January continues, and it’s brought Weekend Reading 194! No big surprises here, but The Beat Elite will be spending our weekend holed up in Stately Beat Manor, getting lost in a big pile of books.
What will you be paging through? The Beat wants to hear from you! Be sure and let us know what you’re thinking in the comment section.
AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend I’m reading Bra: A Thousand Years of Style, Support and Seduction by Stephanie Pedersen. Finally, I’ll be up to speed on one of the most compelling undergarments. Meanwhile, my comics reading this weekend has a twist: I’ll be reading The Ultimate Guide to Comic Books. This superhero-spattered magazine was brought home from the supermarket by my spouse, Rebecca Oliver Kaplan. I’m not sure what to expect from it, but that’s half the fun.
KRISTINA ELYSE BUTKE: I’m reading the BL manga Scarlet Secret by Tomo Serizawa, about Shiki, a boy with red eyes and the ability to predict the weather, who grows up with the village chief’s son, Yamato. As the years pass and the two become close friends, later Shiki is chosen to be a ritual sacrifice by the local Shamaness. Yamato is desperate to save him…will the will of the gods get in the way?
GREGORY PAUL SILBER: This week I returned to my column, Silber Linings, with an article about casual fandom and how the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem animated film made me a TMNT fan again after nearly a quarter-century away from the franchise. So now I’m itching to read Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin written by original TMNT creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird alongside Tom Waltz, drawn by Esau and Isaac Escorza, Ben Bishop, with colors by Luis Antonio Delgado and lettering by Shawn Lee. I already read the first chapter, which follows a lone ninja turtle (I won’t spoil which) in a post-apocalyptic future in which New York City is a dystopian wasteland and the other turtles are apparently long-dead. Eastman and Laird lean hard into the Frank Miller influences that inspired the creation of their indie phenomenon in the first place, but considering all the great things I’ve heard about this book, not to mention a strikingly cinematic art style, I’m optimistic that The Last Ronin will shape up to be more than a pastiche of The Dark Knight Returns.
TAIMUR DAR: A few months back, I started truly appreciating the comics work of Mark Russell and so I’ve been playing catch up with various titles. Among those books is the Wonder Twins miniseries with artist Stephen Byrne a few years ago. I heard nothing but great things but at the time I just assumed it wasn’t for me. So this weekend I’m finally seeing if indeed it lives up to the hype.
D. Morris: Anyone who knows me knows I love the work Jack Kirby. For someone who names his iPhones Motherbox, it’s my deep shame I’ve never read all of Fourth World, Kirby’s massive cosmic epic. My goal this year is to read the whole thing. I’m reading it in the order the issues came out. I got through the first few issues of his Jimmy Olsen run which means this weekend I’m reading the first issues of Forever People, New Gods, and Mister Miracle.
DEAN SIMONS: Been feeling the itch to revisit the Marvel Knights period of Daredevil (mainly out of nostalgia for the Bendis-Maleev run). So that will be what I am doing- starting from the Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada arc Guardian Devil. Also, as I am now in France ahead of Angoulême, you can likely expect me to be reading Blake & Mortimer: The Atlantis Mystery (I restarted it the other week) while sipping tea in cafés to keep warm.
You can peruse the 193 previous entries in The Beat’s Weekend Reading archive by clicking here.
Hello, can we get any feedback on whether this guide is any good
Hi JC, the guide is a general survey of (mostly) Big 2 superhero comics from the Golden Age through today. It’s geared towards a more general audience than this site, which makes sense for a publication we picked up in the supermarket.
One nice thing about it is a surplus of supporting quotes from relevant creators, pulled from interviews on lots of websites (including at least one from The Beat). But I did notice a few images that did not match their captions (one example was an image of a recent Hasbro Spider-Man action figure that should have been the Kenner figure from the 80s).
I am inclined to give bonus points for directing interested readers towards specific nonfiction books on comic book history. Plus, it sparked plenty of conversations in our household.
Have a great weekend!
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