I'm new to graphic novels/manga and I'm trying to find some stand alone stories that aren't part of a huge series or a have  a bunch of volumes (unless they are all bound together into one "book").  Does anyone know of any good ones that are stand alone?

I'd prefer adult:  PG 13 or above as I 'm not looking for comic books but adult material  Horror and Fantazy preferable.

Any help appreciated!

Watchmen by Alan Moore.  Its peerless.

Oh, yes!!  Watchmen is a must read!!  I also like "The Death of Superman" omnibus, if you don't mind Superman comics.  The new one, with his death AND return was pretty good to me too, but very expensive!!  I don't know of any stand-alone manga series (except for yaoi's, which have a lot of stand alones, except you wouldn't be interested in them), but I'm still pretty new to the manga stream.  However, if you'd like a list of some relatively short mangas, I know of some that you can consider.  Imadoki, is five books long (and that's pretty short) and is a friendly romance story.  Alice 19th is by the same author but it is 7 books long (still pretty good length-wise).  Demon Diary has seven books, but is a boy love (BL) manga and Model (a vampire series) was seven books long, but got extremely weird for me after book 3.  I was just lost, and couldn't figure out what was going on.  I'm in the middle of trying to get Made in Heaven, which is the smallest manga series I have yet to see (that is not a yaoi) with just two books (one of the main characters is dying...).  And that's all I've got so far.  Hope that helps!!   ;]

I've added Watchmen to my Wish list.   Seems it's extremely popular!

Demon Diary might be worth looking into.  Don't have a problem with BL stories at all.  I like Vampire stories, so might check out Model too.

Not much bothers me.  I just like a good read and if it has art with it even better! 

Thanks for suggesting them. 

Sand Land is the only one i can think of that is only one volume. Paradice Kiss is a short 5 volumes as is Les Beijoux. i know there are other i have looked at but im drawing a blank.

Hummmm... I"ll have to think about this.

Some notes while going through some of my books:

Demon Ororon is a 4-volume series, about a doomed relationship between a human and a demon, with good/unusual drawing style.  The .hack books have several short series out, but many series (.hack//AI Buster is 2 books long, .hack//Another Birth is 4 volumes, .hack//Legend of the Twilight is 3 books)  You don't need to have read the others, but they are all set in the same universe, so reading one series makes another series more familiar.

12 Days is stand alone and is a dramatic OEL manga by June Kim which details twelves days of the life of a woman dealing with grief over the loss of her lover.

Azumanga Daioh is a 4-volume series, and is also available compiled into one omnibus book about the days in the lives of a group of high school girls.  (I prefer the anime to the manga, however.)  Banya is a 5 volume adventure story about an intrepid delivery boy.  Dramacon is a 3-volume OEL series depicting some characters attending an anime convention.  Happy Hustle High is a 5-volume series about a high school girl whose all-girls high school goes coed.

Mai The Psychic Girl (I haven't read this) is, I think, a 3-volume series. Punch is a 3-volume series about a girl from a renowned martial arts family who wants nothing to do with martial arts.  Innocent Bird is a 3-volume series of angels and demons.

Many stand alone and short series in the yaoi genre.

Calling You is a stand alone www.paperbackswap.com/book/details/9781598169317-Calling+You+Kimi+ni+shika+Kikoenai

Ice Blade is a trilogy www.paperbackswap.com/book/author/Tutomu+Takahashi

Wolf's Rain is only 2 books long www.paperbackswap.com/book/browser.php

From Hell, also Alan Moore, is great.

And Black Hole is an absolute must read.  And then there are some shorter things, like Neil Gaiman's Mr. Punch or Violent Cases and Eddie Campbell's The Fate of the Artist.

Some of the clamp series run fairly short like Clamp School Detectives, or Suki at 3 and Tokyo Babylon at 7 (highly recommend TB).  Petshop of horrors is 7 books and I found enjoyable.  X-Day was 2 books long.  If you are looking at a more traditional comic book Kingdom Come (Elseworlds) if you found Watchmen enjoyable.

Wanted  by Matsuri Hino  is a stand alone

Wish by Clamp on has 4 Vols.

Chobit by Clamp is 8 Vols long

Imadoki by Yuu Watase has 5 Vols.

Samurai Girl: real bout high school  by reiji seiga has 6 Vols

Demon Diary by Kara has 7 Vols. and as i understand it Angel Diary is about the same

Comic Party got 5 volumes.

Absolute Boyfriend got 6 volumes.

Top 10 is great.  There are 2 volumes, I don't remember if they stand alone or are two parts of the same story (been a while since I read it). 

Same world, but many many years earlier & completely readable separately is The 49ers.   Well done.

Here's some more American/England made suggestions for Horror/Fantasy:
Tales from the Crypt, these are stand alone stories the collections contain a few of the old issues.
30 Days of Night, there are 2 or 3 in the series but if you read the first it's self contained, you can just go from there if you like it.
Adult Fantasy Omnibus-Marvel pre-code, each one is self contaned stories, haven't had a chance to read it
Bone-A little kidish but fun there was 26 issues they are collected in some TPBs and there is a giant vol that has all, sometimes called the 'phonebook' version for how thick it is. It's a fantasy tale of a group that gets kicked out of their town, and have to go onto a quest, think Lord of the Rings, but cuter.
Batman/Dracula: Red Rain: It's a else world story so you don't need to know much about the Batman universe, but you kind of need to be a fan.
Sandman the DC line you may want to try vol 1 of it.

If you go to DCs website they where offering free downloads of the first issue of some of their vertigo series (their more adult line) and this would be a good way to check out some titles, there's a listing at the top of the page that has their other comic companies you can click on any of them and then on graphic novel on the left side to get a listing for them.
http://www.dccomics.com/vertigo/graphic_novels/

If I think of any others I'll post.