I liked Year One better than the Dark Knight Returns, maybe because this was more about the start of his career (though quite a bit on Gordon as well) and not about how old and weak he's become. I've got to figure out what follows this (if anything), or at least figure out a good way to fill in the middle, now that I've got at least one version of the beginning and the end.

The Watchmen is still the favorite of all of them that I read, but this one comes pretty close. The Watchmen was also 3 times as long, so had more of a filled-out story-line; but also self-contained. Batman has tons more background and story, it's just a matter of figuring out how to get to it all through the library...

Are all comics eventually put into some form of graphic novel? Or are they more like self contained episodes, kind of like a TV show, whereas a graphic novel is more like a mini-series?