Weekend Reading 22 has arrived! Can you believe it’s been 22 (twenty-two) weeks since Shut in Theater began? It seems like it was just yesterday. Was it yesterday? Our grasp on time is sort of slipping here at Stately Beat Manor.
Without further ado, here’s what the Beat team will be reading this weekend. As always, we hope you’ll share your reading plans with us in the comment section! Unless you want to leave it some kind of weird mystery…
AVERY KAPLAN: For Weekend Reading 22, everything’s Archie! I’ll be reading Betty & Veronica: The Bond of Friendship, the OGN by Jamie L. Rotante, Brittney Williams, Matt Herms, and Jack Morelli. Then, after it came up in conversation with Greg Silber earlier this week, I have no choice but to revisit Archie vs. Predator by Alex de Campi, Fernando Ruiz, Rich Koslowski, Jason Millet, and John Workman.
JOE GRUNENWALD: It’s been a few weeks since I did, uh, any weekend reading, so I’ve got a lot to catch up on. I picked up Adrian Tomine’s The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist last week, and I’m itching to dig into that. Another new addition to my shelf that I haven’t read yet is Hope Larson’s All Together Now, the semi-sequel to All Summer Long, a book I absolutely loved. I’ll probably try to read both of those this weekend, in-between DC Fandome coverage on Saturday and ideally enjoying some nice weather (while masked and at a safe social distance from others, naturally) on Sunday.
TAIMUR DAR: The last few months of quarantine have allowed me to devote time to check out acclaimed runs of books on the DC Universe platform that I’ve been meaning to dive into for the longest time. Right now on Grant Morrison’s epic JLA run and currently on the “Rock of Ages” storyline drawn by Howard Porter.
ADAM KARENINA SHERIF: After recently revisiting an absolute fave in Judge Anderson: Shamballa by Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson, I seem to be on a real 2000 AD kick at the moment. As well as the hard-boiled sci-fi of Judge Dredd, the cult British publisher also has a wealth of wackier sci-fi and fantasy in their catalogue. I’m currently reading Nemesis: The Warlock, written by satire captain Pat Mills and drawn by Kevin O’Neill, Jesus Redondo, and Bryan Talbot. The eponymous Nemesis is best described as a heavy metal dragon who is a sorcerer and is also the leader of the alien resistance to human dominion in the galaxy. Dense ‘80s British goodness.
JOSH HILGENBERG: I’m really psyched to check out Evan Dahm’s The Harrowing of Hell this weekend. I’ve been thinking about this comic since C2E2 this year, when Spike Trotman showed off some of Dahm’s artwork and described the narrative as “hippie socialist Jesus,” both things I am totally on board for.
GREGORY PAUL SILBER: I’m behind on literally everything, including Chris Samnee’s new ongoing creator-owned title Fire Power (written by Robert Kirkman, with colors by Matt Wilson and letters by Rus Wooton). I have an older Samnee comic to finish first: The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom! It’s written by Mark Waid, colored by Jordie Bellaire, and lettered by Shawn Lee. I know next to nothing about The Rocketeer. I never read any of the original Dave Stevens comics, nor have I seen that 90s movie. But after their runs on Daredevil, Black Widow, and Captain America, Waid and Samnee may be my single favorite writer/artist team. This is their only collaboration I haven’t read yet, and my hopes are sky-high.
NANCY POWELL: I am absolutely loving Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park. An emotionally-endearing gem of a novel, Rowell taps into 80s nostalgia as two teenagers and misfits bond over comic books and mixtapes. And I’m ashamed to say I have never read much of Osamu Tezuka, but the clean lines and artistic detail in Message to Adolf has me hooked.
TORSTEN ADAIR: Over a decade ago, I got hooked on reading the comic strip 9 Chickweed Lane by Brooke McEldowney. It featured quirky, unique characters, in a gag-a-day format which was also a story strip. Like For Better or For Worse, it weaves ongoing stories of a diverse cast, aging them in (almost) real time, and creating some controversy along the way. I discovered it online when GoComics started, and binge-read the strip, as I do with most web comics, then forget to return until years later.
It’s been many years, so I’ll start back at the beginning this weekend. The strip is wonderfully written, with just enough romance to keep me smiling, and just enough weirdness and charm to keep me intrigued. The layouts, lettering, and storytelling make this a comic that deserves more fans (although there are currently over 76,000 subscribers on GoComics). The current storyline starts on July 24 and features Thorax, a unique New Hampshire gentleman farmer, and his courting of Sgt. Esme Meadow.
RICARDO SERRANO: I’m finally getting around to reading Tim Seely’s and Scott Godlewski’s The Lost Boys comic, a direct sequel to the classic vampire movie. At a glance, it looks fun and full of Easter eggs. But I’m in it for one thing in particular: the Sax Man. His real name is Tim Capello and he used to play the sax for Tina Turner and Ringo Starr. And then he became immortal with a few seconds-long scenes of him ripping into his mythical wind instrument in purple spandex, no shirt in sight. Capello is part of the comic book sequel (thank you Seely and Godlewski, thank you) and I can already hear sax sounds in the distance.
