Graphic Novels

The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States. Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use.

The John Hay Library underwent extensive renovations to the first floor in 2014, providing enhanced research and study space in the restored main Reading Room, a separate fully-updated Special Collections Reading Room, an expanded Exhibition Gallery, a new Consultation Room, and a convenient Student Lounge.

The Belgian Comic Strip Center has a study library housing what is probably the biggest collection of comic strips in the world. The study library allows visitors access to all the collections of albums, magazines and reference works conserved at BCSC. The reading room contains a selection of over 3,000 albums; you will also find albums translated into over 36 languages. The study library collection can be viewed in the online catalog

The Comic Art Collection holds over 300,000 items. Most of these items are American comic books, but also included are over 1,000 books of collected newspaper comic strips, over 50,000 international comic books, and several thousand books and periodicals about comics. The international comics are especially strong in the areas of European, Latin American, and Asian comics.

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum houses the world’s largest collection of materials related to cartoons and comics, including original art, books, magazines, journals, comic books, archival materials, and newspaper comic strip pages and clippings.

The British Cartoon Archive is dedicated to the history of British cartooning over the last two hundred years. The BCA holds the artwork for over 200,000 British editorial, socio-political, and pocket cartoons, supported by large collections of comic strips, newspaper cuttings, books and magazines. The BCA is located in Canterbury at the University of Kent and is part of Special Collections & Archives in the Templeman Library

AHC collections are unique in documenting the editors and writers of this industry increasingly recognized by scholars as having a significant impact on the nation’s popular culture.