Classics Illustrated
Classics Illustrated is an American comic book/magazine series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Les Misérables, Moby-Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert 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 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.
1941–1971: Elliot / Gilberton
Recognizing the appeal of early comic books, Russian-born publisher Albert Lewis Kanter believed he could use the new medium to introduce young and reluctant readers to "great literature". He 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. 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, illustrated by Lillian Chestney, 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. 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 as adventure or mystery.
Classic Comics is marked by varying quality in art and is celebrated today for its often garish but highly collectible line-drawn covers. Original edition Classic Comics in "near mint" condition command prices in the thousands of dollars.
With issue #35 in March 1947 the series' name was changed to Classics Illustrated. In 1948, rising paper costs reduced books to 48 pages. In 1951, line-drawn covers were replaced with painted covers, and the price was raised from 10 cents to 15 cents.
Classics Illustrated benefitted from nationwide distribution beginning in late 1951, and Kanter began promoting the series as an educational tool. Despite this, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Uncle Tom's Cabin were both cited in Dr. Fredric Wertham's 1954 condemnation of comic books Seduction 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.
Classics Illustrated #65 — Benjamin Franklin — written by Adelaide Lee and illustrated by Alex Blum, Robert Hebberd, and Gus Schrotter, was given the 1956 Thomas Alva Edison Foundation National Mass Media Award for Best American History Comic Book.
As Classics Illustrated became more standardized in the 1950s, Gilberton re-issued earlier editions with new art. All editions were re-issued with new cover art in the 1950s and '60s.
In addition to Classics Illustrated, Kanter presided over its spin-offs Classics Illustrated Junior, Classics Illustrated Special Issue, and The World Around Us. Between 1941 and 1962, sales totaled 200 million.
Of the original 169 issues of Classic Comics/''Classics Illustrated produced in the period 1941–1969, the writers with the most representation included Jules Verne, with ten works adapted; Alexandre Dumas, with nine; James Fenimore Cooper, with eight; and Robert Louis Stevenson, with seven. Charles Dickens, Walter Scott, William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and H. 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 the public domain. Beginning in 1952, the series occasionally created authorized adaptations of popular 20th-century fiction by such authors as Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall, Frank Buck, Charles Boardman Hawes, Erich Maria Remarque, Talbot Mundy, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, and Emerson Hough.
In addition to the literary adaptations, each issue of Classics 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. Kanter's last new title was issue #167 Faust, though other titles had been planned. Two of these titles – an adaptation of G. A. Henty's In 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 publisher Thorpe & Porter, which at that point was owned by Gilberton, produced 13 new issues of Classics Illustrated, which were never published in the U.S. Most of the script adaptations were done by Classics Illustrated editor Alfred Sundel.
In 1967, Kanter sold his company to Twin Circle Publishing Co. and its conservative Catholic publisher Patrick Frawley, whose Frawley Corporation in 1969 finally published In Freedom's Cause and Negro Americans'', but mainly concentrated on foreign sales and reprinting older titles. After four years, Twin Circle discontinued the line because of poor distribution, and licensed the rights to other companies until it sold the rights to First Classics, Inc. in 2011.
Writers and artists
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. Others with a lot of script adaptation credits include Ken Fitch with 22 issues, Harry G. Miller with twelve, Evelyn Goodman with nine, and John O'Rourke with nine. Other writers with multiple adaptations to their names included Ruth Roche, George Lipscomb, Annette T. Rubenstein, and Sam Willinsky.Henry C. Kiefer was the main artist for many issues of Classic Comics and Classics Illustrated, and his work came to define the "look" of the series. For Classic Comics, he illustrated the 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. For Classics 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 of Classics Illustrated.
Other artists who contributed to Classic Comics include Lillian Chestney, Webb and Brewster, and Matt Baker. Oliver Twist was the first title produced by the Eisner & Iger shop.
Other notable artists who drew multiple issues of Classics Illustrated included George Evans, Lou Cameron, Reed Crandall, Pete Costanza, L.B. Cole, John Severin, Gray Morrow, and Joe 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 and George Woodbridge.
''Classics Illustrated Junior''
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 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; the line eventually numbered 77 issues, 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.''Classics Illustrated Special Issue''
Despite numbering that aligns with the main Classics 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 typical Classics Illustrated. Notable artists included Angelo 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, and Sid Check.1990–1991: First Comics
In 1988 First Comics partnered with Berkley Publishing to acquire the rights, and announced it was reviving the Classics Illustrated brand with all-new adaptations. In 1990, Classics Illustrated returned after a nearly 30-year hiatus, with 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.The line lasted only a little over a year, publishing 27 issues. Titles solicited but never published were Kidnapped, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, The Red Badge of Courage, The War of the Worlds, Around the World in Eighty Days, and The Last of the Mohicans. Kidnapped, adapted by Mike Vosburg, was later published by Papercutz in 2012.
1997–1998: Acclaim Books
In 1997–1998, Acclaim Books published a series of recolored reprints of the Gilberton issues 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, also 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. The series lasted 62 issues, with three of the final four issues being all-new adaptations.2008–2014: Papercutz
In 2007, Papercutz acquired the Classics Illustrated license and announced that they would begin publishing new graphic novels as well as reprints of the First Comics series from 1990 to 1991. The new modern adaptations were largely produced in France; Papercutz published 12 volumes – including The Wind in the Willows, Frankenstein, Treasure Island, and The 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 from 2008 to 2014.
1989–present: First Classics, Inc.
First Classics, Inc., formed in 1989, eventually took over management of the Classics Illustrated rights licensed to First Publishing by the Frawley Corporation.Starting in 2002, First Classics enlisted Jack Lake Productions 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.
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.
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 of the UK re-publishes much of the Classics Illustrated lineup.
Digital editions
In 2011, Marblehead, Massachusetts-based Trajectory Inc. issued the first digital editions of Gilberton Classics Illustrated regular and Junior 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.International editions
Brazil
In 1948, the Brazilian comic book publisher launched the series, which reprinted many issues of Classics Illustrated, and which included original adaptations of Brazilian novels.In the 1990s, Editora Abril published some stories from the First Comics Classics Illustrated series. In 2010, HQM Editora published Through the Looking-Glass, originally adapted in 1990 by Kyle Baker for the First Comics series.
Canada
Gilberton published a Canadian version of Classics Illustrated in the period 1948–1951, putting out 78 issues.In 2003, Toronto's Jack Lake Productions revived Classics Illustrated Junior, creating new remastered artwork 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 November 2007, Jack Lake Productions published for the first time in North America Classics Illustrated #170 The Aeneid along with issues #1 of The Three Musketeers, #4 of The Last of the Mohicans, and #5 of Moby Dick.
In October 2016, Jack Lake Productions republished under the Classic Comics banner eleven remastered original Gilberton titles:
- #11 Don Quixote
- #14 Westward Ho!
- #17 The Deerslayer
- #20 The Corsican Brothers
- #21 Three Famous Mysteries
- #22 The Pathfinder
- #79 Cyrano de Bergerac
- #122 The Mutineers
- #123 Fang and Claw
- #168 In Freedom's Cause
- #174 Captain Blood – new addition, originally published in Stories by Famous Authors Illustrated #2.
Germany
The German publisher Internationale Klassiker, later renamed Bildschriftenverlag, was founded in 1956 to publish translated editions of Classics Illustrated. The company released 204 issues of the title from 1956 to 1972. BSV was acquired by National Periodical Publications in 1966. In October 1973, the publisher became Williams, with its headquarters on Elbchaussee in Hamburg. In 2013, the publisher BSV Hannover revived the title with issue #206; it continues to the present day.Meanwhile, beginning in 1991 and lasting until 2002, the German publisher Norbert Hethke Verlag reprinted the Illustrierte Klassiker series.
Greece
In Greece the series is named Κλασσικά Εικονογραφημένα and has been published continuously since 1951 by Εκδόσεις Πεχλιβανίδη. 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 US Classics Illustrated more than 70 titles were published with themes from Greek mythology and Greek history. 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, was founded by three brothers of the Πεχλιβανίδης, collectively known as αδελφοί Πεχλιβανίδη. They had extensive experience in publishing from the 1920s, mainly in advertising – but also in children's books after 1936, when Κώστας Πεχλιβανίδης finished his studies in the – then modern – printing techniques in Leipzig.
The Pechlivanídis brothers had inherited the printing press of Bavarian lithographer Grundman – and his experience as well. Having worked for years with offset printing, the Pechlivanídis brothers founded after the war the Εκδόσεις Ατλαντίς 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 tetrachromatic offset. Its cost at the time was 4,000 drachmas, and the first edition went out of print quickly and was reprinted twice in the following days. According to Atlantis, it sold about a million copies.
United Kingdom
Thorpe & Porter / Williams
The British publisher Thorpe & Porter published Classics Illustrated reprints from 1951 to 1963. Of the 181 British issues, 13 had never appeared in America. Additionally, there were some variations in cover art.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 in 1963 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.
In 1976–1977, the successor company to Thorpe & Porter, Williams Publishing, released the Double Duo series, which for the first time reprinted translated issues of Classics Illustrated originally published in Swedish 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.
Classic Comic Store
In September 2008, Classic Comic Store, 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 from 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. In October 2012, 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 was produced in October 2013. The second batch was available in August 2016. The gap 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 became the first new title in the 48-page series since Gilberton's 1969 publication of #169. The artwork came from the November 1950 Stories by Famous Authors Illustrated edition of Nicholas Nickleby and retained the original Gustav Schrotter interior art.
- October 2012: The 39 Steps became the second brand-new title to the Classics Illustrated canon.
- September 2013: The Argonauts was published – one of 13 which were never issued in the US collection but only in the UK.
- March 2019: The Aeneid 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 was published – this was not issued in the original US collection, but was published in 1990 as #3 in the First Comics run.
Expanded World Series Facsimile Series
Current titles:
- March 2024
Issues
Original Elliot/Gilberton run
Authorship is based on William B. Jones Jr.'s Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, second edition, Appendices A and B; as well as the information held by Michigan State University Libraries Special Collections Division in their Reading Room Index to the Comic Art Collection as well as the Grand Comics Database.''Classics Illustrated Special Issue''
Publication dates from Classics Central.| Issue | Original publication | Title | Chapters | Author | Illustrator | Notes |
| 129A | December 1955 | The Story of Jesus | N/A | Lorenz Graham | William A. Walsh & Alex Blum | |
| 132A | June 1956 | The Story of America | The Man Who Discovered America, The Birth of America, Paul Revere's Ride, The Star Spangled Banner | Lou Cameron | ||
| 135A | The Ten Commandments | The Ten Commandments, Joseph and His Brethren | Lorenz Graham | Norman Nodel | ||
| 138A | June 1957 | Adventures in Science | The Story of Flight, Andy's Atomic Adventure, The Discoveries of Louis Pasteur, From Tom Tom to TV | Pete Costanza | ||
| 141A | December 1957 | The Rough Rider | The Rough Rider | Biography of Theodore Roosevelt; "prepared in cooperation with the Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Commission." | ||
| 144A | June 1958 | Blazing the Trails West | "Gold, Fur and Freedom"; "Daniel Boone"; "The Lewis and Clark Expedition"; "The Santa Fe Trail"; "Fur and Mountains"; "Kit Carson"; "Texas and the Alamo"; "The Mexican War" | |||
| 147A | December 1958 | Crossing the Rockies | The Oregon Trail, Death and the Donners, This Is the Place, The Gold Rush, The Apache Wars, The Overland Mail, The Pony Express, Bound by Rails | Don Perlin, Norman Nodel; George Evans; Reed Crandall; Joe Orlando | ||
| 150A | June 1959 | Royal Canadian Mounted Police | "March to Fort Whoop-Up"; "Pony soldiers"; "Indians and outlaws"; "Unrest and rebellion"; "Patrolling the prairies"; "The gold rush"; "Into the far North"; "The modern Mountie"; "Manhunt!"; "Molding a Mountie" | Sam Glanzman; Graham Ingels; Sid Check; Stan Campbell; Ray Ramsey; Norman Nodel | ||
| 153A | December 1959 | Men, Guns and Cattle | Horns and Hoofs, Iron Fisted Marshall, Wild Bill Hickok, The Chisholm Trail, The Lincoln County War, Dodge City Lawman, The Last Warpath, The West's Wildest Town, The Death of Tombstone, Koohoppers and Cactus Cats, The Closing Frontier | George Evans; Gerald McCann; Everett Kinstler; Norman Nodel; George Peltz | ||
| 156A | June 1960 | The Atomic Age | Adventure North, The Smallest Particle, Inside the Atom, The Atomic Furnace, The Magic Mineral, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma, Atoms for Power, The Radioscope, Atoms and Industry, Atoms and Agriculture, Atoms and Medicine, The Healing Rays, The Atom Tomorrow | Norman Nodel; Bruno Premiani; Sam Glanzman; Everett Kinstler; George Evans | ||
| 159A | December 1960 | Rockets, Jets and Missiles | The Flight of the X-1, Space Talk, The Jet Is Born, Space Talk, Jet Engines, Jets Around the World, Space Talk, Rockets Through Time, Space Talk, The Wizard of Worcester, Space Talk, Rocket Engines, Don't Do It Yourself, Space Talk, Rockets and Missiles Around the World, Artificial Moons, Space Talk, Seven for Space, Space Talk, Off Into Orbit, Space Talk, Doorway Into Tomorrow | George Evans; Sam Glanzman; H. J. Kihl; Gerald McCann; Jack Abel; Gray Morrow | ||
| 162A | June 1961 | The War Between the States | April, 1861: Fort Sumter, The Causes, July, 1861: Bull Run, Battle Report, April, 1862: Shiloh, April, 1862: New Orleans, April–July, 1862: The Peninsula, July, 1862: Kentucky, Battle Report, June, 1863: Brandy Station, June–July, 1863: Gettysburg, April–July, 1863: Vicksburg, September–November, 1863: Chattanooga, Battle Report, May–September, 1864: Georgia, October, 1864: The Atlantic, November, 1864: New York City, April, 1865: Appomattox Court House, Final Report, Reconstruction | Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers; Sam Glanzman; Till Gooden; George Peltz; George Evans & Reed Crandall; Edd Ashe; John Tartaglione; Pete Morisi | ||
| 165A | December 1961 | To the Stars | Man in the Skies, Earth in Space, The Magic Eye, The Giant of Palomar, Our Neighbor—the Moon, The Copper Moon, The Inner Planets: The Gods' Messenger, The Inner Planets: The Goddess, The Inner Planets: The Green World, The Inner Planets: The Red Planet, The Giants, The Georgian Planet, Uranus, Neptune, Planet X, Pluto, Are There Other Planets?, Fiery Streaks and Tails, Figures in the Sky, Star Facts, Our Nearest Star, The Disappearing Sun, Light Years, The Universe, The Universe and Life | Angelo Torres; George Evans; Reed Crandall; Jack Kirby & Dick Ayers; Sam Glanzman; Jo Albistur; Charles Berger; Norman Nodel | ||
| 166A | 1962 | World War II | World War II, The Fuehrer, War on the High Seas, Il Duce, The Conquest of Western Europe, The Battle of Britain, Warships and Wolf Packs, The Resistance, The Eastern Front, The Big Three, War in the Pacific, The Doolittle Raid, The Coral Sea and Midway, Guadalcanal, Tarawa, War Leaders, Stalingrad, War Leaders, Lidice and Warsaw, The Death Camps, North Africa, War Leaders, The Italian Campaign, Blockbusters and Buzz Bombs, The Normandy Invasion, The Battle of the Bulge, Victory in Europe, War Leaders, Leyte Gulf, The Mainland War, War Leaders, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, Victory in the Pacific, Crimes Against Humanity | Angelo Torres; George Evans; John Tartaglione; Norman Nodel | ||
| 167A | July 1962 | Prehistoric World | In Search of the Past, Survival of the Fittest, The Wonderful Earth Movie, The First Fishes, Living on Land, The Dinosaurs, Reptiles of the Sea and Air, A Missing Link, Mammals, Bones and Stones, The Treasure of Flaming Cliffs, End of an Era, The Age of the Mammals, Prehistoric Man, The Bulls of Altamira, The Dawn Men, Neanderthal Man, Homo Sapiens, Cro-Magnon Man, The Reindeer Age, The Races of Man, The Early Farmers, The Long Journeys: Into America, Into Africa, The Mixing of Peoples, Across the Pacific, The Stone Builders, The Fuegian Experiment, Primitives Today | Angelo Torres; Reed Crandall; George Evans; Norman Nodel; Jo Albistur; Gerald McCann; Norman Nodel |
First Comics run
The authorship is based on the Grand Comics Database.Papercutz''Classics Illustrated Deluxe'' graphic novels
Classic Comic Store UK, 2008 onwards 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 and/or the copyright information inside the books.The titles and publication dates are obtained from a personal collection.
'''Classic Comic Store UK run – Notes'''
In other media
The Classics Illustrated branding was on a series of television films produced from 1977 to 1982 by Schick Sunn Classics; one of the executives at Shick Sunn Classics was Patrick Frawley, who at that point owned the Classics Illustrated brand: Last of the Mohicans Donner Pass: The Road to Survival The Time Machine The Deerslayer The Legend of Sleepy Hollow The Adventures of Nellie Bly The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn- ''The Fall of the House of Usher''
General and cited references
- Goulart, Ron. Great American Comic Books. Publications International, Ltd., 2001.
- Jones, William B. Jr., Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History, with Illustrations. Second edition, 2011.
- 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.
- Richardson, Donna "Classics Illustrated." American Heritage, Vol. 44.3, May/June 1993.