Comics and Graphic Novels

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. Although some archival material and a few dozen pieces of original comic book and comic strip art are held, the focus of the collection is on published work, in an effort to present a complete picture of what the audience has seen over the years of the twentieth century. Local students and advanced scholars from around the world find this collection to be the primary library resource for the study of U.S. comic book publications.

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum houses the world’s largest collection of materials related to cartoons and comics, including original art, books, magazines, journals, comic books, archival materials, and newspaper comic strip pages and clippings. Be sure to check out their Digital Collections.

The Murray Fanzine Collection contains approximately 1150 comic book, science fiction and fantasy fanzines, collected by Edwin and Terry Murray, representing fandom in these genres from the early 1950s to 2019, as well as advertisements for fandom gatherings and conventions.

The comic book collection in the BPCL, 50,000+ strong and still growing, is divided into two collections - the general and the Bravard. Each collection includes commercially produced comics, magazine-style comics and independent/underground comics. All title and issues can be found in the library catalog.

The largest collection of comics books in the United States is housed in the Serial and Government Publications Division. The collection includes U.S. and foreign comic books—over 5,000 titles in all, totaling more than 100,000 issues. Primarily composed of the original print books, the collection includes color microfiche of a handful of the early comic books (such as Wonder Woman, Superman, and Action Comics) and special reprints. Although the collection is most comprehensive from 1950, scattered issues from numerous titles date back to the 1930s. A small number of comic books make up the Underground Comic Book collection of titles “recommended for mature readers.”

The Comic Book Industry Collections are unique in documenting the editors and writers of this industry increasingly recognized by scholars as having a significant impact on the nation’s popular culture. Collections include papers from classic comic book writers, editors, and creators. Each collection includes a biography, the scope of the collection, genres, access terms.