Comics historian and writer Lou Mougin died on Saturday, December 31, 2022. He was 68 years old.

In the 1970s and ‘80s, he worked with George Olshevsky to create a complete index of all Marvel characters. Mougin contributed to the fan magazines Amazing Heroes and The Comics Reader, and contributed to Gemstone’s Comic Book Marketplace. In addition to contributing to books such as The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents Companion, he also wrote comics, novels, and books on comics history, like Secondary Action Heroes of Golden Age Comics.

Born in 1954, Mougin started reading comics at a young age, favoring titles like Dell’s Mouse Mousketeers and superhero books early in the Silver Age. Once he had co-authored the Marvel indexes, Mougin turned to DC to work on the Official DC Index with Murray Ward.

His first comics story came after a conversation with Marvel editor Mark Gruenwald when he pointed out the continuity gap in the Inhumans. Gruenwald gave him the assignment of writing a story for What If?, though it didn’t run until later as the one-shot, Inhumans Special #1.

Mougin’s next comic was an origin story for the Swordsman that ran as a backup feature in Avengers Spotlight. He also wrote for independent publishers like Claypool Comics, Lucky Comics, and Warrant Publishing. He wrote stories about Blue Bolt, Elvira, and Sparkplug, and plotted an Airboy story, and Mougin’s more recent work was in the satirical comic Spaced Out #1 that was published at Source Point Press.