The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Master Edition (1990, Marvel)

The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Master Edition ran for 36 issues (1990–1993). Publishing format: maxiseries. The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe was intended to be an index of every character in the Marvel Universe. Each of the 36 issues contains lightly-bound, 3-hole-punched, cardstock pages designed to be removed and placed alphabetically into a folder. All issues have a cover price with no ISBN or barcodes present. These issues have a seemingly random selection of 24 popular and lesser known Marvel characters. The front of each page comprises of three views - front. side, and rear - of the featured character in color. The reverse side holds biographical data, plus a small illustration of the character in motion, printed in black and white. There is a front cover which displays the contents and assorted floating heads of some of the characters contained within. In the center each cover is a front view of one of Marvel's flagship characters, e.g. Spider-Man on issue #1. The covers and inside-front-covers are printed in portrait mode, while the interiors are all landscape. Reading this series requires a little manual dexterity as, to view the illustrations, the book must be tilted 90 degrees to the right, and to read the text, 90 degrees to the left, at the same time taking care to maintain the integrity of the binding which is designed for easy page separation.