign some stock for us, and if that happens we will announce it. I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die.

Jaime Hernandez Signing
Wednesday, 29th of May
5pm – 7pm

Gosh!
1 Berwick Street
Soho, London. W1F 0DR

 

A BRIEF NOTE ON THIS WEEK’S DELIVERY SINCE WE KNOW YOU DON’T READ FURTHER THAN THIS FIRST LINE (NO REALLY, IT’S FINE, REALLY): because of the bank holiday the comics are arriving a day later (for us) which means they’re turning up on Wednesday, the same day they’re due on the shelf. No buffer zone Tuesday of unpacking and bagging. Keep an eye on Twitter and Facebook where we’ll announce their arrival, otherwise just aim for the afternoon (or even Thursday).

Thanks to everybody who came, saw and conquered the Free Comic Book Day chaos. If you chose to stay at home in your Luke Skywalker outfit instead then you will have missed out on free comics and window painting. Still, those paintings are up on the windows and will remain so for a bit. Come see Laurence Campbell’s Judge Dredd, Gary Northfield’s Rupert the Bear and a whole crowd more, including whatever it is that Stephen Collins is currently painting in preparation for Friday night’s upcoming launch party for The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil.

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Click the full post link below for a list of items in store this week.

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2000AD alumni Robbie Morrison (Nikolai Dante) and Jim Murray (Batman/Judge Dredd) have embarked on a fully-painted epic set in a flooded futuristic London and we are launching the first volume here at Gosh with a party and art exhibition!

The world has changed forever, ravaged by climatic upheaval. The flooded metropolis of London has adapted to the rising sea levels, remaining a centre for international commerce and a magnet for environmental refugees. The elite gaze out over the ever-expanding Thames from their ivory towers, while the denizens of submerged pubs peer into the sunken streets like specimens in an aquarium.

Hired by notorious underworld figure Alexandra Bastet, Leo Noiret uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that stretches from the depths of Drowntown to the highest echelons of power and influence.

Struggling aqua-courier Gina Cassel learns that young love can be a dangerous game when she becomes romantically involved with the heir to the Drakenberg Corporation, which aims to control both the environment and the future of human evolution.

There’s a storm brewing in Drowntown, with Gina and Noiret at its heart…

Says Morrison: “Part of the idea behind Drowntown was to produce a story with an almost Dickensian-sized cast, featuring characters from every strata of society, top to bottom. Over-ambitious as usual, we’re nowhere near that so far, though it is only Book 1. ” You can see some preview stuff and other bits and pieces over on their blog.

It’s all happening on Friday the 21st of June, from 7pm until 9pm at which point everything will probably move on to the pub down the road. There’s no need to RSVP but if you’d like to reserve a book feel free to ask. Published by Jonathan Cape, the book is a £12.99 hardcover and if you can’t make it on the night but would like a signed/dedicated copy anyway, send us an email to info@goshlondon.com. We can do mailorders too, just let me know where you live and I’ll let you a postage quote (it’s a flat-rate of £5 within the UK).

Brill cartoonist and thoroughly nice dude Gary Northfield (Derek the Sheep) not only has a new book out, but he has a new book out about dinosaurs which is even better. You’ll know Gary’s work if you read Derek the Sheep back when he was in the Beano, or maybe you know his stuff from The Phoenix, or maybe you stared at him while he drew Rupert the Bear in our window on Free Comic Book Day. In any case, you are invited to drink beer (or juice if you’re wee) at the launch party of Gary Northfield’s Terrible Tales of the Teenytinysaurs!

Is it possible to fly to the moon in a bubble of snot? Can you really have an argument with a cloud? Are there bogey monsters at the bottom of the garden? All these questions and more are explored in an hysterical and charming collection of comic strip adventures, following a teeny tiny gang of dinosaurs as they wind each other up and muddle their way through the myths and mysteries of prehistoric life.

It’s all happening on Friday the 31st of May from 7pm until 9pm, with drinks and books and a shop full of people. Gary will be here to sign copies just for you. The new book is for ages 7+ so kids are most welcome to come along — fans of The Phoenix might want to stay up past their bedtime for this one. Come meet Gary and marvel at the natural phenomenon that is cartoonists looking just like their own drawings!

(As ever, if you can’t make it on the night but would like a signed and/or dedicated copy then send us an email to info@goshlondon.com and we’ll sort you out with one. Mail orders are doable, just let me know where you live and I will get you a quote for postage. Terrible Tales of the Teenytinysaurs is £8.99, 80 pages, paperback.)

 

Since the last time we were here in this weekly missive we’ve had a bunch of events that you might have been at. Thank you to everyone to came to the Tom Gauld thing (and thank you to Tom for giving us cupcakes, mine lasted all of three seconds before it went to a better place), the Ian Gibson thing (we have signed copies of The Ballad of Halo Jones if you weren’t there) and the Tiny Pencil launch party on Saturday night (we’ve got signed copies of the Tiny Pencil anthology and if you like pencils or illustration or both you should come grab a copy. Here’s what it looks like). BUT we haven’t run out of events just yet. This Saturday you should bring your kids down to Free Comic Book Day and let them draw with a bunch of very nice artists. The following Friday your presence is required here with a booze of some kind in your hand because we’re launching Stephen Collins’ The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil from a cannon. BYO cannon.

From Nobrow this week comes a great-looking book called Destination X, a little pulp sci-fi bright pink hardcover by John Martz, Canadian cartoonist and one of the people behind the very excellent illustration blog, Drawn. He says it’s inspired by Star Trek, ghost stories and The Twilight Zone. The artwork is predictably brilliant and Nobrow have a preview. Here’s some more John Martz for in two minutes when you realise you want more John Martz.

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