SHUT IN THEATER: Weekend Reading 23

With COVID-19 still unchecked in the United States, we’re looking at Weekend Reading 23, our last entry for the month of August.

Fortunately, we’ll be doing the same thing we have been for the past twenty-two weekends: reading! And we’ll see you next weekend, right here, for the twenty-fourth entry. Remember: why stare out a window for hours on end when you could read a book?

Please us know what you’re reading in the comments!

BILLY HENEHAN: The sad and sudden passing of Chadwick Boseman, the actor who brought Marvel’s Black Panther to life has me finding myself wanting to take a deep dive into the character on Marvel Unlimited, starting with his debut in Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s Fantastic Four to his joining The Avengers, and rereading my favorite run on the character by David Liss and Francisco Francavilla. After that, I’ll finish the weekend reading through Ta-Nesi Coates and Brian Stelfeeze’s fantastic run. RIP Mr. Boseman.

AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend, I’m setting a course for adventure with Billy Johnson and his Duck are Explorers by Mathew New. Then as far as prose goes, I’ll be checking out Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. And since I’m overdue for some nonfiction, the novel will be followed-up with Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton.

KYLE PINION: I’ve recently started to read the work of Gene Wolfe, and while I remain intimidated by the two volumes of The Book of the New Sun, that are currently sitting on my shelf, I just picked up a copy of The Wizard Knight, which just came out in a new edition from TOR Books. I hear it’s a lot easier as a Wolfe-starting point, and I’m currently 70 pages in. I’m not the world’s best reader, but I’m making decent hay with it so far, though I can also see a bit of the narrative obfuscation creeping through that everyone talks about (people and places will be off-handedly mentioned, and then elaborated on chapters later). I’m excited, and if I actually finish all 900+ pages, it’ll be the longest prose book I’ve read since The Stand.

PHILIPPE LEBLANC: My wife and I visited her family last weekend in Newmarket, Ontario and I made a stop at Fourth Dimension Comics on Main Street. This place has an interesting mix of mainstream superhero comic book, graphic novels and independent publishers. I picked up a copy of One Million Tiny Fires by Ashley Robin Franklin, Giant-Size Magneto by Jonathan Hickman, Ben Oliver, Ramon Perez et al. and Cult of the Ibis by Daria Tessler. Most interestingly though, is that I picked up the graphic novels of the store owner Steven Gilbert. Colville, which won a Doug Wright Award in 2014, and the two volumes of The Journal of the Main Street Secret Lodge. I’m looking forward to reading those, Gilbert’s love for the medium is infectious when you talk to him and it seems to come through in his work too.

JOSH HILGENBERG: I’ve only got a few more episodes left in Legend of Korra, and I can already tell that I want won’t to say goodbye to this cast yet! I was shocked at the themes of seasons 3 and 4, and loved the handling of both of those, so I’m heading over to Hoopla to pick up The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire, written by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and illustrated by Michelle Wong and Killian Ng.

TAIMUR DAR: As an unabashed Dwayne McDuffie, I can’t begin to describe the excitement over the Milestone news from DC FanDome last week. Glad to hear the back catalogue will be available for the general public. I’ve read the first two dozen issues of Icon having bought the inexpensive back issues over the years. I was always hesitant to read the whole Icon run because I’d thought it be bittersweet, but the Milestone news has me in a better place to cross that bridge.  

NANCY POWELL: This weekend’s reading list takes a detour into non-comic territory, even if some titles are closely-related. First off I’m learning about the history and business of comic books in Dan Gearino’s highly readable Comic Shop: The Retail Mavericks Who Gave Us a New Geek Culture. I’ll so be tackling Roy Blackstone’s Bladeseeker: Convergent Fates right before I take a deep dive into Python Crash Course for work. Fun stuff!