TV Ate My Dinner: The Art of Comics

Of all the underground art forms being exalted in the popular culture, comic books are among the least respected despite their influence on every other commercial art forms embraced by the mainstream.  If Spider-man and X-men top box office records alongside Batman and Superman while Dark Knight director Frank Miller dazzles us with big screen adaptations like Sin City and 300, why can't people accept the importance of Alan Moore classics like Watchmen and Swamp Thing?  And what about the great underground comics like American Splendor, Box Office Poison and the Devil's Panties?