were there x-men fans prior to 1975?

[goldenryan]

we all know how popular the x-men are now and have been for 20+ years but, the early issues were never as big as ff,spidey, cap and the other marvel mainstays. i would love to hear stories of people who were fans from the early days.

[thunderbolt]

wasn't a fan in the 60's, but was a fan of the 70's reprints of the original lineup. Didn't know about tha All New crowd until around 114 or so. When they were brainwashed by Mesmero and put in the freakshow.

[The Toyroom]

^ Yup that's around the same time I discovered the "All-New X-Men" too....I read a friend's copy of #114 and then started buying it with #115-116 (the trip to the Savage Land). Prior to that, I was only familiar with them from their appearance in "Son of Origins" and the team-up with Spider-Man from "Marvel Treasury Edition" #18.

[BlackKnight]

ahhh, LMS... UnBorn Yet Over here.

BTW,.. I dunno if there was many Fans of the Eairly X-men,.. I have read several Articles about the X-men almost being canceled time, & time Again. When Teen Titans & X-men were on the Shelves,.. The Titans would out sell X-men like 10 to 1 .

[goldenryan]

ahhh, LMS... UnBorn Yet Over here.

BTW,.. I dunno if there was many Fans of the Eairly X-men,.. I have read several Articles about the X-men almost being canceled time, & time Again. When Teen Titans & X-men were on the Shelves,.. The Titans would out sell X-men like 10 to 1 .

i wasn't born yet either, so i'm asking if anyone followed them at that time. i would have no other way of knowing being i wasn't even a twinkle in the eye at that point.

[The Toyroom]

The X-Men weren't doing well in the 60s and then were going to be cancelled until Roy Thomas and Neal Adams came along and tried to boost sales and modernize things. Thomas started scripting on #55 I think and Adams came on board one issue later. They didn't last too long and the title crept on until #66, at which point the book was cancelled in March of 1970

It was revived as a reprint comic a few months later (in Dec. '70) and ran from #67-93.
Giant-Size X-Men #1 followed and then the title was relaunched with new stuff with #94.

Now Teen Titans might have sold better (I'm not sure) but it had problems too....primarily with direction and scripters. I recall reading that management wanted Bob Haney off the book but was reluctant to use newbies Marv Wolfman and Len Wein. Their story had to be heavily rewritten/redrawn by Neal Adams and the two were let go. Eventually the book ended up back under Bob Haney's pen.

The title was cancelled by '73, but revived for a few years from '76-78 when it was cancelled again. By two years later, Marv Wolfman (writer) and Len Wein (editor) convinced Jenette Khan to let them work their magic on the New Teen Titans and the rest is history. Ironic!

[censy]

I was really into the X-Men as a kid. I don’t recall the years specifically. But I collected the comics and have a clear memory of the transition from old to new X-Men. My next door neighbor, brother and I would run around the yard pretending to be Cyclops, Iceman and Angel. Then, we became Cyclops, Colossus and Night Crawler : )

Chris

[kingdom warrior]

I started reading the reprints and always loved the original team they were my Favs. I got Giant size X-men number one and followed them when they rebooted. most of my early copies were all crapped out because i read them so much......If i had know I would have kept them in better condition but kids are suppose to read their comics.....

[samurainoir]

I was a Byrne/Claremont kid, but from my understanding, Neal Adams short run of the original X-Men did garner a fan following (Byrne seems to be chief amongst them given X-Men the hidden years).

[The Toyroom]

I was a Byrne/Claremont kid

Same here....I was pretty oblivious to Dave Cockrum's contribution prior to Byrne's arrival....so much so that when Byrne left and was replaced by Cockrum I was wondering "Who's this upstart?!"

[samurainoir]

Same here....I was pretty oblivious to Dave Cockrum's contribution prior to Byrne's arrival....so much so that when Byrne left and was replaced by Cockrum I was wondering "Who's this upstart?!"

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who felt that way!

I liked Paul Smith's stuff, although I was fairly indifferent to JR Jr and Mark Silvestri. It wasn't until Art Adam's Annuals and later on Jim Lee's run that I felt the same kind of excitement that I did when you first read stuff like Day's of Future Past or The Dark Phoenix Saga.

[The Toyroom]

Paul SmIth didn't last long enough on X-Men.....I was extremely disappointed by his replacement John Romita Jr. Silvestri was ennnnh. I agree that Art Adams minor contributions at that point to the X-Men mythos were great though. Jim Lee did revitalize interest but then everything when crazy with multiple series and teams and spin-offs........

[samurainoir]

It just occurred to me that I did start by reading the reprints of the original X-Men first, which led me into Byrne and Claremont's run.

AMAZING ADVENTURES! It was the the first appearance of The Blob that was my first X-Men comic ever.


I'm sure it was the popularity of the Byrne/Claremont X-Men at this point that spurred these reprints. Part of the appeal was it also reprinted the origin stories of each of the individual X-Men as well.

I remember there was an ad at the back saying that if you enjoyed the adventures of the original X-Men, you'll also love the adventures of the new X-Men.

It was also kind of cool as a kid to try and figure out the continuity between the original X-Men and Uncanny X-Men. Cyclops was still around and still the leader of course. How did Jean Grey become Pheonix? And where did all these other X-Men come from? Where were Angel and Ice Man (other than the cartoon)?

Blob showed up in Avengers Annual with a new Brotherhood (where was Magneto?).

How did Ice Man go from being Snowy to Icy?

It blew my mind the day I realized my favourite character from The Avengers was also the same guy in the original X-Men (the were both named Hank McCoy!). At first I thought it was like the difference between Earth 1 and Earth 2. They didn't act the same and one was furry.

I started reading the reprints and always loved the original team they were my Favs. I got Giant size X-men number one and followed them when they rebooted. most of my early copies were all crapped out because i read them so much......If i had know I would have kept them in better condition but kids are suppose to read their comics.....

[The Toyroom]

Heh...we must have travelled in the same circles...I remember my "X-Men friend" having a copy of that same issue. Of course I was already familiar with the story, since it had been reprinted prior in "Marvel's Greatest SuperHero Battles" (the Fireside book).

[aquatroy]

I started collecting X-Men with issue 102 (Clair & Cockrum). That's the comic that hooked me. Afterwords I started collecting early issues of X-Men and Cockrum's LoSH.