Comics and Graphic Novels

The UMass Amherst Libraries are home to comics and graphic novels, most of which are located in the stacks of the Du Bois Library and Science and Engineering Library. You will also find a growing selection of fully digital comics. Your best bet for finding all of what the library has to offer is to use Discovery Search.

Discovery Search also shows you comics and graphic novels at the other Five College Libraries. You can request these as well and have them sent to the Du Bois Library or Science and Engineering Library for pick-up.

Discovery Search

Finding Comics and Graphic Novels in Discovery

If you know the title of the comic or graphic novel that you’re looking for:

1. Enter the title in the Discovery Search bar on the Libraries homepage.
   1. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, change the dropdown to the right of the search bar from “Select a Field” to “TI Title”.
   2. If you still can't find what you want, scroll down to the "Requesting More Comics and Graphic Novels" section of this guide.

If you just want to browse:

1. Try one of the following searches, which will show you everything tagged as a graphic novel or comic:
   1. DE “Graphic novels”
   2. DE “Comic books, strips, etc"
2. Use the limiters on the left of the results page to narrow your search to:
   1. "Books" under the "Format" heading
   2. A specific language under the "Language" heading.
3. Add additional keywords to the second search bar at the top of the results page. For example:
   1. (DE "Graphic novels") AND romance
   2. (DE “Comic books, strips, etc") AND Japan

🌍 Check out the World Language Graphic Novels library guide to browse Arabic, French, German, and Italian titles.

Accessing Comics and Graphic Novels in Discovery

If it is an ebook:

1. Click the link that will connect you to the resource (ex. UMass: Link to Resource)

If is a print book, you can either:

1. Click “Place a Request” and select where you want to pick up the book.
2. If the book’s location is listed as one of the UMass Amherst libraries, you can use the call number for the book to locate it in the stacks. Use the Du Bois floor directory to match the first letter or letters of the call number with the correct floor. Once on that floor, use the call number ranges on the ends of the shelving to zero in on your book.

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Overdrive Collection

This library collection focuses on social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion and includes comics that you can read digitally. After logging in with your netID and password, you'll find the Comics & Graphic Novels collection.

If you didn't find what you were looking for in the Five College Libraries, there is still hope!

Place an Interlibrary Loan Request

You can use the Libraries’ free Interlibrary Loan service to borrow comics and graphic novels that we don’t have from other libraries that do.

Recommend a Purchase

If the library is missing a comic or graphic novel that you want to read, let us know and a librarian will look into purchasing it for our collections.