MRU Library Website: English: Comics & Graphic Novels

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 Bibliography This link opens in a new window
An index of journals, books and dissertations covering literature, language and linguistics, folklore, dramatic arts, printing and publishing, rhetoric, and composition.
JSTOR Journals and Primary Sources Collection This link opens in a new window
An archival collection of scholarly journals, ebooks and primary sources. Includes content across the disciplines, including African American Studies, Anthropology, Asian Studies, Economics, Education, Health Sciences, Humanities, History, Indigenous Studies, Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Science, and Sociology.
Note: Use the JSTOR platform for access to Primary Source collections including 19th Century British Pamphlets, Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, World Heritage Sites: Africa, and Global Plants and are not available for inclusion in LibrarySearch.

Find out more about indexing of these resources: https://support-jstor-org.libproxy.mtroyal.ca/hc/en-us/articles/5322416293399-JSTOR-ProQuest-Ex-Libris-Discovery-Resources
Project MUSE Premium Collection This link opens in a new window
Full text access to scholarly journals in the arts and humanities.
Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Index & abstracts, and selected coverage, for journals in areas related to communication and mass media.
Art and Architecture Complete
Covers a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Journal and magazine articles across a broad range of subject areas.
Access to this resource is funded by Alberta Advanced Education through the Lois Hole Campus Alberta Digital Library.

Individual Journals

Other Useful Resources

Comic Book Plus
Archive 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 Museum
Users 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.
Kirkus Reviews - Graphic Novels & Comics
Queer Comics Database
Facilitates access to comics that contain queer representation.
Queer Graphic Novels (Goodreads)
Crowdsourced list of queer and other LGBTQ2S+ graphic novels.
The Comics Journal
Website 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 M. Keith Booker (Editor)
ISBN: 9780313357473
Publication Date: 2010-05-11
The 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 Karin Kukkonen
ISBN: 1118499875
Publication Date: 2013-06-25
This 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 Christopher Pizzino
ISBN: 9781477310687
Publication Date: 2016-09-06
Mainstream 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 Scott McCloud
ISBN: 9780060976255
Publication Date: 1994-04-27
The 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.

English | Comics & Graphic Novels

Finding Scholarly Sources on Comics and Graphic Novels

Individual Journals

Other Useful Resources

Background Information

Citing comics in MLA style (9th ed.)