So, my guide as to how to start reading comics has gotten a lot of feedback, and by “feedback” I mostly mean “why did you not mention this YOU ARE A BAD PERSON” or similar. (Okay, they never actually say that I am bad, but I think it’s totally implied and they should all feel very bad about themselves as people.)
There’s a lot of reasons why lots of comics didn’t make the list. Some of them aren’t on it because I wanted to cap it at twenty lest it become unmanageable (Astro City: Life In The Big City was one of my final cuts, as was the first Atomic Robo trade), and personal preference took over. Some of them aren’t on it because I could never figure out for myself where the best starting point is (Hellboy and Uncle Scrooge are the big ones in this regard). Some of them aren’t on it because I think they shoudn’t be on it. (I don’t like Daniel Clowes at all and it’s my list. Tough noogies.) Love and Rockets isn’t on it because I can never make up my mind between Heartbreak Soup and Locas.
Specific points worth addressing:
Anything by Chris Ware. Ware is a master draftsman who has yet to tell a story I find really compelling (Jimmy Corrigan gets way more hype than it deserves), and I think “holy shit look at this art” almost always gets trumped by story when you’re dealing with a new reader – appreciating really amazing art is something that I think comes at “stage two” of becoming a comics reader. (Sure, Jack Kirby is amazing, but he’s also really, really accessible and direct.) This is the same reason I disqualified Fantagraphics’ gorgeous Little Nemo In Slumberland collection. Out of my twenty, I count only one book that’s really art-driven (Big Guy and Rusty), and it has giant monsters and awesome battle scenes.
Fun Home. Got cut when I was dropping down to the twenty-five or so mark. A couple of people pointed out that there’s a dearth of female talent on my list, and… yeah, pretty much. But I didn’t feel comfortable including Fun Home. I love the book, but it has personally struck out for me four times when trying to hook new people for comics, and I am not going to protest that track record just on the basis of inclusivity. Persopolis lingered for the same reason, but got cut late because I already had a top-notch bio-comic (Blankets) and journo-comic (Pyongyang) on the list, and also because I really think the movie actually works better than the comic in telling Marjane’s story, and I don’t want to include works which can be easily dismissed by an inexperienced reader as inferior versions of the same work in a different medium.
The lack of manga. I read a reasonable amount of manga, but the problem with most of it is that it’s almost always a large multi-volume journey, usually in the 8-16 volume range, and thus most of it got DQed by my “no first volume” metric (since first volumes of a manga series are almost never standalone), so goodbye went Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2, Monster, Death Note, Barefoot Gen, Phoenix, Buddha and Naruto. Oishinbo stayed on close to the end, but as much as I like it I know it tends to get repetitive and it’s a bit precious. I still haven’t read Ode to Kirihito, which probably could have otherwise qualified.
Understanding Comics. Works best after someone’s first half-dozen or so reads, not as an initial read. It’s great to see them suddenly think “ohhhhh…” and start going back to the first books they read and looking over them again to see if they “missed” anything.
The Groo Treasury. This only came out last month and I didn’t know about it and now I must own it because it is what I have always wanted: a big-ass Groo book that provides value for money. Had I known this existed, I would have gone to twenty-five items.
“A lot of the good superhero stuff from the ’80s onward – and I’d include Doom Patrol and All-Star Superman in this statement – is predicated on at least a passing familiarity with the genre. How to start reading comics without a single thing from the first four decades of superheroes? Not a very good start.” I’d respond by saying it’s not my fault that DC and Marvel have concsiously and affirmatively made themselves gradually more inaccessible to new readers. That having been said, Batman: Year One, Ultimate Spider-Man, Superman: Birthright, Superman: Secret Identity, Dr. Strange: The Oath and JLA: Earth 2 were all in consideration at various points. Runaways isn’t self-contained enough unless you can find the out-of-print hardcover first volume, Blue Beetle really just isn’t a good introductory comic at all (although Jaime is a great character), and Incredible Hercules relies a lot on Marvel continuity.
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I’m not big on lists of specific comics to recommend to newbies, for reasons explained in the last thread–everybody’s interests really are different. My personal guidelines would be:
1. Find out what this person likes in books/movies/tv shows/whatever, and pick a comic that does the same kind of things. For people who watch 24, Greg Rucka or Ed Brubaker might work. If your newbie subscribes to McSweeney’s or The New Yorker, you really will be better off recommending Chris Ware. (Just because one person doesn’t find his plots compelling, it doesn’t mean everyone won’t. I’ll take Jimmy Corrigan for suspense and emotional involvement over anything by Rucka, any day of the week.)
Although come to think of it the New Yorker newbies have probably already seen Ware’s work. Maybe we’d be better off lending them some Seth.
2. Pick something that, even if it is part of a series, will stand entirely on its own. (Comic strip collections actually work better for this than you might assume–you really don’t have to read all 50 years of Peanuts to Get It. Newspaper strips have long been the most popular form of comics in North America.)
3. If the person plans to buy it instead of borrowing it, recommend something cheap.
4. Stay away from superheroes unless the person you’re recommending them to is really, really interested. In particular, modern superhero comics have an aesthetic that seems ordinary to the people who buy them every month but looks deeply weird to many outsiders. (Even outsiders like me who used to read DC comics twenty years ago.)
I should mention that for your readers in the UK, Panini have brought out all of BKV’s Runaways in two trades. Not entirely self-contained, but pretty good value for money.
Just for the record, as far as Hellboy is concerned, I’d think the Chained Coffin and Other Stories is the best starting point. I’ve won people over to the character with The Corpse alone; surround it with other excellent examples of short-form storytelling, and I think it’s one of the best examples at atmosphere in comics.
[…] * How to start reading comics. (Late-breaking addendum.) […]
Speaking of inaccessible comics, The UK’s Viz magazine reached it’s 30th birthday last month. Happy birthday Viz.
“No first volumes” is a terrible rule. You’re deliberately excluding the possibility of giving people things which, if they like them, there’s more.
If you read a volume into Fullmetal Alchemist or Preacher or whatever thing and don’t like it then who gives a shit how many more volumes there are? And if you do like it, then hell yes, there’s eight/ten/fifty more volumes you can sink your teeth into.
Maybe it’s just me and my tendency to binge on new things but if I had just been getting into comics and went back to the friend who loaned me the first volume of Transmet and asked for more like it and he was like “Oh sorry, that’s all of that” I would probably have throttled him.
Still no Fables? Por que?
Re: Scrooge. I’d suggest Don Rosa’s The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, with the caveat that it’s currently going on Amazon for $88 used…but the listings indicate that Boom! will be reprinting it as two hardcover volumes with the first coming out in early February.
rwe1138: No Fables because of no first volumes. I don’t know that I’d have the same limitation, but it’s his list.
Though I’d add the Apparat collection, unless they’re the sort to get turned off by Ellis. There’s a little bit of everything in there, and a good introduction to what comics are capable of.
Mr. God King said, “Runaways isn’t self-contained enough unless you can find the out-of-print hardcover first volume[.]”
I have the first volume in softcover digest form. Am I missing material?
Going back and reading your list (I missed it before), I *am* going to work my way through it, because I’m desperately searching for good comics. I have all the BONE comics waiting to be read for… oof, a year now. I’m up to volume 5. Your list also got me going back to Asterix. I have to finish that collection I’ve been slowly accumulating since I was twelve, dagnabit.
A half-dozen I’d recommend (and only two are superheroes), if may be so bold:
TOM STRONG – The first volume is 7 issues long, contains an Eisner-award wining 4-part story and, while a serial, is self-contained in that you don’t need to read any further. It’s terrific fun, and here’s the thing: for a total rookie in comics, Tom Strong instantly creates the childhood love of comics. Its first issue is a comic in which a little kid reads the origin of the eponymous hero. As he does, he gasps, laughs, and cries. While other comics say, “This is a good comic”, Tom Strong’s first volume says, “This is what it feels like to love comics as a kid.” For someone who missed out on that feeling growing up, here’s how to let them get it.
THE PUNISHER – Garth Ennis’ MAX issues. Almost any arc will do. SLAVERS is often claimed to be the best, but IN THE BEGINNING is a fine arc. Garth Ennis – I have never really enjoyed his work. Not PREACHER, not anything. But when I first heard he was doing the Punisher, I thought, “Yes.” And he was wonderful. Then, he did the MAX series and he just brought such an unbridled A-game. It is, quite simply, one of the best comic series to ever come out of Marvel, and unless the righteous fury of Punisher is morally abhorrent to you, I can’t imagine why this isn’t a fine place to start comics. It’s devilishly simple, cathartic and deep. The only reason not to recommend it is because of the subject matter. Unfortunately, this goes for every recommendation: people’s tastes differ. It’s possible that the person you’re recommending it to will just find this gratuitously violent, even though it isn’t.
PARKER – The Darwyn Cooke adaptation. It’s stunning. I’d not heard of Parker before this, and I can’t wait for the second volume.
THE ULTIMATES – I dunno if the Vol. 1 hardcover breaks your “volume” rules or not (too expensive?). If it doesn’t, then this is terrific. The second volume is poor, but the first is what every single Hollywood blockbuster wishes it was. With the exception of his SUPERMAN ADVENTURES (which aren’t collected, sadly), this is Millar’s finest work, and Hitch’s too. From the slow-build to the rousing denoument, told exclusively in ‘wide-screen’ panels, it is so easy to read and such fun, I’d recommend it to a layperson.
GLOBAL FREQUENCY – I get that you couldn’t recommend PLANETARY due to the ‘investment’, but OCEAN was, by Ellis’ standards, one of his “I have an interesting sci-fi idea but no story for it” and just has ‘stuff happen’ in that world (MINISTRY OF SPACE I’m looking at you). GLOBAL FREQUENCY, on the other hand, is delightful. Only twelve issues long and completely serialized, it’s just exciting tales of high-octane espionage. With different artists and a lovable format, few comics I find so thoroughly enjoyable as this. I wish there was more.
THE GREEN MANOR – I picked it up out of curiosity and a desperate attempt to find non-superhero comics, and loved it. It’s French, and there are only two volumes (or three, but the last two seem to be collected into one – at least in English they are, dunno about the French versions), and each volume tells half a dozen 7-page murder mysteries set at the tail-end of the 19th century. Each mystery is bizarrely compelling, succinct, and masterful. It is simply a wonderful, light, anthology, which switches from devilish, bewildering, and hysterical with each story. I’ve saved the best for last. If I could only recommend one of these to someone, it would be this. It is such a light joy.
Gotta agree with rwe1138. Fables was an EXCELLENT startoff point when I introduced it to my wife. Familiar characters, familiar time period, just slightly naughty at times, it’s hard to imagine someone who wouldn’t like it. Followups have included Powers (which I would also recommend as an excellent gateway to superhero comics, although you’d have to pick your next move carefully. The entire run of Peter David’s X-Factor, perhaps?), Atomic Robo, Ex Machina, and then a smattering of others: Watchmen, Superman: Red Son.
Regardless, Fables is a great intro.
I’m not sure how big a hurdle “relies on X continuity” really is. I mean, it’s not like any of us started reading with some perfect, pure, unconnected-to-anything-else comic book. Aren’t we being a tiny bit elitist and overproud of our comics knowledge when we say, “Oh, a newbie could never follow this–they need to have vast troves of comics knowledge like we do! Only someone as deeply invested as us could truly appreciate Incredible Hercules!!”?
Somehow, 11-year-old me was able to grok what was going on in FF #170, or a reprint of Avengers #16, or Amazing Spider-Man #122. People hopped on in the middle of decade-long runs of soap operas or Dallas or the like without seeming to require kprior knowledge of everything that went before. Perhaps we should give newbies a little more credit than we do…
For the record, I went to Borders today and started reading BONE.
Quite simply, it is the coolest thing I’ve ever read. I’m a casual comics reader, as well as an avid nerd, so it’s pretty much right up my ally.
Anyway, thanks for the recommendation.
I think continuity is an issue when you’re trying to sell someone on entertainment. If someone approaches it on their own, in the middle of a story, they can fill in the gaps. If you’re trying to pull someone skeptical into comics, though, they’re easy stumbling blocks that could make them go “You see, I knew comics was beneath me/too difficult/too weird for me to get into!”
Continuity didn’t scare me off when I was ready for it, but there’s a reason USM got me reading comics. Nowadays I can pick up, say, Blue Beetle and dive right in even though I had no idea what all that crap in the first issue was referring to (and still don’t). Back then, I would’ve put it back on the shelf.
That said, a well-written comic can fit into continuity without forcing the reader to have backknowledge. Astonishing X-Men does a good job of telling you what you need to know, for example.
Thinking about it more, collections I’ve had success with giving to non-comics adults have been Bone, Mouse Guard and Umbrella Academy. But the biggest reaction I’ve gotten was giving some of my nieces Yotsuba&…
@ LurkerWithout- Yotsuba&! is love in comic book form.
@John Pontoon – if you have the Digest books for Runaways, the first three are the same material as the first Hardcover. Books 1-3 (or HC 1) are a single, self-contained (and basically awesome) story. Worth breaking this rule for, ’cause there is no Brian K. Vaughan on this list which makes it sort of not a very interesting list to me.
I have to disagree with Big Guy and Rusty. I read it when I was 14 and revisited it now, and it was crude and unappealing; Geof Darrow’s thick lines were off-putting and Miller’s writing was at its most simplistic (until his brain melted in ’01).
I would replace it with Mignola and Chaykin’ Fafhrd and Grey Mouser book, which is an honest-to-goodness dark swashbuckling fantasy book with the kind of striking art that Mignola is famous for, without the continuity baggage of Hellboy (though you can get some of the best of that in Right Hand of Doom).
And if you’re not going to put the 3 digests (or one hardcover) of Runaways on here, for crying out loud put Pride of Baghdad.
For Warren Ellis, rather than Ocean I would strongly suggest Global Frequency. It’s still a *little* better than the unaired pilot.
This list is the kind of stuff that wouldn’t give you a very *good* idea of what comics are like these days. They’re good books, but I’m not sure how much they’d actually draw someone into reading any other comics.
re lack of manga: I would suggest any volume of Kiyohiko Azuma’s YOTSUBA&!, all of them are pretty much stand alone volumes made up of several short stories (yes, Yotsuba and her father move into the neighborhood in vol. 1 but that and the change of seasons is about the only continuity in these stories). Likewise Yoshhiro Tatsumi’s short story collections (THE PUSH MAN, ABANDON THE OLD IN TOKYO, and GOOD-BYE) are all stand alone volumes.
I have to say, Alex Robinson’s “Too Cool To Be Forgotten” and “Tricked” are both excellent introductions to comics. The former is, at 128 pages, easily read by the slowest reader in a day, and packs an emotional punch to which no comic by the Big Two has ever approached.
(I even got to interview the man on my podcast this week. So happy.)
I really was not wowed by Fables Vol. 1. But the local comic book store guy actually agreed and told me to go for Vol. 2, and THEN if I didn’t like it, I could drop it. So I’ll be doing that soon. FYI for any newbies to Fables.
Boo, no Elfquest, boo! What if it’s a 12-year-old girl learning to read comics? What then, smarty pants?
I’d like to toss PS238 into the ring.
It does have references and archetypes of other heroes but it is
– self contained
– full of delightful characterizations
– the first comic TPB my wife ever finished reading. I’ve since moved her on to Maus and now Bone.
For people who grew up in a given decade, the various Superman in the x0’s and Batman in x0’s volumes are probably a pretty safe bet as an introduction to superhero comics. Alternately, the various Greatest Superman or Batman Stories Ever Told volumes are similarly pretty safe bets, for superhero comics, for people who appreciate non-contemporaneous stories.
For Uncle Scrooge, you DON’T go for Rosa; that’s like giving somebody Busiek/Perez Avengers. You scrounge up the best Barks material you can find.
PS238 for kids.
Larry Gonick’s Cartoon History for the kid who’s about to start World History class in secondary school.
i want to echo the recommendations for alan moore’s future shocks, the umbrella academy and elfquest.
other ideas:
matt silady’s the homeless channel
dr and quinch or top ten: the forty-niners by alan moore
will eisner’s the building, the dreamer or a contract with god
violent cases or signal to noise by neil gaiman and dave mckean
bourbon island by lewis trondheim
the adventures of luther arkwright or alice in sunderland by bryan talbot
the first volume of age of bronze
whiteout
why bother offering superhero comics right out of the gate? any prospective comics reader is bound to run right into the fandom right quick. better to point out that there are other traditions and genres available before she hits the rapids.
As the guy who made the last point on Metafilter – I want to clarify myself a bit. I’m not let down that you didn’t recommend any modern supers, but rather that you ignored the whole field of Golden Age and Silver Age superheroes. Lee/Ditko Spider-Man or Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four or Mort Weisinger era Superman or what have you still has a lasting appeal, and I think you’d do a new fan a disservice by staying away from them entirely.
As for manga, you should’ve recommended the first volume of Maison Ikkoku. Yes, it will send the reader on a wonderfully addicted journey through 14 volumes of manga…but that’s the fun part. You’re getting somebody into comics here, not a handful of graphic novels.
I’m going to “sum up” what dan and Brian Disco Snell have already said: Fuck continuity!
I started reading comics in the 90’s. The 90’s goddammit! And the X-Men comics to boot! At the time I had to settle with the fact that “Well, I haven’t read that.” when they referenced something that had happened either five months before I started or five years before I started. At the time the best source of information I had was the trading cards that were published at the time which barely filled in the gaps. Nowadays we have this thing called the Internet, with this great site called Wikipeida, which can fill you in on what the characters have been up to since whenever there first appearance was. And if someone is to busy or to lazy to look this info up? Fuck them! Enjoy the book for what it is and stop worrying about some continuity reference.
Believe it or not a lot of books these days do give you some clue as to previous events. Like I had no idea that Zeus had been killed and the Gods of Olypmus had set up shop on Earth through The Olypmus Group. But guess what? The first time this became a story point in Incredible Hercules they told me everything I needed to know to get that part of the story going. I even bought the trade of the mini-series where Zeus died because I knew that’s what it was about.
And Nextwave works as both a piece of self contained awesome and for those in the know an extra layer of cool if you know who everyone is. Not to mention the characters in Nextwave that where pre-established are written SOOOOOOOO unlike anything else they’ve appeared in its not like it matters if you’ve never read another book which had Machine Man in it.
To restate my point: Fuck continuity. It’s not nearly as important as everyone thinks it is.
Damn, I forgot PS 238.
Hell, that’s not a comic for kids, that’s a comic for everyone who likes superheroes. I love it unconditionally and unashamedly.
Lister: I agree with the principle of ‘Fuck continuity’ in general (I agree with it a lot, actually), but this is not actually about continuity.
Superhero comics have a particular style to them that someone unfamiliar with them, or even with comics in general, isn’t going to get them on the same level as someone who already reads comics. They might not completely dislike it, but it probably won’t deeply resonate with them either.
It’s also to do with stories that have an ending. Endings are a pretty integral part of stories in general, even if they are quite scarce in mainstream comics, but for someone who comes from outside comics, they expect an ending, and giving them one is likely to make them more satisfied than a ‘To Be Continued, Go Buy the Next Bit’, or even ‘The End…For Now!’
You probably wouldn’t introduce someone to television by giving them the first episode of Lost.
Lister Sage: Nowadays we have this thing called the Internet, with this great site called Wikipeida, which can fill you in on what the characters have been up to since whenever there first appearance was. And if someone is to busy or to lazy to look this info up? Fuck them!
Most people, when they pick up a novel, don’t expect to have to do research on the internet in order to enjoy it.
Convince them that, if they want to pick up a comic, it’s a different story… and it’s pretty unlikely that they will ever be interested in getting their stories from comics.
Can I just thank you for saying that about Chris Ware? Yes, his design sense is brilliant, but the art and the stories are just so dang sterile and cold. He claims Schulz as an influence, but he completely ignores the warmth and the humor mingled with the depressing parts.
Wesley: Yeah, but if you pick up the fourth Narnia, Harry Potter, or Dark Tower book you might not know what’s going on without finding out some background.
Belated thanks to Ilan for filling me in on the Runaways question.
As for nominations for new comix intro stuff, I’d like to suggest any of Paul Chadwick’s Concrete collections. They’re accessible, gorgeous, and wonderfully humane.
Also, the Luna Brothers’ Ultra would be a nice intro to the world.
John: The thing is, the discussion is about comics to give to comics newbies. Why would anyone suggest to a friend who wanted to know what these “novels” are all about that they should read the fourth Narnia book?
Alexa: I don’t find Chris Ware’s work sterile or cold. It’s melancholy, but humane and compassionate.