Scholars with an interest in doing research in the field of Arthurian comics -- or anyone else interested in reading or collecting these comics -- face significant challenges. Most comics material (especially in the United States) has been published as disposable entertainment, on cheap newsprint, in periodical formats. Much older material is available only through the comics specialty market; those interested may wish to start with their local comic-book store (try "Comic Books" or "Books - Used & Rare" in the Yellow Pages, or call 1-888-COMIC-BOOK). The Internet offers old-comics-hunters a number of options as well; some of these are noted in the "Online Resources" section.
Recent years have seen more new comics material published in a more durable paperback or hardcover "graphic novel" format, and many more comics stories originally published as periodicals are being collected into trade paperback or hardcover collections. In the annotations of the comics discussed on these pages I have attempted to note the existence of reprint editions, which are likely to be more easily located (and more economically purchased) than the originals. A number of graphic novels and reprint collections (especially from the major publishers) are available through more general bookstores, while others will still need to be hunted for through the comics specialty market; again, there are many options online as well as through brick-and-mortar outlets.
In addition to the comics themselves, the following printed materials have served as sources for the comics information on this site:
Fleisher, Michael L. The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes:
Volume I - Batman. New York: Collier Books,
1976.
Gerber, Ernst. The Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books. 2 vols. Minden, NV : Gerber Pub. Co., c1989-c1990.
Gerber, Ernst. The Photo-Journal Guide to Marvel Comics. 2 vols. Minden, NV : Gerber Pub. Co., c1991.
Horn, Maurice, ed. The World Encyclopedia of Comics. Rev. edition. 7 vols. Philadelphia, PA: Chelsea House, 1999.
Nastali, Daniel P., and Philip C. Boardman.. The Arthurian Annals: The Tradition in English from 1250 to 2000. 2 vols. Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Overstreet,
Robert M. The Official Overstreet Price Guide. 29th ed. New
York: Avon Books, 1999. (Overstreet's work, the longest-established
price guide for American comic books, is also an invaluable reference
for publication information and for the general history of comics in
the U.S.)
I have also used the Schmidt - Meister portion of the "Comics" article in The New Arthurian Encyclopedia; see the "About the Author" page for a complete citation.
In addition to the bibilography of the present author's works, offered on the "About the Author" page, these resources also address Arthurian themes in comics:
Popular Arthurian Traditions (Bowling Green State University Press, 1992), a collection of essays edited by Sally K. Slocum, includes two contributions dealing with comics. In "Thoroughly Modern Morgan: Morgan le Fey in Twentieth-Century Popular Arthuriana", Elizabeth S.Sklar cites Camelot 3000, Iron Man #150, Swamp Thing #87 and the 9th issue of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (an illustated-text format miniseries), along with several films and role-playing games (including one based on "Prince Valiant"), to illustrate her thesis that Morgan's new importance as a villainess in modern popular versions of Arthurian legend represents a negative reaction to "escalating female empowerment" in this century. Jesse W. Nash, in "Gotham's Dark Knight: The Postmodern Transformation of the Arthurian Mythos", attempts to discern Arthurian themes in Frank Miller's Batman graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns (unconvincingly, in my opinion).
Michael Torregrossa lists a number of additional resources (some of which I have not yet seen) in the appendix to his bibliography "Camelot 3000 and Beyond: An Annotated Listing of Arthurian Comic Books Published in the United States c. 1980-1998" , itself originally published in printed form in: Arthuriana 9.1 (Spring 1999): 67-109.
A listing of available scholarly and popular literature about the history and development of the Arthurian legend in general would fill numerous volumes. The Arthurian sites listed in "Online Resources" should lead one to many of the most useful and standard texts. Reference works used in the creation of the "Who's Who and What's What in Arthurian Legend" section are cited in the introduction to that section.
The historical and critical literature about the comics medium is less extensive, but there are still many more good books than can be easily listed here. Two standard popular references that should serve as good starting-points are the Horn and Overstreet works, listed above.
Back to "Sources and Resources".
Last updated 6/9/06. E-mail your comments and suggestions to the
author, Alan
Stewart .