Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated is an American comic book/magazine series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Les Miserables, Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1969, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies reprinted its titles. Since then, the Classics Illustrated brand has been used to create new comic book adaptations. This series is different from the Great Illustrated Classics, which is an adaptation of the classics for young readers that includes illustrations, but is not in the comic book form.
1941–1971: Elliot / Gilberton
Publication history
''Classic Comics''
Recognizing the appeal of early comic books, Russian-born publisher Albert Lewis Kanter believed he could use the new medium to introduce young and reluctant readers to "great literature". He created Classic Comics for Elliot Publishing Company in 1941 with its debut issues being The Three Musketeers, followed by Ivanhoe and The Count of Monte Cristo. In addition to the literary adaptations, each issue featured author profiles, educational fillers, and an ad for the coming title. In later editions, a catalog of titles and a subscription order form appeared on back covers.Classic Comics is marked by varying quality in art and is celebrated today for its often garish but highly collectible line-drawn covers. Original edition Classic Comics in "near mint" condition command prices in the thousands of dollars.
The first five titles were published irregularly under the banner "Classic Comics Presents," while issues #6 and 7 were published under the banner "Classic Comics Library" with a ten-cent cover price. Arabian Nights, illustrated by Lillian Chestney, is the first issue to use the "Classics Comics" banner.
With the fourth issue, The Last of the Mohicans, in 1942, Kanter moved the operation to different offices and the corporate identity was changed to the Gilberton Company, Inc. Reprints of previous titles began in 1943. World War II paper shortages forced Kanter to reduce the 64-page format to 56 pages.
Some titles were packaged in gift boxes of threes or fours during the period with specific themes such as adventure or mystery. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Uncle Tom's Cabin were both cited in Dr. Fredric Wertham's 1954 condemnation of comic books Seduction of the Innocent.
''Classics Illustrated''
With issue #35 in March 1947 the series' name was changed to Classics Illustrated. In 1948, rising paper costs reduced books to 48 pages. In 1951, line-drawn covers were replaced with painted covers, and the price was raised from 10 cents to 15 cents,. In addition to Classics Illustrated, Kanter presided over its spin-offs Classics Illustrated Junior, Specials, and The World Around Us. Between 1941 and 1962, sales totaled 200 million.Demise
The publication of new titles ceased in 1962 for various reasons. The company lost its second-class mailing permit and cheap paperbacks, Cliff's Notes, and television drew readers away from the series. Kanter's last new title was issue #167 Faust, though other titles had been planned. Two of these titles – an adaptation of G. A. Henty's In Freedom's Cause, and the original title, "Negro Americans: The Early Years" – appeared in the company's foreign editions.In 1967, Kanter sold his company to Catholic publication Twin Circle and its publisher Patrick Frawley, whose Frawley Corporation in 1969 finally published the final titles, "In Freedom's Cause" and "Negro Americans," but mainly concentrated on foreign sales and reprinting older titles. After four years, Twin Circle discontinued the line because of poor distribution. By the early 1970s, Classics Illustrated and Junior had been discontinued. Since the series' demise, various companies have reprinted its titles.
Artists
Artists who contributed to Classic Comics include Lillian Chestney, Webb and Brewster, Matt Baker, and Henry Carl Kiefer. Oliver Twist was the first title produced by the Eisner & Iger shop.Artists who contributed to Classics Illustrated included Jack Abel, Stephen Addeo, Matt Baker, Charles J. Berger, Dik Browne, Lou Cameron, Sid Check, L.B. Cole, Reed Crandall, George Evans, Denis Gifford, Graham Ingels, Henry C. Kiefer, Alex Blum, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Jack Kirby, Roy Krenkel, Gray Morrow, Joe Orlando, Norman Nodel, Rudolph Palais, John Parker, Norman Saunders, John Severin, Joe Sinnott, Angelo Torres, Al Williamson and George Woodbridge.
''Classics Illustrated Junior''
Classics Illustrated Junior featured Albert Lewis Kanter's comic book adaptations of fairy and folk tale, myth and legends. In 1953, Classics Illustrated Junior debuted with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; the line eventually numbered 77 issues, ending publication in 1971. Issues included miscellanea such as an Aesop fable and a full-page illustration to color with crayons. Artists included John Costanza and Kurt Schaffenberger.1990–1991: First Comics
In 1988 First Comics partnered with Berkley Publishing to acquire the rights, and announced it was reviving the Classics Illustrated brand with all-new adaptations. In 1990, Classics Illustrated returned after a nearly 30-year hiatus, with a line-up of artists that included Kyle Baker, Dean Motter, Mike Ploog, P. Craig Russell, Bill Sienkiewicz, Joe Staton, Rick Geary and Gahan Wilson.The line lasted only a little over a year, publishing 27 issues. Titles solicited but never published were Kidnapped, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Red Badge of Courage, The War of the Worlds, Around the World in Eighty Days, and The Last of the Mohicans.
1997–1998: Acclaim Books
In 1997–1998, Acclaim Books published a series of recolored reprints of the Gilberton issues in a digest size format with accompanying study notes by literary scholars. The Acclaim line included Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, with art by Frank Giacoia, and The Three Musketeers, illustrated by George Evans. The series favored Mark Twain with reprints of Pudd'nhead Wilson, The Prince and the Pauper and Tom Sawyer. Other reprints in this series were Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables. The series lasted 62 issues, with three of the final four issues being all-new adaptations2008–2014: Papercutz
In 2007, Papercutz acquired the Classics Illustrated license and announced that they would begin publishing new graphic novels as well as reprints of the First Comics series from 1990–1991. The new modern adaptations were largely produced in France; Papercutz published 12 volumes – including The Wind in the Willows, Frankenstein, Treasure Island, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – from 2008 to 2014.The First Comics reprint series of adaptations was published by Papercutz in a different order from the originals and emphasized some of the later, low-circulation volumes. 19 issues were published from 2008 to 2014.
Digital editions
In 2011, Marblehead, Massachusetts-based Trajectory Inc. issued the first digital editions of Gilberton Classics Illustrated regular and Junior lines. In 2014, Trajectory Inc. was granted the exclusive worldwide rights to produce, distribute and license the brand.International editions
Brazil
In 1948, the Brazilian comic book publisher launched the series, which was based on Classics Illustrated, and which included adaptations of Brazilian novels. In the 1990s, Editora Abril published some stories from the First Comics Classics Illustrated series. In 2010, HQM Editora published Through the Looking-Glass, originally adapted in 1990 by Kyle Baker for the First series.United Kingdom
Thorpe & Porter
The British publisher Thorpe & Porter published Classics Illustrated reprints from 1951 to 1963. Of the 181 British issues, 13 had never appeared in America. Additionally, there were some variations in cover art. UK issues never published in the United States include Aeneid, The Argonauts, The Gorilla Hunters and Sail with the Devil. The British Classics Illustrated adaptation of Dr. No was never published under the U.S. Classics Illustrated line, but instead was sold to DC Comics, which published it as part of their superhero anthology series, Showcase. Thorpe & Porter was bought by DC Comics in 1965.Classic Comic Store
In September 2008, Classic Comic Store Ltd., based in the U.K., began publishing both the original Gilberton Classics Illustrated regular and Junior lines for distribution in the U.K., Republic of Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. The issue number sequence is different from the original runs, although the Junior series was in the same sequence as the original, but with numbering starting at 1 instead of 501. The covers were digitally 'cleaned up' and enhanced, based on the original US covers. In September 2009, Classic Comic Store Ltd announced that although they would continue to publish the Classics Illustrated titles, they were no longer publishing the Junior series after issue 12, but rather importing the issues from Canada. This meant that the numbers used would be as per the Canadian issues. In October 2012, Classic Comic Store Ltd no longer continued with a subscription service in the UK, because of the costs involved. The company told subscribers that they were planning on producing four issues at a time, but not on a specified time scale. The first of these batches was produced in October 2013. The second batch was available in August 2016. The gap was a result of the artwork for them being unavailable to Classic Comic Store in refreshed form – the intention being to publish them at a future date – this was completed by March 2019, after which issues continued to be produced in order from the last previously-published issue.New publications for Classic Comic Store editions:
- July 2011: Nicholas Nickleby became the first new title in the 48-page series since Gilberton's 1969 publication of #169. The artwork came from the November 1950 Stories by Famous Authors Illustrated edition of Nicholas Nickleby and retained the original Gustav Schrotter interior art.
- October 2012: The 39 Steps became the second brand-new title to the Classics Illustrated canon.
- September 2013: The Argonauts was published – one of 13 which were never issued in the US collection but only in the UK.
- March 2019: The Aeneid was published – another which was not issued in the original US collection but only in the UK – although in 2007, it was issued in North America as #170.
- March 2019: Through the Looking-Glass was published – this was not issued in the original US collection, but was published in 1990 as #3 in the First Comics run.
Greece
The publishing house of Κλασσικά Εικονογραφημένα, Εκδόσεις Πεχλιβανίδη, was founded by three brothers of the Πεχλιβανίδης, collectively known as αδελφοί Πεχλιβανίδη. They had extensive experience in publishing from the 1920s, mainly in advertising – but also in children's books after 1936, when Κώστας Πεχλιβανίδης finished his studies in the – then modern – printing techniques in Leipzig.
The Pechlivanídis brothers had inherited the printing press of Bavarian lithographer Grundman – and his experience as well. Having worked for years with offset printing, the Pechlivanídis brothers founded after the war the Εκδόσεις Ατλαντίς house in order to restart publishing children's books. They had read Classics Illustrated while traveling in the US, and arranged to publish them in Greece as well.
The first issue of Κλασσικά Εικονογραφημένα was made available on 1 March 1951. It was an adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, and attracted extensive critique in Greece, both positive and negative. It was the first "American" kind of comic in Greece and also the first four-color or tetrachromous offset. Its cost at the time was 4,000 drachmas, and the first edition went out of print quickly and was reprinted twice in the following days.
Canada
In 2003, Toronto's Jack Lake Productions revived Classics Illustrated Junior, creating new remastered artwork from the original editions. In 2005, Jack Lake Productions published a Classics Illustrated 50th anniversary edition of The War of the Worlds in both hard and softcover versions. In November 2007, Jack Lake Productions published for the first time in North America Classics Illustrated #170 The Aeneid along with issues #1 The Three Musketeers, #4 The Last of the Mohicans, and #5 Moby Dick.In October 2016, Jack Lake Productions republished under the Classic Comics banner eleven remastered original Gilberton titles:
- #11 Don Quixote
- #14 Westward Ho!
- #17 The Deerslayer
- #20 The Corsican Brothers
- #21 Three Famous Mysteries
- #22 The Pathfinder
- #79 Cyrano de Bergerac
- #122 The Mutineers
- #123 Fang and Claw
- #168 In Freedom's Cause
- #174 Captain Blood – new addition, originally published in Stories by Famous Authors Illustrated #2
Issues
Original Eliot/Gilberton run
The authorship is based on the information held by Michigan State University Libraries Special Collections Division in their Reading Room Index to the Comic Art CollectionFirst Comics run
The authorship is based on the Grand Comics Database.| Issue | Pub. date | Title | Author | Adaptation | Illustrator |
| 1 | Feb. 1990 | The Raven and Other Poems | Edgar Allan Poe | Gahan Wilson | Gahan Wilson |
| 2 | Feb. 1990 | Great Expectations | Charles Dickens | Rick Geary | Rick Geary |
| 3 | Feb. 1990 | Through the Looking-Glass | Lewis Carroll | Kyle Baker | Kyle Baker |
| 4 | Feb. 1990 | Moby-Dick | Herman Melville | Dan Chichester & Bill Sienkiewicz | Bill Sienkiewicz |
| 5 | Mar. 1990 | Hamlet | William Shakespeare | Steven Grant | Tom Mandrake |
| 6 | Mar. 1990 | The Scarlet Letter | Nathaniel Hawthorne | P. Craig Russell | Jill Thompson |
| 7 | Apr. 1990 | The Count of Monte Cristo | Alexandre Dumas | Steven Grant | Dan Spiegle |
| 8 | Apr. 1990 | Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde | Robert Louis Stevenson | John K. Snyder III | John K. Snyder III |
| 9 | May 1990 | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Mark Twain | Mike Ploog | Mike Ploog |
| 10 | June 1990 | The Call of the Wild | Jack London | Charles Dixon | Ricardo Villagran |
| 11 | July 1990 | Rip Van Winkle | Washington Irving | Jeffrey Busch | Jeffrey Busch |
| 12 | Aug. 1990 | The Island of Doctor Moreau | H. G. Wells | Steven Grant | Eric Vincent |
| 13 | Sept. 1990 | Wuthering Heights | Emily Brontë | Rick Geary | Rick Geary |
| 14 | Oct. 1990 | The Fall of the House of Usher | Edgar Allan Poe | P. Craig Russell | P. Craig Russell and Jay Geldhof |
| 15 | Nov. 1990 | The Gift of the Magi and Other Stories | O. Henry | Gary Gianni | Gary Gianni |
| 16 | Dec. 1990 | A Christmas Carol | Charles Dickens | Joe Staton | Joe Staton |
| 17 | Jan. 1991 | Treasure Island | Robert Louis Stevenson | Pat Boyette | Pat Boyette |
| 18 | Feb. 1991 | The Devil's Dictionary and Other Works | Ambrose Bierce | Gahan Wilson | Gahan Wilson |
| 19 | Feb. 1991 | The Secret Agent | Joseph Conrad | John K. Snyder III | John K. Snyder III |
| 20 | Mar. 1991 | The Invisible Man | H. G. Wells | Rick Geary | Rick Geary |
| 21 | Mar. 1991 | Cyrano de Bergerac | Edmond Rostand | Peter David | Kyle Baker |
| 22 | Apr. 1991 | The Jungle Books | Rudyard Kipling | Jeffrey Busch | Jeffrey Busch |
| 23 | Apr. 1991 | Robinson Crusoe | Daniel Defoe | Sam Wray | Pat Boyette |
| 24 | May 1991 | The Rime of the Ancient Mariner | Samuel Taylor Coleridge | Dean Motter | Dean Motter |
| 25 | May 1991 | Ivanhoe | Sir Walter Scott | Mark Wayne Harris | Ray Lago |
| 26 | June 1991 | Aesop's Fables | Aesop | Eric Vincent | Eric Vincent |
| 27 | June 1991 | The Jungle | Upton Sinclair | Peter Kuper | Peter Kuper |
Papercutz''Classics Illustrated Deluxe'' graphic novels
| Volume | Pub. date | Title | Author | Adaptation | Illustrator |
| 1 | 2008 | The Wind in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame | Michael Plessix | Michael Plessix |
| 2 | 2008 | Tales from the Brothers Grimm | The Brothers Grimm | Mazan, Philip Petit, and Cecile Chicault | Mazan, Philip Petit, and Cecile Chicault |
| 3 | 2009 | Frankenstein | Mary Shelley | Marion Mousse | Marion Mousse |
| 4 | 2009 | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Mark Twain | Jean-David Morvan and Frederique Voulyze | Severine Le Fevebvre |
| 5 | 2010 | Treasure Island | Robert Louis Stevenson | David Chauvel | Fred Simon |
| 6 | 2011 | The Three Musketeers | Alexandre Dumas | Jean-David Morvan and Michel Dufranne | Rubén |
| 7 | 2011 | Around the World in Eighty Days | Jules Verne | Loïc Dauvillier | Aude Soleilhac |
| 8 | 2012 | Oliver Twist | Charles Dickens | Loïc Dauvillier | Olivier Deloye |
| 9 | 2012 | Scrooge: A Christmas Carol and "Mugby Junction" | Charles Dickens | Rodolphe | Estelle Meyrand |
| 10 | 2013 | "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and Other Tales | Edgar Allan Poe | Jean-David Morvan and Corbeyran | Fabrice Druet and Paul Marcel |
| 11 | 2014 | The Sea-Wolf | Jack London | Riff Reb's | Riff Reb's |
| 12 | 2014 | The Monkey God | Wu Cheng'en | Jean-David Morvan and Yann Le Gal | Jian Yi |
Classic Comic Store UK, 2008 – run
The authorship is based on the information held by Michigan State University Libraries, Special Collections Division in their Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection and/or the copyright information inside the books.The titles and publication dates are obtained from a personal collection.
| Issue | Publication Date | Title | Author | US Issue |
| 1 | October 2008 | The War of the Worlds | H. G. Wells | 124 |
| 2 | November 2008 | Oliver Twist | Charles Dickens | 23 |
| 3 | December 2008 | Robin Hood | 7 | |
| 4 | January 2009 | Alexandre Dumas | 54 | |
| 5 | February 2009 | Romeo and Juliet | William Shakespeare | 134 |
| 6 | March 2009 | Journey to the Center of the Earth | Jules Verne | 138 |
| 7 | April 2009 | Les Misérables | Victor Hugo | 9 |
| 8 | May 2009 | The Jungle Book | Rudyard Kipling | 83 |
| 9 | June 2009 | Mutiny on the Bounty | Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall | 100 |
| 10 | July 2009 | Wuthering Heights | Emily Brontë | 59 |
| 11 | August 2009 | Knights of the Round Table | 108 | |
| 12 | September 2009 | Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë | 39 |
| 13 | October 2009 | Frankenstein | Mary W. Shelley | 26 |
| 14 | November 2009 | The Time Machine | H. G. Wells | 133 |
| 15 | December 2009 | Christmas Carol | Charles Dickens | 53 |
| 16 | January 2010 | Moby Dick | Herman Melville | 5 |
| 17 | February 2010 | Macbeth | William Shakespeare | 128 |
| 18 | March 2010 | The Invisible Man | H. G. Wells | 153 |
| 19 | April 2010 | Huckleberry Finn | Mark Twain | 19 |
| 20 | May 2010 | Great Expectations | Charles Dickens | 43 |
| 21 | June 2010 | Treasure Island | Robert Louis Stevenson | 64 |
| 22 | July 2010 | Alice in Wonderland | Lewis Carroll | 49 |
| 23 | August 2010 | Black Beauty | Anna Sewell | 60 |
| 24 | September 2010 | Kidnapped | Robert Louis Stevenson | 46 |
| 25 | October 2010 | The Three Musketeers | Alexandre Dumas | 1 |
| 26 | November 2010 | Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea | Jules Verne | 47 |
| 27 | December 2010 | Lew Wallace | 147 | |
| 28 | January 2011 | The Last Days of Pompeii | Edward Bulwer-Lytton | 35 |
| 29 | February 2011 | Ivanhoe | Sir Walter Scott | 2 |
| 30 | March 2011 | Julius Caesar | William Shakespeare | 68 |
| 31 | May 2011 | Around the World in 80 Days | Jules Verne | 69 |
| 32 | June 2011 | Nicholas Nickleby | Charles Dickens | New title |
| 33 | August 2011 | Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde | Robert Louis Stevenson | 13 |
| 34 | October 2011 | The Last of the Mohicans | James Fenimore Cooper | 4 |
| 35 | November 2011 | Tale of Two Cities | Charles Dickens | 6 |
| 36 | December 2011 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Victor Hugo | 18 |
| 37 | January 2012 | A Study in Scarlet | Arthur Conan Doyle | 110 |
| 38 | February 2012 | The Count of Monte Cristo | Alexandre Dumas | 3 |
| 39 | April 2012 | Hamlet | William Shakespeare | 99 |
| 40 | May 2012 | David Copperfield | Charles Dickens | 58 |
| 41 | June 2012 | First Men in the Moon | H. G. Wells | 144 |
| 42 | July 2012 | The Ox-Bow Incident | Walter Van Tilburg Clark | 125 |
| 43 | September 2012 | Robinson Crusoe | Daniel Defoe | 10 |
| 44 | October 2012 | The 39 Steps | John Buchan | New title |
| 45 | September 2013 | Cleopatra | H. Rider Haggard | 161 |
| 46 | September 2013 | The Gold Bug and Other Stories | Edgar Allan Poe | 84 |
| 47 | September 2013 | Off on a Comet | Jules Verne | 149 |
| 48 | September 2013 | The Argonauts | Apollonius of Rhodes | Not issued in the US |
| 49 | August 2016 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | William Shakespeare | 87 |
| 50 | May 2018 | The Downfall | Émile Zola | 126 |
| 51 | May 2018 | The Iliad | Homer | 77 |
| 52 | May 2018 | The Hound of the Baskervilles | Arthur Conan Doyle | 33 |
| 53 | May 2018 | The Odyssey | Homer | 81 |
| 54 | March 2019 | Tom Sawyer | Mark Twain | 50 |
| 55 | March 2019 | The Prisoner of Zenda | Anthony Hope | 76 |
| 56 | October 2017 | All Quiet on the Western Front | Erich Maria Remarque | 95 |
| 57 | August 2016 | Tom Brown's School Days | Thomas Hughes | 45 |
| 58 | August 2016 | The Food of the Gods | H.G. Wells | 160 |
| 59 | August 2016 | Abraham Lincoln | 142 | |
| 60 | August 2016 | Benjamin Franklin | Benjamin Franklin | 65 |
| 61 | August 2016 | Davy Crockett | David Crockett | 129 |
| 62 | August 2016 | Rob Roy | Sir Walter Scott | 118 |
| 63 | March 2017 | Buffalo Bill | William F. Cody | 106 |
| 64 | March 2017 | The Adventures of Kit Carson | 112 | |
| 65 | March 2017 | Francis Parkman | 72 | |
| 66 | March 2017 | The Pioneers | James Fenimore Cooper | 37 |
| 67 | March 2017 | Wild Bill Hickok | Ira Zweifach | 121 |
| 68 | October 2017 | Daniel Boone | John Bakeless | 96 |
| 69 | October 2017 | Joan of Arc | Samuel Willinsky | 78 |
| 70 | October 2017 | The Song of Hiawatha | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow | 57 |
| 71 | October 2017 | The Man Who Laughs | Victor Hugo | 71 |
| 72 | March 2019 | The Aeneid | Virgil | 170 |
| 73 | March 2019 | Through the Looking Glass | Lewis Carroll | First Comics #3 |
Classic Comic Store UK run – Notes
In other media
The Classics Illustrated branding was on a series of television films produced from 1977 to 1982 by Schick Sunn Classics:- Last of the Mohicans
- Donner Pass: The Road to Survival
- The Time Machine
- The Deerslayer
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- Adventures of Nellie Bly
- The Fall of the House of Usher
Cover gallery