While generally positive, this piece succumbs to the usual written-by-someone-who-wasn’t-there failings. The first to pop out at me was the author referring to the pairing of Kitty and Colossus as something of which I didn’t approve. An odd stance for me to take, since their romance was my idea!

The whole thing is a cascade of facts, fiction and misguided opinion. Regular readers of this Forum can make a drinking game out of spotting which is which.

And it doesn’t stop with the article. Even tho there are only three comments one is jumbled info, and one is opinion presented as fact.

To clarify, during my tenure on UNCANNY, back in those days when a book’s success or failure depended entirely upon the percentage of the print run sold, we were indeed in month-to-month danger of cancellation. We were building steadily improving sales, but it wasn’t until years after I left that things really took off. And that was due as much to the growing power of the DSM as to content.

Someday, perhaps, a detailed and accurate history of the X-Men (as a sales phenomenon) will be written. A good start would be interviewing those still among the living who were actually there.

This is how the original UNCANNY X-MEN turned into a reprint after being cancelled during the Neal Adams run. Of course Neal’s presence raised sales, but the bean counters didn’t see those numbers until it was too late. Then, when the numbers came in, those same bean counters assumed it was the title that had surged in sales. Nothing to do with the content.

A reprint also saved money, in those days before royalties and residuals. Nobody to pay but the printer.