Need a laugh? CartoonStock is here for you

By Molly Minturn |

In a 1956 interview with Alistair Cooke, American humorist James Thurber said, “Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources, which must be preserved at all costs.” Thurber knew a thing or two about using humor as a resource; after countless rejections of his writing, he achieved success by parodying his crumbling marriage through short stories and then sketches, becoming one of the New Yorker’s most prolific cartoonists of the 1930s. 

Thurber is one of the more than 1,000 cartoonists featured on CartoonStock, a cartoon database now accessible through UVA Library. Anyone with an active UVA email address can access the database and download cartoons for academic and noncommercial use.

A person stands in front of a bookshelf divided into two sections: "Beach Reads" and "Dark Little Apartment Reads." The shelves are filled with books, and the setting appears to be a bookstore or library.
A cartoon by Roz Chast, first published in the New Yorker on June 15, 2025, available in CartoonStock.

A cartoon for every occasion 

CartoonStock contains more than 750,000 cataloged and searchable cartoons, many of which were first published in the New Yorker, Esquire, Wired, MAD, National Lampoon, the Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. Users can search for specific cartoons by keyword, caption, or cartoonist. From there, they can click on the “advanced filter” icon to specify image size, publication date, collection, and usage.

“The new Library resource CartoonStock can be used to explore a multitude of artists and categories of art in cartoon format,” said James Rhoades, Associate Director of Resource Acquisition and Description. “In addition, the drawings can be used as teaching or presentation tools to support curriculum or visual presentations across all disciplines. There’s a cartoon for every occasion or subject, whether in color or black and white. Each cartoon provides citation and license information, and most will make you smile and/or laugh.”

UVA email holders can log in using their UVA email address through the CartoonStock subscription site or find the site in the A-Z list of Library databases. CartoonStock is provided to UVA Library through the generous support of the Charles Locke endowment.

The image shows a user interface for a cartoon library search. It includes options to sort by best match, search cartoons by category, and find results by color, image size, publication date, and orientation. There's also an option to exclude keywords and filter by usage. The interface has buttons to apply filters and search for cartoonists.
An example of the advanced filter search on CartoonStock.

Staff picks

We asked UVA Library staff members to choose some of their favorite cartoons from the database; check out a few of them below. You may notice the work of James Thurber among the selections …

A cartoon of three anthropomorphized books in a bookstore. One book, labeled "Ulysses," is walking away to the "Literature" section. Two other books are observing, with one saying, "Listen, just because he’s moving from 'Fiction' to 'Literature' doesn’t mean he’s better than us." The floor and shelves are filled with more books. Artwork by Dave Coverly.
A cartoon by Dave Coverly, uploaded to CartoonStock on Oct.13, 2022. Selected by James Rhoades, Associate Director of Resource Acquisition. 

 

A person in bed talks to a companion, while a seal droops over the headboard. The bedside table holds an alarm clock. The caption reads, “All right, have it your way—you heard a seal bark!”
Cartoon by James Thurber, first published in the New Yorker in 1932. Selected by Dan Ray, Music Metadata Librarian.
A cartoon by Peter Steiner features two dogs in an office setting. One dog is sitting on a chair at a computer desk with a monitor and keyboard, looking at the other dog seated on the floor. The caption reads, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.
Cartoon by Peter Steiner, first published in the New Yorker on July 4, 1993. Selected by Hope Shinn, Scholarly Repository Librarian.
A person appears overwhelmed, resting their head on a table covered with lemons. Lemons are being poured from a funnel overhead. Numerous lemon juice bottles are arranged on the table. The cartoon is signed by Will Santino.
A cartoon by Will Santino, uploaded to CartoonStock on Jan. 22, 2021. Selected by Todd Burks, Teaching and Learning Librarian.
A cartoon depicts two cave figures inside a cave with wall drawings. One figure is sitting and drawing pictures of cats, while the other gestures outward, questioning. A fire burns between them. The caption reads, "How can you sit there drawing cat pictures given what's going on in the world?
A cartoon by Megan Herbert, first published on Webcomics on April 7, 2025. Selected by Leigh Rockey, Librarian for Collections Management & Video Resources
A cartoon titled "The Tooth Ferret" shows a ferret standing on a bed, reaching towards a pillow. The bed is occupied by a sleeping figure under a blanket. The illustration is black and white and signed by Mueller.
A cartoon by P. S. Mueller, first published in the New Yorker on April 20, 2014. Selected by Sue Donovan, Conservator for Special Collections.
A cartoon showing two people and a child standing in front of a dog shelter. Three dogs are visible behind the fence, with one looking at the visitors. A sign above reads "DOG SHELTER." The caption below the image says, "Oh, and he must like brussels sprouts. Because I don’t."
A cartoon by Adey Bryant, uploaded to CartoonStock on Mar. 29, 2001. Selected by Beth Blanton, Director of Collections.
A person sits in a chair reading a book, surrounded by shelves filled with books. Another person stands nearby holding a book. A speech bubble above the seated person reads, "Bad news. It turns out we can't leave our bodies to library science." The setting resembles a library or a study.
A cartoon by Dave Coverly, uploaded to CartoonStock on Oct. 21, 2024. Selected by James Rhoades.

 


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