100 CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED
tried to launch the creator-owned Sovereign Seven (beginning in 1995) and later reprise
Gen-13 for DC Comics (in 2002–3). He has been praised and condemned for his ornate
writing style and impressive vocabulary, and much of his decline in popularity seemed to
stem from an inability or lack of desire to shore up the multiple plot lines and implied
speculations with which he imbued the X-Men series. However, his style was a major
infl uence on other writers. Claremont is also a novelist, having published several science
fi ction and fantasy books individually or with co-writers. His First Flight trilogy features
a young pilot’s star-spanning adventures. Shadow Moon, Shadow Dawn, and Shadow Star
make up his Chronicles of the Shadow fantasy series of books that act as prequels to Ron
Howard’s fi lm Willow. Claremont renewed his association with Marvel in the late 1990s,
eventually to work on the X-Men affi liated titles with which he built his comics writ-
ing career. Among the titles he has written for Marvel are Uncanny X-Men, Th e New
Mutants, Wolverine Limited Series, Wo l v e r i n e, Kitty Pryde, and Wolverine Limited Series,
Excalibur, X-treme X-Men, New
Excalibur, and New Exiles. Recently
announced projects include the
limited series Genext United and an
ongoing title X-Men Forever, which
picks up the X-Men series at the
exact spot Claremont left the series
in 1991, X-Men v2 #3.
James Bucky CarterCLASSICS ILLUSTRATED was a
long-running series that published
comics adaptations of classic lit-
erature from 1941 to 1971. Albert
Lewis Kanter (1897–1973) pub-
lished the series, which was origi-
nally titled Classic Comics. Born in
Baranovitch, Russia, Kanter and
his family were immigrants to the
United States. He lived in New
Hampshire and Georgia before
moving to New York and getting
into publishing. Th e fi rst three is-
sues of Classic Comics made print
with Elliot Publishing. Th e fourth
issue, published in 1942, appeared
under Kanter’s own business, Gil-
berton Company, Inc. Th e series
retained the Classic Comics title forThe Uncanny X-men double issue #137, story by Chris
Claremont, art by John Byrne. Marvel Comics Group/
Photofest