R.I.P George Olshevsky 1 1

[davidtere]

I received a phone call from Greg Pharis (San Diego iconic comic book retailer (Golden State Comics and San Diego Comics 40 + years of comic book retailing) regarding George's passing. I was fortunate to have met the pleasant and mild mannered Marvel Comic Book Indexer (and dinosaur expert) a few times in Greg's shop. Certainly one of fandoms greats.

Before the internet, before the GCB database there were the indexing of Marvel Comics by George (complete with pictures). I lifted this bit about George from Marvels database.

 

R.I.P. George. 

Graduate of M.I.T. Olshevksy indexed all of the Marvel Comics major titles in the 1970's and Early 80's. This quite extensive project also employed Lou Mougin and many others. Olshevksy was also aided by a complete personal collection of Marvel Comics. 

• Amazing Spider-Man
• Conan the Barbarian
• Fantastic Four and The Silver Surfer
• Avengers, Captain Marvel, and The Defenders
• The Mighty Thor
• The Incredible Hulk
• The Sub-Mariner
• Iron Man including his appearances in Tales of Suspense
• Captain America and his appearances in Tales of Suspense
• Heroes from Strange Tales (Dr. Strange)
• Daredevil
• X-Men

[ADAMANTIUM]

R.I.P.

[Ken Aldred]

Those indexes were great reference sources. Found them absolutely fascinating to look through for artist and character details when I started collecting in the late 70s, at a time when I knew really very little about comics.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Ken Aldred

[Timely]

On 12/17/2021 at 4:59 PM, davidtere said:

I received a phone call from Greg Pharis (San Diego iconic comic book retailer (Golden State Comics and San Diego Comics 40 + years of comic book retailing) regarding George's passing. I was fortunate to have met the pleasant and mild mannered Marvel Comic Book Indexer (and dinosaur expert) a few times in Greg's shop. Certainly one of fandoms greats.

Before the internet, before the GCB database there were the indexing of Marvel Comics by George (complete with pictures). I lifted this bit about George from Marvels database.

 

R.I.P. George. 

Graduate of M.I.T. Olshevksy indexed all of the Marvel Comics major titles in the 1970's and Early 80's. This quite extensive project also employed Lou Mougin and many others. Olshevksy was also aided by a complete personal collection of Marvel Comics. 

• Amazing Spider-Man
• Conan the Barbarian
• Fantastic Four and The Silver Surfer
• Avengers, Captain Marvel, and The Defenders
• The Mighty Thor
• The Incredible Hulk
• The Sub-Mariner
• Iron Man including his appearances in Tales of Suspense
• Captain America and his appearances in Tales of Suspense
• Heroes from Strange Tales (Dr. Strange)
• Daredevil
• X-Men

Sad to hear of his passing. I’ve owned many of his books (he coded them all in a very specific and unique way) and saw him at SD several years back. 

[Gaard]

I have all of them. I use them as much today as when I bought them new.

RIP

[Dave2739]

This is a big bummer. I am still a big fan of those indexes and the other comic-sized ones that came later. Sad news. RIP.

[jimjum12]

I always remember the hushed whispers of his legendary Timely collection. I encountered his footprint while researching the history of Fandom, like most any serious collector did in their initial days with the hobby. He's one of the "O.G.'s" ... R.I.P. 

GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[oakman29]

A true giant in the comic book collecting community .

[comicparadox]

RIP. Mr. Olshevsky’s indexes provided great resources for collectors when there was little information to be had otherwise. I only own one of his personal books, a MMC31, with his unique code.

[B2D327]

RIP

Obviously someone very passionate about the hobby to dedicate that much time and effort into such an invaluable resource for us as collectors 

[Norrin_Radd]

RIP 

You can see a young George Olshevsky in this 1970 CBC piece on comic collecting (@1:35).

He also had a long article in Overstreet 10 on the origin of Marvel Comics.

 

[Dick Pontoon]

I'll second what Ken Aldred said. For anyone who started collecting in the pre-internet '70s, his indexes were an invaluable resource, as well as just being fun to read even if you already had the books. R.I.P.

[jdandns]

The covers on those indexes, particulary the Sterankos, would've made the books worth buying even if the pages inside were blank. Instead, open up each one, and on display is a dedicated labor of love from a superfan in the days long before one could just click a link to get that kind of information. I believe George also worked on some of those mid 80's single issue ICG (via Eclipse) index issues devoted to DC comics like JLA. Thank you, George, I spent many hours enjoying your work. Rest in peace.

[thecollectron]

Thanks for posting this. As others have said, George's Marvel Comics Indexes were a wealth of information in the pre-internet era. I was making my weekly trip to my LCS in 1976 when I saw the first one, Spider-Man, on the shelf. It was a bit pricey compared to a comic book but after flipping through it I had to buy it. I collected the volumes that followed too. Great work.

R.I.P. George

[Book Guy]

On 12/17/2021 at 3:21 PM, Timely said:

Sad to hear of his passing. I’ve owned many of his books (he coded them all in a very specific and unique way) and saw him at SD several years back. 

He didn't mark all of them. I bought a number of Pre-Hero Monster Comics from him from a catalog he put out sometime in the 1980's. I think he was selling off his Atlas collection, or at least they made up the bulk of his catalog as I recall. I told John Verzl (sp) about buying from him at one SDCC and he told me about the code, (which I think I still remember). I looked at a number of the ones I had bought, but none had the Code. I didn't look at them all though. I've been meaning to post pics of them in the Silver Age section as I bought only really nice copies. There wasn't much demand for those then, so Most were still available when I got the catalog.

[Timely]

On 12/20/2021 at 11:13 PM, Book Guy said:

He didn't mark all of them. I bought a number of Pre-Hero Monster Comics from him from a catalog he put out sometime in the 1980's. I think he was selling off his Atlas collection, or at least they made up the bulk of his catalog as I recall. I told John Verzl (sp) about buying from him at one SDCC and he told me about the code, (which I think I still remember). I looked at a number of the ones I had bought, but none had the Code. I didn't look at them all though. I've been meaning to post pics of them in the Silver Age section as I bought only really nice copies. There wasn't much demand for those then, so Most were still available when I got the catalog.

I believe there was a value cutoff to the coding. He would not have coded a $5 comic, but would have a $500 one.

[Book Guy]

On 12/21/2021 at 7:24 AM, Timely said:

I believe there was a value cutoff to the coding. He would not have coded a $5 comic, but would have a $500 one.

I don't know as I only have the copies I bought from him. I think I paid $250 for Tales To Astonish # 1. Maybe it was less. At any rate, it might have been a $5 comic when he bought it. Though he did all the Marvel Checklists, I got the impression that his main love was the older, esp Timely Books. Maybe there was a date cut off?

 

[Timely]

On 12/21/2021 at 8:39 PM, Book Guy said:

I don't know as I only have the copies I bought from him. I think I paid $250 for Tales To Astonish # 1. Maybe it was less. At any rate, it might have been a $5 comic when he bought it. Though he did all the Marvel Checklists, I got the impression that his main love was the older, esp Timely Books. Maybe there was a date cut off?

 

I was told he did it to prove the books were his in case they were ever stolen. I assume he only coded the more valuable books. 
 

There were actually 2 different types of codes he did. There was the long code he did near the spine of an interior page and a -script “GO” that was on the bottom of the last page.

[Book Guy]

On 12/22/2021 at 6:37 AM, Timely said:

I was told he did it to prove the books were his in case they were ever stolen. I assume he only coded the more valuable books. 
 

There were actually 2 different types of codes he did. There was the long code he did near the spine of an interior page and a --script “GO” that was on the bottom of the last page.

Thanks. I'll look again.

[Dave2739]

Had to dig mine out for a group shot. Still love these things. R.I.P. George O.