CLASSICS Illustrated SECOND EDITION Sample file Sample file CLASSICS Illustrated A Cultural History SECOND EDITION WILLIAM B. JONES, JR. Sample file McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina, and London William B. Jones, Jr., is also the editor of Robert Louis Stevenson Reconsidered: New Critical Perspectives (McFarland, 2003) Frontispiece: Alex A. Blum, The Man Who Laughs (May 1950, first Canadian edition 30 November 1950). Classics Illustrated ( TM) is the trademark of Frawley Corporation and its exclusive licensee First Classics, Inc. All rights reserved. By permission of Jack Lake Productions Inc. (www.jacklakeproductions.com). LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Jones, William B., Jr., 1950– Classics illustrated : a cultural history / William B. Jones, Jr.—2d ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7864-3840-2 illustrated case binding : 50# and 70# alkaline papers 1. Classics illustrated (New York, N.Y.) 2. Kanter, Albert Lewis, 1897–1973. I. Title PN6725.J67 2011 741.5'973–dc22 2011014281 BRITISH LSampleIBRARY CATALOGUING file DATA ARE AVAILABLE © 2011 William B. Jones, Jr. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. On the front cover: Classics Illustrated covers (clockwise, from left) Robin Hood (November 1955); War of the Worlds (January 1955); Treasure Island (October 1949); Ivanhoe (January 1957); Cleopatra (March 1961); Mysteries (August 1947); Journey to the Center of the Earth (May 1957) On the back cover: Caesar's Conquests (January1956) Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com For Yslan, my wife and truest friend, with fondest memories of tracking The Last of the Mohicans, unearthing The Master of Ballantrae, and riding Off on a Comet and again for Will and Stephen, the best of sons and companions, who now know How Fire Came to the Indians, the secret of The Man Who Laughs, and what an all- too- brief thing is A Midsummer Night’s Dream Sample file This page intentionally left blank Sample file Table of Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: “Good Stories” 1 I. Albert Kanter’s Dream 9 II. Of Musketeers and Mohicans: The Jacquet Shop 17 III. Louis Zansky: The Painter’s Touch 26 IV. Eccentricity Abounding: The War Years 35 V. Arnold Lorne Hicks: Transitional Figure 42 Between pages 48 and 49 are eight pages containing 22 color plates VI. Enter Iger: The Fiction House Artists 49 VII. Henry Carl Kiefer and the Classics House Style 63 VIII. Alex A. Blum: “A Prince of a Man” 76 IX. A “Newer, Truer Name”: The Late Forties 90 X. Blood, Sweat, and Rudy Palais 104 XI. Painted Covers and an Extra Nickel:Sample The Early Fiftiesfile 111 XII. Maurice del Bourgo: A “Man’s World Artist” 131 XIII. Canonical Matters and Classical Curiosities 135 XIV. Lou Cameron: “If John Wayne Had Drawn Comic Books” 144 XV. Norman Nodel: “A Certain Integrity” 153 XVI. From the Crypt to the Classics: The EC Era 165 XVII. George Evans, Reed Crandall, and the Tradition of EC Realism 182 XVIII. Roberta the Conqueror 197 Between pages 200 and 201 are eight pages containing 26 color plates XIX. High Tide and Greenbacks: The Late Fifties 201 XX. Gerald McCann: The Colors of the Sky 213 XXI. Gray Morrow: “Real People and Real Events” 217 XXII. “Roberta’s Reforms”: The Early Sixties 222 XXIII. William E. Kanter: About a Son 240 vii viii TABLE OF CONTENTS XXIV. Five Little Series and How They Grew: Picture Progress; Classics Illustrated Junior; Classics Illustrated Special Issues; The World Around Us; The Best from Boys’ Life Comics 244 XXV. “Frawley’s Folly”: The Twin Circle Era (1967–1971) 270 XXVI. Classics Abroad: The Worldwide Yellow Banner 274 XXVII. The Wilderness Years: The Seventies and Eighties 280 XXVIII. Great Expectations: First Publishing’s Graphic Novels 283 XXIX. “Your Doorway to the Classics”: Acclaim’s Study Guides 291 XXX. Restoration: Jack Lake Productions and Papercutz 294 XXXI. Classics Collected: Notes on the Evolution of a Pastime and a Passion 299 XXXII. Classical Coda 306 Notes 309 Appendices A. Classic Comics and Classics Illustrated 317 B. Classics Illustrated Giant Editions 334 C. Fast Fiction/Stories by Famous Authors Illustrated 334 D. Classics Illustrated Educational Series 335 E. Picture Parade/Picture Progress 335 F. Classics Illustrated Junior 336 G. Classics Illustrated Special Issues 342 H. The Best from Boys’ Life Comics 343 I. TheSample World Around file Us 344 J. British Classics Illustrated, First and Second Series 349 K. Classics Illustrated, Second Series (Berkley/First) 353 L. Classics Illustrated, Third Series, Study Guides (Acclaim) 353 M. Classics Illustrated, Fourth Series (Jack Lake) 355 N. Classics Illustrated Junior, Second Series (Jack Lake) 357 O. Classics Illustrated Special Issues, Second Series (Jack Lake) 359 P. British Classics Illustrated, Third Series 359 Q. Papercutz Classics Illustrated DeLuxe Editions 360 R. Papercutz Classics Illustrated Editions 360 S. Correspondence Between Roberta Strauss and the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, re: The Dark Frigate 360 T. Letter from Roberta Strauss Feuerlicht to E. Nelson Bridwell 361 Bibliography 363 Index 367 Acknowledgments hen I completed the first edition of Classics Illustrated: but it hadn’t addressed either the artists who worked for the W A Cultural History, I thought the song was over. In my series or the adaptations of the works that formed the title list. mind, I was chronicling a noble idea—the introduction of As it happened, Charlotte liked the CI option and told children to literary masterpieces through the comics medium— me to begin securing copyright permissions. In my innocence, that had outlasted its time. But within a year of the publication I thought the process would take a couple of weeks at most. of the book, I found that Classics Illustrated had been given Three years later, a permissions agreement was signed. In the new life through the efforts of a quixotic dreamer, Jaak Jarve, meantime, I had been contacting artists or family members a Toronto- based publisher with Kanteresque energy. With through various search directories in those early Internet days. Canadian, American, and British imprints currently active, The first artist I heard from was Rudy Palais. He called me on the 70- year- old line is on its way to becoming a world wide the evening of 1 November 1993, when I was in charge of my presence again. In the meantime, more information about the two- year- old and six- weeks- old sons. I took the call while try- history of the original series has become available, and an ex- ing to feed both boys their very different meals. “Is this Bill panded second edition seemed in order. Jones?” I heard a raspy voice on the other end of the line ask. This book had its inception in a very different world. In “Yes, it is,” I replied. “This is Rudy Palais. How did you find fact, it began as another book altogether. In the fall of 1992, me?” I was so startled that I nearly dropped baby Stephen. my friend Stephen Buel, who, as editor of Spectrum, gave me When I recovered myself, I said, “On a computer.” After a my first opportunity to write for pay in the learn- by- doing slight pause, Mr. Palais half- laughed, half- barked his com - school, had been covering the 1992 presidential race in Little ment: “Well, that’s scary as hell!” Rock for UPI. After the election of Bill Clinton, when for a And, truly, I suppose it was. By the time I had completed few weeks anything seemed possible for anyone from Little the original edition of this work, I had only one e- mail listed Rock, Steve suggested to me that we collaborate on a bookSample on as a source.file That number has grown, to say the least. Social the president- elect’s repeated patterns of rising, falling, and networking played its part this time around, as well. I’ve dis- rising again. The idea was that we would focus on Clinton’s covered principal sources for this edition through Facebook, 1978 election as the nation’s youngest governor, his 1980 gu- Google, and various websites that, like so many other tools we bernatorial defeat, and his 1982 mea culpa resurrection as a now take for granted, didn’t exist in the mid–1990s. An inter- sort of predictor of his then- unwritten presidential career. national community of people interested in Classics Illustrated Thanks to novelist and historian Grif Stockley, we were as something more than collectibles has grown since the pub- soon in touch with Charlotte Gordon, a New York literary lication of the original edition of this book. Many share my agent. She indicated, by letter and phone conversation in late fascination with the story of first- and second- generation December 1992, that she wasn’t interested in a collaborative Americans who helped to shape the literary experience of two study of Bill Clinton’s early political career. “Who knows if generations. Others have responded to the implicit narrative anyone will be interested in him after he’s inaugurated?” she of underlying political currents in the Gilberton editorial and said, in what I suspected even then would qualify as Famous business offices and the tension between the traditionalism em- Last Words. Charlotte then asked me to come up with a list bodied by the publication itself and the progressive views of of three or four possible book subjects. I dutifully listed four various editors and scriptwriters.