https://libguides.sdsu.edu/comicarts
The Comic Arts Collection at the SDSU Library is home to more than 120,000 published comics, in addition to secondary research about comics and numerous archival collections. The collection is located in numerous locations throughout the Library in print and also includes online resources. Some sources can be checked out for use off-campus; others need to be viewed inside of Special Collections & University Archives.
Located near Special Collections & University Archives on the 1st floor of Love Library, the Comics Corner concentrates on secondary research about comics, however there are also numerous collected volumes, graphic novels and trade paperbacks available for check out. Books are arranged using the LC Call Number system and can be identified in the Library’s online catalog, OneSearch. The Comics Corner is supported by the generosity of alumni Jack and Laura Sword.
Located on the 4th floor of Love Library, the Juvenile Collection includes numerous comics that are appropriate for K-12 children, but also enjoyed by adults. These comics can be checked out. Books in this section are arranged using the Dewey Decimal System and can be identified in the Library’s online catalog, OneSearch. Just want to browse the shelves? Aim for the 741.5 section.
SCUA materials cannot be checked out, but you are highly encouraged to use them in SCUA’s Reading Room. There are 3 locations for published comics in SCUA:
Check the links in this guide for access to comics online. Non-SDSU users can only access the subscription database inside the library and not remotely, however, some of the online resources are freely available websites.
Donna Barr is an American comic book author and cartoonist. She is best known for The Desert Peach and Stinz. She works in pencil, ink, watercolor, and silkscreen. Her collection includes her life's work. Also see below for her archival papers.
Dr. J. Gordon Melton is a Distinguished Professor of American Religious History at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies in Religion in Waco, Texas. In 1968 he founded the Institute for the Study of American Religion. Dr. Melton is a pioneering scholar in the field of New Religious Studies and helped to create the sub-discipline. An advocate of religious freedom, Melton’s research often focuses on new and alternative religions, Western Esotericism (more commonly known as occultism), parapsychology, New Age, and Dracula and vampire studies, for which he explores the historical, literary, mythological, biographical, and popular aspects of vampirism.
Melton amassed what is believed to be the largest collection of books in English, both fiction and nonfiction, related to vampires in the world. The major competing collection has since been auctioned off in pieces. Melton is in the process of gifting his entire collection to SDSU in a multi-year donation. To date, we have acquired his vast collection of vampire comics, which includes more than 10,000 issues of twentieth-century English-language titles (including Canadian, Australian, and British titles) primarily covering the years 1960 through 1999. The collection includes complete publication runs of titles from some of the longest-running vampire-oriented English language comics, such as the original Vampirella series, the original Tomb of Dracula series, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which also includes a number of French language editions. A regular attendee at San Diego Comic-Con for over two decades, Melton systematically attempted to get the comics signed by writers and artists. Many of the Tomb of Dracula comics are, for example, signed by the now deceased artist Gene Colan and by writer Marv Wolfman. Some of the Vampirella issues are also signed by the models who posed as Vampirella.
In addition to the near-complete collection of English language vampire-related comics, Melton’s collection includes titles in Italian, French, Spanish, German, Swedish and also English language translations of Japanese manga. Highlights in the foreign language collection include an autographed Italian edition of Dracula drawn by the late artist Crepex and one of the very few complete collections of the longest running vampire-oriented comic book ever issued, entitled Jacula, an Italian comic or fumetti.
Find these comics in our floppy comics collection and in our Library Catalog.
The Adams Robbins IDW Founders Collection includes a complete catalog up to 2018 of nearly 20,000 items released by IDW Publishing and a handful of items that predate the creation of IDW Publishing. The collection brings together items unique to comics publishing, such as special convention editions, retailer incentives, exclusives for big box department and toy stores, and items with limited distribution to schools and libraries. The collection provides a unique look at the creative output of one of the largest comic book publishers in the United States. Materials in the collection may facilitate the study of marketing in the comic book publishing industry and the study of licensed and franchised comic book tie-ins to popular television, film and children’s cartoons.
The collection was generously donated to the SDSU Library by IDW founders, Ted Adams and Robbie Robbins, in July of 2022.
