Danielle's piece sorta inspired this thought, which is "what comics would you recommend to people?" And what strikes me is this - all things being even, the odds are that the person you're recommending comics to is not going to be a superhero fan.

That's not a knock on superheroes. You all know I loves me my superhero comics, and most of the readers of this here blog dig them, too. But come on, superhero comics are a genre of comics, not comics themselves, and when recommending comics to a random person, odds are they'll be more interested in non-superhero comic books.

Comic books are a broad market of styles and genres, and for whatever the person you're recommending books is into, there will most likely be a good book to fit that style/genre. And for some of them, superhero books certainly WILL fit the bill, but most of them, not likely.

This may seem like a bit of a "Duh, Brian, that's obvious," but too often I see stuff like, "I am looking for comics to get my 13-year-old daughter/niece/cousin/daughter of a friend into comics, do you have any recommendations?" and the recommendations are, like, "Cable/Deadpool!" Okay, Cable/Deadpool was a joke, but the answers sometimes ARE stuff like, "Justice League of America, Hawkgirl, Birds of Prey, Rogue, Manhunter, etc.," and while all those books might very well work fine for a 13-year-old, the odds are that they are not going to fit the median interest range of a 13-year-old girl.

It could be manga, it could be Archie, it could be Disney, it could be Vertigo, it could Persepolis, it could be Minx, it could be any number of other books. So when recommending comics, just keep in mind the interests of the person you're recommending to - just like one size does not fit all, one comic genre does not fit all.