The Final "X"

I took possession of X-men #94 this week, marking another series I've completed (I didn' t bother with the original team). I now have X-men (or Uncanny X-men) #94 through to #250. I never really actively went after the X-books, I just pîcked them up now and then when I was hunting for FFs, ASMs & Avengers books, but I did make it in the end.

What's a bit odd,is that I never read X-men as a kid, I'll be reading the Claremont-Byrne classic stories for the first time in their original format this month. What's even stranger When I read comics as a kid, these exact issues were coming out, if I had bought them at the time, I would have paid cover price instead of the small fortune I had to put on the table this time.

I don't really know the real reason why I never picked up the X-men books, I didn't really know the characters as they weren't that big in Europe in the late 70's and early 80's. On the other hand I never saw the X-men books on the shelf



Growing up in Belgium in the late 70's and early 80's....US comics were VERY hard to come by, I certainly didn't know of any shop selling them.
Luckily my mother took us to the UK about 4 times a year and then I tried picking up as much Marvels and DCs as possible, which almost meant the ones that came out that particular month and some that were left on the shelves from the previous months...
I had the weirdest collection, never more than two consecutive issues and absolutely nothing else than spandex, spandex and more spandex...

So I probably always got the second or third choice comics, I'm assuming the X-men issues sold out quickly and remember I was shopping at grocery stores and newsagents, not real comic stores which had backissues. Ah the scars of my youth and young manhood...how I ever grew up to be a well-balanced individual is still a small miracle