Comics are percieved as a juvenile medium aimed at a juvenile audience. Demographically speaking, this is probably correct: most people reading comic magazine are kids and teens.
However, quality wise, this is a huge mistake.
For many years now, graphic storytelling has been used to tell good stories. Even ignoring Japanese Manga and the European (especially French) tradition, the last twenty years have seen an explosion in quality graphic storytelling aimed at a discerning audience.
The change began in the mid 1980s, reaching mainstream comics with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns (a smart, gritty revamping of the Batman myth) and Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. It was solidified when Art Spiegelman won the Pulitzer prize for Maus.
Since then, many excellent graphic novels and trade paperbacks come out every year – originating from comic magazines aimed at mature audiences or published in toto for the first time. Missing out on the wonderful medium of graphic storytelling just because of a prejudice would be a pity – so why not give it a try?
