Boys Weekend – Mattie Lubchansky

Mattie Lubchansky's “Boys Weekend” is a quick, creative graphic novel that combines queer identity, capitalism, tech-bro culture, cults and a sea monster into one very strange bachelor party.

Sammie is nervous to reconnect with a group of people they haven't seen since starting to transition. They're showing up for their old friend Adam as his best man, but it quickly becomes clear that most of the group hasn't quite figured out how to interact with the person Sammie is now. They're various degrees of clueless, dismissive and outright rude, while Adam mostly stands by and lets it happen.

That would probably be enough to sustain its own story, but “Boys Weekend” is set in the near-future of 2032 on a floating, hedonistic island where international law doesn't exist. You can eat ethically-grown human flesh, fight an alligator, hunt a clone of yourself, sleep with replicas of dead celebrities or take a submersible to the bottom of the ocean to get drunk.

You know, bachelor party stuff.

Lubchansky has a lot of fun imagining this slightly more dystopian version of our future. There are subtle touches, like flying out of Bloomberg International, alongside much less subtle commentary about out-of-control fees, billionaire worship and literal cults of personality. Capitalism is ultimately as much the enemy here as the actual sea creature.

That gives “Boys Weekend” a unique hook on some more familiar queer themes, particularly how relationships change after someone transitions. People who enjoy horror and have an open mind will find a lot to like in the way Lubchansky brings those ideas together.

I just wish some of them had more room to develop.

None of the relationships, particularly between Sammie and Adam, felt developed enough for me to become invested in them. The other characters are so uniformly terrible that you're basically waiting for something awful to happen to them. Meanwhile, the cult and monster storyline feels similarly underdeveloped. There's a lot happening in 232-pages, but the book moves so quickly that some of its most interesting ideas barely have time to register.

The standout scene is when Sammie gets the opportunity to kill a clone of their pre-transition male self and, despite their anger, can't do it. It's a surprisingly tender moment amid all the chaos that speaks to the complicated feelings of living in a body that doesn't feel like you without becoming heavy-handed about it.

Visually, Lubchansky's style reminded me a little of “Futurama,” and I was impressed by how much of the story they communicated without relying on tons of dialogue. There's an energy to the illustrations that fits the ridiculousness of the story and kept me flipping pages. I finished the entire thing in under an hour.

“Boys Weekend” ultimately gave me more interesting ideas than fully developed ones, but it's funny, weird and gory, with enough social commentary underneath the absurdity to give it some bite.

I'd definitely give Lubchansky another shot.

Rating (story): 3.5/5 stars

Rating (narration): N/A

Format: eBook (library loan)

Dates read: August 9, 2026

Multi-tasking: N/A