CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED 101
34 issues before changing to Classics Illustrated in 1947. Th e name change may have
been in response to growing anxiety over children’s comic book reading habits in the late
1940s. As issue #34 states: “Th e name Classics Illustrated is the better name for your
periodical. It really isn’t a ‘comic’... it’s the illustrated or picture, version of your favorite
classics.” Kanter heavily promoted traditional notions of literacy by urging readers to
read the original upon fi nishing the illustrated version. He also used painted covers,
few advertisements inside the comic, and a higher selling price (15 cents rather than
the going rate of a dime) to diff erentiate his series from other popular comics. Kanter
also continually reprinted previously published issues. Classics Illustrated would remain
under Gilberton until 1967, when Kanter sold it to Patrick Frawley’s Twin Circle pub-
lishing, which continued to run the series in reprints until 1971. Many of the fi rst issues
were 64 pages in length, but later the comics were 56 pages long. In 1953, Gilberton
began Classics Illustrated Junior, which ran for 77 issues and also ended in 1971. Th is
line dealt mostly with comics versions of folk tales, fairy tales, mythology, and legends,
whereas the former dealt primarily with novels such as Th e Th ree Musketeers, Ivan-
hoe, Th e Count of Monte Cristo, Th e Last of the Mohicans (the fi rst four comics in the
series, respectively), Robinson Crusoe (issue #10), Huckleberry Finn (#19), Ty p e e (#36),
and others. Epics such as Th e Odyssey (#81) and Th e Iliad (#77) were also published.
Typically, the series published adaptations from American or British literature, salient
epics from antiquity, and the work of other important European and Russian writ-
ers. Several of Shakespeare’s plays were also adapted. Science fi ction novels like Jules
Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth (#138), and H. G. Wells’s Th e Time Machine
(#133) were adapted as well, as were several biographies.
Issues from the series are easily identifi able. A yellow rectangle bearing the
We s t e r n-style fonted “CLASSICS” and the cursive “Illustrated” was and remains dis-
tinctive. Internal art and page layouts were often completed by committee such that their
overall form is bland, workshopped, and conservative. Many pages are fi lled with basic
square or rectangular panels and generic lettering. A stoic realism permeates the series’
art. Rocco Versaci notes some exceptions to the series’ mechanical style, specifi cally Lou
Cameron’s adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (issue #13), which alters panel size and
off ers multiple visual perspectives. Versaci points out that many Shakespeare adaptations
were particularly stilted by the “house style.” Th e back covers included lists of available
titles and a yellow order form. Th ough many have critiqued the series for keeping chil-
dren from the source material, which was not the publisher’s intent, award-winning writer
Gary Giddens has commented on how the series compelled him to read source material
and inspired him to write.
Th e series utilized many greats of comics art, including Jack Kirby, Joe Orlando,
Graham Ingels, and George Evans. During the 1990s, several companies tried to revive
the series. Th e Berkeley Publishing Group and First Comics failed in 1990, a year after
acquiring rights and printing 27 issues. Well-respected comics artists Bill Sienkiewicz,
Rich Geary, and Kyle Baker were among the artists who contributed to these issues.
Acclaim Books re-colored and reprinted 62 titles from the series in 1997 and 1998.
