What is the Most Accessible Comic For New Readers?

[Timothy Hunter]

There are plenty of great comic book young readers such as Tintin or Bone, but it seems that American comics have
been strictly targeted towards children for so long that comics for adults go out of their way to be transgressive in a way that would scare away or at the very least disinterest a non-comics reader. There's also the factor that that too many comics rely on the superhero genre, and the non-superhero comics are often not commercial enough to appeal to a large audience.

Watchmen
-Probably one of the darkest works of popular fiction, filled with nerotic, repulsive characters and violence

Dark Knight Returns
-Violent and cynical

Sandman
-Opening arc easily the weakest part of the series

Moore's Swamp Thing
-The beginning heavily revolves around dangling plot threads from Martin Pasko's run

Love and Rockets
-Gratuitous sex

Black Hole
-Frank and graphic depiction of adolescent sexuality

Most of Adrian Tomine, Chris Ware, and Daniel Clowes' comics
-Depressing, cynical, and/or nihilistic

Saga
-Pornographic levels of sex

Claremont's X Men
-Infamously dense

Stan Lee's Marvel Work
-Like the majority of comics from the 30s to the 80s, has a style of writing that is considered outdated by today's standards.

[DebkoX]

Moore's Swamp Thing is an essential read IMO.

[SJNeal]

Can't go wrong with Archie...

[Revolutionary_Jack]

The right answer is that there's no platonic ideal version of accessibility. People come to a comic by jumping into the deep end. So any and every comic can be accessible in theory. Ideally you want to show something with good art, good humor, and storytelling.

TClaremont's X Men
-Infamously dense

Claremont's X-Men did more than any other comic to bring new readers in regularly and repeatedly. It was so successful at its peak that X-Men had it been split apart from the rest of Marvel would form the third largest publication after the Big Two.

So it's not always the case that the comic everyone thinks is most accessible, most reader-friendly, and least dense will be successful.

In fact, density sells, people like getting a lot out of a single comic.

[K7P5V]

Definitely, my choice would be...

The Batman Adventures

[Spike-X]

That Raina Telgemeier seems to be pretty popular with the young 'uns.

[Kirby101]

I'd say stand alone graphic novels would be the best bet. Anything from Will Eisner would be a good start.