Classics Illustrated Junior

Classics Illustrated Junior
Cover, issue 507
Publication information
Publisher	Famous Authors, Ltd. Gilberton Publications
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	October 1953 — Spring 1971
No. of issues	77
Creative team
Created by	Albert Lewis Kanter
Artist(s)	L.B. Cole Kurt Schaffenberger John Costanza Alex Blum Graham Ingels

Classics Illustrated Junior is a comic book series of seventy-seven fairy and folk tale, myth and legend comic book adaptations created by Albert Lewis Kanter as a spin-off of his flagship comic book line Classics Illustrated. Published by Famous Authors, Ltd. (Gilberton Publications), the series kicked off in October 1953 with an adaptation of the Grimm Brothers' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs illustrated by Alex Blum. The series' last original issue was The Runaway Dumpling, issue 577 of 1967. The series ceased publication in Spring 1971. Published monthly, issues cost slightly more than other comic books of the time with a 15 cent cover price rather than the usual 10 or 12-cents. Close to the end of publication in 1971, prices jumped to 25-cents. Issues included among their contents features such as comics adaptations of Aesop Fables (usually two to three pages), a limerick by Edward Lear, a Mother Goose rhyme, or poem from Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses (one page), and a one page factual article about a bird, beast, or reptile. As the publisher allowed only in-house advertising in his books, the back cover interior sometimes offered a catalog of titles and a subscription order form. First editions included a "Coming Next Month" ad and a dot-to-dot puzzle on the inside front cover. The interior of the back cover featured a "Color this Picture with your Crayons" full-page line-drawn illustration of a scene from the tale. The exterior of the back cover often depicted a full-page color illustration from the tale. Artists included John Costanza, Kurt Schaffenberger, L. B. Cole and Graham Ingels. Unlike other comic book publishers, Kanter reprinted his titles regularly and the line was distributed abroad.

References

• Goulart, Ron. Great American Comic Books. Publications International, Ltd., 2001.
• Overstreet, Robert M.. Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. House of Collectibles, 2004.

External links

• The Comic Book Database Gallery of Classics Illustrated Junior covers
• Classics Illustrated Junior Commentary on CIJ adaptations of Aesop's Fables
• Jack Lake Productions Selected Classics Illustrated Junior reprints