Digital Learning Commons: Comics & Graphic Novels: Comics Studies

Organizations

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
Cartoon Art Museum
Center for Cartoon Studies The Center for Cartoon Studies (CCS) is dedicated to providing the highest quality of education to students interested in creating visual stories.
The Comics Studies Society The Comics Studies Society (CSS) is the US’s first learned society and professional association for comics researchers and teachers. It is an interdisciplinary society open to all comics scholars—whether working in the academy or independent—who share the goals of promoting the critical study of comics, improving comics teaching, and engaging in open and ongoing conversations about the comics world.
Drawing Words & Writing Pictures Drawing Words & Writing Pictures is a comics educational project with book and web components.
Visual Language Lab Website of Neil Cohn, PhD, a psychologist with a special interest in the visual language of comics.
Will Eisner This web site serves as the online home for news and information about the legendary comic artist, father of the graphic novel, and creator of The Spirit... Will Eisner.

What Even Are COMICS?

In The Library

Comics Confidential by Leonard S. Marcus
Call Number: 741.5 MAR
A must-have collection for comics fans and creators everywhere, packed with interviews and original comics by today’s foremost graphic novelists. Powerful influences from manga to the movies to underground comix have influenced the thirteen artists and writers interviewed in these pages to create their own word-and-picture narratives. Here are their moving, funny, inspirational stories: true tales from the crucible of creative struggles that led each to become a master of one of today’s most vibrant art forms. The book also contains an original graphic short on the common theme of "the city" from each of the artists. Featuring interviews with: Kazu Kibuishi, Hope Larson, Matt Phelan, Dave Roman, and Gene Luen Yang.
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud
Call Number: 741.5 MCC
Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, this innovative comic book provides a detailed look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning.

Research Guides & Bibliographies

Online Journals

ImageTexT ImageTexT is a peer-reviewed, open access journal dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of comics and related media. We are published by the English Department at the University of Florida with support from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Our content is available free of charge, and regular issues of ImageTexT will be published three times per year.
The Comics Grid This journal’s purpose is to make original, media-specific contributions to the field of comics scholarship and to advance the appreciation of comic art.
Graphixia Graphixia is a collaborative comics devoted to discussing comics, sometimes academically, published weekly on Tuesdays.
The Comics Journal TCJ.com is a daily magazine about comics edited by Timothy Hodler and Dan Nadel. The print edition of The Comics Journal will continue to be published annually. Both projects are published by Fantagraphics Books.
Image & Narrative Image [&] Narrative is a peer-reviewed e-journal on visual narratology and word and image studies in the broadest sense of the term. It does not focus on a narrowly defined corpus or theoretical framework, but questions the mutual shaping of literary and visual cultures. Beside tackling theoretical issues, it is a platform for reviews of real life examples. Each issue features three parts: 1) a thematic cluster, guest-edited by specialized scholars in the field; 2) a selection of various articles; 3) reviews of recent publications. Image [&] Narrative is a bilingual journal, which publishes contributions in either English or French, and which fosters cross-cultural and interdisciplinary dialogue between linguistic and scientific traditions.
SANE Journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education SANE journal publishes research and practitioner-based articles covering all intersections of comics and education, from pre-k to post-secondary studies, from a variety of disciplines.