An odd one this, as (though not for the last time in this meme) I’m writing about a comic I haven’t actually read. But, although I’ve given copies of plenty of my favourite comics to friends over the years – from Sandman-related titles, to Phonogram, to Scott Pilgrim, to the Morrison Batman collections I get my Dad a couple of times a year – I’ll probably be writing about most of them elsewhere. So instead we turn to the story of what happened when I started going out with someone who doesn’t really have much of a demonstrable interest in reading comics at all.

That’s not to say Jo, my girlfriend, has anything against them – just that a lot of the comics that I’d normally want to foist upon someone would be books that someone who was already vaguely familiar with the form and medium would get more out of. Therefore, although I’ve suggested she borrow and read various copies of books of mine over the time we’ve been together, when it came to the first birthday to fall within the timeframe of relationship, it seemed that buying her a graphic novel would be a bit of a waste. On the other hand, I’m me, and a carefully-chosen comic is about the best thing I can think of to buy someone.

Happily, it didn’t take long to remember the existence of something that was so in line with a particular interest of hers that she’d like it even if she never read another comic in her life. For you see, one of Jo’s favourite bands just so happens to be Belle & Sebastian. And there just so happens to be a comic about Belle & Sebastian.

Put The Book Back On The Shelf is a rarity in comics, in that it has legitimate claim to being a genre-starter all of its own – that genre being the “anthology comic where each of the stories is based around a song by a particular band or artist”. The moderate success of the book led to later, similar titles – also published by Image – based around Tori Amos and, later, Spearmint (sadly, the latter was the first one not to sell quite so well – the assumption that people were buying them simply because the comics were interested fell apart when an actually quite great book was done about an (also actually quite great) band that people hadn’t really heard of). The fusion of music and comics is of course a lively and exciting one (you only have to look at what Alternate Cover’s two favourite comics of the last few years are to know how we feel about the subject), and particularly so when you slap the word “indie” in front of both nouns – and so PTBBOTS was a perfect fit.

It was also a perfect fit for a present for Jo – mixing an interest of mine with an interest of hers – and made even better by the fact that I knew the artist of one of the stories in it: step forth Mr Marc Ellerby. This meant that not only could I get her the book, but I could get it signed for her by someone who’d worked on it. This always makes for a great present, in my view, too – I’ve given people more signed copies of Phonogram than I can count, and I was also lucky to get Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant’s scrawls (and a “Happy Birthday” message) on an All-Star Superman hardcover I once gave my Dad. I’m less bothered about just picking up a pre-signed copy of something – but if I can get a book I’m planning to buy someone into the hands of (one or all of) its creators, and have them dedicate it to the person it’s intended for, then it makes it that bit more significant as an object (so it becomes not only “Here’s a recommendation of something you’ll like”, but “Here’s something you may actually want to keep when you’re done”). And in a way, it’s almost as if they themselves have had a hand in giving the present.

Anyway, Jo liked the book – I can’t recall if she’d heard of its existence before, but she did actually enjoy reading it (if not clicking with all of the art; she likes Ellerby, though). If nothing else, the fact I was still able to buy her a book that she’d be in some way interested in was demonstrative of just how much comics have to offer – you can find a story about just about anything in comic form if you look hard enough, and it’s one of the greatest strengths of the medium that its storytelling techniques can be applied so widely (even if it’s one of the greatest weaknesses of the industry that they’re generally applied so narrowly). As for Jo, I’m convinced that one day, when she’s sharing a house with my Absolute Sandman editions, I’ll eventually sit her down and make her read them, and they’ll win her over as well.