OK, I looked at #1 a few years ago and just couldn't get into it. Quit after a dozen strips, I couldn't take the indie stuff - "If that's all it's gonna be, it's not worth it".
Several months later, forgetting I had already looked at it, I followed the link from another webcomic, and saw Hanners sledding. There was something really compelling about it, and I did something that I do with a lot of magazines and comics -- I started reading it backwards.
I think it's because I'm left-handed, but I've always been more comfortable paging through something backwards. Anyway, I found it absolutely fascinating to watch the storyline unfolding (is that the right term for going through something backwards? Maybe it's de-folding, or refolding...), seeing where characters and situations came from. After a few hundred, I also notice that the art was devolving a little bit. At the same time I was following the current daily strip forward.
A few hundred more, and I finally went back to #1 and read the rest forward. I couldn't believe I had quit on it so early! When I met myself in the middle, I kept going. It took damn near 3 weeks to get through it all, and I got next to no work done at the time.
But everyone I "sell" it to, I tell them to start at the beginning and to give it a few strips. Don't be afraid of the references, I tell them, it's not the whole comic. Pintsize, of course, is the hook for some people. But yeah, the random button works too, just hit it until you find something that makes you giggle - one of the riffing pages, or maybe a standalone robot joke. Whatever works for you!
More comics need Random buttons.