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Classics Illustrated

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.

History

Russian-born publisher Albert Lewis Kanter (1897-1973) created Classic Comics for Elliot Publishing Company in 1941 with its debut issue being The Three Musketeers. Ivanhoe and The Count of Monte Cristo followed. 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.

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, and, in 1948, rising paper costs reduced books to 48 pages. The series name-changed in March 1947 to Classics Illustrated with issue 35 The Last Days of Pompeii. 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. By the early 1970s, Classics Illustrated and Junior had been discontinued, although the Classics Illustrated branding would be used on one telemovie, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Since the series' demise, various companies have reprinted its titles.

Artists

Artists who contributed to Classics Illustrated included Jack Abel, Stephen Addeo, 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

In 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.

British series

Of the 162 British titles, there were 13 that never appeared in America, plus 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.

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 and Gahan Wilson. 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 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 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.