Halloween is almost here, and it’s brought Weekend Reading 182! While we’re waiting for Trick-or-Treaters to knock on the door at Stately Beat Manor, we’ll be getting lost in a good book. That is, when we’re all caught up on the great Horror Beat content being featured this month on The Beat!
What will you be paging through this weekend? The Beat wants to hear from you! Give us a shout-out in the comment section and let us know.
Please be advised that a cover included in this week’s column includes imagery depicting suicide. If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts or ideation, you can call 988.
AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend, I’ll be checking out All Tomorrow’s Parties: The Velvet Underground Story by Koren Shadmi. Then as far as prose goes, my spouse Rebecca Oliver Kaplan spent so much telling me about Grinding it Out: The Making of McDonald’s by Ray Kroc with Robert Anderson, he eventually just got me a copy so I could read it myself.
KRISTINA ELYSE BUTKE: Every Saturday and Sunday I look forward to Lezhin’s mature BL webcomic releases. On Saturdays I dive into Steel Under Silk by snob. It’s a historical BL about a young man whose family was massacred and his vow for revenge by becoming the lover of the man responsible. On Sundays I read The Ghost’s Nocturne by ANANAS and C.R. Jade. It’s a historical fantasy about the son of the King of the Underworld who gets expelled and the only way he can return home is to win a human’s love. Both manhwa have me glued to the screen and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
DERRICK CROW: Aside from the few books I’m reading to review for this very website, I’ve been trying to get through Classic Doctor Who from the beginning. Of course some whole serials are missing so for that conundrum I decided to embark on the audiobooks of the novelizations of those missing adventures when I reach them. Since I’m still on the first Doctor, I’m currently listening through The Massacre by John Lucarotti where the Doctor and their companion Steven find themselves in France just in time for the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre. On top of that I recently bought this book The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture by Mark Schilling from the 90s so I’m slowly getting through that, it’s been an interesting read!
TAIMUR DAR: As I mentioned a while back, I’ve been on a Robert Kirkman kick lately reading his various creator-owned books. I’m still continuing my read of Invincible and I may actually finish it before the end of the year. I’m definitely way beyond what they cover for the upcoming Season 2 and possibly Season 3. But this weekend I’ll be adding to my reading list Tech Jacket Vol 1: The Boy From Earth written by Kirkman with art by E.J. Su. On the Invincible side of things, I’m beginning Vol. 17 What’s Happening, when Bulletproof takes on the Invincible mantle.
DEB AOKI: Now that the Pluto anime is up on Netflix, I’m probably going to re-read the Pluto manga series by Naoki Urasawa (from VIZ Media) based on Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy story, “The Greatest Robot on Earth” (which is included in the Dark Horse edition of Astro Boy, vol. 3). It’s been a while since I’ve binge-read the entire 8 volume series in 1 sitting, so this should be fun to revisit it before I watch the animated version. Pluto is a clever spin on a sci-fi, police procedural story that gets into some timely and complex themes about artificial intelligence and the high cost of war. The story opens as some of the world’s strongest robots and advocates for robot independence are found murdered, and their bodies arranged with “horns” around their heads. It’s up to detective Geischt to figure out this mystery, as he gets some help from two unlikely allies: two children who are more than what they seem, Atom and his little sister Uran.
Pluto should be on everyone’s must-watch list this week, IMHO, even if you normally don’t consider yourself to be an anime/manga fan. From the preview trailers, it looks like they took the time to do justice to adapt this story in the best way possible:
ADAM WESCOTT: Been working my way through the comics I picked up from ShortBox Comics Fair, which is set to wrap up at the end of October! Two I’ve read so far include Asia Miller’s Your Heart is a Muscle The Size of Your Fist, a low-key comic about queer 20-something animal people investigating their friend’s disappearance; and Michael Furler’s Bunny Punch, a deeply weird and effervescent vision of the future in which the world’s strongest bunny woman is convinced by an advertisement to buy nutrient paste. Lots of others I haven’t even gotten to yet, like new books by Leana Sterte (World Heist) and Lucie Bryon (Ocean). No matter your taste, you’ll probably find something interesting here.
GEORGE CARMONA: We all have an idea of what went into the making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, most of us 70-80% with real nerds topping off around 90%. MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios by Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards is unofficial history on the MCU juggernaut that gets you to that 100%. The unofficial status of the book helps with the quirky anecdotes, deep insights, and unbiased narrative as this book lays out the players behind the scenes, the lessons learned, the personal cost, and the alchemy of creative genius and timely luck that was the cosmic gamma spider bite of this franchise.
YAZMIN GARCIA: This weekend I’ll be reading the Don’t Call it Mystery (Omnibus) by Yumi Tamura. The series follows a young college student who uses his skills and insight to help solve a murder. This is the first Yumi Tamura series that I’m reading and the art is incredibly stunning like her other works Basara and 7Seeds.
AIDEN CHURCH: I’m continuing my readthrough of VIZ Media’s fantasy series Children of the Whales by Abi Umeda this weekend. The series centers around a young archivist who lives on a large vessel on the sea of sand known as the “mud whale” as he and his community struggle for their right to existence. I will also continuing my read through of Kodansha’s digital-only series Space Brothers by Chūya Koyama, which focuses on one man’s mission to become an astronaut like his younger brother.
REBECCA OLIVER KAPLAN: I don’t have any fancy words to share this weekend. But, I’m returning to Squire by Sara Alfageeh and Nadia Shammas and finally starting Comic Art in Museums, edited by Kim A. Munson.
You can peruse the 181 previous entries in The Beat’s Weekend Reading archive by clicking here.
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