Generally, graphic novels differ from serial comics and manga because they're longer, compiled in a single volume, and meant to stand alone. You know, like a book!
I have to say the graphic novel has gained serious literary cred in the last two decades. People will scoff that comics "aren't really reading" or that they're simple - and that just means they've never actually read one.
Many graphic novels are complex, thoughtful, literary, and true, real art. Some are for kids, and some are decidedly adult: you can find nonfiction, reinterpretations of classic literature, superheroes, dark fantasies, light comedy, sex ... really, just about anything you're into can be found in graphic novel form too.
One graphic novel even won a Pulitzer Prize! The nonfiction graphic novel "Maus: A Survivor's Tale - My Father Bleeds History" by Art Spiegelman is a memoir, where the author interviewed his Polish Jewish father about the Holocaust. It's also widely regarded as one of the greatest graphic novels ever written.
A few others of note:
- Fun Home by Alison Bechdel - Family, funerals, and figuring out you're gay. It even spun off a Broadway musical!
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi - A memoir of girlhood in Iran.
- El Deafo by Cece Bell - Childhood is even more awkward when you wear a giant hearing aid.
- March by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell - An autobiographical trilogy about the Civil Rights Movement.
- This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki - The growing-up summer that things changed.
- Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang - A nested pair of novels set in China during the Boxer Uprising.
Since 1997, the Ignatz Award has given awards for graphic novels. See nominees and winners here.
I found a wikipedia list of award-winning graphic novels that may be useful. The comics industry and the book industry have many, many awards, but graphic novels aren't usually segregated from other content.
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