Research Guides: Graphic Novels and Comics: Finding Articles via databases

General databases

General databases contain content from a variety of subject areas and publication types. This will allow you to look at your research from a wide perspective. Be sure to use the search refinements each database may offer including: date, document type, and source type.

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.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Central is a large, multidisciplinary database with over 11,000 titles, with over 8,000 titles in full-text. It serves as the central resource for researchers at all levels in all markets. Over 160 subjects areas are covered extensively in this product including business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, technology, social sciences and more.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides access to scholarly journals, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. In addition to journal articles, users can access book chapters, ebooks, and primary source documents.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to high quality humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from scholarly publishers.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar is a central search for scholarly literature. It covers disciplines and sources, peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
EBSCO Discovery Service This link opens in a new window
EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) encompasses articles in databases across many disciplines. Users can locate peer reviewed articles, videos, audio files, images, and more from a range of subjects.

Full download of DRM-protected ebooks requires EBSCO account registration and Adobe Digital Editions.
Note: NYU Libraries is retiring EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) in June 2025. The Catalog Search replaces EDS as the tool for searching across multiple publishers’ databases and platforms. You can also use EBSCOhost to search across the full set of EBSCO-only databases.

Literature Specific databases

Unlike the general databases, subject-specific databases generally focus solely on journal articles as a publication type and do not have a broad, multidisciplinary approach. This brief list contains links to a few of the core databases for literature-based research. For deeper literature-based research, visit the subject guides or contact the subject librarian.

Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
Literature Resource Center offers biographical and other background information for research on literary topics, authors, and their works. Its coverage includes all genres and disciplines, all time periods, and all regions of the world. Literature Resource Center's content comes from the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and more, including full text of selected poems, plays, and short stories.
MLA International Bibliography (MLAIB) This link opens in a new window
The MLA International Bibliography provides bibliographic records for books, book chapters, journal articles, and dissertations published in the fields of modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Full text is available for some articles. The MLAIB covers items published from around 1920 to the present.
Arts & Humanities Database This link opens in a new window
Arts & Humanities Database features hundreds of titles covering Art, Architecture, Design, History, Philosophy, Music, Literature, Theatre and Cultural Studies.
Humanities Source This link opens in a new window
Humanities Source includes full text access to journals. It combines various Humanities related databases, including the American Humanities Index.
Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new window
Literature Criticism Online includes the contents of several multidisciplinary series, including Contemporary Literary Criticism and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. The collection includes biographical essays and selected literary criticism for authors from the classical period to the present day.
Periodicals Index Online This link opens in a new window
Indexes millions of articles published in over 4,250 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences across more than 300 years.
Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive (TLS) This link opens in a new window
The Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive contains every page of every copy of the Times Literary Supplement (TLS) published from 1902 to 2011. The database is searchable by author or contributor; the identities of the contributors to the TLS who were published anonymously until 1974 are disclosed for the first time and augmented by biographical sketches.

Subject Specific databases

In addition to looking at graphic novels and comics from a literary perspective, it is helpful to broaden your perspective and venture into other disciplines.

Here is a brief list of databases that may enhance your research:

Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels This link opens in a new window
Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels contains digitized images of comic books and graphic novels from the 1960’s to the works of modern sequential artists. The collection also contains materials about comics, including interviews, commentary, theory, and criticism from The Comics Journal and other secondary sources.
The World of Archie Comics Archive This link opens in a new window
The World of Archie Comics Archive is a digital collection with access to the runs of more than 100 publications from Archie Comics. It’s one of the longest-running, best-known comic staples, spanning the early 1940s to 2020. Alongside the flagship title, Archie, other prominent titles, which have pervaded wider popular culture, include Sabrina: The Teenage Witch, Josie and the Pussycats, Betty & Veronica, and Jughead.
SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
SocINDEX covers the sociology literature, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study. It indexes scholarly journals, books, monographs, and conference papers.
GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
GenderWatch indexes scholarly, radical, community, and independent publications from 1970 to present relevant to gender, women's, and LGBTQ studies. It provides information from both academic and grassroots perspectives on a wide range of gender-related topics, such as sexuality, family, religion, societal roles, race and ethnicity, feminism, masculinity, eating disorders, healthcare, and the workplace. Notable titles include Off Our Backs, Transgender Tapestry, Sister Namibia, and Out and About, among others.
PsycINFO via Ovid This link opens in a new window
PsycINFO via Ovid indexes core academic and professional literature in the psychological and behavioral sciences and their related disciplines. Coverage is from 1806 to the present. **Note that the database PsycINFO is also searchable on APA PsycNET platform.
PsycNET (with PsycINFO) This link opens in a new window
APA PsycNET is an integrated collection of databases from the American Psychological Association (APA), including the following: PsycINFO, PsycBOOKS, PsycTESTS, PsycTHERAPY, PsycARTICLES, and PsycEXTRA.

PsycINFO, the most popular database in PsycNET, is a bibliographic index covering core literature in the psychological and behavioral sciences and their related disciplines. PsycBOOKS includes online versions of the APA Handbooks in Psychology Series, as well as other ebooks and online encyclopedias published by APA. PsycTESTS is a source of structured information about psychological tests and measures as well as a repository for the full text of select instruments. PsycTHERAPY provides access to streaming psychotherapy demonstration videos.

Altogether, PsycNET provides information about and access to journal articles, books and ebooks, dissertations, conference presentations, tests and measures, videos, gray literature, and many other other publication types in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences.
To search only a specific database (e.g., PsycINFO) within the PsycNET interface, use the "Select Databases" features at the top of the PsycNET landing page and check (or uncheck) the database(s) that apply.
Education Source with ERIC This link opens in a new window
Education Source with ERIC provides access to research on all levels of education from early childhood to adult education. The content includes peer reviewed journal articles, ebooks, book reviews, dissertations, conference papers and policy reports on all topics in the realm of education.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Performing Arts Periodicals Database provides indexing and abstracts for more than 210 international journals in the performing arts dating from 1864 to the near present.
Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Film & Television Literature Index is a comprehensive index covering the entire spectrum of television and film writing and produced for a broad target audience, from film scholars to general viewers. Subject coverage includes: film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews. Dates of coverage: 1914 to present.
Communication and Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Communication and Mass Media Complete indexes and abstracts academic and trade journals in communications and mass media. Full-text is included for some titles. Conference proceedings are also available, including those of the International Communication Association.

Other Sources for Literary Criticism

Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory
Provides full-text and full-image access to over 300 humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from 60 scholarly publishers. Coverage of these journals typically begins at some point within the last fifteen years and extends up through the latest issue. Many key journals in literature and theory are accessible here.
Year's Work in English Studies
An evaluative narrative review of scholarly work on English language and literatures written in English that was published during the year being covered. Has included chapters on American literature since volume 35 (1954) and on the Commonwealth literatures since volume 63 (1982).
American Literary Scholarship
An evaluative narrative review of scholarly work on periods of American literature or on major writers published during the year being covered.