The cover for Back Issue #29 is an unused Uncanny X-Men cover by the late Dave Cockrum.

Back Issue #29 is the “Mutants Issue,” as the magazine that celebrates “the best comics” from the 1970s to the present takes a look at Marvel Comics various mutant characters and the comic books starring them.  It’s no surprise that the X-Men take center stage in a mutants-themed issue, but DC Comics manages to be squeezed into several pages.

The lead article, “Claremont and Byrne: The Team that Made the X-Men Uncanny” (written by Al Nickerson), takes a look at the two creators who made the X-Men the comic book to read in the late 1970s and early 1980s, writer/co-plotter Chris Claremont and penciller/co-plotter John Byrne.  Nickerson’s article could probably be informative to new readers or interested parties who don’t know how important the Claremont/Byrne run on X-Men was.  However, most of this is a rehash of previous articles, and blogger/journalist Tom Spurgeon, earlier this year, actually wrote a much better piece about Claremont and Byrne time on X-Men (www.comicsreporter.com) and the implications of that work.  Nickerson’s article does include two little-seen examples of Byrne X-Men art – a portfolio piece by Byrne and painter Steve Fastner and a commission drawing of the X-Men’s Storm.

For total wackiness, there is a strange six-page interview featuring former Marvel writer Ann Nocenti (Daredevil) and beloved artist Art Adams (Monkeyman & O’Brien, various X-Men comic books).  Guided by their interviewer Roger Ash, Nocenti and Adams try to remember and recall the creation of their still-popular 80s character Longshot, who starred in his own six-issue miniseries.  Anyone who read Longshot when it originally debuted will read this interview and finally understand why no one since Nocenti and Adams has been able to do anything substantial with Longshot.  The character is truly the result of two unique creators who created something inimitable – something they apparently didn’t really understand, and neither can anyone else.

The Comic Book Bin’s own Philip Schweier presents a retrospective of artist Paul Smith’s short, but memorable (and significant) run on the Uncanny X-Men (#165-175).  DC Comics historian John Wells chronicles the fictional life and times and publication history of DC’s mutant superhero, Captain Comet.  Bruce Buchanan’s look at the New Mutants from the team’s beginning in Marvel Graphic Novel #4 to the finale in New Mutants #100 is a good read.  Mike Gagnon interviews John Romita, Jr. about his mid-80s run on the Uncanny X-Men in the engaging “The X-traordinary John Romita, Jr.”

Back Issue #29 is like most issues of this magazine.  Each article is an entertaining trip into nostalgia, especially for those who loved the superhero comics of the 70s and 80s.

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