Shut In Theater: Weekend Reading 209

The weekend is here, and so is Weekend Reading 209! You know the drill: we’ll be holing up inside Stately Beat Manor and getting lost in a good book.

As always, we hope that you’ll share your weekend reading plans with us. Give us a shout-out, here in the comment section or over on social media, and let us know what you’ll be paging through as wait for the unavoidable arrival of Monday.

AVERY KAPLAN: With Star Trek: Discovery’s conclusion just around the corner, I’m getting nostalgic. So for this weekend’s prose selection, I’ll be reading Star Trek: Discovery: Die Standing by John Jackson Miller. Given the excellent quality of Miller’s prose in general and Star Trek books in particular, and the quality of Phillipa Georgiou as a character, I’m confident I’ll be enjoying this novel. And then as far as comics go, I’ll be checking out Animorphs: The Graphic Novel #1: The Invasion by K.A. Applegate and Michael Grant and adapted to sequential graphic narrative format by Chris Grine. With book 5’s release just around the corner, I’m eager to dive into this comic adaptation of one of my very favorite stories of all time.

DEAN SIMONS: My Judge Dredd Megazine catchup continues! I have just reached July 2022’s issue 445, which means I am now less than 2 years behind. Two highlights are the return of Judge Anderson in new story Dissolution, which looks at the past and present of Justice Department’s Psi Division – written by Maura McHugh, art by Lee Carter. Also a highlight (a constant one whenever it appears) is Dan Abnett and Phil Winslade’s Lawless. I thought Lawless would run out of steam after the conclusion of the last arc but it remains as engaging as ever, with absolutely stunning art by Winslade that deserves to be shown to the world in a public gallery setting.

TAIMUR DAR: I’m extremely excited for the upcoming Batman: Caped Crusader animated series which features an incredibly talented crew including writer Ed Brubaker. In terms of his superhero work, I’m mostly familiar with his Marvel work like Captain America and Iron Fist and only read a handful of his DC Comics work. So it seems fitting to rectify that before Caped Crusader arrives. I’m going to read his Batman run starting with Batman #582.   

BEAU Q.: Been having a hard time sleeping even with a bedside reading pile. I think it’s because I’m engaging in new concepts, new ideas, new stories before bed? Which doesn’t rest my brain as much as awaken it? So, I’ve taken to keeping my nightstand reading dump to rereads only. That being said, I’ve been rereading all of Giannis Milonogiannis’ Old City Blues physically available in print. It’s been nice falling asleep to a piece of work I’ve often found inspirationally earnest– it’s like an EP in comic form. I recommend rereading the comics’ equivalent of an EP is what I’m getting at here.

KRISTINA ELYSE BUTKE: I’m busy reading BL First Crush Anthology: Five Seconds Before We Fall in Love, featuring a total of 29 different manga artists, such as Ken Homerun, Chiruko Furuya, Hana Hasumi, and more. Seven Seas published this volume and it consists of short comics that all focus on the first flutterings of love. Next, I’m reading World’s End Bluebird Vol. 1 by Anji Seina, a BL that takes place in Tokyo after a meteor hits earth and a powerful sorcerer saves the city. But all is not well after Tokyo is saved…Tokyo divides into factions between the have and have-nots, the upper echelon of society descending from the sorcerer who saved Tokyo. This is the setup for a relationship between Ray, who lives in the slums, and Guang, an upper-society man.

You can peruse the 208 previous entries in The Beat’s Weekend Reading archive by clicking here.