As someone who is not a comics fan, I will admit I spent half an hour standing at B&N one day reading through the first volume of Y: the Last Man. If that's a datapoint you might find useful. Way more newbie-friendly than Sandman, I must say.

I think she tried a little but couldn't get into it. Or else she hasn't attempted it. But I know she's lamented that she can't get into what is often considered his greatest work.

Well, if she started with the first volume - it's not the best, and I don't like the artwork, or the colouring.

She'd probably be better dipping into one of the short story collections...God, I get the titles mixed up. Fables and Reflections, I think? Or Dream Country? Or am I mixing them up again?

I'd recommend Superman: Identity for someone who has a fondness for the character. Immonen's painting style in that might ease her past any objections to the comic format, and it's a great read.

Thanks, Matt! I'll see if my store has it.

P-C -

there is also a possibility your friend won't ever get into them.

I have a stack of Buffys that I need to read. I love the story, but it is the medium that works my nerves. I love to read. I love tv and movies. I don't really like images and text together. I suspect it has something to do with my wanting to fill in my own images when I'm reading or taking the images at face value in tv/film.

there is also a possibility your friend won't ever get into them.

Yeah, I know. Le sigh.

if she started with the first volume - it's not the best, and I don't like the artwork, or the colouring.

ahh OK. Maybe I'll give it another shot.

For what it's worth, I didn't get into Sandman until the second story arc either. Initially the art was too reminiscent of 1950s-era EC Comics for me to get into it. But "A Doll's House" and "Season of Mists" were mesmerizing.

Yeah, I think I started reading Sandman during the second story arc. But I do know that the first issue I read was "The Sound of her Wings".

So I have returned from the comic book store. Since Steph wants to know, here's what I got:

Blackest Night : I was sort of lost since it's clearly in-continuity and setting up some big new EVENT, but it was a decent issue. I had no idea there were so many different-colored Lanterns. Sheesh.

Savage Dragon : Fun, although I had no idea DC had a Daredevil before Marvel did. And, shit, Savage Dragon sure has had a crappy fucking time of it.

Love and Rockets : I was completely lost through it all and I just quit after a while. Not my thing, despite Killer's gigantic boobs.

Resurrection : This was actually really neat, and I want to pick up the old version for six bucks. And I may read the new series. Looks good so far.

Aliens/Predator : The Aliens story was nice, but the Predator story was meh.

I asked someone to recommend something for my friend, and when I said that I wanted something that would show her why you would write a story as a comic rather than as a book or movie, his eyes lit up, and he took me to the manga section and showed me Gon, which is the wordless tale of a cute little dinosaur. It was cheap, too. So I decided on that.

Blackest Night : I was sort of lost since it's clearly in-continuity and setting up some big new EVENT, but it was a decent issue. I had no idea there were so many different-colored Lanterns. Sheesh.

The multitudes of different-colored Lanterns is totally new. The gist of the Blackest Night storyline is that the Black Lanterns are apparently resurrecting dead superheroes, but in a creepy corrupted awful way.

Yes, they're going to come back wrong.

Love and Rockets : I was completely lost through it all and I just quit after a while. Not my thing, despite Killer's gigantic boobs.

I haven't read it yet, because The Boy has it.

I also got Mercy Sparx, which made the mistake of opening with 2 pages of text-backstory, narrated by Mercy. The problem is that the backstory is fucking confusing, so I started reading not really sure of what the hell was going on.