Not to be too disagreeable, but reading comics is not like a movie, or a painting, or a book
.
Reading comics is like reading comics. They are their own art form, and learning to read them and appreciate them is the same as learning to appreciate art or film or literature.
This is why I find it extremely frustrating when people recommend things like Watchmen or The Dark Knight to comic book novices (or those out of the genre for a long time). Those are books that are like the paintings that art students fawn over that I don't even get.
Maria, I would not recommend the Buffy books to someone having trouble with the balance between the words and the art. I myself did not particularly appreciate the style of those books and I'm a huge fan of the comic book and Buffy. Whedon is a long time Comic fan (and writer), and was trying to do something in those books that was unique and orginal, which I don't think was done particularly well myself.
Even if you went to some of his other comics (his run of
Astonishing X-Men is one of my favorite) it might have the same issues.
Comics have gone from being heavily influenced by the writing, with the art simply being an extension of those words (an evolution from picture books and newspaper comics)... and they have gone in completely the opposite direction through the 80s and 90s, where only the art mattered, and the words and story were an afterthought. For instance, The
Death of Superman comic in the 90's which is quite possibly the most widely sold comic of all time... has only one frame with dialog, and is a collection of full page panels meant to tell the story... (boring).
Right now, they've gone back in a more sensible direction, with concentration on a good story and good art that compliment each other. While it is essential to pay attention to the art, it should flow naturally from the dialog in words.
When I first began reading comics I was in my late teens, and an accomplished reader (if I do say so myself). I would often find myself reading a comic in about 10 minutes and thinking "I just spent 2 bucks on that?" because it was the height of minimalistic storytelling. It wasn't until I was able to get into older comics that I began to understand the evolution of storytelling through comics.
If I were to recommend a series to acclimate people to the comic book genre, I would recommend
Ultimate Spider-man. You would have to like Spider-man, of course
, but he's mostly rather likeable. It's a retelling of his entire story from origin to modern times in an abreviated fashion, but it flows more smoothly than the actual history. Most of the series was done by the same artist and writer, and it is a good combination of art and story. Not to mention you can likely find it in your local bookstore.
And now I've talked about comics more today than in a couple of years...
My husband says I should look at the pictures more carefully, as that's where the story is really told, but I'm so attuned to the printed word I'm finding that hard. In a book, the words are what's important. In comics, apparently words are secondary.
Weird.
