Comic Art Collection Reading Room Index

Record Format Explanations

INDEX SECTION UNDER CONSTRUCTION -- PLEASE BE PATIENT!
Several kinds of records are included in the Reading Room Index:

Cataloging records are derived from the records in the library's online catalog and will usually be very similar to the records found there. These records provide information about books or periodicals seen as whole bibliographical units. The periodicals Fantastic Four and The Comics Journal, for example, have only one cataloging record each. SAMPLE CATALOGING RECORDS.

Analytic records provide information about individual issues of a multi-part publication, or about individual features or articles within those individual issues. Fantastic Four and The Comics Journal therefore potentially have an analytic record for each story or article that has been published in either magazine. In these records, when possible, the artists, writers and other creative personnel, the characters, and the topic featured or critiqued, will be included as part of the indexing. SAMPLE ANALYTIC RECORD.

Back-of-the-book records are transcribed or adapted from the indexes found in certain of the books owned by the library, and are intended to lead researchers to those particular books. SAMPLE BACK-OF-THE-BOOK RECORDS.

Blank in the Comics records refer to a system of envelopes collecting daily comic strips by topic. These topics are all listed in the main A-Z index.

PCVF (Popular Culture Vertical File) records refer to file folders containing articles and ephemera arranged by topic, company, or individual comics professional.

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SAMPLE CATALOGING RECORDS
Here are two cataloging records, one for a Tintin album, and one for the comic book All-Star Western. Note that the final paragraph of each entry, which ends with the Michigan State University call number, sometimes includes a variously numbered list of terms. These are the "tracings" which govern where in the alphabetical index each record will be reproduced. These tracing paragraphs are being phased out, though the practice of reproducing each record in multiple locations in the list is still active in general, hyperlinks are gradually replacing the most inefficient kinds of repetitious listing. 

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King Ottokar's Sceptre / Hergé ; translated by Leslie
   Lonsdale-Cooper and Michael Turner. -- Boston : Little,
   Brown, 1974. -- 62 p. : col. ill. ; 30 cm. -- (The
   Adventures of Tintin)
   1. Adventure story comics. 2. Belgian comics. I. Hergé,
   1907-1983. II. Tintin. III. Series. Call no.: PN6748.T483K5
   1974
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WESTERN COMIC BOOKS, STRIPS, ETC.
   All-Star Western. -- New York : National Periodical
   Publications, 1970-1972. -- col. ill. ; 26 cm. -- Published
   no. 1 (Aug./Sept. 1970) - no. 11 (Apr./May 1972), cf.
   Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. -- Continued by: Weird
   Western Tales. -- HOLDINGS: no. 1-2, 4-5, 7-9 (1970-1971)
   1. Western comic books, strips, etc. I. National Periodical
   Publications. Call no.: PN6728.4.N3A5
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SAMPLE ANALYTIC RECORD
This entry lists an article about Milton Caniff, by R.C. Harvey, in the periodical Nemo. This record will be found in the alphabetical list under Caniff and under Harvey (as shown here), and also under Steve Canyon and Meanwhile ... :

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"Caniff's Private War to Save Steve Canyon" / R.C. Harvey. p.
   32.4-32.21 in Nemo, no. 31/32 (Jan./Winter 1992) -- Excerpt
   from Harvey's forthcoming biography: Meanwhile, The Life
   and Art of Milton Caniff. -- Call no.: PN6725.N43no.31/32
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Harvey, Robert C.
   "Caniff's Private War to Save Steve Canyon" / R.C. Harvey.
   p. 32.4-32.21 in Nemo, no. 31/32 (Jan./Winter 1992) --
   Excerpt from Harvey's forthcoming biography: Meanwhile, The
   Life and Art of Milton Caniff. -- Call no.: PN6725.N43no.31/32
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SAMPLE BACK-OF-THE-BOOK RECORDS
These entries tell us the page numbers on which Oskar Lebeck is mentioned in Ron Goulart's Great History of Comic Books and The World Encyclopedia of Comics , and provide the Michigan State University call number for each:

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Lebeck, Oskar.
   Index entry (p. 18, 43, 51, 212, 218) in Ron Goulart's
   Great History of Comic Books (Chicago : Contemporary Books,
   1986). Call no.: PN6725.G635 1986
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Lebeck, Oskar.
   Index entry (p. 472) in The World Encyclopedia of Comics,
   ed. by Maurice Horn (New York : Chelsea House, 1976). Call
   no.: PN6710.W6 1976
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Further questions should be addressed to the Comic Art Bibliographer at comics@msu.edu

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Page edited October 5, 2005