Hated JB's first issue, 108.  Fell in love again with 109, probably because it featured Wolverine, had the continuity nod to Iron Fist 15, and the visual of Banshee bearing down on Weapon Alpha (following the startling visual of Moira getting injured by the ricochet off Colossus) made for a stirring finish.

As for Dave coming back, it was just so perfect I felt like it was my brilliant idea.  But no matter how much I tried, I could not will Banshee back to health.  My best friend, his sister, and I would play X-men all the time back then, and I was Wolverine, he Banshee, and she Storm.  Ah, memories.

For the record I was pretty late getting seriously into the X-Men. I was more of a Spider-Man / Avengers / FF man.

#199 (Claremont/Romita JR) was the first American issue I bought and it made enough of an impression that I stuck with it till somewhere around #320 without missing an issue.

I wasn't totally unfamilar with the characters I should add. Besides guest appearences in other titles, via British reprints I had read some of the early issues (Kirby/Heck/Steranko), some great stuff from Cockrum's first run (Eric The Red/Juggernaut and Black Tom/Magneto) and a two part story by somebody named John Byrne entitled "Days of Future Past" which really blew me away. Back then though it was too late for me to get into JB's earlier material. (No local comic shop back then.)

Somewhat amusingly (or ironically perhaps) when I did read #199 (Rachel becomes Phoenix II) I pretty much understood everything that was going on as it used story elements from the reprint of #142 which was the last X-Men issue I had read. Soon after with the help of a stack of second hand issues I was fortunate enough to stumble across, Trade Paperbacks and Classic X-Men I had pretty much read every New X-Men issue.

I stopped reading it someway into the Scott Lobdell / Joe Madureira era for all kinds of reasons. It wasn't the same after Chris left the book, all these pointless alternative reality characters had come into the book and I didn't even like the artist. I think Andy Kuberts art on the other X title might had kept me reading the X-Men titles for a bit longer but the magic had gone for me.

I have sporadically returned since mainly for Alan Davis and some of Claremonts more recent work on the title though I am not reading it currently.

Joe Boster said: "I started with #167 as well."

Uncanny X-Men #167 was the first X-men issue that I bought also.  Does that make three of us on this board so far?  I recently wrote about that issue at length in my blog, so I won't go into detail here, but suffice it to say that I loved Paul Smith's run on the X-Men!

I was introduced to John Byrne's X-Men run when I bought the Phoenix Saga trade paperback that came out in 1983 (or so?).  I was absolutely amazed by that story and read the book until the pages separated from the binding.  I still have that book today and it's in pretty sad shape....

As I gradually bought back issues over time, I came to know and love the early issues of the new X-Men, by both Byrne and Cockrum.  There was definitely magic in those early issues that endures to this day.  In particular, issues 98-144 stand out in my mind as some of the best comic storytelling of all time.

By contrast, the second coming of Cockrum on the X-Men was fairly unremarkable in my mind.  As much as I enjoyed his work on new X-Men in the early days, I found the stories and art in issues 145-158 to be pretty bland.  I don't know whether that was Claremont or Cockrum of some combination thereof, but those issues lacked something.

I definitely enjoyed issues 161-164, but it's hard to tell whether that was the new and different plotline or Cockrum's improved pencils.  He had a breather for a couple of months while guest artists Bill Sienkiewicz (159) and Brent Anderson (160) filled in, so maybe that's the reason for the rebound in those latter issues.

In any case, given some of the schlock that followed the magnificent X-Men runs of Byrne, Cockrum, Smith and Romita, Jr. - all of which I bought and read - I probably shouldn't spend too much time nitpicking on this topic.....

I remember issue 169 of the X-Men as being extremely well drawn.  Even though I haven't leafed through that issue in probably 20 years, I remember the detail Smith gave to things like panes of glass at the Hellfire Club that showed he was on a high then.  Maybe he had a different inker?  I had some problems with him at the time (never liked his covers and thought 172's was blah) but love him now.

Much like Byrne with Austin, JRJR's work looked its best due to the inking wizardry of the beloved Dan Green.  The texture he gave to Romita Jrs pencils was great. (I am thinking now of simple scenes like when Storm comes across the sunbathing Rogue in issue 185).  Whenever Green didn't ink JRJR, the art would suffer.

After Byrne, Claremont's plots and subplots would drag on too long for me.  Storm lost her powers, cool twist!  But then a few years later she still hadn't regained them.  Good lord.

All those long running subplots (during the Romita JR. and Silvestri era) were part of the fun for me. I guess though the book had taken on (as JB would put it) the "clubhouse mentality" but being "in the club" I was (selfishly perhaps) enjoying the long ride.

I wonder how accesable the title was to new readers back then?

Much like Byrne with Austin, JRJR's work looked its best due to the inking wizardry of the beloved Dan Green. 

***

Terry Austin was certainly a very fine inker -- witness how some of the X-MEN covers by Cockrum, even when John Byrne was the lead artist, just came totally alive when inked by Austin -- and I am definitely a fan...

...but I don't think it's at all accurate to pigeonhole Mr. Byrne's work as being at its "best" only as inked by Austin.