Why X-Men #175 was split between Smith & Romita Jr.

From an interview with John Romita Jr. in Modern Masters #18 on taking on the Uncanny X-Men in mid-issue during #175, "Oh, that was because Paul ran out of time. He had a scheduling problem, so they asked me to do eight pages over a weekend. [laughter] (...) They said, “Listen, it’s got to be done. Can you get it done by Monday?” I said, “Yeah”. (...) I tried to make it look like his [Paul Smith] stuff, since it was the middle of the book. I believed in doing a slow grading into the next artist. I didn’t want to just shock everybody. At least, that’s what I said, when I could have just done my own stuff. So I did a little bit of Paul Smith-esque stuff the first issue or so. (...) that was the first time I felt the wrath of the fans."

Dork Note: I like John Romita Jr. artwork, but not having Paul Smith finish this issue was painful as a fan. It would have been a great ending to his run on the X-Men. This was a Marvel editorial misstep. Even 30 years later I would love to have Paul Smith finish these 9 pages and have Marvel re-release this book - perhaps as an oversize Treasury Edition!