JB wrote: wrote: Yet you and Dean must be in theminority, Wallace. As I have pointed out many times, the book took off after Ileft. ... The birth of the DSM had a lot to do with the success of the X-Men. Remember,many shops were run by dealers (not retailers) who already thought UNCANNY wasa “hot” title. So they ordered accordingly.

I've thought long and hard about these points over the years. As I mentioned recently in another thread, I was stationed overseas towards the end of the Dark Phoenix saga and had the opportunity to by multiple copies of UXM 135, 136and 137 at the "Stars and Stripes" (Military book & magazine stores) over the course of about a month - at first because other comics readers wanted copies and later because ... well ... they were there, and it was known that if the comics didn't sell after a few months, the covers were stripped off and the comics thrown away.  Couldn't have that!!!

The quality of the UXM continued to drive demand, and soon enough I was buying two copies (one for me and one as a "loaner" copy.  By the time DOFP (#141 & #142) word had gotten out about the title, and it became tough to get a copy.  I continued to pick up two issues of the title when they were released, and made it a point to be there on Thursday afternoons (when they stacked new titles) to make sure I got my copies.

After JB left the title, I was disappointed but still enjoyed the storyline enough to keep buying my copies ... When JB moved over to the FF on issue #232,I was right there, buying my copies.  Other readers were still passing around my second copies, and other more loyal readers were now right there with me on Thursdays picking up THEIR copies.

Even though my interest in the UXM tapered off after issue 150, I had pretty much trained myself to 1) buy multiple copies of the "hot" titles,and 2) expand my purchasing to include the FF and other titles that had piqued my interest - even though the only "must" read for me at the time was the FF.

The "Stars and Stripes" newsstand was still using the normal books-and-magazine distribution model, while we (the local comic’s readers) had started buying multiple titles and multiple copies of some titles.  About the same time, the local demand for back issues of popular titles - like the UXM - was also driving up sales. 

In our little microcosm, we considered the Claremont/Byrne run of the UXM as the gold standard of that era's quality, and silly idiots like me who had bought extra copies of those issues could sell off the extra copies at multiple times their purchased price.  And all this in an environment where there was no local comics shop!

All that to say that I tend to think that the reason for the uptick in sales for comics ... even ones I knew I had lost some interest in ... was a more a reaction to how comics readers were purchasing books in this "new" DSM era than the actual quality of the book. 

I felt I had to do that since page one sets up a subplot, and isn’t really part of where last issue left off.

Ain’t I a sweetheart?

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Lapsed.