US comic book Daniel Clowes picked up the award for Best Comic Book at this year's Angouleme comics festival in France, considered the world's most prestigious awards for graphic novelists.
Clowes, whose previous work has been adapted for cinema, picked up the award for "Monica", the festival jury announced on Saturday.
The graphic novel describes the life of an ordinary American woman through a multitude of very different stories.
Clowes, 62, received enough votes from his fellow authors for this book, highly acclaimed by critics and others, to reach the final of this year's Grand Prix, the top prize at the festival.
But the American was beaten to that prize by Britain's Posy Simmonds, who was crowned winner on Wednesday evening.
Clowes has helped to adapt several of his previous works, such as "Ghost World", "Art School Confidential" and "Wilson" for the cinema.
