Understanding Comics, A First Impression

I've read the first two chapters of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and am impressed with the history of sequential images that he discusses. He seems to be trying very hard to show that comics should be respected as they are associated with art forms such as the Bayeaux Tapestries and I also thought of some of Francisco Goya's isolated etchings: Saturn Devouring his Son and The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (I really love Goya). Oddly, I felt the same way about comics that McCloud describes, when I was a kid I thought they were stupid and pointless, but after reading a Michael Chabon book Kavalier and Clay--about cousins who run a comic book industry-- I realized the amount of work that goes into a comic. It is not just about a brilliant story and fantastic art (as McCloud points out with that little anecdote involving the artists and the writer) it's about an appropriate collaboration. Also, unlike books, comics incorporate sometimes very beautiful illustrations, unlike art, comics incorporate superb writing. I wonder, why is it that comics are so often shunned? I suppose it could be the violence of many of them, but who can dislike Calvin and Hobbes? The Peanuts?