The Nightcrawler mini serie from 1985 would certainly be worth to be reprinted in a tradepaperback edition. Maybe they could include "Kitty's Fairy Tale" too.

There are no Cokrum X-Men TPBs.

For what it's worth, my best friend Doug, who was also a John Byrne fan growing up, preferred Cockrum's second run to any other, including JB's.  Why might this be?  Because like so many of us who started with JB's work, this is where he discovered the X-Men.  That whole "Golden Age" rule, you know.

The first issue of UNCANNY X-MEN that I received via subscription was #164, Cockrum's final issue (as far as I know).  I had read numerous older issues owned by a friend, and was fascinated by the tone and complexity of the series, so I decided to subscribe.  The first issue that hit my mailbox (in the brown paper wrappers -- remember?) introduced Binary, a character I found interesting...but I wasn't blown away by the art.  It was fine, but it didn't wow me the way some of the older JB-drawn issues had.

The next issue, Paul Smith took over.  I was in heaven immediately.

I certainly mean no offense to Dave Cockrum here.  I just found something extremely compelling about Paul Smith's (and JB's) art right off the bat.

You= great realistic style. no red eyes.

Dave= great style not as realistic, which included cool things like the red eyes.

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Stephane, I think John changed Cyclops's eyes because he looked nothing like a "cyclops" with the two red dots, not becuase it was more realistic....

It's funny... although I've read X-Men for most of the past 25 years, I have a harder time recalling the big storylines drawn by Paul Smith than I do the ones drawn by JB. Maybe it's that those earlier stories planted the seeds for so much of what became hugely popular later on...?

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I think it's partly because Byrne was on X-Men quite longer than Paul. I agree that John's stories like the Phoenix saga, Days of Future Past, Proteus saga and the Magneto fight are as classic as can be, but Paul had quite a few memorable issues/sagas in him, especially important for the X-Men mythos from then on. Storm defeating Callisto and becoming leader of the Morlocks, the end of the Brood saga, the intro of Lockheed, Madelyne and even Rogue to the team, the Japan advantures, the Mastermind-Phoenix thing.... All are quite memorable for me and the only ones I consider to be in the same league as the early Cockrum and Byrne issues.

I would have loved to see Alan Davis do a long, uninterrupted run on the first All-New X-Men team.

I was so bummed when Cockrum took over the X-men the second time. I can apprieciate Cockrums work better now, at the time however it was like David Hasselhoff replacing Marlon Brando in "On the Water Front,", or "Godfather", just a huge huge downgrade. The only artist I wanted to follow JB/Austin was Golden. I still to this day wish that had happened.