Have you ever persuaded a non-comic book reader to read a comic?

General Discussion
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Have you ever persuaded someone who has never read a comic, to read a comic? Share the story!

For example: What did you say that got them interested in the comic? Which comic did they read? Did they ever read another comic?

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I did with a co worker several years ago. The response I got days later really stuck with me. This person, someone who was working on a Masters in Woman’s Literature studies, told me that they struggled to figure out how to read from one panel to the next, to figure out where their eye should go.

I love the way that digitized comics can have the panel to panel feature, so now people not aware or used to reading comics can just sit back and enjoy them almost like a slide show.

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Several times.

A notable instance was in the lead-up to Spider-Man 3’s theatrical release. I had a buddy that really wanted to get into Spidey but didn’t know where to hop in.

After work, we went to my comic store at the time and I showed him the first few trades of JMS’ run on Amazing.

He stuck with it through the duration of our friendship.

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I have a friend who’s agreed to try, He asked me who’s superman again and I went hjfhkejfhjkhewkjhf. So we are going to read Superman Rebirth together.

We are already watching Doom Patrol though.

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Watchmen was the easiest sell. People had either seen the trailer or the movie and “the book is great!” The usual response was “it was based off a book and then the ubiquitous “and it’s a comic book.”
The answer is always. “Yep and it’s in Time Magazine’s best 100 novels of all time.” If the deal needs closing, that’ll do it.

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Twice. The first was my brother. He was interested in trying comics and loved the Nolan Bat films and Batman: TAS, so I gave him a copy of The Dark Knight Returns. He didn’t much care for it due to the art style, but I later loaned him my copy of Hush and he LOVED it.
The other was my girlfriend. We had just started dating at the time. She loved manga but wasn’t big on superheroes, so I gave her a copy of the first volume of Saga as a gift. She now has a bookshelf full of the more recent Image titles.

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It’s horribly difficult to do-- especially in the traditional comic book format. It’s easier with the graphic novels, and digital. Some of the, forgive the expression, ‘stigmata’ of ‘comics’ is peeled away by simple things like a trade paperback book, or something that reminds of a kindle-like experience.

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I’m loving your stories. I might try Watchmen someday. I recently read it for the first time and was blown away by THAT Veidt Moment.

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I haven’t yet, but I really want to get someone into comics so that I can have someone to talk about them with. Does anybody who has gotten someone into comics have any suggestions for getting people into them? For a while my pitch has been that I have an extra copy of the New 52 Batman Volume 1: Court of the Owls if they wanted it, but there haven’t been any takers. Watchmen is a great idea too. It might just be a matter of finding the right person.

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I fell in love with Aquaman Rebirth. That’s when I became a big fan of DC.

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Anyway, comics are always genre based. Talk about them like your favorite fantasy novel, soap opera, or adventure story, for instance. Batman and Star Trek have one thing for certain in common with something like Game of Thrones, book or telly, or even the Favourite. It’s all costume drama.

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@Nathan.Payson Aquaman New 52 and Rebirth – Geoff Johns through Dan Abnett… are perfect comics to start someone on-- solid costume drama.

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@YoYoFroYo Tell 'em comic books are good for their health and that the sooner they start reading, the healthier they’ll be.

It’s true. They stimulate your reading skills and imagination. The books that are funny (like DC Comics Presents #81, among others) will make you laugh, and it has been scientifically proven that laughter is good for you.

Its simple:

comics=health
no comics=hospital

=)

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Something sounds off about your logic @Vroom…

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Probably.

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It’s the sad result of too many comics on the brain, you can get a case of the Panels.

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I think it depends. For adults the graphic novel or trade paperbacks are usually “gateway drug”.
For kids it’s fun books AND getting their parents to understand reading comics IS reading.

I know and have told parents my love of mythology and “serious reading” about mythology comes directly from reading Thor, Wonder Woman, & Kirby’s 4th world.

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I’m curious to see if Supersons: Polarshield is performing well because Comics could be a good transition from picture books to chapter books.

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I’m trying.

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