10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About Comic Books

9. They're Not "True Literature"

One would've thought that the industry's biggest critics would've moved on from their old line of attack - that comics aren't as sophisticated as classic novels - a long time ago, but the perception still persists to this day.

Whether it's because people think superheroes are childish, or even just that the presence of images makes them 'easier' to read than a traditional black and white novella, the medium's biggest critics tend to decry superhero comics in particular as cartoonish, irreverent and unintelligent. Over thirty years on from the release of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen - a book counted among Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Novels of all Time - creators and fans alike face an uphill climb trying to convince certain groups that comics are a proper art-form, read by a diverse range of people.

Children get dissuaded from reading funny books by teachers who don't think they're intellectually stimulating, while various artists in school are taught to shy away from the medium altogether, with superheroes deemed a childish distraction. It's so disheartening, especially because some of the best stories ever told can be found in the pages of a comic book.

Marvel, DC and countless other publishers have been busy creating modern mythologies for the past century, and while not every book ends up being a nuanced masterpiece, you'd struggle to find a medium as creative or as boundless in its scope.