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James Woodcock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 21 September 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 8547
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 11:34am | IP Logged | 1
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Is someone at Marvel being just way too “clever”?
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Dave Thorpe wasn't it?
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Ben Stamer
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 December 2023
Location: United States
Posts: 57
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 11:40am | IP Logged | 2
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It appears that British writer Dave Thorpe coined Earth-616 while working on a Captain Britain story with Alan Moore and Alan Davis. In the early 80s. Thorpe wrote a book connecting his coining of the number and alternate realities to imagination and how he dealt with cerebral palsy. He sadly passed away around a year after the book was published. And the conclusion of where the number came from and what it's referencing was indeed the intention.
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Kevin Brown
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 May 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 9132
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 12:11pm | IP Logged | 3
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I got mine yesterday. Hefty or not, I plan on waiting a few weeks to read in order to bring it with me on my transatlantic cruise. I want to savor this and not have anything bothering me as I relax with it.
I did flip through it already and it's absolutely gorgeous.
Edit: I just saw that it's already out of stock on Amazon. I got mine just in time!
Edited by Kevin Brown on 24 June 2026 at 12:16pm
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136379
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | 4
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Pre-orders wiped out Amazon’s stock almost overnight. My contact at Abrams says they have not previously seen anything like this. They were checking the sales reports daily!Zounds!
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Vinny Valenti
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8607
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 1:29pm | IP Logged | 5
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"It’s about half and half. If you look closely You may note Paul interprets eyes somewhat differently from how I do."
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Funny, I picked up on that. But half and half surprises me. That's good though - the fact that the inks are so cohesive keeps it from being a mild distraction from enjoying the tales themselves. And honestly, I never would have picked up on Walt's page if I didn't know ahead of time. I'm not going to try to figure the pages out more than this. I'm just glad that you got back into the inking saddle, also!
Edited by Vinny Valenti on 24 June 2026 at 1:31pm
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Vinny Valenti
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8607
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 1:42pm | IP Logged | 6
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I'm actually suprised by all of the positive reaction - not because of a lack of fath in the project itself , but because of the pessimism I've been having towards the general comics fandom. But I'm seeing comments from "civilians" like "This is the first readable X-Men story in a long time".
So, there's hope after all!
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Tim O Neill
Byrne Robotics Security
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 10973
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | 7
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I dove right in when I got it last night - the paper is
indeed wonderful. This is how a hardback comic book should
look and feel.
The introduction is a very welome touch - so great to
review the genesis of the project here on the forum.
The inks and colors are stunning! And I was already very
happy with the pencils-only version!
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 136379
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | 8
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"This is the first readable X-Men story in a long time".••• Out of all of Marvel’s titles, X-MEN has been most a victim of its own success. Beginning in the Eighties, when the bean counters discovered the word “mutant” meant a guaranteed bump in sales, the franchise got spread thinner and thinner, with a diminishing effect on quality. The fan mentality took a larger and larger role, and once the DSM became dominant the only criteria was SALES! (It was very depressing to witness fans learning terms like “market share” and “sell-thru”.) It was also largely due to X-Men that more and more I heard the question “What’s a good place to jump on?” The inbred environment created a situation in which potential new readers were being driven away by the guys behind the counter insisting half a year’s worth of back issues had to be read before taking on the latest offering. I did the best I could with ELSEWHEN to remember Mort Weisinger’s immortal admonition: Every issue is the first issue for somebody.
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Vinny Valenti
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8607
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | 9
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Every now and then I've thought about what might have happened if you had remained scripter on the '91 relaunch just a bit longer until after Lee and Portacio left the title. You would have been offered the full writing gigs!
But then I remembered that just after they left, all of the X-titles got roped into a multi-issue crossover - and I realized that you probably would have just noped out of that, anyway.
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Edward Aycock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 July 2024
Location: United States
Posts: 215
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 3:39pm | IP Logged | 10
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Sold out in one day!!
Already on eBay - in the UK. Conversion makes it 3/4 more than the US cover price. 10 watchers.
But what I am happy about is that this will enable others to discover JB for the first time. I'm not saying "hopefully," I am that convinced. I discovered JB when I was 13 in 1984. At the time, I felt like I had missed so much and back issues were priced out of my reach, and the only trade paperback - which has since been published over and over in every permutation - was the Dark Phoenix story with the Sienkiewicz cover (where I guess that this is what made starting at issue 129 canon instead of 125 which would have made much more sense.) But there was so much to come after 1984, so many great things, amongst which I consider his magnum opus: Next Men.
I've been going through my storage closet lately, looking to sell on eBay. Almost everything must go except my JB items. Those are all being kept. Forever.
Edited by Edward Aycock on 24 June 2026 at 4:03pm
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Peter Martin
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 March 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 16480
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | 11
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Multiverses and crossovers were the death of comics for me. Elsewhen is self-contained and tells you everything you need to know within its own pages. And it does a nice balancing job of telling enough chunk of story in one issue to satisfy, while sowing the seeds of a continuing story to leave you wanting more.
And it was free!
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Jason K Fulton
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 23 September 2016
Location: United States
Posts: 830
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| Posted: 24 June 2026 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | 12
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Has there been any discussion regarding publishing an artist's edition with the pencils at full size? I know we can just...see them in the FANFIC channel, but there is a magic to seeing the pencils at full size, on paper, in your hands.
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