••

Book would probably have been cancelled shortly thereafter.

I've said it a hundred times, and not once have I been kidding, that given the sharp rise in sales that started AFTER I left, it can only be assumed the readers WANTED what Chris was giving them, and I was only holding him back.

QUOTE: Book would probably have been cancelled shortly thereafter

Considering what you later did on your Fantastic Four run, I doubt that your X-Men would have been axed.

++

Considering what you later did on your Fantastic Four run, I doubt that your X-Men would have been axed.

••

Context, context, context. The John Byrne who would have taken over X-MEN with 108 was not the same John Byrne who took over FF with 232. Plus, X-MEN was one step ahead of the cancelation ax virtually the whole time Chris and I were working on it together. The very definition of a "cult book". FF, altho that later version of me was able to bump the sales by some 90,000, was already on a much healthier footing when I arrived.

Over the years, I have been surprised and disappointed by how many people, fans and pros alike, I have encountered who have "no sense of history". Who think comics have always been in whatever shape they were when those people started reading.

Todd McFarlane chiding Kirby and Ditko for not creating something like Image "back when they were hot", for example -- without any apparent awareness that the Direct Sales Market, the thing that made Image possible, didn't exist during the period to which he was referring.

Terry Austin once told me of actually getting into an argument with an assistant editor, up at Marvel, who insisted that the pages had NEVER had lettering on them. Not in the entire history of the industry! (Which I guess makes all the Silver Age pages decorating my Studio walls FORGERIES, since each and every one has lettering on it!)

The popularity of various titles and characters falls well within this area, of course. It's only natural, I suppose, for some people to assume that a book they like is a book EVERYBODY likes. Their favorite characters are EVERYBODY'S favorites.

With the X-Books and characters, which have dominated the marketplace for so long -- thirty years or more, now!! -- it's not surprising that some would think that's the position they've always held. Especially in an environment in which (also depressing) so many actually RESIST learning the publishing history of the books and companies.

••

As long as we're off-topic, one of my pet peeves there: acres of space around the character, but the second balloon is place ON TOP of him!!

Cyclops, while a bit moody at times, was always honest and noble.  A real hero and leader.  Much like Captain America.   

Back on the original topic, I really like Nova's costume, it's perfect for a Super-Hero who gets his powers and costume from an alien.