The weekend has arrived, and that means Weekend Reading 97 is here! As is standard here at Stately Beat Manor on a Saturday, we’re going to be holing up inside and getting lost in a good book.
What will you be reading this weekend? We hope you’ll share your reading plans with us, too! Give us a shout-out, either here in the comment section or over on social media @comicsbeat, and let us know what you’re reading!
AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend, I’m finally catching up on a series I’ve been looking forward to for a long time: Crush & Lobo by Mariko Tamaki, Amancay Nahuelpan, Tamra Bonvillain, and Ariana Maher. Then, as far as prose goes, I’m eager to read Admissions: A Memoir of Surviving Boarding School by Kendra James.
TAIMUR DAR: As I mentioned here a few weeks back, I’m not a huge manga reader but I enjoy a number of anime and I’ve always appreciated the art form and figured it was time to finally experience some manga. Rumiko Takahashi is one of the top manga creators and has been in the industry for decades. I primarily know her work through anime adaptations like Inuyasha and Ranma ½ so I decided to check out some of her work. Started with Ranma and it’s as hilarious as the anime. I just finished the first volume of the 2-in-1 edition so I’m moving onto Ranma ½ (2-in-1) Edition, Volume 2. I’m also continuing to read some Big Nate comics in preparation for interview coverage with the Nickelodeon show producers.
CY BELTRAN: For whatever reason, I’ve decided to go back to the end of the Decimation and work my way through the Brian Michael Bendis era in preparation for Kieron Gillen’s return to the X-Men. I finished Mike Carey’s run last week, so this weekend, I plan on reading X-Men: Messiah Complex by Ed Brubaker, Mike Carey, Peter David, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Marc Silvestri, Billy Tan, Scot Eaton, Humberto Ramos, and Chris Bachalo. I haven’t gone back to this era in years, so I’m interested to see how my perception of it changes with the added revelations of House of X/Powers of X.
BILLY HENEHAN: In 2021, I happily followed along with Image Comics cofounder Jim Valentino’s Facebook posts as he crowdsourced photos and shared previews of a book he was working on for Image’s 30th Anniversary. This Wednesday, that book, The Official Image Comics Timeline, hit comic shop shelves. Fearing the $8 price tag would lead to shops under-ordering it, I rushed to my LCS early on Wednesday near opening and picked up a copy. A hectic work week meant not having time to read it until today, but now that the weekend is here, I brewed an espresso, found my favorite spot on the couch and am reading it cover to cover. If your shop still has a copy, I recommend snagging one and doing the same (espresso optional).
JOHANNA DRAPER CARLSON: I finally found my copy of Salt Magic by Hope Larson (All Summer Long) and Rebecca Mock (Compass South). It’s an historical adventure graphic novel in which a girl tries to save her family’s farm after it’s been cursed by a woman spurned by her older brother, home from World War I. There are a lot of themes covered in that description, and I can’t wait to see how the creators weave them together. In prose, I’m testing my brain with The Official Sherlock Puzzle Book, a collection of cryptic clues and anagrams, logic puzzles, and ciphers themed around the TV show, with a chapter for every episode.
DEAN SIMONS: After finishing Yōko Ogawa’s The Memory Police last weekend, I felt a hankering for teeth-sinking fantasy and started Gene Wolfe’s The Shadow of the Torturer, first instalment in the Book of the New Sun series. I am loving the use of language and atmosphere – even if the plot is barely moving as yet. As for comics, I finally tracked down a copy of Yoshiharu Tsuge’s The Swamp (D&Q), which collects some of the mangaka’s earliest experimentation with the form in the mid-60s, as he participates in the emergence of what was defined as ‘gekiga’. Cool stuff. Oh and a 2000AD catchup with a cup of tea.
