In 1992, Art Spiegelman shocked the snooty literature world that doesn’t like pictures with their novels by being awarded with the first and, as of now, only Pulitzer Prize ever given to a graphic novel. There’s no category for comic books for the Pulitzer committee to vote on, so Spiegelman received a “special citation†in the Letters award category. His awarded work was Maus. It’s the survivor’s tale of his father during World War II where the Jews are represented by mice and the Nazis as cats.
http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2001/12.13/photos/19-spiegelman-435.jpg