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G 9-12 Citing Humanities using MLA 8: How to Cite Cartoons

Put a caption under your cartoon

Fig. 1   Bill McClanahan,  "...But It's Okay Over Here?" 1971. 

Fig. 1.  Bill McClanahan, "...But It's Okay Over Here?" Cartoon, Dallas Morning News, 1971, Opper Project, Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library,  hti.osu.edu/opper/lesson-plans/anti-vietnam-conflict-war-protest/images/but-its-okay-over-here.

 

TWO OPTIONS for Captions:
1. Cite the Creator, "Title," year published.  Put the full source information in the Works Cited.

2. If you provide the full source information under your cartoons, you do not need to provide this information on the Works Cited (except IB prefers this so you could do both). 

Notice two changes: the name is not inverted and all the elements are separated by commas

Problems?

What if I can't find the original source?

Try doing a reverse google search.  Use chrome, right click on the image.

What if there is no cartoon artist?

Use the title of the cartoon.  Your goal is for the reader to be able to locate the same cartoon in the same source that you used.

MLA8 Citation

Pattern: 
Cartoonist’s last name, First name. “Title of Cartoon.” Cartoon. Title of Newspaper in Italics (first container), publication date, Website name in italics (second container), Sponsor of site if different from website name, Location URL. Accessed date.

Works Cited

McClanahan, Bill. "...But It's Okay Over Here?" Cartoon. Dallas Morning News, 1971. Opper Project, Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library,  hti.osu.edu/opper/lesson-plans/anti-vietnam-conflict-war-protest/images/but-its-okay-over-here. Accessed 27 March 2018.

In-Text Citation Options

(McClanahan, fig. 1)
(McClanahan)
(See Fig. 1)

Access date

Access date is not required but recommended when dealing with pages that change frequently.  IB prefers it.   Whatever you choose to do, be consistent.

MLA Container in a Container

 

Cartoonist’s last name, First name. “Title of Cartoon.” Cartoon. Title of Newspaper in Italics (first container), publication date, Website name in italics (second container), Sponsor of site if different from website name, Location URL.

Block, Herbert. "We've Shown that We Are Willing to Go More Than Half Way." Cartoon. Washington Post, 12 March 1967. Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2012637471/.

More examples

Cartoon from the web originally published in print

Block, Herbert. "We've Shown that We Are Willing to Go More Than Half Way." Cartoon. Washington Post, 12 March 1967. Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2012637471/. Accessed 27 March 2018. 

Cartoon published online

Peacock, Tim. "Why Is Trump So Afraid of Russian." Cartoon. The New York Times, 21 March 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/21/opinion/donald-trump-russia-putin.html. Accessed 27 March 2018. 

Cite the Container Source You Used

Franklin, Benjamin. "Join, or Die." Cartoon. May 9, 1754,  Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Join,_or_Die. Accessed 27 March 2018. 

Franklin, Benjamin. "Join or Die." Cartoon. 9 May 1754. Library of Congress, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g05315. Accessed 27 March 2018.