Debuting this week is a brand new database devoted to the history of alternative comics: Underground and Independent Comics, Comix, and Graphic Novels, the first ever scholarly, primary source database focusing on adult comic books and graphic novels.

This collection includes original material from the 1950s to today along with interviews, commentary, theory, and criticism from journals, books, and magazines. The contents–which will eventually consist of over 70,000 pages of comics–range from classics of the early underground years, such as Bob Burden and Trina Robbins, to giants of the modern indie scene like Daniel Clowes and Dash Shaw.

Users can create free accounts that allow them to create “playlists”–lists of links to thematic content: perhaps a list of all the comics by Los Bros Hernandez, or all the comics that deal with drug use.  These lists can be embedded in papers or on CourseWorks pages.

If you have any questions, contact the Graphic Novels librarian, Karen Green, at klg19@columbia.edu.