A perfect Sunday with... Alex Segura
True crime, tofu scramble and web-slingers fill the weekends of award-winning sci-fi, superhero and crime writer, Alex Segura.
Every week, one of my pals shares how they’d fill their perfect Sunday, sharing their favourite comfort reads, movies, food… anything that would make their weekend great.
Alex is one of the nicest guys in comics and a massive talent. I’m a big fan of his Pete Fernandez thrillers and Secret Identity, his thrilling mystery set in the world of comic books, is a complete and utter joy. Not only is Alex back with a new Marvel YA novel, Araña and Spider-Man 2099: Dark Tomorrow, he also just won the LA Times Book Prize for Mystery and Thriller! Congratulations Alex!
Read on to discover what recommendations award-winner Alex has up his sleeve…
Alex’s perfect Sunday… brunch
A strong cup of coffee, maybe a nice tofu scramble, and a good book.
Alex’s perfect Sunday… read
Book-wise, I just read Vampires del Norte by Isabel Cañas, a fantastic supernatural historical novel that I just loved. It’s coming out soon. I really enjoyed Marie Rutkoski’s Real Easy, a hardboiled novel that fits into a lot of buckets and inverts a lot of tropes - police procedural, serial killer tale, “literary” crime novel…it manages to tell a page-turning story while ruminating on a lot of important topics, including gender, identity, and more. Rebecca Makkai’s latest, I Have Some Questions for You, was also impossible to put down - like Real Easy, it used the framework of a novel to spotlight some real societal problems, which to me is the recipe for a great crime novel, and what crime fiction does best.
Not to keep rambling, but I also really enjoyed Abraham Josie Riesman’s Ringmaster - a sharp, detailed, and immersive biography of WWE guru Vince McMahon. I also have a lot of thoughts on Alan Moore’s Illuminations short story collection - mainly the Thunderman story.
On the comics side, I’ve been really enjoying Marvel’s X-Books - Kieron Gillen, Al Ewing, Gerry Duggan, Tini Howard and co. are crafting some amazing, unique stories that I can’t ignore. As a lifelong X-fan, it feels like a particularly wonderful time to be reading these books. Chip Zdarsky’s work is always a draw - particularly Public Domain and his current runs on Daredevil and Batman.
Alex’s perfect Sunday… comic
I binge-read a lot of runs, particularly older Marvel or DC titles - especially titles I missed as a kid that mostly stuck to Batman, X-Men, Spider-Man and little else. I did a deep-dive into the main Avengers book recently that was a lot of fun, and just finished a reread of the Giffen/DeMatteis JLI that was a joy.
Alex’s perfect Sunday… movie
I love gangster movies - or old film noirs. So pop on The Godfather or Night Moves or Out of the Past and I’m locked in. Assuming the kids leave me alone.
Alex’s perfect Sunday… TV binge
We’ve been hooked on Star Trek: Picard - it’s the perfect blend of nostalgia and new content. I’m so glad they’re back in this era, and weaving in not only threads from TNG, but also DS9 and Voyager. A treat every week.
Alex’s perfect Sunday… podcast
I listen to a lot of comic book podcasts - X-Men ones like Cerebro or Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men. Lots of true crime podcasts, too - like Crime Writers On or You Must Remember This. Screw It Comics is also a lot of fun - two comedians go over classic runs they loved as kids. You can feel the passion there.
Alex’s perfect Sunday… album
Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense is a perfect live record.
Alex’s perfect Sunday… treat
Probably a nap. I don’t sleep much generally, so taking a nap feels luxurious!
Araña and Spider-Man 2099: Dark Tomorrow by Alex Segura is published 2nd May by Marvel Press
Araña is a Spider-Girl lost in time. . . . Miguel is a Spider-Man who’s lost his way. . . . Together, they’re our only hope.
Araña. It means spider—and it also means Anya Corazon. She was a normal Brooklyn teenager with normal Brooklyn problems—until a few months ago, when she was gifted with amazing spiderlike abilities, from super-strength and heightened agility to web-slinging. A powerful mentor guided her on how best to use these new powers for good—until Anya lost him, just as she lost her mother, just as she’s about to lose everything she knows.
Nueva York. It is the future of New York City, the home of the Spider-Man of 2099, and where Anya finds herself stranded, tossed across the century. And Nueva York’s Spider-Man, billionaire CEO Miguel O’Hara, is Araña’s only hope of getting home. But Araña and Spider-Man are about to discover that the enemies they face have dark and powerful connections to both heroes—and that this unlikely team across time will need to save much more than each other. . . .
Alex Segura, the Anthony Award–winning author of Secret Identity and Star Wars Poe Dameron: Free Fall, brings two fan-favorite Spider-Verse heroes together in prose for the first time in this thrilling new time-hopping adventure.