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Terry often describes himself as a "Tracer". Aside from adding zip-a-tone shading here and there, he pretty much followed what I drew.

And slipped in the occasional Popeye!

“John was more Canadian: it was a more serious approach, a much more—and I’d hate to say mature, but it was..."

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I rather suspect what Chris means here is that Dave was less concerned with established continuity. Chris, until very near the end of my time on the title, had not read any of the previous issues, save the Thomas/Adams ones, and I spent a lot of my time (as did Roger Stern, as editor) saying "No, you can't do that! It contradicts ___________!"

Of course, Chris, being Chris, found a way to do a lot of the things Rog and I said "No" to by slipping them into books over which neither of us had any control!

JB's work is far superior to Dave's to my eye.

The level of detail in John's work surpasses Dave's everytime.  I found his art to look almost "unpolished" and "incomplete" in comparison.  That said, Cockrum's work was better in his first stint as artist than second and it was better when he inked himself than when inked by Frank Chiaramonte (although loved his work on Iron Fist with JB) or Sam Grainger or Joe Rubenstein.

From a fun perspective, JB's work was awesome - and if Claremont comments about John wanting to retain continuity in the series it just demonstrates a level of professionalism, an affection for the characters and respect for the previous creators - if thats maturity then so be it!  Pity there's not more of that around these days!

There's no denying that deciding to make Wolverine's claws a part of the man instead of the costume was a
key decision-- and having Wolverine be very private about his past. But apart from that there's little of
what we think of as core to Wolverine added between GSX#1 and UXM#108 when JB came along. And Dave
tried a lot of quirky things that kind of dropped away once he left.

With the giant success of this character, it would be nice to have people acknowledge the importance of
JB's contributions to his development.

With regard to the death and resurrection of Phoenix, Chris says: "“The resolution of the Phoenix Saga was one of the most frustrating experiences that I think any of us ever had, but I also think it was the right move. The decision, three years later, to undo the Phoenix Saga with the resurrection of Jean was less so, but that’s in my opinion."

It seems to me, based on the fact that Chris, back in the early 80's BEFORE Jean was brought back in Fantastic Four #286, desperately pined for the return of Phoenix as he referenced her as much as he could.

Now, after 25 years of retrospect, he thinks it was the wrong move.

Question for John Byrne - Do you also now agree?  Should Jean and Phoenix have been left alone (as the same entity) and left dead as set out in Uncanny X-Men #137?

Also - Was Shooter a big force to try to restore and return Jean Grey?  Was that story forced on you?

Bottom line, the joke around the office soon became that Phoenix was the least dead dead character Marvel had. So, when Kurt Busiek suggested that it might not have been the real Jean who emerged from the shuttle crash in Jamaica Bay, I embraced the idea immediately.

The death of Phoenix is a masterful piece of work and remains as part of one of the best runs in comic history.  Bringing back Jean Grey was for me a bit of a cop out....but no where near as cheap as the constant flashbacks, the generic use of Phoenix (is it Uncanny X-men 157 with Kitty as Dark Phoenix...for heaven's sake?) and then Madelyine Pryor - who looked exactly like Jean blah blah blah blah blah!  I liked Paul Smith's art - especially when inked by Austin in Marvel Fanfare #4 - so tolerated the script in the regular series. 

Phoenix /Jean Grey should have remained dead, Terry Austin should have signed up for FF inking duties and John and Terry should have had their chance at doing X-men.  Claremont had his chance and quite frankly it became dull very, very quickly!