Anyone who recommends people get into comics with Watchmen should have their computer taken away and smashed with a bat.

A general recommendation of "the one book to get into comics" is bullshit, anyway.

For some, it's gonna be Raina Telgemeier, or a single X-Men issue from 1994, or reading a Scott McCloud book, or webcomics, or a Chinese copy of Maus they found in a hotel room and can't actually understand -- there's no one-book-fits-all.

What "start with Watchmen" communicates is: "I think it's the best one, and my opinions haven't changed since 1995."

How *I* got into comics is essentially impossible to recommend outside of the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, and 1993 -- Donald Duck comics don't tend to exist in the same way, and you're not learning to read.

How I got into superhero comics is with Ultimate Spider-Man, and though that's aged pretty well, it's extremely 2001, extremely decompressed, and not something I'd necessarily recommend to a new reader in 2019.

Basic questions to ask someone who says they want to get into comics:

* How familiar are you with the form? Do you read any webcomics, or manga?
* What makes you say you wanna get into comics? A recent movie, or TV show? Something you read online?
* When you say you wanna get into comics, what are you talking about wanting to get into exactly? Superhero stuff?

If somebody's not very familiar with reading comics, "start with Watchmen" is like telling someone to get into action movies by starting with six very serious Italian films.

@maj @minx Depends!

* What makes you want to start reading comics?
* Are we talking superheroes specifically, or comics in general?

@Alexis @minx I like storytelling and comics provide that. All superhero comics I looked into so far I didn't like though. but I would give it another shot.

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@maj It's also helpful to consider what kind of books or TV shows you like.
Into non-fiction and autobiographies? Maybe check out comics like “Drinking at the Movies”, “Tomboy” or Ariel Schrag's body of work.
Sci-Fi fan? “Saga” might be fun for you, it's witty and violent and dynamic.

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