Finding Scholarly Sources on Comics and Graphic Novels
Use MRU’s LibrarySearch (main search box, library homepage).
- Try this basic search for "graphic novels" OR "comic books"
-
Add terms to the search that describe your topic/character/comic
-
e.g., women, superheroes, criticism, history, 1970s, etc.
-
-
Not all characters/comics/themes/issues will have been studied, so you may need to improvise. Be prepared to broaden and narrow your search terms as needed.
Or search directly in any of the recommended databases listed below.
-
MLA International BibliographyAn index of journals, books and dissertations covering literature, language and linguistics, folklore, dramatic arts, printing and publishing, rhetoric, and composition.
-
JSTOR Collection
Digital library of academic journals, ebooks and primary sources. Includes content across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
-
Project MUSE Premium CollectionProvides full text of a growing number of scholarly journals in the arts and humanities.
-
Communication & Mass Media CompleteIndex & abstracts, and selected coverage, for journals in areas related to communication and mass media.
-
Art and Architecture CompleteAccess to this resource will end December 31, 2025.
Covers a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design. -
Academic Search CompleteJournal and magazine articles across a broad range of subject areas.
Individual Journals
Other Useful Resources
- Comic Book PlusArchive where you can read and download Golden Age (1938-56) and Silver Age (1956-69) comic books, and a growing selection of comic strips and pulp fiction.
- Digital Comic MuseumUsers can easily download public domain golden age comics without the need to ask or worry about searching the net for them.
- Grand Comics Database (GCD)The GCD is a nonprofit, internet-based organization of international volunteers dedicated to building an open database covering all printed comics throughout the world.
- Queer Comics DatabaseFacilitates access to comics that contain queer representation.
- Queer Graphic Novels (Goodreads)Crowdsourced list of queer and other LGBTQ2S+ graphic novels.
- The Comics JournalWebsite with reviews, stories, interviews, and columns on comics, including less-traditional comic books and themes. Published by non-traditional comic and graphic novel publisher, Fantagraphic Books.
Background Information
Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels by ISBN: 9780313357473Publication Date: 2010-05-11The most comprehensive reference ever compiled about the rich and enduring genre of comic books and graphic novels, from their emergence in the 1930s to their late-century breakout into the mainstream.
Studying Comics and Graphic Novels by ISBN: 1118499875Publication Date: 2013-06-25This introduction to studying comics and graphic novels is a structured guide to a popular topic. It deploys new cognitive methods of textual analysis and features activities and exercises throughout.
Arresting Development by ISBN: 9781477310687Publication Date: 2016-09-06Mainstream narratives of the graphic novel's development describe the form's "coming of age," its maturation from pulp infancy to literary adulthood. In Arresting Development, Christopher Pizzino questions these established narratives, arguing that the medium's history of censorship and marginalization endures in the minds of its present-day readers and, crucially, its authors. Comics and their writers remain burdened by the stigma of literary illegitimacy and the struggles for status that marked their earlier history.
Understanding Comics by ISBN: 9780060976255Publication Date: 1994-04-27The bestselling international classic on storytelling and visual communication. Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner. Understanding Comics is a seminal examination of comics art: its rich history, surprising technical components, and major cultural significance. Explore the secret world between the panels, through the lines, and within the hidden symbols of a powerful but misunderstood art form.
Citing comics in MLA style (9th ed.)
The MLA Handbook (9th ed.) has two examples for how to cite comics:
- Clowes, Daniel. David Boring. Eightball, no. 19, Fantagraphics, 1998.
- Superman: Birthright. By Marc Waid, illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu, inked by Gerry Alanguilan, colored by Dave McCaig, DC Comics, 2005.
See also MLA's guidance on citing specific panels in a comic.