- Classics Illustrated
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Classics Illustrated
Cover, issue 10 (Robinson Crusoe), published 1947Publication information Publisher Elliot Publishing Co. (1941–1942)
Gilberton Company, Inc. (1942–1967)
Frawley Corporation (Twin Circle), (1967–1971)Format Ongoing series Publication date 1941 – 1971 Number of issues 169 Creative team Creator(s) Albert Lewis Kanter Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies reprinted its titles. 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.
Publication history
Classic Comics
Russian-born publisher Albert Lewis Kanter (1897–1973) 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, books 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. Albert Lewis Kanter [1] recognizing the appeal of early comic books, believed he could use the new medium to introduce young and reluctant readers to "great literature".
The first five titles were published irregularly under the banner "Classic Comics Presents" while issues six and seven were published under the banner "Classic Comics Library" with a ten-cent cover price. Arabian Nights (issue 8) 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. Wartime paper shortages forced Kanter to reduce the 64-page format to 56 pages.
Classic Comics is marked by varying quality in art and is celebrated today for its often garish but highly collectible line-drawn covers. Artists include Lillian Chesney (Arabian Nights, issue 8, and Gulliver's Travels, issue 16), Webb and Brewster (Frankenstein, issue 26), Matt Baker (Lorna Doone, issue 32), and Henry Carl Kiefer (second cover for The Prince and the Pauper, issue 29, cover for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, issue 33, and the first Classics Illustrated issue The Last Days of Pompeii, issue 35). Oliver Twist (issue 23) was the first title produced by the Eisner & Iger shop.
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 (issue 13) and Uncle Tom's Cabin (issue 15) were both cited in Dr. Fredric Wertham's infamous 1954 condemnation of comic books Seduction of the Innocent. Original edition Classic Comics in Near Mint condition command prices in the thousands of dollars.
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Ivanhoe
Issue #2. -
The Count of Monte Cristo
Issue #3. -
The Last of the Mohicans
Issue #4. -
A Tale of Two Cities
Issue #6. -
Robin Hood
Issue #7. -
Les Misérables
Issue #9. -
Robinson Crusoe
Issue #10. -
Don Quixote
Issue #11. -
Rip Van Winkle
Issue #12. -
Westward Ho
Issue #14 -
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Issue #15 -
Gulliver's Travels, Issue #16.
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The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
Issue #18. -
The Corsican Brothers
Issue #20. -
Oliver Twist
Issue #23. -
Michael Strogoff
Issue #28. -
The Moonstone
Issue #30. -
Lorna Doone
Issue #32.
Classics Illustrated
The series name-changed in March 1947 to Classics Illustrated with issue 35 The Last Days of Pompeii. In 1948, rising paper costs reduced books to 48 pages. In 1951, line-drawn covers were replaced with painted covers (issue 81), and the price was raised from 10 cents to 15 cents, (and, at a later date, to 25 cents). In addition to Classics Illustrated, Kanter presided over its spin-offs Classics Illustrated Junior (1953), Specials, and The World Around Us. Between 1941 and 1962, sales totaled 200 million.
The publication of new titles ceased in 1962 for various reasons. The company lost its 2nd-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 (August 1962) though other titles had been planned. These titles 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 brought out two more titles but mainly concentrated on foreign sales and reprinting older titles. After four years, Twin Circle discontinued the line because of poor distribution. Since the series' demise, various companies have reprinted its titles. By the early 1970s, Classics Illustrated and Junior had been discontinued, although the Classics Illustrated branding would be used on a series of telemovies produced by Schick Sunn Classics: 1977's Last of the Mohicans; 1978's Donner Pass: The Road to Survival, The Time Machine and The Deerslayer; 1980's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and 1981's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Adventures of Nellie Bly (source: http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/41527 and other sources for Sleepy Hollow).
Artists
Artists who contributed to Classics Illustrated included Jack Abel, Stephen Addeo, Matt Baker, Dik Browne, Lou Cameron, Sid Check, L.B. Cole, Reed Crandall, George Evans, Graham Ingels, Henry C. Kiefer, Alex Blum, Everett Raymond Kinstler, Jack Kirby, Roy Krenkel, Gray Morrow, Joe Orlando, Norman Nodel, Rudolph Palais, Norman Saunders, John Severin, Joe Sinnott, Angelo Torres, Al Williamson and George Woodbridge.
Classics Illustrated Junior
Main article: Classics Illustrated JuniorIn 1953, Classics Illustrated Junior debuted with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The line eventually numbered 77 fairy and folk tale, myth and legend titles, 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.
International editions
British series
Of the 162 British titles, 13 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. The comic followed the plot of the film with images of the film's actors rather than Ian Fleming's original novel.
Greek series
In Greece the series is named Κλασσικά Εικονογραφημένα (Klassiká Eikonografiména, meaning Classics Illustrated) and is being published continuously since 1951 by Εκδόσεις Πεχλιβανίδη (Ekdóseis Pechlivanídes, Pechlivanídes Publications). It is based on the American series, with the difference that well-known Greek illustrators and novelists work to adapt stories of particular Greek interest. Κλασσικά Εικονογραφημένα are read by thousands of young Greeks, and the first issues are of interest to collectors.
The publishing house of Κλασσικά Εικονογραφημένα, Εκδόσεις Πεχλιβανίδη (Pechlivanídes Publications), was founded by three brothers of the Πεχλιβανίδης (Pechlivanídes) family from the Greek-speaking parts of Asia Minor: Μιχάλης, Michális, Michael; Κώστας, Kóstas; and Γιώργος, Giórgos, George), collectively known as αδελφοί Πεχλιβανίδη (Pechlivanídes brothers). They had extensive experience in publishing from the 1920s, mainly in advertising — but also in children's books after 1936, when Κώστας Πεχλιβανίδης (Kóstas Pechlivanídes) finished his studies in the –then modern– printing techniques in Leipzig .
The Pechlivanídes brothers had inherited the printing press of Bavarian lithographer Grundman — and his experience as well. Having worked for years with offset printing, the Pechlivanídes brothers, already well-known in the publications field, founded after the war[clarification needed] the Εκδόσεις Ατλαντίς (Atlantis Publications) 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 (with 336 multicoloured illustrations as the front page advertised). Its cost at the time was 4,000 Drachmas, and the first edition (90,000 copies) went out of print quickly and was reprinted twice in the following days. (According to Ατλαντίδα/Atlantídha/Atlantis, it sold about a million copies).
Subsequent developments
In 1990, First Comics partnered with Berkeley Publishing to acquire the rights and Classics Illustrated returned with new adaptations and 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.[2][3] However, the line lasted only a little over a year.
In 1997–1998, Acclaim Books, the successor to Valiant Comics, published a series of recolored reprints 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.
In 2003, Toronto's Jack Lake Productions Inc. revived Classics Illustrated Junior, also reprinting 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 early 2006, Jack Lake Productions in collaboration with First Classics began worldwide licensing of artwork associated with Classics Illustrated, Classics Illustrated Junior, Classics Illustrated Special Issues and The World Around Us titles.
In 2007, it was announced that Papercutz acquired the license and would begin publishing graphic novels starting with The Wind in the Willows. They will be combining reprints of some of the original titles with new modern adaptations, largely produced in France, the first of which will be The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, with art by Severine Lefebvre. In November 2007, Jack Lake Productions Inc., published for the first time in North America #170 The Aeneid (originally published in the UK) along with #1 The Three Musketeers, #4 The Last of the Mohicans and #5 Moby Dick.
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 to 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 (i.e. the first one imported would be issue 513).
In July 2011, Nicholas Nickleby (issue 32 of the new run) became the first new title in the 48-page series since the 1969 publication of No. 169 (Negro Americans: The Early Years). The artwork came from the November 1950 Stories by Famous Authors Illustrated edition of Nicholas Nickleby and retained the original Gustav Schrotter interior art.[4]
References in movies
- In the film Major League, Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger) reads the Classics Illustrated edition of Moby Dick in an effort to impress his former girlfriend, Lynn (Rene Russo) in the hopes that he might win her back (which, he eventually does). Later on in the movie, other teammates like Rick Vaughn (Charlie Sheen), Willie Mays Hayes (Wesley Snipes), and Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen) start reading other Classics Illustrated titles, such as The Song of Hiawatha, The Deerslayer, and Crime and Punishment.
- A copy of the Classics Illustrated version of David Copperfield figures in the film Heaven Help Us. At one point, the character Caesar (Malcolm Danare) is baffled by why a book report written by his friend Rooney (Kevin Dillon) contains continued references to W.C. Fields instead of Wilkins Micawber. Rooney responds by displaying the cover of the comic book, which depicts Fields as Mr. Micawber, based on his role in the 1935 film.
Complete list of Classics Illustrated comic books (original US 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[5][6]
Issue Original publication Title Author Originally issued as Classic Comics titles 1 October 1941 The Three Musketeers Alexandre Dumas, père 2 December 1941 Ivanhoe Walter Scott 3 March 1942 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas, père 4 August 1942 The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper 5 September 1942 Moby Dick Herman Melville 6 October 1942 Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens 7 December 1942 Robin Hood (Uncredited; based in part on Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle) 8 February 1943 Arabian Nights --- 9 March 1943 Les Misérables Victor Hugo 10 April 1943 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 11 May 1943 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 12 June 1943 Rip Van Winkle & Headless Horseman Washington Irving 13 August 1943 Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 14 September 1943 Westward Ho! Charles Kingsley 15 November 1943 Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 16 December 1943 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 17 January 1944 The Deerslayer James Fenimore Cooper 18 March 1944 The Hunchback of Notre Dame Victor Hugo 19 April 1944 Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain 20 June 1944 The Corsican Brothers Alexandre Dumas, père 21 July 1944 Three Famous Mysteries (The Sign of the Four, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Flayed Hand) Arthur Conan Doyle/Edgar Allan Poe/Guy de Maupassant 22 October 1944 The Pathfinder James Fenimore Cooper 23 July 1945 Oliver Twist Charles Dickens 24 September 1945 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Mark Twain 25 October 1945 Two Years Before the Mast R. H. Dana Jr. 26 December 1945 Frankenstein Mary W. Shelley 27 April 1946 The Adventures of Marco Polo --- 28 June 1946 Michael Strogoff Jules Verne 29 July 1946 The Prince and the Pauper Mark Twain 30 September 1946 The Moonstone William Wilkie Collins 31 October 1946 The Black Arrow Robert Louis Stevenson 32 December 1946 Lorna Doone R. D. Blackmore 33 January 1947 The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (A Study in Scarlet, The Hound of the Baskervilles) Arthur Conan Doyle 34 February 1947 Mysterious Island Jules Verne Issued as Classics Illustrated titles 35 The Last Days of Pompeii Edward Bulwer-Lytton 36 Typee Herman Melville 37 The Pioneers James Fenimore Cooper 38 The Adventures of Cellini John Addington Symonds 39 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 40 Mysteries (The Pit and the Pendulum, The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall, The Fall of the House of Usher) Edgar Allan Poe 41 Twenty Years After Alexandre Dumas, père 42 The Swiss Family Robinson Jonathan Wyss 43 Great Expectations Charles Dickens 44 Mysteries of Paris Eugene Sue 45 Tom Brown's School Days Thomas Hughes 46 Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson 47 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne 48 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 49 Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 50 Tom Sawyer Mark Twain 51 The Spy James Fenimore Cooper 52 The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 53 Christmas Carol Charles Dickens 54 The Man in the Iron Mask Alexandre Dumas, père 55 Silas Marner George Eliot 56 Toilers of the Sea Victor Hugo 57 The Song of Hiawatha Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 58 The Prairie James Fenimore Cooper 59 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 60 Black Beauty Anna Sewell 61 The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 62 Western Stories (The Luck of Roaring Camp, The Outcasts of Poker Flat) Bret Harte 63 The Man without a Country Edward Everett Hale 64 Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson 65 Benjamin Franklin - Autobiography Benjamin Franklin 66 The Cloister and the Hearth Charles Reade 67 The Scottish Chiefs Jane Porter 68 Julius Caesar William Shakespeare 69 Around the World in 80 Days Jules Verne 70 The Pilot James Fenimore Cooper 71 The Man Who Laughs Victor Hugo 72 The Oregon Trail Francis Parkman 73 The Black Tulip Alexandre Dumas, père 74 Mr Midshipman Easy Frederick Marryat 75 The Lady of the Lake Walter Scott 76 The Prisoner of Zenda Anthony Hope 77 The Iliad Homer 78 Joan of Arc --- 79 Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand 80 White Fang Jack London 81 The Odyssey Homer 82 The Master of Ballantrae Robert Louis Stevenson 83 The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling 84 The Gold Bug and Other Stories Edgar Allan Poe 85 The Sea Wolf Jack London 86 Under Two Flags Ouida 87 A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare 88 Men of Iron Howard Pyle 89 Crime and Punishment Dostoyevsky 90 Green Mansions W H Hudson 91 The Call of the Wild Jack London 92 The Courtship of Miles Standish and Evangeline Longfellow 93 Pudd'nhead Wilson Samuel L Clemens 94 David Balfour Robert Louis Stevenson 95 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque 96 Daniel Boone John Bakeless 97 King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard 98 The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane 99 Hamlet William Shakespeare 100 Mutiny on the Bounty Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall 101 William Tell Frederick Schiller 102 The White Company Arthur Conan Doyle 103 Men Against the Sea Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall 104 Bring 'Em Back Alive Frank Buck 105 From the Earth to the Moon Jules Verne 106 Buffalo Bill --- 107 King — of the Khyber Rifles Talbot Mundy 108 Knights of the round table (Uncredited; based in part on The Story of King Arthur and his Knights by Howard Pyle) 109 Pitcairn's Island Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall 110 A Study in Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle 111 The Talisman Walter Scott 112 The Adventures of Kit Carson Edward Ellis 113 The Forty Five Guardsmen Alexandre Dumas, père 114 The Red Rover James Fenimore Cooper 115 How I Found Livingstone Henry M Stanley 116 The Bottle Imp (also The Beach of Falesá) Robert Louis Stevenson 117 Captains Courageous Rudyard Kipling 118 Rob Roy Walter Scott 119 Soldiers Of Fortune Richard Harding Davis 120 Hurricane Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall 121 Wild Bill Hickok --- 122 The Mutineers Charles Boardman Hawes 123 Fang and Claw Frank Buck 124 The War of the Worlds H. G. Wells 125 The Ox-Bow Incident Walter Van Tilburg Clark 126 The Downfall Émile Zola 127 The King of the Mountains Edmond About (translated by Mary Louise Booth) 128 Macbeth William Shakespeare 129 Davy Crockett --- 129A Caesar's Conquests (see also Caesar's Civil War) Julius Caesar 131 The Covered Wagon Emerson Hough 132 The Dark Frigate Charles Boardman Hawes 133 The Time Machine H. G. Wells 134 Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare 135 Waterloo (novel) Chatrian Erckmann 135A Cecil B. DeMille movie) 136 Lord Jim Joseph Conrad 137 The Little Savage Frederick Marryat 138 Journey to the Center of the Earth Jules Verne 138A Reign Of Terror G. A. Henty 140 On Jungle Trails Frank Buck 141 Castle Dangerous Walter Scott 141A "Prepared in cooperation with the Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Commission." 142 Abraham Lincoln --- 143 Kim Rudyard Kipling 144 First Men in the Moon H. G. Wells 144A The Crisis Winston Churchill 146 With Fire and Sword Henryk Sienkiewicz 147 Ben Hur Lew Wallace 147A Buccaneer Based on the Cecil B. DeMille film, which was in turn based on the novel Lafitte the Pirate by Lyle Saxon 149 Off on a Comet Jules Verne 150 The Virginian Owen Wister 150A Won by the Sword G. A. Henty 152 Wild Animals I Have Known Ernest Thompson Seton 153 The Invisible Man H. G. Wells 153A The Conspiracy of Pontiac Francis Parkman 155 The Lion of the North G. A. Henty 156 The Conquest of Mexico Bernal Diaz Del Castillo 156A The Lives of the Hunted Ernest Thompson Seton 158 The Conspirators Alexandre Dumas, père 159 The Octopus Frank Norris 160 The Food of the Gods H. G. Wells 161 Cleopatra H. Rider Haggard 162 Robur the Conqueror Jules Verne 163 The Master of the World Jules Verne 164 The Cossack Chief Nikolai Gogol 165 The Queen's Necklace Alexandre Dumas, père 166 Tigers and Traitors Jules Verne 166A Faust Goethe 167A In Freedom's Cause G. A. Henty 169 Negro Americans, the Early Years --- List of Classics Illustrated comic books (UK series from 2008)
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.[5][6]
The titles and publication dates are obtained from a personal collection.[7]
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 (Uncredited; based in part on Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle) 7 4 January 2009 The Man in the Iron Mask 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[8] 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 (Uncredited; based in part on The Story of King Arthur and his Knights by Howard Pyle) 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 Ben Hur 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[4] 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 Expected December 2011 The Hunchback of Notre Dame Victor Hugo 18 37 Expected January 2012 A Study in Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle 110 38 Expected February 2012 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 3 39 Expected March 2012 Hamlet William Shakespeare 99 40 Expected May 2012 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 58 41 Expected June 2012 First Men in the Moon H.G. Wells 144 42 Expected July 2012 The Ox-Bow Incident Walter Van Tilburg Clark 125 43 Expected August 2012 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 10 44 Expected October 2012 The 39 Steps John Buchan New title[9] 45 Expected November 2012 Cleopatra H. Rider Haggard 161 46 Expected January 2013 The Gold Bug and Other Stories Edgar Allan Poe 84 47 Expected February 2013 Off on a Comet Jules Verne 149 48 Expected March 2013 The Argonauts --- Not issued in the US[10] See also
Other companies producing comic adaptations of literature:
- Gilberton (publisher)
- Marvel Illustrated
- Classical Comics
- Self Made Hero
Notes
- ^ Sawyer, Michael. "Albert Lewis Kanter and the Classics: The Man Behind the Gilberton Company," The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 20, Issue 4 (5 Mar 2004), pp. 1-18.
- ^ "First Comics Revives Classics Illustrated," The Comics Journal #120 (March 1988), p. 12.
- ^ "First Comics Revives Classics Illustrated in January," The Comics Journal #132 (November 1989), p. 23.
- ^ a b From the issue's introduction: "Classic Comic Store has now added the [November 1950 Famous Authors Illustrated] edtion of Nicholas Nickleby to the Classics Illustrated series as issue No. 32, the first title in the 48 page series since the 1969 publication of No. 169, Negro Americans:The Early Years. Nicholas Nickleby retains the 1950 [Gustav] Schrotter interior art." ("Introduction". Classics Illustrated (UK) (Classic Comic Store Ltd) (32): 48. June 2011.)
- ^ a b "Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection: Classics Illustrated (1-100)". Special Collections Division: Michigan State University Libraries. http://comics.lib.msu.edu/rri/crri/classi.htm. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
- ^ a b "Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection: Classics Illustrated (101-169)". Special Collections Division: Michigan State University Libraries. http://comics.lib.msu.edu/rri/crri/classj.htm. Retrieved 1 July 2009.
- ^ For published issues, the titles and publication dates are obtained from the personal collection of Wikipedia editor "Phantomsteve". Future issue details are from the "in the coming months" list on the back of the most recently published issue (and/or from subscriber letters detailing future issues).
- ^ Because of a printing error, first run prints of this Classics Illustrated wrongly attributed the story to Jules Verne instead of Rudyard Kipling in the copyright details in the inside cover
- ^ From the subscriber's letter: "Collectors among you may notice that number 44, John Buchan's The 39 Steps, is our second brand new title to the Classics Illustratedcanon, after introducing Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby as number 32"
- ^ This is a title (one of 13) which were never issued in the US collection, but only in the UK.("Classics Illustrated History". Classic Comic Store. http://www.classiccomicstore.com/history-civintage.asp. Retrieved 12 November 2012. "In the UK, thirteen titles were produced that were never published in America including The Aeneid, The Argonauts...") This is the first such title to be published in the new UK collection.
References
- Goulart, Ron. Great American Comic Books. Publications International, Ltd., 2001.
- Malan, Dan. The Complete Guide to Classics Illustrated. Classics Central.Com, 2006.
- Overstreet, Robert M.. Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. House of Collectibles, 2004.
- William B. Jones Jr., Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, with Illustrations (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2002).
- Classic Comics at the Grand Comics Database
- Classics Illustrated (1941) at the Comic Book DB
- Classics Illustrated Junior (1953) at the Comic Book DB
- Classics Illustrated (1990) at the Comic Book DB
External links
- Complete list of Classics Illustrated and Classics Illustrated Junior
- Classics Illustrated by Papercutz
- Classics Illustrated Junior
- Classics Central
- Review of War Of The Worlds Classics Illustrated
- Review of Great Expectations, Comics Bulletin
- Albert Lewis Kanter, publisher of Classics Illustrated
- In Praise of Classic Comics - slideshow by Life magazine
- Classic Comic Store Ltd - Modern UK Reprints
- My Really Old Comic Book Collection
Categories:- American comics titles
- 1941 comic debuts
- 1990 comic debuts
- First Comics titles
- Valiant Comics titles
- Comics based on fiction
- Publications disestablished in 1971
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