comic books research paper

• University Libraries
• Comics Studies
• Researching Comics

Comics Studies: Researching Comics

• Introduction
• Collections & Exhibits
• Communities & Events

Thoughts on comics

These are just a few of the comics-related books in the UNT Library. Please try the "Suggested Subject Headings" in the right-hand column to search for other comics studies materials in our library.

Databases at UNT Libraries

Note: See a recent blog post about "Researching Comics at UNT Libraries" for more tips on using our resources.

A few of the more popular comics studies databases are linked below. View a complete list of research databases available through the UNT Libraries under the "Comics Studies" subject heading .

• Within each database, try starting with the "Advanced Search" option, if available.
• Start with broad subject terms like "comic books," "graphic novels," "cartoons," or "comic strips" to get a sense of the range of articles available on your topic. You can also try some of the subject headings listed in the right hand columng of this page.
• Use the filters (usually on the left hand side of the search page) to narrow your results by date, subject, language, or other search parameters
• Select any articles that seem to be relevant and view their records. Check their lists of Subject terms to identify other words or phrases that might be useful to use in your own searches, and add some of those to your original search query for even more relevant results.

Also check out the guide below for an overview of the contents of some of our Adam Matthew archival collections and links to search results for historic cartoons & comics in each of those databases.

• A Guide to Cartoon and Comic Sources (Adam Matthew) A short guide to finding historic cartoons and comics in the Adam Matthew databases that are part of the UNT Libraries collections.
• Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database The Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database is a freely available online resource designed to help students and researchers locate secondary sources for the study of the science fiction and fantasy and associated genres. These include: historical material; books; articles; news reports; interviews; film reviews; commentary; and fan writing.
• Underground and independent comics, comix, and graphic novels This resource is a scholarly, primary source database focusing on adult comic books and graphic novels. The collection contains over information on over 300 comic series and over 1,600 comic books, along with 25,000 pages of interviews, criticism, and journal articles that document the continual growth and evolution of this artform. Over 100,000 pages of comics and graphic novels are available.
• The World of Archie Comics Archive The World of Archie Comics Archive offers access to the runs of more than 100 publications from Archie Comics, spanning the early 1940s to 2020. NOTE: This collection is intended to include each issue from the first and to scan from cover to cover. Due to the rarity of this material, however, there will be some gaps (issues or pages).
• The World of Archie Comics Archive: A Resource Guide Compiled by Bart Beaty, Professor of English, University of Calgary
• Comics Studies: A Resource Guide (ProQuest) Compiled by Dawn Kaczmar, PhD Candidate, University of Michigan

Free Online Resources

You can also try some of these free online resources for more information:

• Comic Book+ : Offers downloadable digital, public domain copies of Golden and Silver Age comic books for reading or research.  

Comichron: A Resource for Comics Resarch: sales chards, market shares, industry analysis

• Comics Research Bibliography : This is an international bibliography of comic books, comic strips, animation, caricature, cartoons, bandes dessinees, and related topics.  
• ComicsResearch.org : Comics scholarship annotated bibliographies. primarily covers book-length works about comic books and comic strips, from "fannish" histories to academic monographs, providing detailed information and guidance on further research.  
• Digital Comic Museum --an online archive of public domain Golden Age comics  

Don Markstein's Toonopedia ​ ​ : An online encyclopedia of cartoon and comic characters, including those in comic books, newspaper strips, magazine cartoons, and animated cartoons.

• Grand Comics Database : The Grand Comics Database (GCD) a nonprofit, internet-based organization of international volunteers dedicated to building a database covering all printed comics throughout the world  
• The Internet Archive : a free online collection of digitized comics and graphic novels.  
• Lambiek Comiclopedia: Illustrated Artist Compendium : an illustrated compendium of over 14,000 comics artists from around the world.  
• Latin American Comics Archive:  The Latin American Comics Archive, hosted by the Modern Language Resource Center at Carnegie Mellon, is a curated exhibit of comic strips and comic books created in Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico between the 1920s and the present.   
• Neil Cohn's Visual Language Lab : Research on visual language, cognitive science, and linguistics.  
• Stripper's Guide : Comic strip historian Allan Holtz's blog discusses the history of the American newspaper comic strip.  
• Derick Badman,  Comics studies: resources for scholarly research , College & Research Libraries News 70(10): 574-582.
• Cartoonists of Color Database The Cartoonists of Color, Queer Cartoonists, and Disabled Cartoonists databases were created and are maintained by cartoonist MariNaomi as a way to spotlight marginalized comics creators. The databases are used by booksellers, librarians, academics, editors, book publishers, event organizers, readers, and more.
• Disabled Cartoonists Database
• Queer Cartoonists Database
• Queer Comics Database A searchable database of comics by and about queer subjects. May be searched by audience, genre, tone, style, or representation.
• • ComicFXBook: The Comic Book Sound Effect Database A unique databases that lets you locate comics that use specific sound effects.
• Comicalités
• The Comics Grid
• The Comics Journal
• European comic art
• Geeked: Comics, Culture, Gender
• Image & narrative: online magazine of the visual narrative
• Imagetext: interdisciplinary comics studies
• Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society
• International journal of comic art
• Journal of graphic novels & comics
• Journal of graphic novels and comics (print)
• Prism comics: your LGBT guide to comics
• SANE journal: sequential art narrative in education
• Studies in comics

Other Comics Studies Resources

• Comics Studies Resources @UNT A convenient handout listing some places to get started on researching comics at the UNT Libraries
• Government Comics (by Bobby Griffith) An in-depth guide to government comics resources at UNT Libraries
• Queer Comics at UNT Libraries (by Julie Leuzinger) A guide to LGBTQ+ comics, graphic novels, and resources at the UNT Libraries
• Graphic Possibilities: A Comics Research Guide Resources for comics research at Michigan State University
• Comics as Data Project (MSU) An innovative digital humanities project utilizing data from the vast MSU Comics Collection.

Citing & Writing

• Comic Art in Scholarly Writing: A Citation Guide A bibliographic citation guide for comics & comic art
• List of Terms for Comics Studies (Andrei Molotiu) A helpful list of specialized terms related to comics stuide. May be helpful in developing search terms for your research

Subject Headings

Suggested Subject Headings 

(by Doug Campbell)

• Use these when searching library catalogs that utilize Library of Congress subject headings

Comic books, strips, etc.

Comic Books Strips Etc History And Criticism

Cartoons and comics

Comic strip characters

Comic strip characters in motion pictures

Comics (Graphic works)

Detective and mystery comic books, strips, etc.

Erotic comic books, strips, etc.

Fantasy comic books, strips, etc.

Graphic novels

Horror comic books, strips, etc.

Motion pictures and comic books

Romance comic books, strips, etc.

Science fiction comic books, strips, etc.

Underground comic books, strips, etc.

Western comic books, strips, etc.

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Comics & Graphic Novel Research Guide: Selected Journals

• Key Resources
• Finding Articles

Selected Journals

• And So: Graduate Journal of Graphic Design And So is a publication from North Carolina State University. The journal highlights scholarship that examines the cultural contexts of design and the influence of end users.
• Comics grid The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship is an open access, open peer review academic journal dedicated to comics scholarship. The journal aims to make original contributions to the field of comics studies and to advance the appreciation of graphic narrative.
• European Comic Art Devoted to the study of European-language graphic novels, comic strips, comic books and caricature.
• Film Criticism Film Criticism is a peer-reviewed, online publication whose aim is to bring together scholarship in the field of cinema and media studies in order to present the finest work in this area, foregrounding textual criticism as a primary value. Our readership is academic, although we strive to publish material that is both accessible to undergraduates and engaging to established scholars.
• ImageTexT The objective of ImageTexT is to advance the academic study of an emerging and diverse canon of imagetexts. Chief among these are comic books, comic strips, and animations, but also represented are illustrated fiction, children's picture books, digital-concrete poetic forms, visual rhetoric, etc.
• Image [&] Narrative Image [&] Narrative is a peer-reviewed e-journal on visual narratology and word and image studies in the broadest sense of the term. It does not focus on a narrowly defined corpus or theoretical framework, but questions the mutual shaping of literary and visual cultures.
• Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society Inks, the journal of the Comics Studies Society, features scholarly research on sequential art, graphic narrative, and cartooning. The journal seeks to bring together scholarly essays, archival materials, and insights and discoveries from leading comics professionals. Inks highlights scholarship from a variety of disciplines and invites essays on all periods of comic history, as well as considering both a US or an international comics focus.
• International Journal of Comic Art The International Journal of Comic Art 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.
• Journal of fandom studies The Journal of Fandom Studies seeks to offer scholars a dedicated publication that promotes current scholarship into the fields of fan and audience studies across a variety of media. It focuses on the critical exploration, within a wide range of disciplines and fan cultures, of issues surrounding production and consumption of popular media (including film, music, television, sports and gaming),
• The Journal of Japanese Studies The Journal of Japanese Studies is the most influential journal dealing with research on Japan available in the English language. Since 1974, it has published the results of scholarly research on Japan in a wide variety of social science and humanities disciplines, as well as translations of articles from Japanese and substantive book reviews.
• Marvels & Tales Marvels & Tales is a peer-reviewed journal that is international and multidisciplinary in orientation. The journal publishes scholarly work dealing with the fairy tale in any of its diverse manifestations and contexts. Marvels & Tales provides a central forum for fairy-tale studies by scholars of psychology, gender studies, children's literature, social and cultural history, anthropology, film studies, ethnic studies, art and music history, and others.
• Mechademia Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga and the Fan Arts. Mechademia’s subject area extends from manga and anime to game design, fashion, graphics, packaging, and toy industries, as well as a broad range of fan practices related to popular culture in Japan.
• MFS Modern Fiction Studies MFS publishes theoretically engaged and historically informed articles on modernist and contemporary fiction. The journal's substantial book review section keeps readers informed about current scholarship in the field. MFS alternates general issues with special issues focused on individual novelists or topics that challenge and expand the concept of "modern fiction."
• SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education SANE journal publishes peer-reviewed articles from researchers and practitioners from a variety of disciplines seeking to add significantly to the global knowledge associated with all aspects of graphica (comics, graphic novels, and its related forms) and education. Reviews of sequential art narratives and their associated scholarship as it pertains to teaching or learning through them are also published, as are resources designed to help educators of all levels integrate comics texts into their classrooms and libraries.
• SubStance SubStance is a major interdisciplinary journal in publication continuously since 1971. SubStance is an international nexus for discourses converging upon literature from a variety of fields, including philosophy, the social science, science, and the arts.
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• Last Updated: Apr 19, 2024 12:46 PM
• URL: https://libguides.depaul.edu/c.php?g=967024

• Locations and Hours
• UCLA Library
• Research Guides

Comics and Graphic Novels

• Making Comics
• Citing Comics
• Databases and Journals
• Featured Books
• Special Collections
• Film Reviews and Industry Data

Learning the Craft (what's this page about?)

Drawing from the literature, digital tools and hosting platforms.

• Comics Pedagogy

Comics Creator Communities

• Disabled Cartoonists Database
• Cartoonists of Color Database
• Queer Cartoonists Database

These databases were created by cartoonist MariNaomi.  They are cross-searchable and open to submissions.

Open Community Resources

Words and Pictures Working Together: Strategies for Analyzing Graphic Texts

1. Find your template

2. Explore your template

3. customize your comic, 4. publish and share.

" Pixton  allows teachers and students to construct their own comic strips. There are a variety of comic strip layouts, numerous character and background choices, and a ton of creative options. This is a great learner-centered tool that allows students to construct their own knowledge and display it in a way that is meaningful to them by allowing them to create comics representing their concepts and ideas" ( Pixton Comics | Online Tools for Teaching & Learning , n.d.) While it does not cost to create a Pixton account, templates for design are very limited in free version. Paid subscriptions are required to gain access to more templates and assets.

• << Previous: Film Reviews and Industry Data
• Next: Comics Pedagogy >>
• Last Updated: Mar 18, 2024 10:51 AM
• URL: https://guides.library.ucla.edu/comics-studies

• University of Michigan Library
• Research Guides

Comic Books and Graphic Novels

• Academic Resources
• Comics & Graphic Novels
• Web Resources
• LGBTQ Themes
• Medicine and Health themes
• Feminism and Women's Studies
• Civil Rights
• Biography and Memoir
• Alison Bechdel
• Art Spiegelman
• Bill Watterson
• Charles Schulz
• Daniel Clowes
• Frank Miller
• Grant Morrison
• Harvey Pekar
• Jessica Abel
• Lynda Barry
• Neil Gaiman
• Osamu Tezuka
• Captain America
• Wonder Woman
• Horror Comics
• Romance Comics
• Super-Heroes

Books - General

The following are just some of the books in the AAEL collection that take an academic approach to the study of comics. For more, search the library catalog for the subjects Comic books, strips, etc. -- History and criticism. and Graphic novels -- History and criticism.

Books - Regional

Online Journals

• The Comics Grid "The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship is a researcher-led, open-access, peer-reviewed academic journal. The journal aims to advance the media-specific study of graphic narrative from multidisciplinary perspectives. We aim to promote comics scholarship within academia and the general public with contributions that present specialised knowledge in accessible forms. As a publishing platform we encourage digital research, data sharing, public engagement and collaboration."
• The Comics Journal The Comics Journal has been a source for comics news and opinion since 1977. It contains in-depth interviews with mainstream. classic, underground, and small-press creators, and covers issues relevant to comics scholars and fans. (Note: not a scholarly journal.)
• Image & Narrative : online magazine of the visual narrative "A peer-reviewed e-journal on visual narratology and word and image studies in the broadest sense of the term. It does not focus on a narrowly defined corpus or theoretical framework, but questions the mutual shaping of literary and visual cultures. Beside tackling theoretical issues, it is a platform for reviews of real life examples."
• ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies "A peer-reviewed, open access journal dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of comics and related media."
• International Journal of Comic Art "International and multidisciplinary in scope, 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."
• Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics "A peer reviewed journal covering all aspects of the graphic novel, comic strip and comic book, with the emphasis on comics in their cultural, institutional and creative contexts. Its scope is international, covering not only English language comics but also worldwide comic culture."
• Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga and the Fan Arts "Mechademia’s subject area extends from manga and anime to game design, fashion, graphics, packaging, and toy industries, as well as a broad range of fan practices related to popular culture in Japan. We are interested in how the academic and fan communities can provide new possibilities for critical thinking and popular writing."
• Sequart "Analytic articles, whether historical or literary, scholarly or popular."
• Studies in Comics "The journal... promote[s] the close analysis of the comics page/text using a variety of methodologies. Its specific goal, however, is to expand the relationship between comics and theory and to articulate a 'theory of comics.' The journal also includes reviews of new comics, criticism, and exhibitions, and a dedicated online space for cutting-edge and emergent creative work."

Print Journals

• The Comics Journal
• Inks : cartoon and comic art studies
• International Journal of Comic Art

Graphic Novels and Comics

Why reference, electronic encyclopedias, encyclopedias and general reference works.

• Finding Books
• Finding Articles via databases
• Biographies
• Graphic Novels and Comics Reviews
• Journals and Online resources
• Citing Sources This link opens in a new window

Reference materials provide well-known facts on literary authors and their works; historical and political events that may have impacted their work; the society and culture in which they lived and worked and/or may have based their work upon; and the impact of their work on future generations.  They are trustworthy and reliable, giving you the correct information you will need for your research papers and presentations. 

• Comiclopedia The Comiclopedia is an illustrated compendium of over 12,000 comic artists from around the world. Find your favorite artists, strips and characters. The Comiclopedia is the world's largest overview of comic artists, and the brainchild of comic shop Lambiek's founder Kees Kousemaker (1942-2010).
• Toonopedia An online encyclopedia of toons -- i.e., "cartoons," encompassing animated cartoons, comic books, newspaper strips, magazine cartoons, and so forth.
• Gale eBooks (formerly Gale Virtual Reference Library) This link opens in a new window Search across a range of encyclopedias, dictionaries and more.
• Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Online collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, and measurement conversions covering topics from the arts to the sciences.
• Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window Oxford Art Online allows searching across both the Benezit Dictionary of Artists and Grove Art Online. The Benezit Dictionary of Artists is a standard reference collection of artists' biographies. It is international in scope, and covers all periods and styles. In addition to biographies, many entries include bibliographies, auction sales data, and images of signatures, monograms, or other marks of identification. Grove Art Online is composed of signed, scholarly encyclopedia entries on all aspects of global art, design and architecture. Individual articles are updated periodically, and new articles reflecting contemporary developments in the arts are added on a regular basis.
• Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window Provides full-text access to dictionaries, language reference, Islamic studies and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.

This is just a brief selection of the general and specialized encyclopedias and bibliographies related to Graphic Novels and Comics available in the Reference Center or the circulating stacks.

• The Encyclopedia of American Comics: From 1897 to the Present by Ron Goulart Call Number: PN6725 .E64 1990 Non-circulating This extensive guide focuses on comic heroes and villains; the creators, artists, and writers of comic strips and comic books; and the publishers and syndicates of the comics industry. The more than 1,000 entries are arranged in dictionary form, are superbly illustrated, and are cross-referenced.
• The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons by Maurice Horn (Editor) Call Number: NC1325 .W67 1999 Non-circulating Examines the lives and works of the greatest cartoon artists, as well as their contributions to and influences on the genre.

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• Last Updated: Apr 13, 2024 7:36 PM
• URL: https://guides.nyu.edu/graphic-novels

Articles on Comic books

Displaying 1 - 20 of 36 articles.

Jewish creators are a fundamental part of comic book history, from Superman to Maus – expert explains

Alex Fitch , University of Brighton

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – Marvel’s Multiverse Saga has changed the franchise’s stakes

Michael Starr , University of Northampton

What if the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol had succeeded? A graphic novel is uniquely placed to answer

Dominic Davies , City, University of London

Black Panther is a step in the right direction and a diverse audience is hungry for more inclusive roles and storylines

The Sandman: a masterclass in unfaithful adaptation

Joe Sutliff Sanders , University of Cambridge

Why Ms. Marvel matters so much to Muslim, South Asian fans

Safiyya Hosein , Toronto Metropolitan University

Five exciting additions to Marvel’s cinematic universes – according to a comics expert

The Batman: the Dark Knight on screen has always reflected contemporary tastes

Banning ‘Maus’ only exposes the significance of this searing graphic novel about the Holocaust

Biz Nijdam , University of British Columbia

When teachers in comic books get more than a thought bubble, watch out for an identity crisis

David Lewkowich , University of Alberta

The queer subtext of Superman comics has long been suppressed. Here’s to the original justice defender coming out

Jason Bainbridge , University of Canberra

‘Graphic medicine’: how autobiographical comics artists are changing our understanding of illness

Shannon Sandford , Flinders University

Kapow! Zap! Splat! How comics make sound on the page

Victor Araneda Jure , Monash University

Heroes, villains … biology: 3 reasons comic books are great science teachers

Caitlyn Forster , University of Sydney

Comics vs. coronavirus: Comics industry shut down for the first time in almost a century

Bart Beaty , University of Calgary

The Joker’s origin story comes at a perfect moment: clowns define our times

Ari Mattes , University of Notre Dame Australia

How Beano and Dandy artist Dudley D. Watkins made generations of comic fans roar with laughter

David Anderson , Swansea University

Higher, further, faster: Marvel’s first female cinematic superhero

Kenneth MacKendrick , University of Manitoba

Hidden women of history: Tarpe Mills, 1940s comic writer, and her feisty superhero Miss Fury

Camilla Nelson , University of Notre Dame Australia

How The Beano survived war and the web to reach its 80th birthday

Related topics.

• Graphic novels
• Superheroes

Top contributors

Lecturer and PhD Candidate in Comics and Architecture, University of Brighton

Senior Lecturer in Political and Cultural Studies, Swansea University

Adjunct Associate Professor of Learning and Instruction, University at Buffalo

Associate Professor and Cinema and Screen Studies Discipline Leader, Swinburne University of Technology

Professor of Bioethics, Clinical Ethics and Medical Law, St George's, University of London

Lecturer at the Forum for Critical Inquiry, Glasgow School of Art

Arts & Sciences Faculty Associate, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Adjunct Lecturer, Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, University of Baltimore

Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Associate Professor in Human Factors, Heriot-Watt University

Principal Lecturer in Wildlife Conservation, Nottingham Trent University

Professor of Graphic Fiction and Comic Art, Lancaster University

Graduate Tutor and Lecturer in Film, Northumbria University, Newcastle

Associate Professor in Media, University of Notre Dame Australia

Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia

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How to Write a Comic Essay or Research Paper and Book Topics

• by Joseph Kenas
• January 19, 2024

A comic research paper is one of the most interesting topics if you are looking for a topic to write on. This is because a comic essay is an excellent way to present information in a fun and engaging way.

Comic research papers provide us with an insight into what has happened in the past and also what will happen in the future without monotony.

Writing a comic research paper can be a lot of fun. It is a way to get published as well as a chance to get a good grade.

However, the process of writing a comic research paper is not a straightforward as it sounds, since many students find it challenging. This blog will look at everything you need to know about a research paper.

What is a Comic Essay or Research Paper?

A comic research paper is a research paper that uses a graphic novel or a comic as a reference or as a source of information. In a comic research paper, the comic is the actual research paper. It is a way to present a thesis or a topic in a fun and unique way.

This means that a comic research paper requires a lot of research on the comic book or the comic topic. This requires concentration and a lot of time to be put into it.

It is a great way to get your point across in a fun and interesting way. People remember things if they are presented in a visual way.

A comic research paper can help you present your ideas in a way that your audience will not only remember, but will enjoy. It can be a great way to get your point across when you are talking to your professor.

Although a comic research paper is written in comic book form, it still needs to follow the same guidelines that a regular research paper does. However, it allows the writer to use more creativity. 

When creating a comic research paper, you should start with the cover. The cover should give the reader an idea of the content of the paper.

The inside should have drawings, but it should also have the same elements as a regular research paper, which are an introduction, body, conclusion, and works cited.

How to write a Comic Essay or Research Paper

In the process of writing your comic research paper, you will need to select a topic, conduct research, learn about the research, and finally, write a comic book report.

Let’s go through the process in details

1. Come up with a Suitable Title

One of the most important parts of your comic research paper is choosing the right topic. In our guide on how to write a good research paper , we explained that coming up with a good topic is important for the whole process.

You want to pick something that is not only interesting to you but is also relevant to your topic and your audience.

You can choose to do a research paper on a comic book character, a comic book series, or a comic strip.

You can also choose to do a humorous cartoon, editorial cartoon, or comic book. 

To come up with a good topic start reading the comics books so that you can know the scope.

ou will gain a better understanding of the overarching themes and ideas that drive the comics industry as you read more. It’s crucial to study what other people have written about the same comics you’re writing about.

Remember, the topic should be something that is interesting to you. You will be spending a lot of time on this research paper, so you should make sure that you enjoy the topic.

2. Do full Research before Writing

Before you begin writing, assemble and organize your research. You’ll be able to write faster and effectively without stopping to obtain new facts if you take out essential quotes and formulate your ideas about what information you’ll need and how to use it.

new collections and materials are being generated and enhanced every day to address the requirements of fans, scholars, collectors, and researchers. Therefore it is easier to find many internet resources that can help you in gathering your information.

3. Create an Outline

The next step is to make an outline before you begin writing. An outline will assist you to keep on track and guarantee that you are equally spacing out the main issues of your essay across its length to maintain the reader’s interest.

You don’t want to run out of ideas before finishing.

Just like in a normal research paper, an outline consist of an introduction, body, and conclusion.

In the body, you include all the topic sentences in the different paragraphs that you are planning to talk about.

An outline makes the paper easier to write.

4. Writing the Body

The body of a comic research paper is the main section of the research paper. It is where you will describe the comic or graphic novel that you have chosen.

You will also need to analyze the comic and explain the author’s purpose in creating the comic. In this section, you will explain why you selected the comic and what your analysis is of the comic itself. 

In the body of your comic research paper, you will need to include a brief summary of the comic or graphic novel.

You will also need to explain the author’s purpose in creating the comic. In addition, you will need to explain the author’s message and what the comic is about.

5. Make use of a Citation Guide

When working with comic books, bibliographic references can be difficult. They combine elements of books and magazines. The main goal is to provide location information to help those looking for a cited source.

The inclusion of four essential aspects in a citation is critical: writer, artist, narrative title, and publication information. You can use an online style guide for citing comic books, which includes directions and examples.

6. Keep the Introduction Until Last

The introduction is typically the hardest element of a comic research paper to write, especially if you aren’t certain where your comic will lead.

You can write a more complete and appealing beginning if you reserve it till the end of the essay since you already know how the paper will end.

That approach will ensure you have an appealing introduction that will keep the readers hooked. 

7. Carefully Proofread Your Work

It’s usually a good idea to go through your work with rested to revise and proofread it numerous times. After just one check, you’re more likely to miss something significant especially if your essay is long.

To gain a new perspective and spot lingering problems, try reading sentences in reverse order.

Another proofreading tip is to take intervals between sections of the essay to allow yourself an opportunity to rest and rejuvenate. This will help you avoid tension and keep your mind fresh.

8. Seek Expert Assistance

If everything else fails and your lengthy essay isn’t pulling together, turn for expert essay writing aid available on the internet to get you over the hurdle.

There are several excellent professionals available online who are eager to assist you in making your essay the finest it can be.

Best Comic Research Paper Topics

Comic books have not only entertained and educated readers in a quickly changing culture, but they have also documented and analyzed many historical, social, and current events.

Therefore, it is not that hard to find a good topic. Here are some.

• Comic Books Influence Children
• Comic Strip Super Powers
• Cases Of Fraud In The Business Place
• Home From School Comic Strips
• Holocaust Survivors Comic Book
• Motion Pictures Comic Book
• Comic Book Artist Comic Book Artist And Writer Berg
• Iron Fist Golden Age

Common Comic Books for Research Paper

• Sweet Tooth
• This One Summer
• Through The Woods
• My Favorite Thing Is Monsters
• Jimmy Corrigan
• Children’s and Young Adult Comics by Gwen Athene Tarbox
• Best American Comics Criticism by Ben Schwartz
• The Art of Comics
• Autobiographical Comics by Elisabeth El Refaie

Joseph is a freelance journalist and a part-time writer with a particular interest in the gig economy. He writes about schooling, college life, and changing trends in education. When not writing, Joseph is hiking or playing chess.

How to do a Comic Book Research Paper

Jun 16, 2021

Come up with a title

Within the context of a society that’s changing rapidly, comic books entertain and educate but they have also documented and interpreted many historical, social and current events. 

There are some unique and valuable insights that can be obtained from studying comic books.  

There is no shortage of stimulating topics for a comic book research paper. One law student wrote a thesis about whether comic book superheroes were good models of justice. 

Another wrote about how the image of the scientist in the Marvel comics evolved over the years, how the process was influenced by societal changes and what they are like now. One student wrote about the influence of Japanese Manga on North American pop culture, while another reflected on how digital media affected comics. 

Use online comic book resources

New collections and resources are being created and developed to meet the needs of fans, scholars, collectors, and researchers. With all the internet resources, it can be challenging to identify ones that are updated and maintained. They often lack organization, although they may contain authoritative content. There is a  research guide  for students that contains annotated online comic book resources. It includes organizations, associations, bibliographies, collections, online journals and magazines.  

Create an outline

An outline of a comic book assignment will show the thesis statements and main ideas. These are specifically the features that students will discuss and evaluate and the material they will use for support. Creating an outline makes a paper much easier to write. 

Use a research writing service

The research proposal writing service from Uk.EduBirdie is available to British students and offers them an opportunity to have a research proposal written by expert writers. They can explore the profiles of various professional writers before selecting the one they feel is most suitable. If they are not happy with the quality, they can request the writer for revisions and don’t have to pay until they are satisfied. This service is available to both U.K. and international students.  

Use a citation guide

Bibliographic citation can be problematic when dealing with comic books. They incorporate aspects of both books and periodicals. The primary aim is to provide location information to assist those who want to track down a cited source. Of basic importance is that citation should incorporate four basic elements: writer, artist, story title, and publication information. Students can use an  online style guide  that gives instructions and examples for citing comic books. 

Some difficulties  

Comics are easy to recognize but not so easy to define. Page layout, art style, text and images all contribute to the overall impression and without one element, the other does not work as well. There are few set rules for how to analyze comics and to determine how the different elements interplay with one another to create meaning. Not all comics feature the same degree of ironic interplay between the elements but they can still be difficult to interpret. 

Students are often diverse in their writing experience and academic writing can be a challenge to master. Assigning comic book research papers to students can help them to learn and evaluate different forms of evidence. Students often battle to distinguish between academic sources and anecdotal evidence.

Innovative and interesting  

Students often find a comic book research paper interesting and different to write despite the difficulties. Scott McCloud’s book  Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art  has become like a handbook for anyone interested in studying or analyzing comic books. It helps to establish a set of terms that convey information presented in comic books and is presented as a comic book itself.   

It can be difficult to analyze comic books. They are remarkably dynamic, detailed and textured. Students must approach comics as informed readers and approach a comic book assignment in the right way. They need to choose a suitable topic, formulate a good argument and acknowledge their sources. Using a less traditional medium, like comic books, may just give a student who enjoys more visual learning a chance of writing a winning comic book assignment. 

Author Bio:

Joshua Robinson works for a novel publishing company where he is the lead author and has written several high-selling novels in sci-fi, mystery, suspense and satire genres. He’s a brilliant academic writer as well and has done thousands of essays for college students, all of which have won high ratings from the students. His free time is for reading poetry, listening to classical music and playing table tennis.

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Vol. 12, No. 4

From words into pictures: adapting 1177 bc for comics, by glynnis fawkes.

When Princeton University Press editor Rob Tempio first suggested a graphic adaptation of Eric Cline’s 1177 BC , I wasn’t sure how it could be done. Creating a comics page is a puzzle: a balance of text, action, and design. How would I muster the elements of comics to recreate the complex story of 1177 BC ? But when I read — and couldn’t put down — Eric’s book, I knew I could create this adaptation, and even better, it would be an opportunity to create a visual world I would have devoured as a teenager fascinated by antiquity.

The key was that Eric constructed 1177 BC as a series of stories, each of which served as evidence for the larger story of the interconnected cultures of the Late Bronze Age. Such a narrative approach creates a vivid picture of that world and its collapse. Eric’s skill in weaving together threads of evidence made it possible for me to envision each page composition as a combination of maps, artifacts, and interactions of real and imagined characters.

The story of the quarrel between Apophis and Seknenre. Text & illustration by Glynnis Fawkes.

Some stories come from textual evidence: the hippos of Seknenre; the returned Minoan shoes; and the angry widowed Egyptian queen requesting a Hittite prince to marry. Some stories are archaeological: skeletons crushed under buildings destroyed by earthquakes. Often they’re both textual and archaeological: clay tablets calling for help from Ugarit recovered from under a thick destruction layer; Thutmose III’s account of his attack on Megiddo and the evidence for destruction at the site itself. I relied on books and Google image searches for depictions of royalty, iconography, clothing, and jewelry of the time. I wanted to include non-royal people (in not-so-fancy outfits) who witnessed and suffered through the end of civilization. There is little evidence for the many people whose lives were swept up in events beyond their control — and so imagining vignettes of what it might have been like is a way of empathizing from this great distance in time.

The arrival of the daughter of Hattusili at the court of Rameses II. Text and illustration by Glynnis Fawkes.

My MFA in painting and background as an archaeological illustrator on sites around the Eastern Mediterranean gave me a context for many of the places and artifacts in the book. I’ve made technical illustrations for publication of Cypriot, Minoan, and other types of pottery sherds, and have been lucky to walk the ruined streets of Troy, Ugarit, Mycenae, Knossos, Byblos, Megiddo, and see the mortuary temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu that depicts the battles of the Sea Peoples. After a Fulbright to Cyprus, I published a book of paintings of Cypriot sites, and a book of cartoons about Cypriot archaeology — my earliest jokes about the Sea Peoples date to 22 years ago. Since I was in high school, I’ve been captivated by the cultures of the Late Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean. Why didn’t I become an archaeologist?  Because the visual and textual interplay of comics are the medium in which I find the most potential for expression. I’ve drawn personal comics about my kids working on digs, and I’m currently working on a middle-grade graphic novel set at the time of the eruption of Thera.

The first step in creating 1177 BC: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed was thumbnail sketches for every page.  On 11 x 17-inch office paper, I drew a template for a double-page spread and I worked out how much space I would allow for each scene, section, and chapter. My goal was not to translate sentence-for-sentence — which would have been impossible given the 250-page limit — but to capture a main point, and to do so I needed to drastically reduce the word count. I interrogated Eric’s prose for where images could tell the story, and where I could put the argument into characters’ speech balloons.

For example: a sentence from Eric, and a panel:

Above: An annotated passage from 1177 BC by Eric Cline about how the Philistines brought a new type of pig with them. Below: The comic book rendering of the above passage. Text and illustration by Glynnis Fawkes.

I employed images in several ways. Whenever Eric mentioned locations on a map, I drew one, by hand. You don’t want to use these maps for navigation, but I found it easier to draw maps by eye (in pencil on paper) than to try to digitally re-size and position maps to trace.  Whenever Eric mentioned a monument or work of art, I drew it: the Colossi of Memnon, the bust of Nefertiti, the stele of Naram-Sin.

A third category is imagined scenarios — “what if?” situations.  For example, Keliya, Chief Minister of Tushratta of Mittani (who appears in the Amarna letters) may have had a personal business trading alongside his official royal duties. I’ve drawn him leaving Amenhotep III’s palace, ready to make a deal with an assembled crowd concerning some multi-colored fuzzy wool pants (as listed in a letter from Amarna), among other goodies. Imagining this type of scene felt like playing on an ancient playground: Eric had constructed the framework; I sent the kids in to play. (Though situations at the end of civilization were dire — cities destroyed, many killed — I did not show the worst of the horror that must have been. It’s one thing to read about death and destruction, another to see it in graphic detail.)

An exchange between Keliya, Chief Minister of Tushratta of Mitanni, and Amenhotep III. Text and illustration by Glynnis Fawkes.

The next stage was to pencil the pages, then to make final drawings on 11 x 14-inch paper, a size that allows for greater detail when reduced to the actual print size of the book. Referring to my thumbnails, I drew pages for the Prologue and Chapter 1, scanned them, added text in InDesign, and digital color on the iPad in Procreate.

At this point, for these first 50 pages, the narration appeared in impersonal text boxes. How to execute the verbal storytelling proved a little tricky. In Eric’s original book, his voice carries the narrative, but I resisted the idea of drawing Eric as a narrator character who would present information — I wanted to avoid imitating a TED talk or documentary film. Instead, I wanted to employ the unique powers of this visual medium: ancient characters could speak, and the story could be told through design and visual metaphor.  Therefore, in my initial version, personalities of the past were already taking the stage: Ramses III, Sekhnenre, and so on. But no one character was asking the big questions: Why the collapse? And how did it happen? Nor any of the other sub-questions, like “Who are the Hyksos?” etc. Eric and I discussed the problem on a zoom meeting and came up with the idea of creating two new characters, “Pel” and “Shesha” — young residents of the 12th century BC — who would take up the big questions. This cracked the book’s story-telling code.

Eric and Glynnis created two new characters, Pel and Shesha, to be the anchors for the books story-telling. Image and text by Glynnis Fawkes.

The arrival of Pel and Shesha meant re-writing and re-drawing most of those first 50 pages, but it also launched a new adventure. Pel is a grandson of a veteran of the first Sea Peoples battles against the Egyptian army and is tired of hearing his grandpa tell stories of the glory days before the collapse. He leaves the cozy family fireside in a Sea Peoples’ camp to discover how and why the collapse happened.  Pel’s friend Shesha is the daughter of Egyptian stone carvers and scribes, literate in all the necessary ancient languages, and in a position to investigate many of Pel’s questions. Through the magic of comics, they’re able to leap back in time to explore the cultures of the 15th, 14th, and 13th centuries BC to witness the building of connections: possible Minoan artists painting Thutmose III’s palace at Tel ed-Daba in Egypt, Amenhotep III’s harem of foreign princesses, the sinking of the Uluburun ship, Paris carrying Helen to Troy, and the Hittite invasion of Cyprus. Their dialogue was especially fun to write.

Pel and Shesha exploring the seas. Text and illustration by Glynnis Fawkes.

Pel and Shesha visit Avaris, the Hyksos capital. Text and illustration by Glynnis Fawkes.

It took about two months to retrofit Pel and Shesha into the first two chapters, and when I began moving forward again, the momentum was clear. Shesha is the guide, while Eric (and myself for conversational purposes) narrate the history of modern archaeological discovery. The story of 1177 BC is often about how archaeological theory and practice has changed over time, for example how the late 19 th -century notion of the Sea Peoples as destroyers carried into 20 th -century excavation reports, or how the methods of the (in)famous Heinrich Schliemann wouldn’t be acceptable today.

Schliemann arrives at Mycenae. Text and illustration by Glynnis Fawkes.

Pel and Shesha brought an extra emotional arc to the existing big questions presented in the book. Pel may not have received the definitive answers he was seeking — because of the limits of evidence and of our understanding— but he does return to his family with a more detailed and nuanced experience of the tremendous time that was 1177 BC.

Glynnis Fawkes is a cartoonist and archaeological illustrator. Her latest book is 1177 BC: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed   (co-authored with Eric H. Cline).

Want To Learn More?

Resilience and rebirth: lessons learned from the aftermath of the late bronze age collapse, by  eric h. cline.

Following the Late Bronze Age Collapse, different societies followed separate paths to recovery, while some didn’t recover at all. Do their examples hold any lessons for us today? Read More

ANE Today Extra: Tree Rings, Drought, and the Collapse of the Hittite Empire

By  eric h. cline.

The recent Nature study about drought and the fall of the Hittite Empire doesn’t just make for good headlines, it adds to our knowledge about the Late Bronze Age Collapse in fresh ways. Read More

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