SHUT IN THEATER: Weekend Reading 191

It’s the final weekend of 2023, and it’s brought Weekend Reading 191! We don’t need to tell you that we’ll be holing up in Stately Beat Manor and getting lost in a good book.

What will you be paging through this weekend? The Beat is waiting to hear from you! Let us know in the comment section.

AVERY KAPLAN: To close out 2023, I’m finally reading The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht. I’m not really sure what to expect from this “fable for grown-ups,” but I have been looking forward to it since it was announced in February. Then as far as prose goes, Rebecca Oliver Kaplan gifted me Making It So: A Memoir by Patrick Stewart. Is it safe to assume my reputation as a Trekkie precedes me far enough that I need not offer a deeper explanation for this one? Temba, his arms wide.

TAIMUR DAR: My manga reading is definitely lacking compared to others, so I’ve been rectifying that the last few years. I recently adored the Netflix anime adaptation of the Pluto manga which is a reimagining of a classic Astro Boy storyline. Rather than read the Pluto manga first, I thought I’d first check out the original source and read the classic Astro Boy manga by Osamu Tezuka. Dark Horse published the English translation 20 years ago which happen to be available digitally and on the libby app. So I’ll be starting with the first three volumes over the weekend which also include “The Greatest Robot on Earth” storyline which was the basis for Pluto. 

JUSTIN GUERRERO:  Been binging as much of My Dear Detective: Mitsuko’s Case Files by Natsumi Ito on Azuki.co. There’s not that many manga set in the 1930’s, especially set within early Showa-era Japan. Not only that but the outfits worn by the various characters are period accurate too which, as someone who loves history, always makes me appreciate when the author goes out of their way to at least be authentic and accurate to the time period. The art is just easy on the eyes and easy to follow as each chapter delves into a case in this “case of the week” type story which having read many manga with each chapter tied to an overarching plot, just feels refreshing and sort of gives me the joy I once felt reading early chapters of Yu Yu Hakusho as a kid. I’m so glad to have heard about this at Anime NYC and am going to continue reading it as it has me hooked and just enjoy a lot about it.

REBECCA OLIVER KAPLAN: Thanks to a hot tip from AJ Frost, I picked up a Target exclusive from Fantagraphics: Disney Comics: Around the World in One Hundred Years by greats like Carl Barks, Floyd Gottfredson, Don Rosa, Romano Scarpa and others. Who knew Target was selling Fantagraphics now? I didn’t! I must say why would I deal with a gatekeeping LCS when I can get all sorts of goodies at Target now. I also picked up a graphic novel collab that’s super unexpected: Jojo’s Sweet Adventures: The Great Candy Caper by Jojo Siwa with illustrations by Claudia Giuliani.

ARPAD OKAY: Will Hermes’ Lou Reed: The King of New York. I often struggle with biographies- I normally much prefer oral histories like Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil’s Please Kill Me, or Clinton Heylin’s compilation of Velvet Underground press clippings, All Yesterdays’ Parties. But a few chapters in and I am really enjoying the details Hermes fills the book with, not just the particulars that make up the life of Lou Reed, everything, from trying to contextualize being a queer jew in 1960s America to dropping the titles of a dozen of doo-wop singles that flipped young Reed’s wig. I’ve already come across some interesting Velvet Underground DNA I didn’t know about, but what I’m looking forward to surprisingly is reading about Reed in his post-David Bowie era, particularly if Hermes is going to keep doing such a thorough job of making the world Reed lives in so concrete. Like his peer Andy Warhol, even when Reed is making art I don’t care to experience firsthand, I find his motivations fascinating.

CY BELTRAN: I haven’t read a ton of manga, but I picked up a copy of Naoki Urasawa’s first volume of 20th Century Boys and it’s been gorgeous so far. Urasawa’s linework is so expressive, and the book’s been exciting to slowly chip away at over the past week. The edition I found also has this wicked cover treatment that makes the packaging feel like a premium release every time I pick it up.