I've got a friend who's not into comics, but who has expressed some interest in learning a bit about the medium. Her birthday's coming up, and I'd like to get her a nice GN or collection as a gift. I don't read much myself, so I don't know what's out there that she'd want--can anyone offer any recommendations? I was thinking of picking up a trade of Lucifer for her (it seems like the kind of thing she might like); where would be the best place for a new reader of the book to start? I hear it starts off slowly and then picks up later on, so I don't know if I should get the first volume or a later one.

No superheroes, goth stuff, teenaged/20-something angstiness, or straight crime, please. I've already shown her 100 Bullets and JTHM, and she wasn't interested. Mystery might be a nice genre, but nothing too hardboiled--she's not a noir fan, sadly. Thanks a lot!

Well, it sounds like your friend is hard to buy for, but I have a few suggestions:

Torso - By Brian Michael Bendis - It's about Elliot Ness (God, I hope I got his name right) and his first case. I was hooked from the start.

Whiteout - By Greg Rucka - A female lead solving a mystery in Antarctica. I thought it was well written and entertaining.

Or, take her to a comic shop and let her browse and pick something out.

Good luck!

There's a good manga series that most women seem to fall for called MAISON IKKOKU by Rumiko Tackahashi. It's about the romance between a young man who's going to college and the older woman who owns the appartment building he lives in. Spread out over several thousand pages and 14 volumes it ends with their wedding and his graduation.

Goodbye, Chunky Rice is a beautiful story.

The Human Target is excellent!

I was gonna say Good-bye, Chunky Rice, too. If you can get ahold of a copy, give her The King of Persia, too. What a double-bill that would be.

Beautiful books.

And there's always Maus if you want to hit her with something really heavy.

Matthew

i would recommend picking up for her a copy of Alias by Marvel !!

I'll stand by that the perfect first-time comic is The Cowboy Wally Show by Kyle Baker. It's hysterically funny, and accessable to those who don't normally like comics.

"No superheroes, goth stuff, teenaged/20-something angstiness, or straight crime, please. I've already shown her 100 Bullets and JTHM, and she wasn't interested. Mystery might be a nice genre, but nothing too hardboiled--she's not a noir fan, sadly. Thanks a lot!"

Given these words, a number of books suggested to you on this thread strike me as inappropriate.

But, also given these words, I wonder if you might want to consider any and all of Rick Geary's A Treasury of Victorian Murder. Sorta mysteries, and very droll, non-noir ones at that. Great books, Geary is a modern treasure himself.

Matthew

P'raps the first two volumes of Cerebus:

CEREBUS (1-25)
HIGH SOCIETY (26-50)

That is, if she can dig an anthropomorphic aardvark as a main character (of COURSE she can!).


T