Comic book novels, biographies, histories (or graphics as the New York Times Book Review calls them) are gaining wider audiences. Some are truly works of art, in addition to presenting stories in new ways.
Enjoyed recently are:
Kim Deitch, "Alias the Cat."
Art Spiegelman, "In the Shadow of No Towers."
Chester Brown, "Louis Riel." (A balanced view, not the usual British-Canadian elite distortions of the last century).
Marjane Satrapi, "Persepolis I, II." (Autobiographical, growing up in Iran).
Joe Sacco, "The Fixer, a Story from Sarajevo." (The New York Times said about a previous work on Bosnia- "few have told the truth more bravely than Sacco's. He is an immense talent").

I wish I could afford more of them. Graphic presentation is expensive, and as yet the market is not large for hard-bound graphic works, running to many pages.