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Comics & Animation

 

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John J Meier photo

John J Meier
Title: Science Librarian


814-865-7617
Physical and Mathematical Sciences Library

Henry Pisciotta photo

Henry Pisciotta
Title: Arts and Architecture Librarian and Assistant Head


Glenn Masuchika
Title: Information Literacy Librarian
814-867-2229
Library Learning Services

Articles and Databases

Underground & Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels - a specialized collection of American underground comix from the 1960’s to the works of modern sequential artists.  Over 75,000 pages of comics and graphic novels, along with 25,000 pages of interviews, criticism, and journal articles.

Academic Search Complete - indexes many general magazines, journals, and newspapers.  A good source of reviews, overview articles, and articles about the publishing industry.  Try searching the topics "Comic books" or "Graphic Novels" or even "Cartoons."

MLA International Bibliography - focuses on books and articles about literature.  It indexes a number of academic journals in the study of comic art, comics, graphic novels, and popular culture.  A good sources of literary criticism.

ARTbibliographies Modern  - this index is specialized to modern and contemporary art.  To find materials on comics, try the subject terms "Comic strips" or "Cartoons and Caricatures".

Art Abstracts  - information from international art publications.  See Art Index Retrospective (1929-1984) for older articles.

Literature Online  - A scholarly database with articles and criticism, biographies etc. on graphic novels, authors, etc.

Gale Literary Databases (Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Dictionary of Literary Biography) - three sources with background information on graphic novels and comics and their authors.

Pop Culture Universe - includes articles from hundreds of sources on American and worldwide popular culture.  Browse by decade or search for a topic.

Google scholar - there are many refereed, online journals which are not indexed and are only retrievable via search engines.  When searching for articles, use author of work, title of work to retrieve information about that publication.

Journals and Books

Journals

Comics Journal – for company website, click here.

Image and Narrative - an online, peer-reviewed, open access journal from Belgium.

ImageTexT – an online, peer-reviewed journal of graphic books and comics from the University of Florida.

International Journal of Comic Art (IJOCA) - IJOCA aims to publish scholarly and readable research on any aspect of comic art, defined as animation, comic books, newspaper and magazine strips, caricature, gag and political cartoons, humorous art, and humor or cartoon magazines.  NOT at Penn State.  Use Interlibrary Loan to get articles from this journal.

Books

To use the The CAT to identify graphic novels, manga, comics, and related forms, or books about these formats, it will help to use the standard subject headings used in libraries.  Try one or more of these:

Animation; Cartoons and comics; Graphic novels; Caricatures and cartoons; Comic books, strips, etc.

Penn State libraries shelve a majority of their graphic novels, comics, and others according to the Library of Congress classification system.  You can browse our collection in the PN6700-PN6790 comics, strips, etc. section of the library

Film and Video

Penn State Resources

Websites

  • Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research
    • Original titles and title cards from cartoons, classic shorts, animated features, Hollywood theatrical cartoons
    • 1930's to present
  • Animation Movie Scripts from the Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb)
    • Transcripts and drafts from many modern animated films
    • Read or download free
  • The Big Cartoon DataBase
    • Searchable directory of animated TV series, episode guides, cast and crew, animated film lists, cartoon character registry and cartoon pictures
    • Over 35,000 animations, organized by studio
  • Animation Industry Database
    • International company directory for animation, visual effects, schools, gaming, and related production and distribution, advertising, and trade commissions
    • Can be narrowed to specific industries such as movie/film industry or gaming industry
    • Career and associations information
  • Animation World Network
    • International resource of animator profiles, independent film distribution, commercial studio activities, licensing, CGI and other technologies, current events in animation

Historical Information

Recommended Web Sites

We find these sites useful.  (Please use contact info to the right to suggest other good sites.)

"Best of" lists


Other sites

Academic Collections

  • Ohio State University – The Cartoon Library and Museum, Columbus, Ohio
  • Michigan State University – The Comic Art Collection holds over 200,000 items. Most of these items are comic books, but also included are over 1,000 books of collected newspaper comic strips, and several thousand books and periodicals about comics.
  • Duke University  – The Edwin and Terry Murphy Comic Book collection specializes in Marvel and DC comics from the mid-1960s to 2001 (slow loading site).
  • Indiana University – Michael E. Uslan, producer of the “Batman” movies, donated his 30,000 comic books collection to IU in 2005.


Other sites

 

Anime/Manga

Anime/Manga


Japanese Manga in English Translation


Japanese Anime in the original Japanese and in English Translations