Monday, 22 October 2012

1978: MARVEL COMICS INDEX - ISSUE 1


THE MARVEL COMICS INDEX was, as the name suggests, a series of publications (not actually published by Marvel.  At least, not at first...) with the ambitious aim to chronicle the Marvel Universe, story-by-story.  

Masterminded by uber-fan George Olshevsky, these magazine-format guides launched in 1976 and appeared sporadically until 1982.  Marvel then drafted-in Olshevsky to pen THE OFFICIAL MARVEL INDEX series (which broadly followed the same formula, albeit now comic book-sized with colour interiors).

This is the cover for that fateful first edition which covered THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.

Marvel has periodically revisited the INDEX series in the intervening decades, most recently in the last few years.  The latest incarnation, which was, unfortunately, cancelled earlier this year combined three series in the monthly book before reissuing the material in handy book-format.  Marvel smartly picked media-friendly titles to index, coinciding in most cases with the latest Marvel theatrical film.  

At the time of writing, the WOLVERINE book seems to have vanished from the schedules, presumably awaiting the release of the next movie.  

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