How Do I Find Comic Books and Graphic Novels?

The Special Collections Research Center includes a number of comic books and graphic novels.  There are a few ways to find these.

For organized collections in the SCRC, finding aids are the easiest way to locate items.  They allow searching within collections and include robust holdings for related forms such as woodcuts, political cartoons and early picture books.

Finding Aids at the SCRC

For individual pieces in the SCRC, the Catalog allows searches to be limited based on location.  Searches using relevant subject headings limited by location can lead you to comic books and graphic novels held there.

Library Catalog

The SCRC contains several collections that include comic books or graphic novels.  Only a few of these have specific finding aids.

Collections with Finding Aids

Walter C. Dopierala Comic Book Collection 1949-1960- This collection of mid-twentieth century comic books was built by Walter C. Dopierala, an alumnus of the University of Chicago (A.B. 1966). It contains over 2,000 comic books, representing a wide variety of popular titles. Comic books are arranged by genre, including comedy-fantasy, adventure, western, Classics Illustrated, and superheroes.

Hank Scotch Moby Dick Comic Books Collection 2008- This collection contains 6 Marvel comic books that tell the story of Herman Melville's Moby Dick. The Moby Dick series was a limited series published by Marvel in 2008. It was illustrated by Roy Thomas, Pascal Alixe, Victor Olazaba, and Andrew Crossley. The comic books were collected by Hank Scotch, a graduate student in the English Department at the University of Chicago.

Guide to the Lincoln Collection American Political Cartoons 1754-1865-The American Political Cartoons forms part of the William E. Barton Collection of Lincolniana and contains an array of cartoons and drawings from the period prior to and during the political career of Abraham Lincoln.