internet resources Derik A. Badman Comics studies Resources for scholarly research

omic books, comic strips, manga, and involved with comics studies. A good source Cother forms of what is more gener- for CFPs, conference information, publica- ally called comics have gained increasingly tion news, and long discussions (recent serious attention in recent years, such that examples include discussions of terminology it is almost at the point where articles en- in comics [always contentious] and the “must titled “Bif Bam Pow: Comics aren’t for kids reads” of comics scholarship). Access: http:// anymore” have ceased appearing because www.english.ufl .edu/comics/scholars/. of their obviousness. The fi eld of comics studies has had a similar upward trajectory. Journals Avenues for publication of scholarly writing • European Comic Art. A newer schol- on comics continue to expand (both journals arly journal focused on European comics and books), and resources focused on the (bande dessinee). Access: http://eurocomi- study of comics are growing. cart.lupjournals.org/default.aspx. Comics studies is a broadly interdisci- • Image and Narrative. Another peer- plinary area, often applying the scholarly reviewed open access journal out of Belgium literature and apparati of literary studies, devoted to the study of visual narrative in communication and mass media, art, history, all its forms (including comics). One of sociology, or philosophy. the chief editors is Jan Baetens, a Belgian This column highlights resources that scholar who has published widely on comics are more narrowly focused on comics. The in French. This journal publishes articles in resources below cover a range of types from English or French, with abstracts provided scholarly publications to reference sources in both languages. Access: http://www.im- and news sites. I have primarily focused ageandnarrative.be/. on English-language resources, though re- • ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Com- searchers should be aware of the prevalence ics Studies. A peer-reviewed open access of French language comics studies (which journal out of the University of Florida (which one could argue has a larger academic his- has its own comics studies program). Recent tory than studies in English). special issues focused on the work of Neil Gaiman and William Blake’s relation to visual Discussion lists and forums culture. Access: http://www.english.ufl .edu • Anime and Manga Research Circle. /imagetext/. This is a group of scholars, students, and fans • International Journal of Comic Art. interested in research on anime and manga. The premier comics studies journal publish- They maintain a fairly active e-mail list. Ac- ing English-language articles since 1999 by cess: http://www.cjas.org/~leng/amrc.htm. John Lent, a professor at Temple University • Comics Scholars Discussion List. This is an active e-mail list populated by a Derik A. Badman is digital services librarian at Temple large number of academics, students, inde- University, e-mail: [email protected] pendent scholars, and even a few librarians © 2009 Derik A. Badman

C&RL News November 2009 574 and a major fi gure in comics studies and bib- entries are often long and detailed, providing liography. While recent volumes are indexed character histories, publication information, in the MLA International Bibliography, the and creator related details. Access: http:// journal’s own site is the best place to get www.toonopedia.com/. content information for all volumes. Access: • Grand Comic Book Database. A vast http://ijoca.com/. database that indexes comics. Invaluable for • The Comics Journal. The long-run- information on publications, credits, dates, ning magazine that takes comics seriously is and more. Cover images are included in well regarded for long interviews with cre- many cases. The search interface leaves ators, regular columns, and critical reviews. much to be desired (you can only search on The Web site includes excerpts from recent one criterion at a time), but a new version issues and hosts an active message board. of the databases is apparently in the works. An index of the fi rst 142 issues is available Access: http://www.comics.org/. (www.english.ufl.edu/comics/scholars/ • Lambiek Comiclopedia. An encyclo- TCJ_Index.html) but not for the 150 issues pedia of comics artists/creators/cartoonists since then. Access: http://tcj.com. from across the globe. The entries usually include at least one image. Access: http:// Bibliographies lambiek.net/. • Comic Research Bibliography. Mi- chael Rhode and John Bullough’s bibliogra- Organizations phy contains a vast number of citations to • National Association of Comic Art articles on comics and comics themselves, Educators. NACAE’s Web site is a resource unfortunately it hasn’t been updated since for those who teach comics classes or those 2007 and there are no subjects or abstracts interested in comics classes. Included is a to aid in discovery. Contains a wide variety directory of comics classes and teachers, as of source types from newspaper articles on well as schools offering comics programs. movie adaptations of comics to blog posts For educators, there are syllabi from various to scholarly articles. Access: http://www.rpi. teachers and teaching guides for a variety edu/~bulloj/comxbib.html. of comics. Of particular relevance to any- • ComicsResearch.org: Comics Schol- one is a handout on comics terminology arship Annotated Bibliographies. Gene from comics artists/educators Matt Mad- Kannenberg’s large annotated bibliography den and Jessica Abel. Access: http://www. covers a wide range of publications about teachingcomics.org/. comics as well as information on confer- • Popular Culture Association/Ameri- ences, organizations, library collections, and can Culture Association. The PCA/ACA in- more, an invaluable resource. Entries often cludes a Comic Art and Comics Area, which include citations for reviews of books. Ac- puts on programs at the Annual Meeting of cess: http://comicsresearch.org/. the association as well as regional events. • Online Bibliography of Anime and Access: http://www.pcaaca.org/. Manga Research. A bibliography of resources on anime and manga (Japanese comics) that Library collections covers publications, presentations, and grey • Graphic Novel Subject Guide. Karen literature and is maintained by librarian Mikhail Green, Columbia University’s graphic novel Koulikov. Access: http://www.corneredangel. librarian, maintains this subject guide on com/amwess/academic.html. comics and comics-related sources. Access: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eguides Databases /graphic_novels/index.html. • Don Markstein’s Toonopedia. An en- • Michigan State Libraries Comic cyclopedia of cartoon/comic characters. The Art Collection. MSU’s collection focuses

November 2009 575 C&RL News on published work including pamphlets, Blogs books, strips, and journals. The vast collec- • Journalista. If you only follow one tion of U.S. comic books and comics strips comics-related blog, then Dick Deppey’s is supplemented by international and critical Journalista is the one to pick. The single daily materials. Much of the collection is cata- post of link blogging tends to hit the highs loged in MSU’s library catalog as well as in and lows of news, commentary, reviews, WorldCat. Worth pointing out is the long list and more. Access: http://tcj.com/journalista/. of comics research libraries (comics.lib.msu. • New and Improved Comic Book Blog edu/director/comres.htm). Access: http:// Updates. If you really want to be on the comics.lib.msu.edu/. pulse of comics blogging, this site provides • Ohio State University Cartoon Li- a dynamically updated list of posts from a brary and Museum. OSU’s large collection huge number of comics blogs, rather over- of comic art and artifacts, started with the whelming but a good way to discover blogs papers of Milton Caniff and has since grown of interest. Access: http://comicblogupdates. to include numerous collections and works blogspot.com/. such as Bill Blackbeard’s famed collection • The Comics Reporter. A major source of newspaper comic strips and a collection for news, interviews, commentary, links, and of Will Eisner’s work and papers. The Web more on all sorts of comics. Tom Spurgeon site includes a digital image database with writes and aggregates his way into being a a plethora of wonderful comics to view as major hub for goings-on in the comics world. well as digital albums, including a full run Access: http://comicsreporter.com/. of Lyonel Feininger’s “Kin-der-kids” pages. Access: http://cartoons.osu.edu/. Podcasts • Comics Studies Podcast. An irregularly Museums appearing podcast from A. David Lewis, often • Cartoon Art Museum (San Fran- featuring recorded audio from presenta- cisco). A museum of original art and a tions and panels at various conferences and research library. Access: http://www.car- conventions. Access: http://captionbox.net toonart.org/. /podcast/. • Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée • Inkstuds. Robin McConnell’s weekly (Brussels). A major museum of comic art, radio show from CITR in Vancouver features which also houses a large library of comics. hour-long interviews with comics artists and Access: http://www.comicscenter.net/en/ scholars. His archive is large, wide-ranging, home. and downloadable. Access: http://inkstuds. • La Cité Internationale de la Bande com/. Dessinée et de l’Image (Angouleme). The Web site of a conglomeration of locations in Other Angouleme, France, including a museum, • Comic Art in Scholarly Writing: A Ci- research library, bookstore, and “house of tation Guide. Allen Ellis’ guide to citing comic authors” (residencies, services for artists). art as suggested by the Popular Culture Asso- The museum is the primary French museum ciation. Citing comics has also been a bit tricky of comic art. Access: http://www.citebd. and is generally not well-supported by any of org/. the major styles. This provides some helpful • Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art guidelines. Access: http://comicsresearch. (New York). A small museum in New York org/CAC/cite.html. City that features regular exhibits and events, • Enjolrasworld. A collection of annota- including the annual MoCCA Festival, a high- tions (and links to annotations) for a variety light of the nonmainstream comics scene. Access: http://www.moccany.org/. (continued on page 582)

C&RL News November 2009 576 of course the place and the people. I already external because of the involvement with the knew my dean and my faculty colleagues. I entire university. And then there is adhocracy, knew who did what and where to go when which can be defi ned as evolutionary and I needed help. I didn’t have a lot to fi gure something that is constantly changing. Well, out other than how to feel comfortable in this the evolutionary part certainly describes both new role. The differences—I was constantly the library and the library school; the constantly learning, not only out of need, but as almost changing could represent the evolving nature a rebirth of my initial interest in the fi eld. I of our fi eld and different classes taught and no longer worked fi ve days a week—nothing different students in these classes. wrong with that—but I was working harder Hierarchy represents stability, which (and please don’t tell my former director) than seems to be an element in at least some of the I had in years. I was learning to communicate other models but also represented ranking and in a different way and also learning new priori- power, so it turned out to be my least favorite. ties. Nothing major here, but I still felt a need And then there is market, which is external and to identify my “two cultures.” fl exible—sounds like a lot of repetition here Librarians, of course, are not only big on lists doesn’t it? The role of a teacher is certainly more but also on research. So I took the next step and fl exible than a librarian’s set hours, but again researched different types of cultures and forgot this didn’t defi ne the external focus. the previous culture defi nitions for the time This is when the storm started to settled. I being. First discovery, I identifi ed four types realized my purpose was to defi ne and explain of cultures (and here I am already struggling my change in role. Here is when I decided to to bridge the gap between two) that applied to create my own culture: culture redux. Now this my situation. And as with everything, nothing does not mean I’m bringing back something but is black and white. However, as I studied the it’s an attempt to explain an experience. I could four main types I decided to be fl exible and look back as most of us do and examine the creative with the defi nitions and not try to fi t here and now. I can look at the internal changes into a predefi ned slot. This attitude helped a lot. by relating them to the external changes. I can see the confl icts between internal and external Book three: The track of a storm as an opportunity and this is the main crux of The “clan culture” certainly represented the my culture graduate school. It is stable and internally fo- I’m comfortable with culture redux. It has cused. I felt good about the stability and knew given me focus and seems to be a fi tting end it was possible to try to combine the internal to my tale. The big difference is that it is not focus with the external focus. The library had imaginary but real. And the other difference is represented stability but the focus was defi nitely that A Tale of Two Cities has 45 chapters.

(“Comic studies” continued from page 576) for the purpose of supporting the fi eld of of comics, with a particular focus on the comics studies, including putting on aca- works of Alan Moore. Access: http://www. demic programs, a comics studies calendar enjolrasworld.com/. and map, and the online publication of “lost • Golden Age Comics. A great source works” in comic studies. Access: http://www. to download out-of-copyright comics from instituteforcomicsstudies.org/index.html. the so-called “Golden Age” of comics. Most • More than 100 comics-relat- of these comics are out-of-print and expen- ed words in eight languages. Main- sive, so this is valuable for research into the tained by Belgian comics scholar Pascal early years of comic books. Access: http:// Lefévre, this page offers a multilin- goldenagecomics.co.uk/. gual glossary of comics terms. Access: • Institute for Comics Studies. The ICS http://lefevre.pascal.googlepages.com has a number of ongoing and new projects /morethan100comics-relatedwordsin8languag.

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