Blackmark -- by Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin

Claimed as the "First American Graphic Novel", Blackmark won its creator Gil Kane a Shazam Award. That was back in 1971. If the following description in Wikipedia is anything to go by, it was published after a usual amount of criticism that any new form would face --

"Kane — a major comics artist who helped usher in the Silver Age of comic books with his part in revamping the popular DC Comics characters Green Lantern and the Atom, and who drew The Amazing Spider-Man during an a landmark 1970s run — had previously experimented with the form with his 1968 black-and-white comics-magazine His Name is...Savage, a 40-page espionage thriller also scripted by Goodwin from an outline by Kane.

Kane said Bantam paid him $3,500 for 120 pages (including the cover) all written, drawn and lettered in "camera-ready" form, i.e., in completed form suitable to go immediately to the printing press. (The 120-page figure is either Kane's rounded-off approximation, or means he did the frontispiece and bio-page art gratis.) Kane recalled having to draw "30 pages in one week. Then I'd have to knock off for a week or two to make some additional money" drawing comic-book stories and, mainly, covers."

More here at Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackmark