Marvel Comics Index Spider-Man And Conan

Back in the days before digital downloads and the internet (or even Epic Collections, Omnibus, Archives, Masterworks or even most tradepaperbacks), if you wanted to know what was in a particular comic book, you had to own that comic book itself.

That changed in the 1970s, when George Olshevsky (owner of a set of Marvel Comics himself), put started a series of Marvel Index magazines, that contained that information in multiple volume form, focusing on a character or small group of characters in one particular magazine volume.

Here are the first two of those magazines, one focused on the Amazing Spider-Man, the second on Conan and the Barbarians.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Spider-Man (young Peter Parker, bitten by a radioactive spider, gaining the proportional abilities of a spider, planned on using those abilities for fame and fortune, who also learned a tragic lesson with the preventable death of his Uncle Ben at the hands of a burglar...that "with great power, there must also come great responsibility" in his first tale by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko).   But, unless you had an Amazing Fantasy #15 (August, 1962), you likely wouldn't know that.  But, in January, 1976, The Amazing Spider-Man Index (Marvel Comics Index #1) came out, written by George Olshevsky with a color cover by Ronn Sutton.

Spidey didn't start in Amazing Spider-Man, but premiered in the last issue of a horror/monster comic book, like the old time ones produced for years...

...but, these, along with various Spider-Man centric titles were covered in this index.


The issues covered here are:

Amazing Adventures #1-6 (June 1961 to November 1961)

(Tales of monsters and alien invasions, including adventures of Dr. Droom, all by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Dick Ayers and Steve Ditko)

Amazing Adult Fantasy #7-14 (December 1961 to June 1962)

(Even more aliens, invasions and oddly named monsters....all by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko)

Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962)

(the issue that started it all, but was the last of a run)

Amazing Spider-Man #1-151 (March 1963 to December 1975)


(this is the majority focus of this index, featuring Peter Parker, Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Kingpin and oh so much more excitement and adventure in all those issues!)

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1-9 (1964 to 1973)


(oversized issues, started off with big new tales including the premiere of the Sinister Six, later issues reprinted hard to find original stories from earlier issues)

Spectacular Spider-Man #1-2 (July 1968 to November 1968)

(larger, magazine sized tales of Spider-Man, in continuity with the regular comics)

Amazing Spider-Man (Mini-Comic) February 1969

(Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #42, revealing the face of Mary Jane Watson!)

Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1 (June 1974)

(featuring a meeting of Morbius the Living Vampire and the Man-Wolf, both who got spin off series in Marvel monster titles)

Giant-Size Spider-Man #1-6 (July 1974 to 1975)

(special team-ups of Spider-Man and other characters, including Dracula, Doc Savage, Master of Kung Fu, the Punisher and the Man-Thing, with a Spidey/Human Torch reprint in the last issue)

Spidey Super-Stories #1-14 (October 1974 to December 1975)

(stories published in conjunction with the Electric Company; simpler stories for younger readers, to get them interested in Marvel Comics, and not tied to the main continuity).



All of which had a black and white picture of the cover, title of the stories, writer and artists, main first appearances and comments.

A separate section in the back had a cross-index of Spider-Man comics by personnel, and another cross-index by appearances of characters.

Conan and the Barbarians

Marvel Comics Index #2 featured Conan and the Barbarians, and came out in March, 1976 (compiled by George Olshevsky with a cover by Tim Conrad).  Conan was created in the pulp novels by Robert E. Howard, whose hero was based in the Hyborean Age before the fall of Atlantis.  Conan first appeared in comics in Conan the Barbarian #1 (October, 1970) by Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith and Dan Adkins.

This issue also features bits on King Kull and Solomon Kane, a little taste of Red Sonja, Sinbad, Thongor and Gullivar Jones (all licensed by Marvel at the time) as well as Marvel characters Ka-Zar, Shanna and Man-Wolf!

The issues covered here are:

Conan the Barbarian #1-61 (October 1970 to April 1976)

(Tales of Conan, including the premieres of Thoth-Amon, Red Sonja and adaptations of stories by Robert E. Howard and Gardner Fox, and monsters and sorcerors galore)

King-Size Conan #1 (1973)

(Early Conan reprints)

Giant-Size Conan #1-5 (September 1974 to 1975)

(Some new stories, some reprints, and some a mix of both)

Savage Sword of Conan #1-10 (August 1974 to February 1976)


(Magazine sized black and white stories of Conan, and others like Red Sonja, King Kull and Blackmark, not under the Comics Code Authority)

Savage Sword of Conan Annual #1 (Summer 1975)


(Reprints of Conan the Barbarian stories, a story from Monsters On The Prowl and one King Kull tale with a cover painting by Enrique Badia Romero)

Ka-Zar #1-3 (August 1970 to March 1971)

(reprints of Ka-Zar/Lord Kevin Plunder appearances with his pet sabretooth Zabu in X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man and Daredevil, with new Hercules and Angel stories in the back)

Ka-Zar #1-15 (January 1974 to April 1976)

(skipping Ka-Zar's appearances in Marvel Super-Heroes and Astonishing Tales, issues with new adventures of the hero of the Savage Land, including Shanna, Zabu, Klaw and more)

Kull The Conqueror #1-10 (June 1971 to September 1973)

(King Kull of Valusia is another creation of Robert E. Howard, set in a time 8000 years before Conan, who premiered in Creatures On The Loose #10, got his own title for two issues, had the story finished in Monsters In the Prowl, then had his own title revived with issue #3, facing monsters including Serpent People)

Kull The Destroyer #11-15 (November 1973 to August 1974)

(Kull's title changed from the Conqueror to the Destroyer, as his foe, Thulsa Doom, took control of Valusia, and this story continued in...)

Kull and the Barbarians #1-3 (May 1975 to September 1975)

(With a first issue full of reprints, Kull's saga continued in the next two issues of this black and white magazine, along with stories of Red Sonja and Solomon Kane - another creation of Howard's)

Savage Tales #1-11 (May 1971 to July 1975)

(Starting with tales of Conan, as well as the Femizons, as well as the premiere of Man-Thing, this black and white magazine switched over to tales of Ka-Zar, Shanna the She-Devil and Brak the Barbarian)

Savage Tales Annual #1 (Summer 1975)



(Reprints of Astonishing Tales of Ka-Zar and Zabu, with some art by Barry Windsor-Smith before he worked on Conan)

Chamber Of Chills #1-21 (November 1972 to March 1976)

(Though only the first two issues are indexed, due to having stories with The Dragon Slayer and Brak The Barbarian, covers for all 21 issues are included in the index)

Chamber Of Darkness #1-8 (October 1969 to December 1970)

(Only indexing issue 4 with Starr the Slayer, it does feature the 8 issues of this horror title)

Chamber Of Darkness Special #1 (January 1972)

(The one and only special for Chamber of Darkness cover in the index)

Monsters On The Prowl #9-30 (February 1971 to October 1974)

(Continuing numbering from Chamber of Darkness, reprints of monster tales from before Fantastic Four #1, including stories of Xemu the Titan, originally called the Hulk in Strange Tales, and It the Living Colossus from Tales Of Suspense, along with a few new King Kull tales)

Tower Of Shadows #1-9 (September 1969 to January 1971)

(A few fighters, like Beowulf, Vandal the Barbarian and King Hamand, plus horror reprints)

King-Size Tower Of Shadows #1 (December 1971)

(One special, cover only)

Creatures On The Loose #10-37 (1971 to September 1975)


(Switching over from Tower Of Shadows, first, horror reprints with  King Kull for a few issues, then the title changed...

....to feature Lt. Gullivar Jones, a character licensed from Edwin L. Arnold, though changed to a Vietnam veteran to go with the times, and transported across space and time to a Mars one billion years ago, where he helped a Princess Heru, eerily similar to Burroughs' John Carter of Mars, with the last cover in the series by Jim Sterenko....

...who drew the first cover for Thongor, a barbarian who fought in ancient Lemuria, and was licensed from novels by Lin Carter, fighting his share of magicians, gods and serpent people, whose people helped give rise to the Serpent Crown, which affected modern Marvel stories....

...then Man-Wolf, who was really astronaut John Jameson, the son of Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, and rescued by Spider-Man in his first solo issue.  Later, after turning a moon rock he found into a pendant, he would turn into the Man-Wolf at a full moon.  After a few adventures against Spider-Man, Man-Wolf had his own series, where he faced Kraven the Hunter, the Hate-Monger, and agents of SHIELD, and his last issues were drawn by George Perez, as the series was taking a turn more towards science fantasy)

Worlds Unknown #1-8 (May 1973 to August 1974)

(Odd novel and movie adaptions, switching to movies with the Golden Voyage of Sinbad)

These were just the first two indexes, fraught with problems, as they would detail within the indexes, but there were more to come, including teams like the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, but those are tales for the future!

Doom Patrol Archives And More

The Doom Patrol of the 1960s is a somewhat unique case.  All their team appearances in their own title were collected into 5 Archive additions, allowing you to read all of their adventures from My Greatest Adventure #80 (June, 1963) to Doom Patrol #121 (September-October, 1968) without totally having to break the bank or spend all your time tracking them down.

Here's the breakdown by volume of important events by Doom Patrol Archive, and the work of Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani, as well as Bob Haney and Bob Brown.

Doom Patrol Archive #1

The first Doom Patrol Archive came out in 2002, and features the premiere of the Doom Patrol from My Greatest Adventure #80 (as well as the first appearance of General Immortus, one of the teams most persistent foes).  This volume also includes all of their My Greatest Adventures tales (#81 to #85), the turning of the title to Doom Patrol with Doom Patrol #86 (which also features the first appearances of the Brotherhood of Evil, and its charter members of the Brain, Monsieur Mallah and Madame Rogue, with Mr. Morden trying to join using the Chief robot, Rog), learning "The Terrible Secret Of Negative Man" with Doom Patrol #87, "The Incredible Origin Of The Chief" in Doom Patrol #88, and the premiere of the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man in Doom Patrol #89 (in the tale where the Negative Man and Elasti-Girl get new red uniforms to replace their green ones, as well as the other Doom Patrol stories from the above issues.

Doom Patrol Archive #2

The second Doom Patrol Archive starts with Doom Patrol #90, seeing Madame Rogue get new shape-changing powers, the premiere of the sometimes heroic Mento (Steve Dayton) and alien invader Garguax in Doom Patrol #91, villainous Dr. Tyme in Doom Patrol #92, another return of the Brotherhood of Evil in Doom Patrol #93, the introduction of the Chief's "action chair" in Doom Patrol #94, the return of the Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man in Doom Patrol #95, a team-up of Garguax, General Immortus and the Brotherhood of Evil in Doom Patrol #96, that continues into the last issue in this Archive, Doom Patrol #97.

Doom Patrol Archive #3

The third Doom Patrol Archive starts with Doom Patrol #98 and the introduction of the elemental villain, Mr. 103.  Doom Patrol #99 introduces us to Beast Boy (Garfield Logan), with Doom Patrol #100 giving us Gar's origin, while starting a look back at Robotman's history as well.  Doom Patrol #101 features the mystery of Kranus, and guest appearances by the Challengers of the Unknown, which leads to including Challengers of the Unknown #48 (with the Doom Patrol) in this Archive.  The Doom Patrol and Challengers finish their fight against Challs' foes, the League of Challenger-Haters (who include Multi-Man, Volcano Man, Kra and Multi-Woman).  Doom Patrol #103 sees the team face "The Meteor Man", with Doom Patrol #104 seeing Elasti-Girl marrying Mento (with the Justice League and Teen Titans of the time at the wedding, which was crashed by the Brotherhood of Evil.  Last in this volume is Doom Patrol #105, with "The Honeymoon Of Terror" (as well as all the Robotman-iac looks at Robotman's pre-Doom Patrol past).

Doom Patrol Archive #4

The fourth Doom Patrol Archive begins with Doom Patrol #106, and the last appearance of Mr. 103 in the Silver Age Doom Patrol title, as well as the start of Negative Man's pre-Doom Patrol story.  Problems with Beast Boy being around the team surface in Doom Patrol #107, as well as facing off against the Brotherhood of Evil for every issue going forward, with Garguax attacking in tandem starting with Doom Patrol #108, introducing the android Mandred in Doom Patrol #109, finding out about Madame Rogue's love for the Chief in Doom Patrol #110, introducing Garguax's alien boss, Zarox-13 in Doom Patrol #111, the Doom Patrol and Brotherhood of Evil working together against Zarox-13 and learning Madame Rouge's origin in Doom Patrol #112, ending with a battle against the robotic Arsenal and learning the Chief plans to help Madame Rogue with the last story in this selection from Doom Patrol #113, as well as flashback stories for Negative Man and Beast Boy.

Doom Patrol Archive #5

The fifth and final Doom Patrol Archive starts with Doom Patrol #114 and the introduction of Kor (Dr. Anton Koravyk), creating a time warp and a Beast Boy solo story.  Madame Rogue splits into her good and evil selves in Doom Patrol #115, and the team faces mutants Ur, Ir and Ar, who they defeat in Doom Patrol #116.  The Chief faces the Black Vulture alone in Doom Patrol #117, as the Doom Patrol abandons him (and the Chief grows closer to the good self of Madame Rogue), the Brain introduces a potential new Brotherhood of Evil member with Videx, as in Doom Patrol #119, the Great Guru makes Robotman a pacifist (and turns Madame Rogue back to evil).  The team deals with the Wrecker (Harvey Keller) in Doom Patrol #120, and then faces their own doom at the hands of Madame Rogue (and new boyfriend, Nazi Captain Zahl) in "The Death Of The Doom Patrol?" in the last story of the Doom Patrol in the Silver Age (and this volume) from Doom Patrol #121.

Showcase Presents: The Doom Patrol

If you don't mind reading adventures in black and white instead of in glorious color, you can get the collected Doom Patrol experience by buying the two volumes of Showcase Presents that feature the Doom Patrol.  The first volume features stories from My Greatest Adventure #80 to Doom Patrol #101 (coming out in 2009), and the second Showcase Presents: The Doom Patrol has the issues from Doom Patrol #102 to Doom Patrol #121 (and arrived in stores in 2010).

The Official Doom Patrol Index

If you just don't have the space for Archives or Showcase Presents, you can get the The Official Doom Patrol Index from 1986.  The two issues summarize the original run of the Doom Patrol, as well as giving details on the new Doom Patrol that premiered in Showcase #94 (August-September, 1977) by Paul Kupperberg and Joe Staton (as well as their next two Showcase issues, all under Jim Aparo covers), and a little extra information, all under two incredible covers by John Byrne.  Thanks to Murray Ward and his army of contributors who created this index, as well as to the Grand Comics Database and Mike's Amazing World of Comics, whose work make this article so much easier to create!

All this, and two Silver Age Doom Patrol appearances are overlooked.  The Doom Patrol appeared in Teen Titans #6 (November-December, 1966) by Bob Haney, Bill Molno and Sal Trapani, but it was reprinted in the Silver Age Teen Titans Archive Volume #2 of 2013, and in the Showcase Presents: Teen Titans first volume of 2006, and will be in the upcoming Teen Titans: The Silver Age Omnibus Volume #1 in November, 2016 (mostly focusing on Beast Boy...more on him later).  Sadly, the other appearance of the Doom Patrol, from Brave and the Bold #65 (April-May, 1966) by Bob Haney, Dick Giordano and Sal Trapani, has not been reprinted (but, if DC collected Flash's Brave and the Bold team-ups, as detailed here, this problem would be solved!).  Shouldn't we see another round of Silver Age Doom Patrol reprints....maybe even hitting their 1970s Showcase appearances (and more?).