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Graphic Novels: Library Resources

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Use this resource guide to browse print and digital graphic novels and comics available though the library. Watch streaming videos and search library databases to learn more about this literary format. 

Browse Graphic Novels from the SCC Library

American Comics

The sweeping story of cartoons, comic strips, and graphic novels and their hold on the American imagination. Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber takes readers through their incredible but little-known history, Dauber's story shows not only how comics have changed over the decades but how American politics and culture have changed them. Striking and revelatory, American Comics is a rich chronicle of the last 150 years of American history through the lens of its comic strips, political cartoons, superheroes, graphic novels, and more.

Our Stories Carried Us Here

"Eleven storytellers chronicle their journeys from places all over the world--including Guatemala, Chad, Vietnam, and Kazakhstan--to the United States. Each story compellingly details a variety of experiences the individual immigrant or refugee had, highlighting differences between stories that too often are lumped together or not given an opportunity to be heard. 

Parable of the Sower: a Graphic Novel Adaptation

In the year 2024, the country is marred by unattended environmental and economic crises that lead to social chaos. Lauren Olamina, a preacher's daughter living in Los Angeles, is protected from danger by the walls of her gated community.   However, in a night of fire and death, what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny . . . and the birth of a new faith.  

Junkwraith

What she once possessed... now threatens to possess her. This vibrant Swedish debut graphic novel is an epic quest for the things left behind, with icy-cool artwork and astonishing sci-fi settings. What happens when our most precious belongings... no longer belong? When something we loved suddenly becomes junk, a powerful energy is unleashed. 

Dragon Hoops

Gene doesn't get sports. But at Bishop O'Dowd High School, it's all anyone can talk about. The men's varsity basketball team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that's been decades in the making. Each victory brings them closer to their ultimate goal: the California State Championships.Once Gene gets to know these young all-stars, he realizes that their story is just as thrilling as anything he's seen on a comic book page. What he doesn't know yet is that this season is not only going to change the Dragons' lives, but his own life as well.

The Life of Frederick Douglass

A graphic novel biography of the escaped slave, abolitionist, public speaker, and most photographed man of the nineteenth century, based on his autobiographical writings and speeches, spotlighting the key events and people that shaped the life of this great American. The Life of Frederick Douglass presents a complete illustrated portrait of the man who stood up and spoke out for freedom and equality. 

Speak: the Graphic Novel

From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless--an outcast--because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. Through her work on an art project, she is finally able to face what really happened that night: She was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. 

DC Comics: Anatomy of a Metahuman

Explore the powers of DC Comics' greatest characters through stunning anatomical cutaways and in-depth commentary. Concerned about the threat that so-called "metahumans" may pose to the world, Batman has begun compiling a detailed dossier on their incredible physiology and abilities. From villains like Killer Croc, Bane, and Brainiac, to Batman's own comrades, including Superman and Cyborg, the file brings together the Dark Knight's fascinating personal theories on the unique anatomical composition of these formidable individuals.

Brazen

Throughout history and across the globe, one characteristic connects the daring women of Brazen: their indomitable spirit. With her characteristic wit and dazzling drawings, celebrated graphic novelist Pénélope Bagieu profiles the lives of these feisty female role models, some world famous, some little known. From Nellie Bly to Mae Jemison or Josephine Baker to Naziq al-Abid, the stories in this comic biography are sure to inspire the next generation of rebel ladies. This title has Common Core connections.

Drawing for Illustration

This beautiful, in-depth reference book explores drawing for illustration. Salisbury places a special emphasis on drawing, treating it as a fundamental skill that every illustrator should engage with. This guide explores the often-unseen world of draftsmanship that underpins finished illustration work. From book illustration to graphic novels and caricatures to commercial design, this attractive volume draws on sketchbooks, projects, and historical examples to show how they started as drawings from observation and drawings from imagination. 

Upgrade Soul

For their 45th anniversary, Hank and Molly Nonnar decide to undergo an experimental rejuvenation procedure, but their hopes for youth are dashed when the couple is faced with the results: severely disfigured yet intellectually and physically superior duplicates of themselves. Can the original Hank and Molly coexist in the same world as their clones?

No Ivy League

When 17-year-old Hazel takes a summer job clearing ivy from the forest in Portland, Oregon, the only plan is to earn some extra cash to put toward concert tickets. Homeschooled, affluent, and sheltered, Hazel soon finds that working side by side with at-risk teens leaves no room for comforting illusions of equality and understanding. This uncomfortable and compelling memoir is an important story of a teen's awakening to the racial insularity of the upper class, the power of white privilege, and the hidden history of segregation in Portland.

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Alone

On a tiny lighthouse island far from the rest of the world, a lonely hermit lives out his existence. Every week a supply boat leaves provisions, its occupants never meeting him, never asking the obvious questions: Who are you? Why do you never leave? Years spent on a deserted rock--a lifetime, really--with imagination his sole companion has made the lighthouse keeper something more than alone, something else entirely. But one day, as a new boatman starts asking the questions all others have avoided, a chain of events unfolds that will irrevocably upend the hermit's solitary life.

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Library Databases

Search these databases for images of and information about graphic novels.

General Research Resources

Browse more print graphic novels from the SCC Library 

Read Graphic Novels Online

Search for graphic novels to read online through the library's ebook database.  Watch the video to learn how. 

Watch Streaming Videos from the SCC Library

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TEDTalks: Scott McCloud—Understanding Comics

If not for Scott McCloud, graphic novels and webcomics might be enjoying a more modest Renaissance. The flourishing of cartooning in the ‘90s and ‘00s, particularly comic-smithing on the Web, can be traced back to his major writings on the comics form. McCloud coined the term “infinite canvas” for the new comics medium made possible with Web browsers. In this fun TEDTalk, McCloud bends the presentation format into a cartoon-like experience, where colorful diversions whiz through childhood fascinations and imagined futures. 

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Drawn this Way

From Tom of Finland to Bugs Bunny in a dress, animation has long been a place where artists can unleash and explore their sexuality. In this documentary, Andy Cheng and Cara Connors dive into the pages of comic books, animated series, films, and even video games to discover the LGBTQ characters portrayed, and to answer questions such as, how did these artists get their start; how did the genre develop; are these portrayals taken seriously in the mainstream?

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Comic Book Heroes

Meet Middle Eastern animators and comic book writers whose work is now in the spotlight thanks to the conversation about race, gender, and identity sparked by Black Panther.

Check out more streaming videos from the Films on Demand library database.