:lol you really wrote all that? And not at all tongue-in-cheek?! I'm laughing at the idea that The Punisher #13 not receiving accolades is damning evidence of critic snobbery
not at the thought of superhero comics as a worthy genre. How can you claiming victim hood from the Eisners when
Superhero titles are well represented on the roll call of winners! I
do have serious aesthetic problems with the mainstream American comics but, ignoring all that for a bit, isn't it simply sheer ludicrousness to stack a single issue of The Punisher, an ongoing series, against Asterios Polyp? I can only respond to that as I would to a wag weighing Naruto #441 (or even One Piece #576) against Osamu Tezuka's Ode to Kirihito...
And so what if none of the books in the OP would have existed without superheroes comics (although I doubt Persepolis, for one, was influenced by that genre)? It's an inane observation, like saying The Wire wouldn't exist without Days of Our Lives (or insert random police procedural here). Every form of art has a genre that is, rightly or wrongly, pilloried as the cesspool of the medium. Why get mad that the superheroes genre has ended up being bodice-ripper of comics? Pointing out a few 'classics', a la Gone with the Wind, only serves up exceptions that prove the rule.
Oh, I also prefer Carnet De Voyage to Blankets. There are so few of us, it's a shame really. But then again Carnet De Voyage would never have happened without the overwhelming success of Blankets so *shrug*
While we're still on the subject of the comics industry here's my recommendation for the thread:
Hicksville (D&Q just published this new edition so it shouldn't be hard to find)