Scott McCloud has written a wonderful book about comics, their history, their metaphor, and the techniques that go into them.

McCloud makes his point.

If you have an interest in comic books, and you haven't yet seen this, I strongly suggest you pick up a copy and read it. It's really good stuff, and in my opinion, McCloud is mostly right on the money with his intelligent observations about the medium.

I am especially intrigued by his observations about the "masking" effect. It is McCloud's observation, and I have to concur with him, that readers are more likely to empathize with simply drawn iconic characters, and more likely to objectify more realistically drawn ones. I find this especially fascinating since the technique is so heavily used in Japanese manga and anime.

McCloud has observed this about manga and anime as well, and here is an excerpt from his book where he talks about this.