I found a way to get my non-reader friend into comics without starting at issue one

My friend always said comics were too confusing to jump into. I tried giving him a classic #1, but he got lost in the history. Last month, I picked up the 'Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon' trade paperback from the library. It's a self-contained story that explains everything as it goes. He read it in two days and asked for more. What other modern starting points have worked for you to bring new people in?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix97023d ago

Are you sure you're doing your friend a favor by skipping the real starting points? Jumping into the middle of a character's story with a modern book feels like cheating, and they'll miss the classic art and writing that made comics great in the first place. If it was too confusing, maybe you just picked a bad number one, not that the whole idea is wrong. The old way of reading builds a real connection to the history of the medium, and a trade paperback just gives them a watered down version.

grace_white23d ago

My uncle tried to get me into comics by handing me a stack of silver age books. I found the old dialogue and pacing really hard to get through, and it almost turned me off for good. A modern story is what finally hooked me, and then I went back to appreciate the classics.

quinn_wood18d ago

Ugh, starting someone with the silver age is a classic mistake (no pun intended). I always give friends a killer modern standalone story first, then they get curious about the older stuff on their own. Forcing the history lesson just makes people quit.