Somehow, it’s already Saturday, and that must mean it’s time for Weekend Reading 81Δ!

The seasons are rapidly changing and we’re celebrating the only way we know how: by staying inside Stately Beat Manor and getting lost in a good book! As ever, we’re crossing our fingers and hoping you’ll share your reading plans with us, as well, either here in the comment section or over on social media @comicsbeat!

Weekend Reading 81Δ
Weekend Reading 81Δ: Spider-Ham & Blitzed

AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend, I’m going to check out Spider-Ham: Great Power, No Responsibility by Steve FoxeShadia Amin, and Rae Crawford. Then, as far as prose goes, I’m overdue for some nonfiction, so I’ll be reading Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler.

Weekend Reading 81Δ
Weekend Reading 81Δ: Are You Afraid of the Darkseid?

TAIMUR DAR: So as I expected, due to the insanity of NYCC I didn’t get to read any of American Born Chinese by Gene Yang or pretty much anything for that matter. I’ve still got some press interview write-ups to work on plus DC FanDome coverage on Saturday, but I’m hoping to have time to properly dive into American Born Chinese. Also Are You Afraid of the Darkseid?, this year’s Halloween comic anthology from DC Comics that I picked up but haven’t read yet due to aforementioned NYCC. 

Weekend Reading 81Δ
Weekend Reading 81Δ: Sad Animal Comics

GREGORY PAUL SILBER: When I caught up with my friend Avri Rosen-Zvi at NYCC, he was kind enough to give me a print collection of the comic strip he writes and draws, Sad Animal Comics. I’ve been enjoying it online, but reading these strips in an oversized physical format really shows off how much mileage he’s already getting out of the deceptively simple premise suggested by the title. As you may expect, it can get a bit bleak, but it also has a wonderful mix of charm, humor, and relatability that I suspect will blow up among larger audiences very soon.

Weekend Reading 81Δ
Weekend Reading 81Δ: Star Trek: Coda

GEORGE CARMONA 3rd: This will be a bittersweet weekend of reading. After several years of continuing literary adventures in the Post-Star Trek: Nemesis Universe, writers could do whatever they wanted without the need to have it all reset to what was on screen, but with new shows like Picard, Lower Decks and Prodigy, that time is done. With that decision, the folks at Simon & Schuster are taking this universe out with a bang in a three part, mega crossover series entitled Coda. The first book Moments Asunder by Dayton Ward launches us into a temporal war that brings back some old favorites to face a threat that spans space and time. 

Weekend Reading 81Δ
Weekend Reading 81Δ: Hulk #161

DEAN SIMONS: This weekend I have ventured into the Outside World™️ to attend my first physical comics festival since March 2020: the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. Less time to read but when I do get burnt out from socialising and catching up with non-Zoom avatars, I will likely be curled up with more 1970s Incredible Hulk – currently around #161 from 1973. Or perusing my LICAF haul. Either-or.

Weekend Reading 81Δ: Astro City & the Marvels

BILLY HENEHAN: As I mentioned in the NYCC Winners and Losers piece, NYCC was a great place for back issue bargains. I scored both Marvels #1-4 and Astro City #½ on the cheap, so I’m excitedly jumping into a Kurt Busiek penned weekend. Astro City #½ is easily one of my favorite single issues of all time; if you’ve never read it, hunt it down! It’s a hauntingly beautiful story that I find myself thinking about regularly over the years since it was first published. 

Weekend Reading 81Δ
Weekend Reading 81Δ: The Batman & Scooby-Doo! Mysteries

JOHANNA DRAPER CARLSON: As I don’t regularly visit a comic shop any more, I somehow missed out that there was a Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries comic, so I will be reading the seven issues out so far of that. Seems fun, and I like the way the kids lighten up the Dark Knight. Also, I peeked ahead, and Scooby and Ace the Bat-Hound team up in issue #7, which seems like a great idea.