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Michael Todd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 07 September 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 4115
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 12:29pm | IP Logged | 1
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At that point they were just whistling in the dark.
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Nathan Greno
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 9154
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 12:41pm | IP Logged | 2
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...and the book starting selling BETTER after JB left.
...oookay...
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 12:54pm | IP Logged | 3
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By the time I left, X-Men had become a baby juggernaut, and it went on to grow to full maturity in the years that followed.While Dave was drawing the book, as most of you know, sales kept inching up, but he could not handle a monthly grind, and Archie Goodwin, then EiC, knew the book needed to go monthly to turn the corner and get the sales engine really chugging along. That was where I came in, along with Terry Austin. Sales did not explode with our arrival, but they kept climbing steadily, in small increments, and that continued after I left. The real supernova effect kicked in when Paul Smith arrived -- tho, in all honesty, that might have been just a coincidence. Full credit to Smitty, where credit is due, but this was also the same time the speculators started "noticing" the X-MEN.
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Steven Myers
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 10 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 5715
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 12:57pm | IP Logged | 4
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Nightcrawler had the hot girlfriend before JB started drawing the book. Her origins were revealed in an annual. I always liked Amada/Jamie. I thought the scenes with Peter & Kurt with the girls harkened back to Booby and Hank dating in the early issues. But, apparently Chris Claremont hadn't read those early issues. There's been nothing to keep my attention on the X-Men for long since the Claremont/Jim Lee run. But it still seems the most popular comic in the known universe. Obviously, I'm somehow missing something....
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Joel Biske
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 18 January 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 755
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 1:14pm | IP Logged | 5
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Tho, again, who am I to say "wrong"? Since sales continued to soar, obviously Chris & Co. were doing SOMETHING right!
----
I wonder how much of this was a steamroller effect.... figuring that I was 14 when #137 came out, by the time I was reading the whole X-men in Space bit, I was reading out of habit more than out of interest. I liked some aspect of that was being done, but at the same time.... more and more plotlines and timelines and alternate universes and not resolving sub-plots started in the Byrne era by the time I gave up.
Chris, if nothing else, wrote lots of pretty words. Lots of pretty words. When I go back and reread a lot of the Smith/Romita era and later, there's a lot of overwriting there... LOTS of overwriting....
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 2:05pm | IP Logged | 6
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There was a time when I noticed the fan favorite artists seemed to be the ones who put LOTS OF LINES on the page, whether those lines had any real meaning or not.Sometimes it seemed fan fav writers were the ones who used LOTS OF WORDS. "This book takes a long time to read! Must be good, huh?"
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Robert White
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 4560
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 2:41pm | IP Logged | 7
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I've read Uncanny from Giant Sized X-Men till the end of Paul Smith's run. I've read sporadic issues after this, but I do feel that it started to lose its way after the space saga. There were some find stories and some good ideas, but I think X-Men started to suffer from its own popularity. Circa 1975-1983 was great, though.
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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | 8
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The Smith and Romita years were never as tightly plotted or as grounded as the Byrne run, but I still found them a good read. Every so often Chris would completely go off on one (the Kulan Gath story was just out there and didn't belong in the pages of the X-Men, to cite just one example), but I'm very fond of a lot of those Romita stories (Pete ending up in a bar fight with Juggernaut is a particular fave).
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Thanos Kollias
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 June 2004
Location: Greece
Posts: 5009
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | 9
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Kulan Gath is probably my favorite of the Romita years!! I think Claremont nailed almost everyone there.
I loved the X-Men during Claremont. It was a solid book that could be read again and again. If the artist was a good one, the stories would get that much higher. Paul Smith was one such example, Jim Lee another (although his storytelling was awful).
Kitty's fairytale is also a favorite of mine. Shame on you Nathan!!
I think the Nightcrawler as cute and desirable was the X-Men answer to the Avengers' Beast. Hank was supposed to be a monster but during the Nefaria 3-parter girls line up to be around him.
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Michael Todd
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 07 September 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 4115
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 3:32pm | IP Logged | 10
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QUOTE:
| Nightcrawler as cute and desirable was the X-Men answer to the Avengers' Beast |
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Considering to me the Beast was an X-Man that sentence just seems wrong.
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Larry Morris
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 July 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 622
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | 11
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Can't say as I particularly cared for the Kulan Gath story. I'm not a big fan of magic in the X books. Claremont wrote a lot of stories I really enjoyed, but he was real big on change, and I wasn't always comfortable with the changes.
Never stopped buying the book out of frustration, though. I stopped buying comics period for about 2
years. If I was reading comics, I was buying the X titles. Until Morrison, anyway.
I don't think it's the most popular book anymore. I believe that distinction belongs to the Avengers books.
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Mark Haslett
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Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6547
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| Posted: 08 June 2011 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | 12
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If X-Men actually stops selling so well, it might set the stage for a back to
basics approach-- is there anyone at Marvel who could want to do such a
thing?
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