Official Marvel Index

The Official Marvel Index is a series of comic books released by Marvel Comics which featured synopses of several Marvel series. The books were largely compiled by George Olshevsky (who was for fourteen years the sole owner of a complete collection of Marvel superhero comics dating from Marvel Comics #1, published in 1939), and featured detailed information on each issue in a particular series, including writer and artist credits, characters who appeared in the issue, and a story synopsis. A similar series of indices was published for DC Comics.[1]

Publication history

The Official Marvel Index was preceded by the Marvel Comics Index (also compiled by Olshevsky) and distributed by Pacific Comics Distributors sporadically from 1976 to 1982. These books were magazine-sized as opposed to comic-sized.

The first Official Marvel Index titles were published in 1985, and produced regularly through August 1988. A second series of two titles was published in 1994–1995.

In 2008, Marvel announced that a new Marvel Index series would commence publication in 2009.[2] Titled Official Index to the Marvel Universe, the first issue was published in January 2009, with a monthly release schedule. The new series focuses primarily on Marvel's most prominent characters. The first volume ran 14 issues and focused on Spider-Man, Iron Man and the X-Men. The second volume began in May 2010 and focused on the Avengers, Captain America (including Golden Age issues) and Thor (including Journey into Mystery, where Thor premiered). A third started in August 2011, focusing on Wolverine, The Punisher, and Ghost Rider. Each featured title is later collected separately into a digest-sized trade paperback with additional issues not featured in the monthly book.

Bibliography of Marvel Index series

See also

• Official DC Index
• Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• Official Handbook of the Conan Universe