“To me, it’s all one story. Because life is a single story”

— Chris Claremont

To prepare for the cross-time caper that is Bryan Singer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, we were treated to a preview of Comics in Focus: Chris Claremont’s X-Men. The documentary produced by Patrick Meaney forRespect! Films and the Sequart Research & Literacy Organization includes interviews with Chris Claremont, and other instrumental professionals involved in the Claremont Era of X-Men including Len Wein, Louise Simonson, Ann Nocenti and Jim Shooter.

After Stan and Jack’s X-Men run, Roy Thomas and Neal Adams attempted to revive the book before it devolved into reprints and remained a essentially a third tier book. May 1975’s Giant Size X-Men #1 was the shot in the arm the series needed to continue to prosper.

Written by Len Wein and drawn by Dave Cockrum, the success of the book prompted a renewal of sorts with former Marvel intern Chris Claremont starting writing chores on the book in August of 1975.

The new international team of mutants would have their life stories told by Claremont, Cockrum, John Byrne and Terry Austin for years to come.

[READ MORE at FORCES OF GEEK]