It’s been decades since comic books outgrew the simple dichotomy of good and evil forces facing off in a superpowerful universe, but it’s taken many of us a while to realize it. In recent years, the scope of the graphic novel has grown to cover subjects ranging from the holocaust to epilepsy and rape. On Friday, the closing night feature at the 45th New York Film Festival proves how far so-called “comic books” have traveled. “Persepolis” is an animated adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel documenting her childhood and adolescence in and out of Iran. The author illustrated her memoirs in a minimalist style that evokes a childhood at once protected from and invaded by the surrounding world. Having come of age during the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the Iran-Iraq war, Ms. Satrapi’s deceptively simplistic style brings the reader directly into her world at the time.

At times entranced and repulsed by the religious restrictions that she eventually left to settle permanently in France, Ms. Satrapi’s childlike drawings share an immediacy with readers that has brought her wide acclaim. Her work first came to popularity in 2003 in her adopted homeland, where “Persepolis” was released in four parts and the author earned three awards at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, the pre-eminent event of its kind in Europe. A Pantheon editor traveling abroad first saw copies of Ms. Satrapi’s work while in Belgium, and soon the publishing house was repackaging the story in two parts and publishing them stateside.

Michiko Clark, Ms. Satrapi’s publicist at Pantheon, says that it would have been hard to find support for the book 10 years ago. While Ms. Satrapi was creating her work independently from the illustration culture of America, the medium was expanding here to accommodate a wide array of voices. When that expansion found its way to “Persepolis,” Ms. Satrapi became a part of the comic culture in the states, immediately earning the respect of her peers. Her work has also been a part of a large upswing in the popularity and profitability of comic books. “People are opening up to the idea of reading a comic book,” the editor at large and associate art director at Pantheon, Chip Kidd, said. “A lot of publishers think they can get in on this and they sign people up without understanding who they are and what they do, but you need a good understanding of the art form and what to look for.”

In 1986, when Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” was published, the possibilities of the graphic novel began to seep into the mainstream. Mr. Spiegelman was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for his depiction of his father’s experiences of the Holocaust as a Jew living in Poland.

But Chris Staros, a publisher at Top Shelf Productions, said the medium wasn’t ready to capitalize on the interest at that point. “Back in 1986 when ‘Watchmen’ and ‘The Dark Night Returns’ and ‘Maus’ came out, comic books got a lot of notoriety,” Mr. Staros said. “But there wasn’t the fuel to add to the fire at that point.” Today, he said, “I don’t have to explain what a graphic novel is anymore.”

Today, an outpouring of longer graphic novels has expanded the bookstore fare beyond the format of the bound anthology, not least because comic books have, in just the past decade, become a key source of revenue in Hollywood — a fortuitous trend that a literary gem like “Persepolis” seems poised to exploit. Classic comics like “Dick Tracy” “Superman,” “Spider-Man,” “Ghost Rider,” “Underdog,” and a wealth of others have struck gold at the box office. Today, bookstores and mainstream publishers are naturally anxious to take part in comic book consumerism.

But on the literary side, a genre that was once the realm of adolescents and obsessives is now pored over by academics (and obsessives). Both the “Persepolis” books and Mr. Spiegelman’s “Maus” series are stocked and taught in hundreds of classrooms nationwide. And the variety of topics covered by graphic novels are as diverse as any other literary field.

Craig Thompson’s 592-page volume, “Blankets,” documents the author’s childhood in an Evangelical Christian household, while David B.’s “Epileptic” chronicles his brother’s struggles with the disorder, and Joe Sacco’s books report on his experiences as a journalist in places from Palestine to Sarajevo.

The medium has encountered a sea change since comic book iconoclasts such as Robert Crumb and Harvey Pekar introduced their work on the underground comic scene in the late 1960s. Mr. Pekar succinctly described his work with the phrase “Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff,” and made his name depicting mundane scenes from his daily life that the already established Mr. Crumb illustrated for him. Not surprisingly, both men were the subject of feature length films — Mr. Crumb in Terry Zwigoff’s documentary “Crumb” and Mr. Pekar in 2003’s “American Splendor.” The latter earned an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay and “Persepolis” seems destined for similar critical acclaim.

The film won a Special Jury Prize at Cannes and boasts the vocal talents of Catherine Deneuve and Danielle Darrieux (Iggy Pop and Sean Penn have agreed to do voice work on the English version). And the film is among distinguished company as the closing-night selection at the New York Film Festival; other festival closers have included Jane Campion’s “The Piano,” Pedro Almodóvar’s “Talk to Her,” Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” Alexander Payne’s “Sideways,” Michael Haneke’s “Caché,” and Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth.”

“Persepolis” now seems destined for similar success. Ms. Clark said that Ms. Satrapi’s work sells as well as any literary fiction, and that sales figures show no signs of abating. Graphic novel sales hit $330 million in 2006, a 12% increase over 2005. The market has quadrupled since 2001.

Now, with the diversity of titles and authors stemming from small independent publishers and mainstream book houses alike, the graphic novel industry is equipped to retain the interest of newcomers and die-hards alike.

mkeane@nysun.com