Many graphic novels today are stand-alone works that are not part of any larger series or collection. Though a graphic novel includes the intellectual property from a multi-work universe, such as a particular superhero, it is still a stand-alone work if it was written independent of any other novel. In this case, a graphic novel is treated like any other book, and follows the standard APA formatting for a book: "Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of graphic novel: Capital letter starts the subtitle. Location of Publisher: Publishing Company."
Some graphic novels exist as part of a series, or as one work in a set or collection. The writer may need to cite one particular graphic novel amongst the series or collection, as opposed to all works in that collection. In this case, a graphic novel is treated like a book within a series, and is formatted accordingly: "Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of Issue. Title of Graphic Novel Series, (issue number), pages."
Some graphic novels are a part of an online series or collection. In this case, a graphic novel is treated like an article in an online journal, where the title of the given issue is the title and the title of the novel series replaces the journal title. The proper format for this is: "Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of Issue. Title of Online Graphic Novel, (issue number). Retrieved from http://www.siteofthenovel.com/fulladdress.pdf"
In addition to using APA citation style to document a graphic novel in the bibliography of an academic paper, many writers may also need to cite the novel in their text. This is necessary when the writer makes a direct reference to the graphic novel, and is especially necessary if the writer uses a direct quotation from the graphic novel in the text of the academic writing. A graphic novel is treated the same way as any book, article or website, and is cited in the text as follows: "(Author Year)."