Not All Female Comic Readers Like Sandman...

As a female comic reader I probably get the same comic book recommendations as every other female reader does. As in, at least once a month, should my interest in comics come up in conversation, I tend to get the following responses:

"You should read Y, The Last Man!"

Or:

"So, do you like Sandman?" In a way that immediately presumes the answer is "yes."

I don't mind the questions really. It's nice that they're interested in what I read. But each time my answers are the same. And because I can, I'll share them with you.

I have no interest in EVER reading Y, the Last Man. No intention of doing so. I'm sure it's a good series. I'm glad you guys like it. But I don't want to read it.

The premise doesn't interest me. One viable man on a world of all women...well, honestly, it just sounds like one of a thousand Japanese harem comics to me. And I'm not a big fan of those either.

Part of it's just that I tend to like male characters better than female. This isn't anything against female characters. There are many I love, but in general, if I've got a favorite, it's a male character. It's just a weird quirk of mine. This series doesn't sound like it has the sort of male characters that would interest me.

Part of it's that the few issues I tried to skim in the store...well, I didn't find the portrayals of the women particularly interesting. Honestly, they felt flat and forced, stereotypical. Perhaps they improve. But I've no real interest in finding out. That's just the way it is for me.

As for Sandman, I love Sandman! Wesley Dodds is great!

Oh wait. You mean Gaiman's Sandman.

This might make me unpopular, but well, I've never really liked Sandman. I don't dislike it terribly, but it's not to my taste. To be honest, I've always found the Endless to be a bit without point. Even Death, though she had her own charm. I just didn't care.

Which is weird because almost every other female comic reader I know loves it. But me? Not so much.

I think some of it might be that many of the female comic readers I know are goths, or former goths, or skirt with the goth or punk movement. Which is cool. But that stuff never meant anything to me. The makeup looked itchy, shoe-polish black hair never looks good, and I might like black but the most complicated outfit I've worn is a black turtleneck and black jeans.

Jewelry disappears around me, unless I keep it in a box and never touch it. I have no interest in morbid poetry, and really no affinity for poetry in general if it's not rhyming and vaguely dirty. And I don't see the point of endless musing on death and eternity. Death's death. It's an inevitability. So why dwell on it?

Sorry to over simplify what is undoubtedly much more complicated, but well, that's ALL it'll ever be to me, I'm afraid. Just like all Sandman will be to me is a pretty comic with some characters I don't really get, and probably won't ever.

For the record, I don't think all people who like Sandman are goths or anything like that. It's just the girls I know who rave about it were.

I'm also not a big Gaiman fan. He's clearly talented and reputedly a nice guy, but the only time I really connected to his work was Good Omens. The Pratchett influence probably. It's probably a stylistic thing.

But anyway, I just don't get Sandman. I don't get a lot of stuff, I'm not worried about it.

I do find it amusing that it's so often immediately assumed that because I'm a female comic reader, I'd like Sandman. It's just not for me.