I think the difference in recognition of a comic artist’s work comes from the fact that some of the comics, like Tintin or Asterix, don’t just target kids or teenagers, but more the whole family. Everybody knows them, and everybody is fond of them. For example, when I was little, my dad used to read Tintin comics to me, but he actually enjoyed reading them himself too.
What’s more, French and Belgian comics are often published with hardback covers, quality paper and are pretty expensive (it’s at least 12€ for one book), which would make them a better support for “artistic” contents, at least in the public’s mind.

Sorry if my English is a bit rusty.

Also… you don’t have that professor’s contact information do you? You could sent your post to him. You could also post his picture here so that those of us who draw/publish our own works might make a special appearance with a similar character… This is the traditional response of authors of popular works to idiots who cross them.

School is not a good place to think different.

I still have stacks of Suske en Wiske, Asterix, Storm, and others. I told people I bought them to help me learn Dutch (or Flemish, if you prefer), but the fact is, I just loved reading them.

But, people enjoy putting others down to make themselves seem bigger. To shake up a quote from Aesop: “People will often applaud the same old thing and scorn new thought”

And honestly, you bring up Manga? Manga and Anime is an odd thing, as you can go from something you would give a seven year old child to something an adult would sit down and read. That is art as well, but since it’s cartoon, heaven forbid a mature adult would watch or read that, Simpsons aside.

In short, I hate people because of things like this.

My fourth grade teacher in Utah in particular, as I was not only subject to her humiliating abuse but I witnessed her slapping other students in the face and she let the other students bully me and the one time I ever dared ask her for help against their torment, she stood me in front of the class and basically told me I was worthless and would amount to nothing.

And by the way, I was the top student in the class grades-wise. When my parents called her in a fury she told them the same thing. That I wasn’t worth anything.

It was nearly twenty years ago now and she was this little old thing with scoliosis who also cried in class and tried to make us feel sorry for her, so she’s probably dead by now and I hope she’s burning in Hell. She put scars on a ten year old child that have lasted the rest of her life. If it hadn’t been for my fifth grade teacher in Idaho who sensed what was wrong and saved me (as I was on the edge of suicide) I’d not be here right now.

Teachers can be this cruel. The fifth grade teacher in question was truly an angel in disguise.

Well then I suppose Piccaso or Da Vinci really isn’t art either. You call reproducing people’s faces art? They’re just faces!/sarcasm

Or painting a nude model or a still-life bowl of fruit isn’t art either. You’re just painting what you see for no discernable reason/more sarcasm

In other words, teachers like these have probably inhibited countless artists that might have otherwise become famous if they hadn’t had their dreams crushed early on, and thus turn off the more artistic side to their brains and sadly settle into a career in a cubicle in those large corporate buildings.

These teachers think they “know” what art is and that their view is the only one that matters. Screw that. If it were true, all art would be totally alike anyways and there’d be no depth to the field. The allure of art is not only diversity, it is endless expression and the ability of the human mind to endlessly breach new areas where we don’t otherwise go.