Book Review of Classics Illustrated A Cultural History (Second Edition)

Book Review of "Classics Illustrated--A Cultural History" (Second Edition) by William B. Jones, Jr.

This is a fine book and it brings back lots of memories about my Classics Illustrated Collection.  I started buying Classics Illustrated comics about 1955 or so and ended up collecting about 85% of the 170 or so that were printed.  I really didn't collect them as items to be saved because "we" (my brothers and sisters...especially my brothers) read them over and over again.  For example, hen my brother, Bud, was in the hospital for many weeks after a major injury he enjoyed reading my Classics Illustrated Collection.  I even put them in binders that I created out of large old books.  I cut the covers off these books and put the Classic comics in them.

This book spends a great deal of time on the history of Gilberton publishing and its rise and fall.  It is the story story of the Kanter family's series of comics-style adaptations of literary masterpieces from 1941 into the 21st century.  It is a 70 year history.  Several times the series would end, only to be revived in a somewhat different format.

The book also features information on the careers and contributions of such artists as Alex A. Blum, Lou Cameron, George Evans, Henry C. Kiefer, Gray Morrow, Rudolph Palais, Norman Nodel and Louis Zansky.

There are large appendixes that help collectors to realize the extent of these publications around the world.

The book contains more than 300 illustrations.  I loved the book and it's one of those books that I can't give up.