Comics & Graphic Novels

This guide will help you find and research comics.*

Please feel free to ask for help if you need it (especially because I really love comics). My contact information is to the right and on the Help tab. 

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (New York: William Morrow, 1994), 9.

I define comics as a medium of art/storytelling composed of sequential images and text. When I'm talking about anything in this medium, no matter the format, I usually just say "comics." Many people automatically call comics that are in the format of a book "graphic novels." While I think this label should be applied very purposefully and not used as a catch-all, so many people use that phrase to talk about comics-in-book-format, I included this in the guide title in order to point them in the right direction.

Perhaps it's shameless plug, but a book I co-edited has a great glossary (this is probably biased statement) on pages 365-366 that covers many comics format terms, if you care. Two chapters also mention how language affects how comics are seen in relation to libraries: one on pages 35-44 and 199-217.