Historical text from Comixfan:

Eric J. Moreels

Nov 28, 2008, 10:25 am

Coming from Marvel in February...

OFFICIAL INDEX TO THE MARVEL UNIVERSE #2
Written by VARIOUS

Continuing the chronicle of the Marvel Universe, starting with Spider-Man (from Amazing Spider-Man #53), Iron Man (from Tales of Suspense #72 on) and the X-Men (from 1963's X-Men #52 on). Follow the history of the Marvel Universe as it unfolds month by month with the All-New Official Index to the Marvel Universe. Each issue provides synopses for dozens of individual comics, including back-up strips, introducing you to the characters, teams, places and equipment that appeared within, providing vital information about first appearances, where they last showed up and where they appeared next!

64 PGS./Rated A …$3.99




rplss

Nov 28, 2008, 10:16 pm


Ok so we get 51 issues of X-Men in the 1st issue, and 33 issues of Tales of Suspense and about 30 issues of Spidey, all in 64pg. I am going to conclude that each issue is covered by a half-page, with one half of that being an image of the cover and the other half some text about the issue. This is a similar format to the Official Index to the X-Men from 1994 or so. I was hoping to get full page synopses opposite full page cover reproductions like we saw in the 1987 Official Index series. There's not even any thing for Captain America, Hulk, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Thor, Daredevil, etc. For the X-Men this has to run about 10 issues at 50 issues per issue just to get to 500 issues at this rate, but could go on much longer once the other titles start to get incorporated.




Stuart V

Nov 28, 2008, 10:26 pm

rplss wrote:

Ok so we get 51 issues of X-Men in the 1st issue, and 33 issues of Tales of Suspense and about 30 issues of Spidey, all in 64pg. I am going to conclude that each issue is covered by a half-page, with one half of that being an image of the cover and the other half some text about the issue. This is a similar format to the Official Index to the X-Men from 1994 or so. I was hoping to get full page synopses opposite full page cover reproductions like we saw in the 1987 Official Index series.

We are more restricted in space than some of the older Index series, but the format won't be quite what you are thinking. The first issue covers around 50 issues of ASM, not 30 (hence starting at ASM #53 in issue 2). The reason Tales of Suspense will be getting through fewer issues in #1 is because we are allowing extra space for issues which have multiple stories - for example, we won't just be covering the Spider-Man story in Amazing Fantasy #15. And, through experience with the handbooks, we have become very good at covering information fairly concisely - each issue entry will cover most of the same information categories as past Index versions have done (feature characters, villains, guest stars, locations, story synopsis, etc.)

rplss wrote:

There's not even any thing for Captain America, Hulk, Avengers, Fantastic Four, Thor, Daredevil, etc. For the X-Men this has to run about 10 issues at 50 issues per issue just to get to 500 issues at this rate, but could go on much longer once the other titles start to get incorporated.

If sales permit, then yes, the index should move on to covering other series in time. Amazing Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man (initially via Tales of Suspense) are just the first three. Much as our aim with the handbooks is and has been to cover as many different characters as we can so long as the series keeps going, the index hopes to go on to cover as many of Marvel's series as we can.




Andy E. Nystrom

Nov 29, 2008, 02:26 pm

rplss wrote:

For the X-Men this has to run about 10 issues at 50 issues per issue just to get to 500 issues at this rate, but could go on much longer once the other titles start to get incorporated.

Amazing Spider-Man will be the one that really goes on for a while for two reasons: its bi-weekly format (unless the cut-off is prior to that) and the fact that, unlikely as it may seem now, X-Men got cancelled for a while, so that period could probably be covered in a couple pages.

One suggestion for a new category not present in the old indices: a "Reprinted in" category to allow people wanting to read the stories without spending big bucks (Amazing Fantasy#15 is prohibitive if you want to buy an original, but even that issue's backups have been reprinted cheaply a few times in recent years). In the cancelled X-Men issues' case, there's a certain irony that the reprints themselves were reprinted in Gitcorp's X-Men DVD-ROM.




Sidney Osinga

Feb 6, 2009, 07:13 pm


So here's what was covered:

Amazing Spider-Man #s 53 - 102
Amazing Spider-Man Annual # 5
Tales of Suspense #s 74 - 99
Iron Man and Sub-Mariner # 1
Iron Man #s 1 - 11
X-Men #s 51 - 108
X-Men Annual #s 1 - 2
X-Men Giant Size #s 1 - 2

What I'm curious about is why Amazing Spider-Man Annual #s 6 and 7 weren't included. They may have been reprints, but so was X-Men #s 67 - 93 and X-Men Annual #s 1 - 2.




Stuart V

Feb 6, 2009, 07:54 pm

Sidney Osinga wrote:

What I'm curious about is why Amazing Spider-Man Annual #s 6 and 7 weren't included. They may have been reprints, but so was X-Men #s 67 - 93 and X-Men Annual #s 1 - 2.

They aren't forgotten. Because they are reprints, and thus not part of the character's regular chronology, we shift them around so we can group them without reprint issues, to avoid wasting space.




frenchfan

Feb 9, 2009, 04:34 pm


Just a question

Spider-Man : Blue is not in the continuity?

Thx




Michael Hoskin

Feb 10, 2009, 12:25 am

frenchfan wrote:

Just a question

Spider-Man : Blue is not in the continuity?

No, because it doesn't match the continuity of the original stories it was retelling; it told events in an alternate sequence that doesn't fit.




Andy E. Nystrom

Feb 10, 2009, 12:52 pm


So how are the indices selling thus far? I'm a bit concerned because the owner of the comic shop I go to only orders two copies: one for me and one for himself. Hopefully in other places it's selling Handbook numbers at least.




bigvis497

Feb 10, 2009, 01:17 pm


My shop generally doesn't bother with this kind of stuff unless you ask for it, I think they get one for me and one for the shelf. Which is sad, because I would love to see these continue into some of the more obscure stuff like some of the 70's monster and horror books, and some golden age. Maybe tacked onto a series that more people would buy and be interested in, like PP: Spectacular or F4 since there's space in each issue for 3 ongoings. They don't order many handbooks either, so hopefully in other stores they are selling better. Reference books generally appeal to a more limited fanbase though.




Marty P

Feb 10, 2009, 02:30 pm

bigvis497 wrote:

My shop generally doesn't bother with this kind of stuff unless you ask for it
Same here.

In my comicshop, that means zero.

A shame, I'm not someone who must get this, but I am kinda curious how it's all worked out....that might be enough for me to try it......ah well.




Andy E. Nystrom

Feb 10, 2009, 03:52 pm


One area where I think Marvel drops the ball a lot with their fringe titles is in terms of cross-promotion with the Essentials. By that I mean, putting an Essential related to a classic title the same month the title gets relaunched? Neither the old indices or the new ones are ever going to crack the top ten, so why not use the fanbase of the Essentials to encourage sales in the new index series, and fans of the current handbooks/indices to possible sell a few more Essential Marvel index books while they're fresh in the reader's mind? Ditto, say, putting out an Essential Sgt Fury the same month that Marvel decides to relaunch Sgt Fury (which I'm sure will happen at some point when there's more of a market for war material).




Stuart V

Feb 10, 2009, 07:35 pm

Andy E. Nystrom wrote:

So how are the indices selling thus far? I'm a bit concerned because the owner of the comic shop I go to only orders two copies: one for me and one for himself. Hopefully in other places it's selling Handbook numbers at least.

No, we have no idea at this early stage how it is selling. To be honest, since reference guides don't sell anywhere near as well as most titles (as others have noted), I'm not hoping for spectacular sales. I do, however, hope for sufficiently good to sustain a long run, because we have some exciting ideas of where we go after we finish the current titles, and I'd like a chance to achieve some of them.




Andy E. Nystrom

Feb 11, 2009, 03:47 pm

Stuart V wrote:

No, we have no idea at this early stage how it is selling. To be honest, since reference guides don't sell anywhere near as well as most titles (as others have noted), I'm not hoping for spectacular sales. I do, however, hope for sufficiently good to sustain a long run, because we have some exciting ideas of where we go after we finish the current titles, and I'd like a chance to achieve some of them.

That was mainly why I was wondering. I want to see the title at least do well enough to continue on a ways. I also have all the Essentials to date and most of the Gitcorp DVD-ROMS so it would neat to see the series last long enough to cover stuff not in those, where I might not know any of the plot details. For that matter, even seeing the before and after appearances for characters in the more obscure titles tackled by the Essentials would also be fun.




golden_guardian

Mar 20, 2009, 10:32 pm


I'm confused about the chronological placement for Doctor Octopus: Negative Exposure. It's listed for Aunt May and Doc Ock, but not for Spider-Man, Mary Jane, or any other characters. Also, it's placement for Aunt May must be in error because she is actually in Florida at this time.