Cartoon & Comics Research

This guide provides an overview of cartoon related resources

Overview

To get started in your cartoon research, try these primary library catalogs:

OSU Catalog - Search for books, e-books, and other materials owned by OSU Libraries, Columbus and regional campuses. You can also search with the mobile version of the OSU Catalog. Help with the OSU Catalog

OhioLINK Catalog - Combined catalog of a consortium of 88 Ohio university and college libraries, the State Library of Ohio, and more. Have materials delivered to OSU. Help with OhioLINK Catalog

WorldCat Local@OSU - Searches materials at OSU, OhioLINK, and libraries worldwide.

Columbus Metropolitan Library - Searches materials within the Columbus Public Library system. With a valid Columbus Metropolitan Public Library card, items can be requested for pickup at Thompson Library. 

Books

Books about or containing cartoons that can be found in the OSU Library CatalogOhioLink, and WorldCat. 

The OSU Library Catalog has materials from the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, a Special Collections Library focused on building cartoon resources. Institutions that contribute to OhioLink, and WorldCat have collections related to cartoons and popular culture.  

To get started, the following subject terms can be used to gather general resources about comics, comic creators, and comics history.

Searching for cartoon related books by keyword may be the best way to start. Begin by exploring one of the catalogs above, using a keyword search for a title, an author, or a subject.  

To find books at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, search the OSU Library Catalog. "Modify" or "Limit" your search to look for items held in the "Location" of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

Magazines & Newspapers

To find magazines and newspapers that contain cartoons, search the OSU Library Catalog, OhioLink, and WorldCat

Magazines

Searching for cartoon related magazines by keyword may be the best way to start. You will want to search one of the catalogs above, using a keyword search, for a title, an author, or a subject.

In addition, you can search using these subject terms:

American wit and humor -- Periodicals

Caricatures and cartoons -- [Country] -- Periodicals (e.g. Caricatures and cartoons -- United States -- Periodicals)

Newspapers

Searching for cartoon related magazines by keyword may be the best way to start. You will want to search one of the catalogs above, using a keyword search, for a title, an author, or a subject.

In addition, you can search using these subject terms:

19th century U.S. newspapers 

United States -- Newspapers

American newspapers -- Databases

These newspaper resources also contain cartoons. Please note that the cartoons may not be searchable by keyword:

Chronicling America

This database contains selected historic American newspapers that have been digitized.

ProQuest Historical Black Newspapers

This database offers full text, including images, for several African-American newspapers from the 20th century.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers

This database offers full text, including images, for several prominent newspapers from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Independent Voices

Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries.

 

Archives

Archive and Manuscript collections are a group of materials that may contain letters, correspondence, merchandise, or memorabilia related to cartoons, cartoonists, or the cartooning industry. These items are describe in an inventory, also referred to as a "finding aid."  

To search these collections, you can use:

ArchiveGrid

ArchiveGrid contains over four million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more.

OhioLink Finding Aid Repository

The OhioLINK Finding Aid Repository contains descriptions of archival collections from contributing institutions in Ohio. Collection descriptions are fully searchable. Researchers can view brief summaries of collections or the entire text of finding aids with search keywords highlighted. The Browse, Search, and Advanced Search options allow users to browse the entire repository, do a focused search for specific topics, or limit search results to a specified institution.

OSU Library Catalog

Archival Collection inventories may be found in the library catalog by searching your keyword using the discover tool and selecting the "Special Collections" tab.

Subject Terms:

Cartoonists -- [Country] -- History -- Sources

(e.g. Cartoonists -- United States -- History -- Sources)

Archives + Limit Search to include the Location of "Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum"

Art

To find original cartoon art, you can consult these resources:

Articles

Articles about cartoons and cartoonists can be found using the following tools:

WorldCat 

From the OSU Library home page, select the "Articles" tab and search from here. Your search will comb through over 40,000 journals.

GoogleScholar

May be a starting place for an article search. Start with basic keywords to gain an overview of titles or authors to explore in WorldCat.

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Biographical Files  

The biographical files contain cartoon and article clippings organized by the artists’ last name. 

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum Topic Files

The topic files contain cartoon and article clippings organized by subject.

 

Additional Resources

Additional resources

Lambiek.net

Contact Us

Need help? 

Email us: cartoons@osu.edu

Call us614-292-0538

Visit us: 

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
The Ohio State University
110 Sullivant Hall
1813 N. High Street
Columbus, OH 43210