Accounts
WBIS 188 -- Bruni -- The Comic Book
Course Specific Resources
Quick Poll--(used during class):
Library session feedback (for after library session)
Keywords to start exploring in Search@UW (search box in the middle of the screen):
comics
Superheroes
comic books
Popular sample characters:
Conan the Barbarian, Popeye, Batman, Captain Marvel, Wonder Woman, Captain America, The Flash,
Green Lantern, Spider-man, The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Thor, The X-Men, Iron Man, Daredevil,
The Punisher, The Wolverine, Ghost rider, Batman, The Green Arrow, Johnny Thunder, The Justice League,
Sandman, The Masked Marvel, Namor the Sub-Mariner
******IF YOU CHOOSE A NEWER, LESSER KNOWN CHARACTER********
If you choose a more recent character, there will be considerably less written analysis of that character. Still you have a few research options:
- Search the history of comics, paying special attention to the portions that may affect your character.
- Research the author, artists, or publishing house of your character. How does the character fit in that history.
- Research the type of character. For example, if you are researching Ms. Marvel, can you describe the history of female characters?
- Try looking in Worldcat (the world's largest online catalog). If you find something that we don't have, submit an inter-library loan request here.
- When you look online, try to find information that provides author information (also pay attention to site currency and accuracy for credible information).
Reference-Online
Essays, articles, and images pertaining to American popular culture from 1900 through the new millennium
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Gale's Virtual Reference Library is a collection of electronic reference books. It contains popular culture Encyclopedias that have great information on many comic book characters.
Dedicated to comics scholarship, aiming to make original contributions to the field of comics studies and advance the appreciation of graphic narrative.
The Journal of Popular Culture
Continues to break down the barriers between so-called “low” and “high” culture and focuses on filling in the gaps that a neglect of popular culture has left in our understanding of the workings of society.
Reference Books-
Comic book encyclopedia : the ultimate guide to characters, graphic novels, writers, and artists in the comic book universe / Ron Goulart.
Critical survey of graphic novels : history, theme, and technique
Critical survey of graphic novels : manga / editors, Bart H. Beaty, Stephen Weiner.
The World encyclopedia of cartoons / Maurice Horn, editor, Richard Marschall, assistant editor.
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture
Research Databases
Essays, articles, and images pertaining to American popular culture from 1900 through the new millennium
Humanities International Complete
Sample Articles
Characters/Comic Books
Gaiman, Neil -- ALA: Banned and Challenged Comic Books and Graphic Novels
Captain Marvel (comic, 1940) -- Carol Danvers -- The Avengers -- Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan)
Popular Culture/American History
Transatlantic Terror! French Horror Theater and American Pre-Code Comics
Popular Culture, Ideology, and the Comics Industry: Steve Ditkos Objectivist Spider-Man
Language/Reading Comics
Navigating Comics: an empirical and theoretical approach to strategies of reading comic page layouts
Navigating Comics II: Constraints on the reading Order of Comic Page Layouts
Social Issues in Comics
Cartoons and AIDS: Safer Sex, HIV, and AIDS in Ralf König’s Comics
The Rise of Vigilantism in 1980 Comics: Reasons and Outcomes
Radical Graphics: Martin Luther King, Jr., B. R. Ambedkar, and Comics Auto/biography
Drawn Out: Identity Politics and the Queer Comics of Leanne Franson and Ariel Schrag
Making space: Jennifer Camper, LGBTQ anthologies, and queer comics communities
Books
- There are over 50 books about comics in the PN6700's on the 2nd floor (south side) of Polk Library.
- There is a very big display of graphic novels in Polk 101 located in the southwest corner. You can ask at the reference desk for assistance.
History
War, politics, and superheroes: ethics and propaganda in comics and films
Movie comics: page to screen/screen to page
Comics through time: a history of icons, idols, and ideas
Captain America and the nationalist superhero: metaphors, narratives, and geopolitics
The graphic canon, volume 1: from the epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons
The graphic canon, volume 2: from Kubla Khan to the Bronte sisters to the Picture of Dorian Gray
The graphic canon, volume 3: from Heart of Darkness to Hemingway to Infinite Jest
Why comics?: from underground to everywhere
Representation/Culture
The Jewish Graphic Novel: critical approaches
No straight lines: four decades of queer comics
Portraying 9/11: essays on representations in comics, literature, film, and theatre
Comics & Culture: analytical and theoretical approaches to comics
Creating Graphic Novels/Comics
Character design for graphic novels
Writing and illustrating the graphic novel
eBooks-general information
To search for eBooks, you can go to the Database box on the library homepage and select Ebsco eBooks.
You can also go to the main library homepage and enter your search. Limit search by 'Books and Media'--next to search box. On the results screen, limit on the left by selecting 'Oshkosh Online Resources.'
History
Demanding Respect : The Evolution of the American Comic Book
Rise of the American Comics Artist : Creators and Contexts
God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post-World War II Manga
Philosophy
The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach
Representation/Cultural
Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives
Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation
Multicultural Comics : From Zap to Blue Beetle
Authors
Alan Moore: Comics as Performance, Fiction as Scalpel
Hand of Fire: The Comics Art of Jack Kirby
Grant Morrison: Combining the Worlds of Contemporary Comics
The Comics of Joe Sacco: Journalism in a Visual World
Literature/Reading/Studying
Arguing Comics : Literary Masters on a Popular Medium
Studying Comics and Graphic Novels
Reading graphic novels: genre and narration
Websites
WorldCat (can submit inter-library loan requests from within here.)
A mega-library catalog containing more than 42 million records contributed by 15,000 libraries around the world.
Inter-library Loan
If you would like to request an item we don't have, you can request it via inter-library loan. Go to the library homepage, select Accounts, then choose to sign in to
Inter-library loan.
- Login and place an ILL request. (looking for items to request, try looking at WorldCat)
Citations
Citing Comics in Scholarly Writing, by Allen Ellis
MLA Citation Style: Cartoon or Comic Strip, from Kent State University