This is an absolute stunner. I still regret not buying it in 2018. Not many pages give me 7 years of regret. So glad it's in your collection!

An X-Cellent cover by one of the greatest cover artists of the 1980's! Pretty huge piece to get, man, congrats! Lightle did a beautiful run on Legion of Superheroes, but after that didn't tend to do many issues of whatever titles he jumped onto. I was thrilled to see him take over on Classic X-Men though, because I always said that all he needed was a shot at something like X-Men to propel him into the stratosphere of popularity with fans. Unfortunately, this cover gig only served to help him get more cover art for the most part, but I believe the monthly grind was something he just couldn't keep up with anyway, which is a big part of the reason he was primarily a cover artist after his Legion run ended.

It will not surprise you that to me, Lightle is/was on the same level as many of the big name artists cited in the comments. He was just immensely good and his work on LSH blew my mind away as a kid/teen.

So this is a superb piece and a (very) jealous congrats :)

(and your story just exemplifies how intrinsically evil parents are in that they don't respect nor even care for comics continuity ;)

Always referred to is as CLassic X-men. and yeah all those Art adams covers, or Mignola ones were a huge draw, that said Steve is under rated an did some really special covers. This was definitely a stand out in the run. And I thought you were going to drop all your Como pick ups but na, you decided on a mic drop piece! 

I love this and I am SO happy for you ! Congratulations! 

The change from Classic X-men to X-men Classics was I a decision made becuase of the alphabet.. they wanted the title to be lumped in the "x-men" section on both retailor order forms and newstand placement. 

In the 80s and 90s names like Adams, Byrne, Lee, Liefeld, McFarlane, Miller, and Perez seemed to overshadow almost everyone else in the industry.  But Lightle's talents could not be denied.  That's why even among those artistic giants, we hold Steve's work in such high regard today.  I've done a lot of really stupid things in my 40 years of collecting.  But selling my one and only Classic X-Men cover by Lightle surely makes the top ten of my bonehead mistakes.  LOL  (And yes, my cover still said Classic X-Men, weird.)  Congrats on this amazing score E.

Maybe the nostalgia just hits me more with Classic, but I think the covers often hit harder than the originals, including this one. Just excellent. 

Congrats. I prefer this to the original. 

Further testament to the true talent of McGuinness, but get a load of these Dexter Vines inks! Just gorgeous and makes for a stellar DPS. Big congrats and great to know that Iron Man is the clear winner of this battle.

I agree with you on this being the all time crown tv show (for people of good taste?) and with Kavi on the Sopranos. I'll add my third for the podium with OZ. Good likenesses here.

I actually wanted this for a good while. Nice acquisition!

How how how did I miss commenting on this epicness?