Before Wikipedia, there was Marvel Comics Index


It is interesting to me to think that as Marvel Comics entered its fourth and fifth decades in the 1970s and 80s that they didn't have a complete archive of the comics they printed, dating back to 1939 with Marvel Comics No. 1. 

Issues were missing here and there and the idea of the possibility of issues lost to history is unfathomable with how prestigious and popular the comic book company would eventually become.  

Thankfully, a collector by the name of George Olshevsky, a comic collector on a level that surpasses all others, was the only person in the world to collect the complete works of Marvel Comics from the very beginning. 

Beginning in 1976, Olshevsky shared his incredible comic collection with the world, doing summaries on each issue of the key Marvel series. I recently picked up one of those guides in issue No. 5 of the Mighty Thor index from November 1977. 

Here's what each page looks like with the key details and credits of each issue plus any additional comments that might be interesting. 


These are magazine-sized issues and later in the 1980s, the information was reworked into the Official Marvel Index that was put out in comic book form over several years that gave fans an impossible amount of information about the Marvel universe. 


I really like this first page illustration because, to me, it has a distinct Mad Magazine illustration feel.

Comments

Fuji said…
Whoa. An entire run of every Marvel comic book? That must have taken up some serious space. Hope his collection is in a museum or something.
cynicalbuddha said…
I love those old comics indexs. Takes me back to my youth before the internet, when you had to look stuff up in books.
Jon said…
I've know about George and his collection since I was a kid, but have yet to ever see one of his indexes in person.