The final weekend in November has arrived! There’s just one more month of 2022 left. How will you be spending it? We’d like to formally suggest Weekend Reading 138!

As ever, we hope that you’ll let us in on what you’re reading, as well. Give us a shout-out right here in the comment section or on social media @comicsbeat!

Weekend Reading 138: Little Monarchs.

AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend, I’ll be revisiting one of my favorite comics of 2022, Little Monarchs by Jonathan Case. And since I can’t love anything without dissecting it and analyzing all the goop I find inside, I may also be returning to a few other post-societal collapse stories, like Octavia E. Butler’s Earthseed duology.

Weekend Reading 138
Weekend Reading 138: Beware the Kitten Holy & Savage Dragon.

DEAN SIMONS: For a lark I hopped in a time machine during the week to glimpse the world of 30 years ago…with early Savage Dragon, via a one-two punch of the Savage Dragon Archives and digital back issues. This is a work from the dawn of Image – and, like Spawn, is still ongoing. The plotting is…very ‘90s. So are the visuals. HOWEVER by reading the black and white Savage Dragon Archives you get to really appreciate Erik Larsen’s craftsmanship (though I could probably do without the extremely not subtle cheesecake – but hey! The Nineties!). I then chase up the B&W Archive issues with digital reproductions of the original comics’ letter pages – which are a whole realm unto themselves. Glimpsing the hype and heat of early Image and Savage Dragon in letters from correspondents ranging from enthusiastic kids across the globe to established creators of the time (plus occasional pages-long feuds). As a palette cleanser I am also eyeing starting Lumberjanes: Beware the Kitten Holy, by Noelle Stevenson & Grace Ellis. My reading habits make no sense – and that’s how I like it.

TAIMUR DAR: Like pretty much every comic fan worth their salt, I read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics years ago when I started really wanting to appreciate the medium. Since then, there’s been no shortage of books on the subject. I recently became aware of Making Comics by Lynda Barry. So I’ll be diving into that this weekend as well as a re-read of Understanding Comics for comparison. Also Words for Picture by Brian Michael Bendis.