Why Aren't Comics Universally Accepted?

Throughout the course, I've been amazed at many of the comics we've read, both from a literary standpoint and an artistic one. It is this relationship between image and text that allows comics to do so much more than just each alone. Specifically, the ability of comics to demonstrate strong story-telling and literary elements without an abundance of words was surprising to me. My experience with comics had been superhero comics that I had read as a kid, very few of which I took as serious pieces of literature and although I found them engaging, I believed them to be unrealistic and underdeveloped. After studying them as an adult, however, with the exception of the earlier comics, many of these stories were in depth and provided elements that typical literature could not. One of the main elements of books is the reader's interpretation of what is occurring on the pages, however, in comics, with the addition of images, a clearer picture is painted. This is not to say that there is no interpretation in the reading of comics (closure in between panels is essentially that), but they do this interpretation in a different way. Only with comics can minimal amounts of writing serve as a device for interpretation whereas with purely written stories, every single word helps to create a picture of what is happening.

Nevertheless, it is this minimal amount of writing that also serves to limit comics in what they are able to do. Comics must balance the relationship with text and image and can not be too text heavy as to upset this balance. I believe that it is this distinction that leads many people to believe that comics aren't "real" pieces of literature. Without enough literary elements in the eyes of many people, this minimalist approach makes it seem as if comics are picture books for kids and couldn't possibly hold any greater meaning. After having studied comics all semester, I don't believe that this is the case, however, I can understand how those who don't have any experience on the subject could be inclined to view comics in this way.