I recently introduced a friend to the wonderful world of comics and have already lent him several different titles or runs on a series. After a few months of doing this he requested to read DC's Crisis events, which I have now lent him.
I realised that with his reading of the Crisis stories he has crossed the line between casual fan and a much more avid comic reader.
This raises a couple of interesting topics for discussion......
If someone (with little comic knowledge) expressed an interest in comics, what would you lend to them?
Have you lent any comics to newcomers if so, what?
What series, comic etc etc got you into reading comics?
Gender: Male Location: Planning to take over the WORLD!
Re: Newcomers Winner
avengers. the original count nefaria arc and the original korvac arcs in particular were unbelieveable to me. i remember i got the korvac issue taken away from me by my teacher in grade school!
Some of the series I have lent my friend in the past include; Watchmen, Astonishing X-men, Y the last man, Immortal Iron-Fist, Wolverine Origins Umbrella Academy and Ultimates 2.
As someone with a slightly better knowledge than your average man on the street (He loved the JLU cartoon and occasionally kept up with comic news despite not collecting) he, surprisingly preferred the more indie stuff. He loved Y the last man but was slightly more ambivalent with Astonishing X-men (which I loved).
He told me he's slowly wading through the Crisis but I tried to console him with the fact that Geoff Johns rewards DC fans who read Crisis in his run on GL (especially in the Sinestro Corps War).
I own a lot of back issues of the Avengers in a British reprint but I stopped buying it and have regretted it as I think I missed those stories.....really wanted to read them
There isn't a specific comic I would give to someone. It depends too much on the person.
I gave my mother Watchmen after I read it and realized she'd probably have better context for the story that I did. For a boy in middle or high-school I'd probably suggest he read Ultimates 1 and 2. If I knew someone who loved post modernism I'd probably suggest Seven Soldiers. For a person looking for a well developed "traditional" super hero story I'd give them Morrison's JLA or John's JSA.
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I always start them with something that has a definite end (no ongoing series), and requires little to no backstory knowledge of characters or events. Usually one of the iconic works by Moore, Watchmen or V. Limited issue series work well too if they like a particular character. Everyone from Deadpool to Surfer has good 4-8 issue self-contained stories that are a good intro to the character.
I can't imagine someone not being lost with this. Not by the story in and of itself, but by the subject material and scope, not to mention the dozens of characters in it. Heck, there was months of buildup to this anyway, in the cosmic books, Thanos books, Surfer, etc. A great story, yes. A starter story, hell no.
It was Bruce Lee that me into reading comic books.. No, not him personally.. I broke my leg when I was 4 and laying in the hospital I read my very first Batman comic..
In the past I have lent out various chris claremont x-men comics. I have lent the Knightfasll saga and I have also lent out various KOTOR comics as well
When I got back into comics, I read and re-read the DC Crisis crossovers, GL trades, Secret War, Marvel's Infinity crossovers and some JLA and Avenger trades.
Gender: Male Location: Planning to take over the WORLD!
oh, i liked starlin's OLD cosmic stuff--the original warlock stuff, the cube storylines, the mar-vell stuff . . . just that with the IG and the remake of thanos from "super-cool-but-not-overpowered" to "nowhere-NEAR-as-cool-and-completely-played-out" is where the "new" starlin stuff really began.
and will--you REALLY gotta read those avengers arcs, bro. seriously--still to this day some of the best stuff i've read.
Completely agree with this. The first Deadpool comic I picked up was his first solo 4 issue miniseries and it hooked me onto the character.
Even though Marvel's events aren't necessarily designed to be new reader friendly, they tend to attract a lot of new readers due to the fact that they are a mini-series that get a lot of hype from fans. Civil War was a brilliant example of this. It attracted tons of new readers and the sales certainly attest to this. Secret Invasions was similar in that respect.
The downside is, whether the fans enjoyed Civil War or not, it made drastic changes to the MU. However that can only be appreciated with a working knowledge of the MU. It's ironic that the massive events garner new fans because of their hype but are only fully appreciated (and complained about) by those who understand continuity
Yeah I'll get round to picking them up in trades at some point. I tend to favour the modern stories but at the moment I'm buying Marvel's pocket book of X-men classics. I'm in love with Claremont's run on X-men. That's true Marvel classics. Once I'm done with that I'm sure I'll check out the Korvac saga
I can't envision my Mother enjoying any of my comics, with the possible exception of Maus. That's the only thing I can think of in my collection that she would appreciate
Would you recommend it to newcomers who weren't Hulk fans??? The friend I used as an example hates Hulk and so I steered clear of lending him Hulk comics.....
....although I have very few Hulk comics to lend.....
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Jul 6th, 2009 08:47 PM
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