For creative people in the comic book industry, Heroes has been a pleasant yet complicated surprise. Since ''funnybooks'' have long been considered a fringe and juvenile entertainment ? a minor medium for minor minds (even though these days, the average comic book reader is in his or her 20s) ? the people who make their living writing and drawing this stuff dig seeing a smart, savvy, affectionate extrapolation of their oft-maligned working world on broadcast television. ''Heroes makes comics sexy,'' says Jeph Loeb, co-executive producer of Heroes and a superstar comic book scribe in his own right. He says he gets a charge at the end of every episode when there's a plug for ''Ninth Wonders,'' the show's ''online graphic novel'' currently unfolding chapter by chapter at NBC.com. ''When I see the pages fly across the screen and become the feathers of the NBC peacock, it makes me smile,'' he says. ''Actual comics on television!''

Loeb's comic book peers feel the same way, though in the same breath, they are also quick to remind you that Heroes ain't doing anything new. ''I've been habitually watching the show,'' says Quesada. ''I just love that it's taking so many of the rich ideas we've created in comics and is distilling them down to the weekly TV drama formula. It's more of the mainstreaming of the comic book world. It started with all these great Marvel movies, and all these other comic book movies; it's a great feeling of legitimacy.''

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But if you visit the message boards of comic book fandom ? and if you do, I suggest you tread carefully ? you'll find some complaints that the entire Heroes enterprise smacks of smug condescension toward comics, beginning with that online ''graphic novel,'' which is actually a serialized story, updated weekly. The problem for comic fans is that ''graphic novel'' is a term that has lost much of its meaning in the past several years due to the way publishers themselves have abused it to get mainstream media and booksellers like Barnes & Noble to take their stuff seriously. It used to be that a graphic novel was an original long-form story, created especially for a unique form of packaging. Now the term applies to the industry's hottest-selling product line, trade paperback collections of serialized storylines that originally appeared in monthly comic books. For many, dressing up this exercise in recycling with the tony label ''graphic novel'' is like marketing a greatest-hits CD as a ''concept album.'' Says one distinguished comic book artist about Heroes' companion ''online graphic novel'': ''God forbid they actually call it a 'comic book,' because that's exactly what it is.''

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