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The kind of graphic novels I like are graphic in at least two senses. Some people call them comic books, but they aren't always comic. Anyway, I collect these so-called comic books, especially erotic ones, but also some comics in the true sense of the word.

The best graphic novels, however, are the ones which create an atmosphere while telling a fascinating story, regardless of whether there is humor or sex in them.
Some examples of (in my opinion very) good graphic novels are:

• Barr & Bolland:
  Camelot (290 KB)
• Benoît Sokal:
  Canardo
• Dave Sim:
  Cerebus
  
• Lauzier:
  Leif og Bodil og den seksuelle revolusjonen (190 KB)
• Milo Manara:
  Indian Summer (35 KB)
• R. König:
  Den følsomme mand
• Wendy Pini:
  Beauty and the Beast (465 KB)
  Elfquest (130 KB) (Descriptions of the characters here.)
  

Although you wouldn't think so if you look at sales figures, some of the most excellent graphic novels are completely devoid of superheroes, magic, excessive violence, science fiction, colors, fantastic beasts or muscular guys and bimbo babes in skimpy outfits. Look to my two all-time favorites:

• Terry Moore:
  Strangers in Paradise
• Waller & Worley:
  Omaha the Cat Dancer (895 KB)

If you are unfamiliar with those, buy them and get hooked!
Or at least read this review of Strangers in Paradise by Sara Lipowitz and this comment about Omaha the Cat Dancer by Reed Waller.

Some comic books are hard to classify; perhaps they belong to a new genre of visual literature:

• Todd McFarlane: Spawn (670 KB)

The so-called "underground" comics often depict social phenomena with a tongue-in-cheek, satiric attitude:

• Jay Kinney:
  Sin or Salvation (60 KB)
  My Rock'n'Roll Lover (25 KB)
• Charlie Christensen:
  Arne And (430 KB) (here in Norwegian)

While the classical graphic novel of course is

• Hergé: Tintin.

I also like most manga and anime, and many kinds of furry art, like the pretty catgirl drawings by Ken Stone:

More about graphic novels

The Grand Comics Database project (note new address!) aims to build a (non-commercial) database with every comic book ever published.

In the meantime, you can find more comics stuff in the Stanford index, which includes links to on-line archived comic strip collections, as well as an index with hundreds of comics collections in book form.)

Another interesting web page about graphic novels and comics, is Comics! by Nicolai Langfeldt (with lots of good pointers).

And of course, there is no way you can read about comics on WWW without visiting Comix Web!

If you have any questions, here is a searchable index of frequently asked questions.

Iori Yagami's Psycho Shonen page about manga and anime is worth a look.

Finally, Yahoo has a "Comics and Animation" page with thousands of pointers.