I guess I should be grateful. The mighty Guardian has deigned to include an article celebrating graphic novels. Okay, it’s the Guardian website, but still, for an armchair proselytizer on this subject (I don’t do anything if I can’t do it from an armchair), this is good news, right?

Wrong. I’m a petty, small, aching ball bag of a man, so I’m just going to bitch and moan about it. It’s just that the article, written by novelist Malorie Blackman, perpetuates the biggest misconception about the comic book medium in the very process of celebrating it. I refer, of course, to the utter fallacy that comic books, no matter how intricate, are pretty pictures and speech bubbles and BIFF! POK! BLAMMO!-type entertainment, created to enthrall minors, as well as adults who are short a chromosome or two and haven’t graduated to [sneer] actual literature.

Click here to give the article a look-see. Oh, it’s cool, I’ll wait.

Done? Okay. So as you now know, the piece is written by an author who specifically writes for children and young people, and purports to be a list of graphic novels that would appeal to teenagers. Now, lemme be really clear – I have absolutely no problem with this concept in principle. After all, it’s a natural and healthy objective for a writer to try and introduce her young readership to a medium many might not be familiar with (beyond the X-Men and Batman, at least). The article is written enthusiastically and well, with a genuine desire to promote some of the best graphic novels ever written.

So far, so good, and you’re probably thinking, “Put your magical +2 broadsword away, you chippy little nerdface…” To you I say no, I will NOT put my magical broadsword away. It has been unsheathed because I still have a point to make (also: it gives me a +2 strength bonus, guy. Clearly you have very little Dungeons & Dragons experience).

Okay, my point, finally: the list is clearly just a bunch of graphic novels which Blackman has enjoyed. As an adult. With a full complement of chromosomes. There is very little attention paid in the piece to whether the selected graphic novels will resonate with teenagers in particular. In fact, Blackman makes so few references to teenagers in the article (she introduces the list as “some of the graphic novels that have made an impression on me”. Remember; Blackman = adult) that I suspect that some Guardian sub-editor, either assuming that graphic novels are for teenagers by default or that Blackman would only recommend books to young people, tossed in the teenage angle after the fact. Blackman even repeatedly emphasizes that she recommends Ennis and Burrows’ Chronicles of Wormwood for mature readers (quote: “And I mean mature!”).

So why wasn’t the article labeled as “top 10 graphic novels that will rock your world, regardless of age or chromosome count”? The likes of Watchmen, V For Vendetta and Maus, included in the list, are all bona fide monoliths of modern literature; challenging, often heart-rending, stuffed to the gills with allegory. To include them in a list entitled “top graphic novels for teenagers” risks marginalizing these as books just for children.

A good list of graphic novels that would particularly appeal to teenagers could easily exist; it’s just that this isn’t it. Granted, Persepolis and Black Hole, which Blackman has included, are both spot-on. Persepolis specifically addresses the trials and tribulations of maturing in an oppressive, totalitarian environment (post-revolutionary Iran, in this case, but most kids probably feel the same way about their own living rooms), and Black Hole is a creepy body horror story that eerily mirrors and exaggerates the teenage process of sexual awakening.

But where’s Blankets, Craig Thompson’s autobiographical tale of an adolescence in rural Wisconsin, and the faltering steps that lead to fragile, crystalline first love and the nigh-inevitable heartbreak that follows? Where’s Wanted, the ultraviolent take on the superhero genre, in which writer Mark Millar focuses on the consequence-free villainy of an international cadre of super-criminals? That one’s got teenage catharsis written all over it.

It’s not that a graphic novel can’t be a great read for teenagers and adults. I would recommend Blankets to anyone with a heart, half a brain and functioning tear ducts. It’s just that if you’re going to run a list of graphic novels for young people, you better give the reasons why the included books will engage with that demographic. Otherwise, you risk implying to the casual reader that all graphic novels are for teenagers, and only teenagers. Patting the medium on the back is all well and good, but let’s not unwittingly shove it back out to the cultural fringes in the process.