Classics Illustrated
Three Musketeers, issue #1,Classic Comics, published in 1941
Publication information
Publisher	Elliot Publishing Co. (1941–1942) Gilberton Company, Inc. (1942–1967) Frawley Corporation (Twin Circle) (1967–1971)
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	1941 – 1969
No. of issues	169
Creative team
Created by	Albert Kanter
Artist(s)	Lillian Chestney,Henry C. Kiefer,Jack Abel,Matt Baker,Dik Browne,Lou Cameron,Sid Check,L.B. Cole,Reed Crandall,George Evans,Denis Gifford,Graham Ingels,Alex Blum,Everett Raymond Kinstler,Jack Kirby,Roy Krenkel,Gray Morrow,Joe Orlando,Norman Nodel,Norman Saunders,John Severin,Joe Sinnott,Angelo Torres,Al Williamson,George Woodbridge

Classics Illustrated is an Americancomic book/magazine series featuring adaptations ofliterary classics such asLes Misérables,Moby-Dick,Hamlet, andThe Iliad. Created byAlbert 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 theGreat Illustrated Classics, which is an adaptation of the classics for young readers that includes illustrations, but is not in the comic book form.

Recognizing the appeal of early comic books, Russian-born publisherAlbert Lewis Kanter (1897–1973) believed he could use the new medium to introduce young and reluctant readers to "great literature".^[1] He createdClassic Comics forElliot Publishing Company in 1941 with its debut issues beingThe Three Musketeers, followed byIvanhoe andThe Count of Monte Cristo. 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 (issue #8), illustrated byLillian Chestney, is the first issue to use the "Classics Comics" banner.^{[citation needed]}

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 theGilberton 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 asadventure ormystery.^{[citation needed]}

Classic Comics is marked by varying quality in art and is celebrated today for its often garish but highly collectible line-drawn covers. Original editionClassic Comics in "near mint" condition command prices in the thousands of dollars.^{[citation needed]}

With issue #35 in March 1947 (The Last Days of Pompeii) the series' name was changed toClassics Illustrated. In 1948, rising paper costs reduced books to 48 pages. In 1951 (issue #81), line-drawn covers were replaced with painted covers, and the price was raised from 10 cents to 15 cents (and, at a later date, to 25 cents).

Classics Illustrated benefitted from nationwide distribution (thanks to an agreement withCurtis Circulation) beginning in late 1951,^[2] and Kanter began promoting the series as an educational tool.^[2] Despite this,Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (issue #13) andUncle Tom's Cabin (issue #15) were both cited in Dr.Fredric Wertham's 1954 condemnation of comic booksSeduction of the Innocent, in the first case for reducing the story to little more than its violent elements, and in the second case for simplifying the full characterizations of the book to stereotypes.^[3]

Classics Illustrated #65 —Benjamin Franklin (published in November 1949) — written by Adelaide Lee (adaptation) and illustrated byAlex Blum, Robert Hebberd, and Gus Schrotter, was given the 1956 Thomas Alva Edison Foundation National Mass Media Award for Best American History Comic Book.^[4]

AsClassics Illustrated became more standardized in the 1950s, Gilberton re-issued earlier editions with new art (and sometimes new script adaptations). All editions were re-issued with new cover art in the 1950s and '60s.

In addition toClassics Illustrated, Kanter presided over its spin-offsClassics Illustrated Junior (1953),Classics Illustrated Special Issue (1955), andThe World Around Us (1958). Between 1941 and 1962, sales totaled 200 million.^{[citation needed]}

Of the original 169 issues ofClassic Comics/Classics Illustrated produced in the period 1941–1969, the writers with the most representation includedJules Verne, with ten works adapted;Alexandre Dumas, with nine;James Fenimore Cooper, with eight; andRobert Louis Stevenson, with seven.Charles Dickens,Walter Scott,William Shakespeare,Mark Twain, andH. G. Wells were all well-represented, with five works adapted each. Seven female authors had their work adapted. Up through 1951, all adaptations were from work in thepublic domain.^[5] Beginning in 1952, the series occasionally created authorized adaptations of popular 20th-century fiction by such authors asCharles Nordhoff &James Norman Hall (four of their novels),Frank Buck (two of his novels),Charles Boardman Hawes (two novels),Erich Maria Remarque,Talbot Mundy,Walter Van Tilburg Clark, andEmerson Hough.^[5]

In addition to the literary adaptations, each issue ofClassics Illustrated featured author profiles, educational fillers, and an advertisement for the coming title. In later editions, a catalog of titles and a subscription order form appeared on back covers.

The publication of new titles in the U.S. 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.^{[citation needed]} Kanter's last new title was issue #167Faust (August 1962), though other titles had been planned. Two of these titles – an adaptation ofG. A. Henty'sIn Freedom's Cause, and the original title,Negro Americans: The Early Years – appeared in the company's foreign editions. In addition, in 1962–1963, the British publisherThorpe & Porter, which at that point was owned by Gilberton,^[6] produced 13 new issues ofClassics Illustrated, which were never published in the U.S. Most of the script adaptations were done byClassics Illustrated editor Alfred Sundel.

In 1967, Kanter sold his company toTwin Circle Publishing Co. and itsconservativeCatholic publisherPatrick Frawley, whoseFrawley Corporation in 1969 finally publishedIn Freedom's Cause andNegro Americans, but mainly concentrated on foreign sales and reprinting older titles. After four years, Twin Circle discontinued the line because of poor distribution,^[7] and licensed the rights to other companies until it sold the rights to First Classics, Inc. in 2011.

The work of adapting the source material and writing comics scripts was done by a group of mostly unknown writers. Alfred Sundel, a long-time editor on the series, scripted more than 20 first-edition adaptations and more than 10 revised editions.^[8] Others with a lot of script adaptation credits include Ken Fitch (sometimes credited as "Kenneth W. Fitch") with 22 issues, Harry G. Miller (sometimes credited as "Harry Glickman") with twelve, Evelyn Goodman with nine, and John O'Rourke with nine. Other writers with multiple adaptations to their names includedRuth Roche, George Lipscomb, Annette T. Rubenstein, and Sam Willinsky.

Henry C. Kiefer was the main artist for many issues ofClassic Comics andClassics Illustrated, and his work came to define the "look" of the series. ForClassic Comics, he illustrated the second cover forThe Prince and the Pauper, issue #29, cover forThe Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, issue #33, and the firstClassics Illustrated issueThe Last Days of Pompeii, issue #35. ForClassics Illustrated, he drew the majority of at least 20 issues from the series in the period 1947–1953.Alex Blum also illustrated more than 20 issues of the series in the period 1948–1955.Norman Nodel illustrated more than 20 issues ofClassics Illustrated (a number of them being re-issues with new art).^[9]

Other artists who contributed toClassic Comics includeLillian Chestney (Arabian Nights, issue #8, andGulliver's Travels, issue #16), Webb andBrewster (Frankenstein, issue #26), andMatt Baker (Lorna Doone, issue #32).Oliver Twist (issue #23) was the first title produced by theEisner & Iger shop.^[10]

Other notable artists who drew multiple issues ofClassics Illustrated includedGeorge Evans,Lou Cameron,Reed Crandall,Pete Costanza,L.B. Cole,John Severin,Gray Morrow, andJoe Orlando. Lesser-known names with multiple credits include Rudy Palais, Arnold Hicks, Maurice Del Bourgo, Louis Zansky, August Froehlich, and Bob Webb,Jack Abel, Stephen Addeo, Charles J. Berger,Dik Browne,Denis Gifford,Roy Krenkel, John Parker,Norman Saunders,Joe Sinnott,Al Williamson andGeorge Woodbridge.

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 withSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs; the line eventually numbered 77 issues, ending publication in 1971. Issues included miscellanea such as anAesop fable and a full-page illustration to color with crayons. Artists includedJohn Costanza andKurt Schaffenberger.

Despite numbering that aligns with the mainClassics Illustrated title,Classics Illustrated Special Issue is generally regarded as a separate title; instead of adaptations, subjects were historical or biographical. Published in December and June from December 1955 to 1964, issues were generally 100 pages long — twice the size of a typicalClassics Illustrated. Notable artists includedAngelo Torres,Bruno Premiani,Don Perlin,Edd Ashe,Everett Kinstler,George Evans, Gerald McCann,Graham Ingels,Gray Morrow,Jack Kirby &Dick Ayers,Joe Orlando,John Tartaglione,Norman Nodel,Pete Morisi,Reed Crandall,Sam Glanzman, andSid Check.

In 1988First Comics partnered withBerkley Publishing to acquire the rights, and announced it was reviving the Classics Illustrated brand with all-new adaptations.^[11] In 1990 (after some delays),^[12]Classics Illustrated returned after a nearly 30-year hiatus, with a line-up of artists that includedKyle Baker,Dean Motter,Mike Ploog,P. Craig Russell,Bill Sienkiewicz,Joe Staton,Rick Geary andGahan Wilson.

The line lasted only a little over a year, publishing 27 issues. Titles solicited but never published wereKidnapped,Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas,The Red Badge of Courage,The War of the Worlds,Around the World in Eighty Days, andThe Last of the Mohicans.^[13]Kidnapped, adapted byMike Vosburg, was later published byPapercutz in 2012.

In 1997–1998,Acclaim Books (the successor toValiant Comics) published a series of recolored reprints of the Gilberton issues in adigest size format with accompanying study notes by literary scholars. The Acclaim line includedMark Twain'sAdventures of Huckleberry Finn, with art byFrank Giacoia; andThe Three Musketeers, illustrated byGeorge Evans. The series favored Mark Twain, also with reprints ofPudd'nhead Wilson,The Prince and the Pauper andTom Sawyer. Other reprints in this series wereFyodor Dostoyevsky'sCrime and Punishment,Herman Melville'sMoby-Dick andNathaniel Hawthorne'sThe House of the Seven Gables. The series lasted 62 issues, with three of the final four issues being all-new adaptations.

In 2007,Papercutz acquired theClassics Illustrated license and announced that they would begin publishing newgraphic novels ("Classics Illustrated Deluxe") as well as reprints of theFirst Comics series from 1990 to 1991. The new modern adaptations were largely produced in France; Papercutz published 12 volumes – includingThe Wind in the Willows,Frankenstein,Treasure Island, andThe 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 (out of the original 27) from 2008 to 2014.^[14]

First Classics, Inc., formed in 1989, eventually took over management of the Classics Illustrated rights licensed to First Publishing (formerly First Comics) by the Frawley Corporation.

Starting in 2002, First Classics enlisted Jack Lake Productions (JLP) of Canada to produce Classics Illustrated and Classics Illustrated Junior books based on the original Gilberton lineup, many of them remastered by JLP.

In August 2011, First Classics purchased the rights to the Classics Illustrated family of books from Frawley Corporation.^[15]

In 2020, First Classics and Jack Lake Productions settled their long-running dispute over the rights to Classics Illustrated. Some main outcomes of the settlement were that Jack Lake Productions and the artists involved with the CI book remastering will be cited in books that use the remastered art, and reaffirmation of First Classics as the rights holder to Classics Illustrated.^[16]

Through the years, First Classics worked with Trajectory, Inc. to license Classics Illustrated throughout the world, and also to create and make available many titles in the Classics Illustrated family of books in e-book format. First Classics currently publishes these e-books.Classics Illustrated continues to be published throughout the world in various languages through license from First Classics. In English, Classic Comic Store (CCS Books) of the UK re-publishes much of the Classics Illustrated lineup.^[17]

In 2011, Marblehead, Massachusetts-basedTrajectory Inc. issued the first digital editions of GilbertonClassics Illustrated regular andJunior lines. In 2014,Trajectory Inc. was granted the exclusive worldwide rights to produce, distribute and license the brand. The primary rights-holder for the digital editions is First Classics, Inc.

In 1948, theBrazilian comic book publisherBrazilian-American Editions, Ltd [pt] (EBAL) launched theMarvellous Edition [pt] series, which reprinted many issues ofClassics Illustrated,^[41] and which included original adaptations of Brazilian novels.^[42]

In the 1990s,Editora Abril published some stories from theFirst ComicsClassics Illustrated series.^[43] In 2010, HQM Editora publishedThrough the Looking-Glass, originally adapted in 1990 byKyle Baker for the First Comics series.^[44]

Gilberton published a Canadian version ofClassics Illustrated in the period 1948–1951, putting out 78 issues.^[19]

In 2003, Toronto's Jack Lake Productions revivedClassics Illustrated Junior, creating new remastered artwork from the original editions. In 2005, Jack Lake Productions published aClassics Illustrated 50th-anniversary edition ofThe War of the Worlds in both hard and softcover versions. In November 2007, Jack Lake Productions published for the first time in North AmericaClassics Illustrated #170The Aeneid (originally published in the UK) along with issues #1 ofThe Three Musketeers, #4 ofThe Last of the Mohicans, and #5 ofMoby Dick.

In October 2016, Jack Lake Productions republished under theClassic Comics banner eleven remastered original Gilberton titles:

• #11Don Quixote
• #14Westward Ho!
• #17The Deerslayer
• #20The Corsican Brothers
• #21Three Famous Mysteries
• #22The Pathfinder
• #79Cyrano de Bergerac
• #122The Mutineers
• #123Fang and Claw
• #168In Freedom's Cause
• #174Captain Blood – new addition, originally published inStories by Famous Authors Illustrated #2 (Seaboard Publishing, 1950).

TheGerman publisherInternationale Klassiker, later renamed Bildschriftenverlag (BSV), was founded in 1956 to publish translated editions ofClassics Illustrated (asIllustrierte Klassiker). The company released 204 issues of the title from 1956 to 1972.^[45] BSV was acquired byNational Periodical Publications (DC Comics) in 1966.^[46] In October 1973, the publisher became Williams (independent of BSV), with its headquarters onElbchaussee inHamburg. In 2013, the publisher BSV Hannover revived the title with issue #206; it continues to the present day.^[47]

Meanwhile, beginning in 1991 and lasting until 2002, the German publisher Norbert Hethke Verlag reprinted theIllustrierte Klassiker series.^[48]

InGreece the series is namedΚλασσικά Εικονογραφημένα (Klassiká Eikonografiména, meaning "Classics Illustrated") and has been published continuously since 1951 by Εκδόσεις Πεχλιβανίδη (Ekdóseis Pechlivanídi, Pechlivanídis 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. In addition to the titles that were translated from the USClassics Illustrated more than 70 titles were published with themes fromGreek mythology and Greek history.Κλασσικά Εικονογραφημένα are read by thousands of young Greeks, and the first issues are of interest tocollectors.

The publishing house ofΚλασσικά Εικονογραφημένα, Εκδόσεις Πεχλιβανίδη (Pechlivanídis Publications), was founded by three brothers of the Πεχλιβανίδης (Pechlivanídis) family from theGreek-speaking parts ofAsia Minor: Μιχάλης, Michális, Michael; Κώστας, Kóstas; and Γιώργος, Giórgos, George), collectively known asαδελφοί Πεχλιβανίδη (Pechlivanídis brothers). They had extensive experience inpublishing from the 1920s, mainly in advertising – but also inchildren's books after 1936, when Κώστας Πεχλιβανίδης (Kóstas Pechlivanídis) finished his studies in the – then modern – printing techniques inLeipzig.

The Pechlivanídis brothers had inherited theprinting press ofBavarianlithographerGrundman – and his experience as well. Having worked for years withoffset printing, the Pechlivanídis brothers founded after the war the Εκδόσεις Ατλαντίς (Atlantis Publications) house in order to restart publishing children's books. They had readClassics Illustrated while traveling in the US, and arranged to publish them in Greece as well.

The first issue ofΚλασσικά Εικονογραφημένα was made available on 1 March 1951. It was an adaptation ofVictor Hugo'sLes 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 ortetrachromaticoffset (with 336 multicolored illustrations as the front page advertised). Its cost at the time was 4,000drachmas, and the first edition (90,000 copies) wentout of print quickly and was reprinted twice in the following days. According to Atlantis, it sold about a million copies.

TheBritish publisherThorpe & Porter publishedClassics Illustrated reprints (and a few original stories) from 1951 to 1963. Of the 181 British issues,^[a] 13 had never appeared in America. Additionally, there were some variations in cover art.

The BritishClassics Illustrated adaptation ofDr. No was never published under the U.S.Classics Illustrated line, but instead was sold toDC Comics, which published it in 1963 as part of their superhero anthology series,Showcase.^[49] The comic followed the plot ofthe film with images of the film's actors rather thanIan Fleming's original novel.

In 1976–1977, the successor company to Thorpe & Porter,Williams Publishing, released theDouble Duo series, which for the first time reprinted translated issues ofClassics Illustrated originally published in Swedish (byIllustrerade klassiker /Williams Förlags AB) in the period 1964–1970. Each digest-sized issue contained two stories, coming in at a total of 68 pages per issue. All the stories were illustrated by members of a Spanish comics studio.^[50]

In September 2008, Classic Comic Store, based in the U.K., began publishing both the original GilbertonClassics Illustrated regular andJunior 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 theJunior 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 theClassics Illustrated titles, they were no longer publishing theJunior 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 October 2012 (when issue 44 had been dispatched), 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 (issues 45–48) was produced in October 2013. The second batch (49, 57–62) was available in August 2016 (although the issues stated "First Published May 2016"). The gap (50–56) 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 (issue #32) became the first new title in the 48-page series since Gilberton's 1969 publication of #169 (Negro Americans: The Early Years). The artwork came from the November 1950Stories by Famous Authors Illustrated (Seaboard Publishing) edition ofNicholas Nickleby and retained the original Gustav Schrotter interior art.^{[CCS notes 1]}
• October 2012:The 39 Steps (issue #44) became the second brand-new title to theClassics Illustrated canon.
• September 2013:The Argonauts (issue #48) was published – one of 13 which were never issued in the US collection but only in the UK.
• March 2019:The Aeneid (issue #72) 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 (issue 73) was published – this was not issued in the original US collection, but was published in 1990 as #3 in theFirst Comics run.

In March 2024, Classic Comic Store started publishing a new series under their Classics Illustrated Joint European Series (JES), which publishes classic stories and true histories from all over the world, available in English for the first time.

Current titles:

• March 2024

1. Stalingrad (originally published in 1962 in Spanish byEditorial Novaro^[51])
2. Dunkirk (originally published in 1962 in Spanish by Editorial Novaro^[52])
3. D-Day: The Normandy Invasion (originally published in 2015 in Spanish by Editorial Novaro^[53])
4. Beowulf (originally published in 1963 in Spanish by Editorial Novaro^[54])

Authorship is based on William B. Jones Jr.'sClassics Illustrated: A Cultural History, second edition (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2002), Appendices A and B; as well as the information held by Michigan State University Libraries Special Collections Division in theirReading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection^[55][56] as well as theGrand Comics Database.

Publication dates from Classics Central.^[60]

The authorship is based on theGrand Comics Database.^[62]

The authorship is based on the information held by Michigan State University Libraries, Special Collections Division in theirReading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection^[55][56] and/or the copyright information inside the books.

The titles and publication dates are obtained from a personal collection.^[d]

Classic Comic Store UK run – Notes

TheClassics Illustrated branding was on a series oftelevision films produced from 1977 to 1982 bySchick Sunn Classics; one of the executives at Shick Sunn Classics wasPatrick Frawley, who at that point owned theClassics Illustrated brand:

• Last of the Mohicans (1977)
• Donner Pass: The Road to Survival (1978)
• The Time Machine (1978)
• The Deerslayer (1978)
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1980)
• The Adventures of Nellie Bly (1981)
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1981)
• The Fall of the House of Usher (1982)

• In the 1989 filmMajor League, Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger) reads theClassics Illustrated edition ofMoby 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 film, other teammates like Rick Vaughn (Charlie Sheen), Willie Mays Hayes (Wesley Snipes), and Roger Dorn (Corbin Bernsen) start reading otherClassics Illustrated titles, such asThe Song of Hiawatha,The Deerslayer, andCrime and Punishment.
• A copy of theClassics Illustrated version ofDavid Copperfield figures in the 1985 filmHeaven 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 toW.C. Fields instead ofWilkins Micawber. Rooney responds by displaying the cover of the comic book, which depicts Fields as Mr. Micawber, based on his role inthe 1935 film.
• Classics Illustrated #108,Knights of the Round Table (June 1953, Gilberton) is mentioned in theWarner Bros./CW showSupernatural season 8, episode 21: "The Great Escapist" (written byBen Edlund, original air date 1 May 2013).Sam Winchester, ill and delirious, recalls to his brotherDean the memory of Dean reading the story to him when they were both small children. Sam laments that as he thought of the knights' purity, it made him realize that, even though he was a child, he was impure – and that he always knew deep down he was impure.
• InArundhati Roy's bookThe God of Small Things (1997), "Rahel wasn't sure what she suffered from, but occasionally she practised sad faces, and sighing in the mirror.//'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done', she would say to herself sadly. That was Rahel being Sydney Carton being Charles Darnay, as he stood on the steps, waiting to be guillotined, in theClassics Illustrated comic's version ofA Tale of Two Cities".

• SomeClassic Comics issues (and oneClassics Illustrated)
• 
  Three Musketeers
  Issue #1
• 
  Ivanhoe
  Issue #2
• 
  The Count of Monte Cristo
  Issue #3
• 
  The Last of the Mohicans
  Issue #4
• 
  Moby Dick
  Issue #5
• 
  A Tale of Two Cities
  Issue #6
• 
  Robin Hood
  Issue #7
• 
  Arabian Nights
  Issue #8
• 
  Les Misérables
  Issue #9
• 
  Robinson Crusoe
  Issue #10
• 
  Don Quixote
  Issue #11
• 
  Rip Van Winkle
  Issue #12
• 
  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
  Issue #13
• 
  Westward Ho!
  Issue #14
• 
  Uncle Tom's Cabin
  Issue #15
• 
  Gulliver's Travels
  Issue #16
• 
  The Deerslayer
  Issue #17
• 
  The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
  Issue #18
• 
  Huckleberry Finn
  Issue #19
• 
  The Corsican Brothers
  Issue #20
• 
  ThreeFamousMysteries
  Issue #21
• 
  Pathfinder
  Issue #22
• 
  Oliver Twist
  Issue #23
• 
  A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
  Issue #24
• 
  Two Years Before the Mast
  Issue #25
• 
  Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
  Issue #26
• 
  The Adventures of Marco Polo
  Issue #27
• 
  Michael Strogoff
  Issue #28
• 
  The Prince and the Pauper
  Issue #29
• 
  The Moonstone
  Issue #30
• 
  The Black Arrow
  Issue #31
• 
  Lorna Doone
  Issue #32
• 
  The Call of the Wild
  Issue #91

Other companies or series producing comic adaptations of literature:

• Amar Chitra Katha – Indian publisher producing comic book adaptations of Indian legends and epics
• Classical Comics – British publisher producing graphic novel adaptations of the great works of literature, includingShakespeare,Charlotte Brontë, andCharles Dickens
• Graphic Classics – American anthology series produced from 2002 to 2016.
• Joyas Literarias Juveniles [es] – from the Spanish publisherEditorial Bruguera, produced 270 adaptations of classic stories from 1970 to 1983. 28 of these have been translated into English and published asKing Classics.
• Manga de Dokuha - Japanese series of manga versions of classic literature. Produced 139 adaptations of literary classics from 2007 to 2017.
• Marvel Classics Comics – Marvel Comics successor toClassics Illustrated that operated 1976–1978, reprinting some Pendulum Press titles and do a number of their own original adaptations
• Marvel Illustrated – Marvel Comics imprint founded in 2007 specializing in comic book adaptations of literary classics
• PAICO Classics – Indian series from the mid-1980s reprinting Pendulum Press's titles from the 1970s
• Pendulum Press – picked up comic book adaptations of classic literature in 1973
• Self Made Hero – British company producing adaptations of literature, including some of the same Shakespeare plays as Classical Comics
• Les Grands Classiques de la littérature en bande dessinée – French series of classics adaptations, published in 2017–2018 and incorporating titles from two previous series

Wikimedia Commons has media related toClassics Illustrated.

• Classics Illustrated at the Internet Archive
• Classics Illustrated licensing information: First Classics, Inc.
• Classic Comic Store (CCS Books), UK; reissued Classics Illustrated
• Classics Illustrated by Papercutz
• Classics Central
• Review of War Of The Worlds Classics Illustrated
• Review of Great Expectations,

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