Comics as literature?

I've seen a few kids from our church wandering around with what we'd call novels back in the old days, except these are full of pictures with word bubbles: comics.  I suppose graphic novel is the correct phrase but I find this new phenomenon rather interesting, albeit my six year old prefers to try reading 'Garfield' comics in lieu of a storybook of late so I can't really be objective on this matter.  But it does remind me of the scene from the animated 'Beauty and the Beast' where Gaston asks how Belle can read that book, 'it as no pictures,' and then accepts 'primeval' as a compliment, love it!  I guess they are reading at least, but when they come out with the comic version of 'Hamlet' or 'Pride and Prejudice,' we can pretty much assume our cultural literacy rate has just hit bottom!