Printed in a high quality 8 1/2" by 11" magazine format, and with work by some of the industries most prominent talent, the Marvel Graphic Novels were Marvel's attempt at emulating European-style graphic novels rising in popularity at the time. Starting in 1982, each graphic novel was a complete, self-contained event, each related to the others only by the common Marvel Graphic Novel imprint. Later, the titles became somewhat less self-contained. The novels were also characterized by stories targeted at more mature audience both in the art - which occasionally featured gore and nudity not possible under the American Comics Code - and in the story lines, which dealt with topics such as coping with the inevitability of death. The first novels were numbered from 1 through 20, with each containing a list of all of the graphic novels up to that point. The numbering was then dropped, but the lists were maintained until Silver Surfer: Judgment Day. The Overstreet Price Guide continued to number those titles as 21 through 38, and other price guides did likewise. There were several graphic novels which did not find their way onto the lists, or into Overstreet's numbering, however, such as Iron Man: Crash from the Epic graphic novels, or the six Marvel UK graphic novels. When Marvel stopped including a list of previous graphic novels in new releases, Overstreet likewise dropped the numbering. The last comic to bear the Marvel Graphic Novel logo was the 1993 title Daredevil & Black Widow: Abattoir.
"The Dreaming City Part I / Part II / Part III / Part IV / Part V"
Release date: May 18, 1982
Cover date: July, 1982
"Dreadstar"
Release date: June 29, 1982
Cover date: August, 1982
"Renewal"
Release date: September 7, 1982
Cover date: November, 1982
"God Loves, Man Kills"
Release date: November 30, 1982
Cover date: January, 1983
"Star Slammers"
Release date: February 15, 1983
Cover date: April, 1983
"Last Dreams Broken"
Release date: May 1, 1983
Cover date: July, 1983
"Super Boxers"
Release date: November 8, 1983
Cover date: 1983
"The Futurians!"
Release date: January 3, 1984
Cover date: 1983
"Heartburst"
Release date: March 13, 1984
Cover date: June, 1984
"Book One: Tortured Souls"
Release date: August 7, 1984
Cover date: July, 1984
"Dazzler: The Movie"
Release date: July 10, 1984
Cover date: October, 1984
"Starstruck Book One - The Luckless, the Abandoned, and Forsaked"
Release date: September 11, 1984
Cover date: 1984
"Swords of the Swashbucklers"
Release date: November 6, 1984
Cover date: 1984
"The Raven Banner: A Tale of Asgard"
Release date: June 15, 1985
Cover date: June, 1985
"The Aladdin Effect"
Release date: June 18, 1985
Cover date: September, 1985
"Revenge of the Living Monolith"
Release date: July 16, 1985
Cover date: October, 1985
"The Witch Queen of Acheron"
Release date: September 17, 1985
Cover date: December, 1985
"Greenberg The Vampire"
Release date: November 12, 1985
Cover date: March, 1986
Cover date: May, 1986
"Hooky"
Release date: May 14, 1986
Cover date: August, 1986
"Into Shamballa"
Release date: June 17, 1986
Cover date: September, 1986
"Conan the Reaver"
Release date: September 8, 1987
Cover date: 1987
"Wolfpack! Chapter 1... Rafael"
Release date: August 1, 1987
Cover date: 1987
"The Death of Groo"
Release date: November 17, 1987
Cover date: 1988
"I, Whom the Gods Would Destroy"
Release date: October 13, 1987
Cover date: March, 1988
"Predator & Prey"
Release date: February 23, 1988
Cover date: June, 1988
"Willow"
Release date: March 29, 1988
Cover date: July, 1988
"The Inhumans"
Release date: August 23, 1988
Cover date: December, 1988
"Assassin's Guild"
Release date: September 6, 1988
Cover date: December, 1988
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit"
Release date: April 12, 1988
Cover date: 1988
Release date: October 25, 1988
Cover date: 1988
"The Dreamwalker"
Release date: June 6, 1989
Cover date: 1989
"Ax"
Release date: December 13, 1988
Cover date: 1988
"Arena"
Release date: February 28, 1989
Cover date: 1989
"Parallel Lives"
Release date: March 28, 1989
Cover date: May, 1989
"Kull: The Vale of Shadow"
Release date: April 25, 1989
Cover date: April, 1989
"Winds, Dreams, and Dragons"
Release date: May 9, 1989
Cover date: 1989
"The Skull of Set"
Release date: September 5, 1989
Cover date: 1989
Others:
Marvel UK Graphic Novels[]
References[]
- Silver Bullet Comicbooks' Answerman column, with Bob Rozakis, answering the question, "is there a list of all the Marvel Graphic Novels published in the '80s and early '90s?"
- Spotlight: Marvel Graphic Novels, Marvel Age #61 (April, 1988)