Re-reading all X-Books from Giant Sized X-Men - I need a little help :-)

[johnnysv75]

Hi,

Some background info before my question: I started reading X-Men books in 1985, the year The Dark Phoenix Saga reached my country Sweden. The ten year old me was completely blown away. In my late teens I started importing X-Men books from America. I read all X-Men related titles until Jean Grey was killed in New X-Men. (I had a webpage called "Phoenix, Jean Grey - the first X-Woman". I was a huge fan.) During a move the year after that I lost all my comic books (very traumatic).

I discovered ComiXology a while back and started re-reading the X-Men books, from Giant Sized X-Men and onward. It was such a rush, discovering the love for comics again. I had spent a small fortune and bought all Uncanny X-Men from 94 to 179 and New Mutants 1-7 before I discovered Marvel Unlimited. D'oh. :-)

I'm a fast reader and I have read all the way to the year 1986 when X-Factor was published. And soon it's time for Excalibur as well. And after that it's X-Force. As well as (adjectiveless) X-Men. And here's my problem: both ComiXology and Marvel Unlimited are missing several issues of X-Factor, X-Force, X-Men and Excalibur. I have bought Essential X-Factor from Amazon; they have collected all issues starring the original group. But it doesn't seem that Marvel has made any Essential Excalibur. Or Essential X-Force for that matter. (There are several Essential X-Men trade paperbacks, but they only seem to collect Uncanny X-Men.)

Does anyone know if it is possible to find digital comics somewhere else? (I realize it's a slim chance, but still, maybe Marvel released them digitally a while back and they still exist somewhere.) Or if Marvel has collected Excalibur, X-Men or X-Force in some other way than the Essential trade paperbacks. Or if there is a way to buy comic book collections for a bargain somewhere? Or if there are any detailed summaries out there that I can read if I can't find the comics themselves. Lots of questions. :-)

I wrote to Marvel, but got a standard reply ("Thank you for contacting Marvel’s Online Support services. We passed along your request to add these comics to the Marvel Unlimited Library"), so I don't really know if or when Marvel Unlimited will release these issues.

I appreciate any help I can get. I'm something of a completist, as you can tell. :-) Thanks in advance.

For those of you who have read this long (and somewhat rambling) post, and wonder what the missing issues are, here's a list:

Missing X-Factor (1986-1998):
2-8, 12-17, 27-32, 41-52, 69-70, 90-124, 126-149

Missing Excalibur (1988-1998):
35-41, 68-70, 72-82, 104-125

Missing X-Men (1991-2001):
31-35, 58-63, 71-84, 88-90, 100-106

Missing X-Force (1991-2004):
5-56, 59-101, 110-113

[yogaflame]

uncannyxmen.net has issue summaries for all X-books.

[johnnysv75]

Thank you so much! :-)

[yogaflame]

Thank you so much! :-)

My pleasure, enjoy!

[Adam-X]

You can also find the issues (various grades, so cheap, if you want them to read) over here: http://www.mycomicshop.com/?AffID=1055159P01
(And using that specific link helps out the Comic Relief Podcast I do!)

[johnnysv75]

Thank you! I made a search at mycomicshop, and it's easy to navigate, and quite cheap. (My inner completist nerd will just have to get over the fact that I have some issues in my digital book shelf and some in my physical book shelf. :-) )

[noiseredux]

You can also find the issues (various grades, so cheap, if you want them to read) over here: http://www.mycomicshop.com/?AffID=1055159P01
(And using that specific link helps out the Comic Relief Podcast I do!)

hey I'm gonna check out your podcast. The blog looks good!

[ZNOP]

Hi,

Some background info before my question: I started reading X-Men books in 1985, the year The Dark Phoenix Saga reached my country Sweden. The ten year old me was completely blown away. In my late teens I started importing X-Men books from America. I read all X-Men related titles until Jean Grey was killed in New X-Men. (I had a webpage called "Phoenix, Jean Grey - the first X-Woman". I was a huge fan.) During a move the year after that I lost all my comic books (very traumatic).

I discovered ComiXology a while back and started re-reading the X-Men books, from Giant Sized X-Men and onward. It was such a rush, discovering the love for comics again. I had spent a small fortune and bought all Uncanny X-Men from 94 to 179 and New Mutants 1-7 before I discovered Marvel Unlimited. D'oh. :-)

I'm a fast reader and I have read all the way to the year 1986 when X-Factor was published. And soon it's time for Excalibur as well. And after that it's X-Force. As well as (adjectiveless) X-Men. And here's my problem: both ComiXology and Marvel Unlimited are missing several issues of X-Factor, X-Force, X-Men and Excalibur. I have bought Essential X-Factor from Amazon; they have collected all issues starring the original group. But it doesn't seem that Marvel has made any Essential Excalibur. Or Essential X-Force for that matter. (There are several Essential X-Men trade paperbacks, but they only seem to collect Uncanny X-Men.)

Does anyone know if it is possible to find digital comics somewhere else? (I realize it's a slim chance, but still, maybe Marvel released them digitally a while back and they still exist somewhere.) Or if Marvel has collected Excalibur, X-Men or X-Force in some other way than the Essential trade paperbacks. Or if there is a way to buy comic book collections for a bargain somewhere? Or if there are any detailed summaries out there that I can read if I can't find the comics themselves. Lots of questions. :-)

I wrote to Marvel, but got a standard reply ("Thank you for contacting Marvel’s Online Support services. We passed along your request to add these comics to the Marvel Unlimited Library"), so I don't really know if or when Marvel Unlimited will release these issues.

I appreciate any help I can get. I'm something of a completist, as you can tell. :-) Thanks in advance.

For those of you who have read this long (and somewhat rambling) post, and wonder what the missing issues are, here's a list:

Missing X-Factor (1986-1998):
2-8, 12-17, 27-32, 41-52, 69-70, 90-124, 126-149

Missing Excalibur (1988-1998):
35-41, 68-70, 72-82, 104-125

Missing X-Men (1991-2001):
31-35, 58-63, 71-84, 88-90, 100-106

Missing X-Force (1991-2004):
5-56, 59-101, 110-113

I have a nigh-complete collection of X-Titles -- "PM" me... I may be able to help

[Adam-X]

Thank you! I made a search at mycomicshop, and it's easy to navigate, and quite cheap. (My inner completist nerd will just have to get over the fact that I have some issues in my digital book shelf and some in my physical book shelf. :-) )

If you're like me, the inner Competitionist will win out.

hey I'm gonna check out your podcast. The blog looks good!

Oh! Hey! Thanks! Would love to hear any feedback you have about the podcast, the blog posts, etc etc!

[johnnysv75]

I have a nigh-complete collection of X-Titles -- "PM" me... I may be able to help

Thank you! I may get back to you in the future. :-)

[johnnysv75]

If you're like me, the inner Competitionist will win out.

Thanks to everyone who has replied in this thread. It's good to feel the X-Books love.

[Taral-DLOS]

Another good option might be to listen to the "Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men" podcast at xplainthexmen <dot> com. I look forward to their summaries every week. They skimmed over the silver age stuff in three episodes, but from then on its detailed discussions on every issue, tackling 3-5 issues or so per episode. They're up to the start of 1990 now (last episode was Cable's first appearance in New Mutants 86-89).

They've done every issue so far of Uncanny X-Men (most recent episode ended at issue 263), X-Factor (so far up to 50), New Mutants (so far up to 89), and Excalibur (so far up to 20), and all miniseries and major graphic novels up to that point too. They've not done much with the Wolverine solo ongoing (one episode that did the entire Tyger Tiger story from MCP and the first 10 Wolverine issues; not sure if they plan to return to it) and they decided not to do Alpha Flight, but that's their prerogative.

Anyways, it's a fun listen. I like to read the issues they're discussing if I own them.