A graphic novel is a stand-alone story in comics form, typically published as a soft-cover book.  Many of the more popular graphic novels have familiar comic book characters (e.g. Batman, Fantastic Four, Spider-man) or settings (e.g. Star Wars).

Although comic strips collections such as Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, and Dilbert, are not considered to be graphic novels, they are shelved with the graphic novels in the Youth collection.  In the Adult collection, comic strip collections are shelved in the 741.5s.