| In the early
1940's a Russian immigrant, Albert L. Kanter thought there might be opportunity in the
newly developing comic book industry. He had been raised in Europe and had read many of
the great classic books as a youngster. His own children, raised in America, seemed to
have little interest in them. Perhaps if these classics were put into comic book form the
kids would be interested. Little did he know how his Classic Comics were going to effect
American Pop Culture for the next fifty years.
October 1941 saw the first book "The Three
Musketeers" hit the newsstands. With a printing run of one quarter to one half
million copies it was an instant success. The company began printing new titles every
month or two and sales were strong. Kanter began to receive letters asking for copies of
earlier title that were not on the newsstands anymore. It seemed people did not throw
their Classic Comics away but were saving them and trying to get a copy of each title.
In April 1943 number ten Robinson Crusoe original
edition came out accompanied by reprints of number one, two, three, and five. Kanter was
reprinting comics, which was unheard of in the industry until then. The books now had
lists of the available titles from number one to number ten and you could clip a coupon
from the comic, send it to the Gilberton Company and they would mail the ordered books to
you. Kanter had a hit on his hands, newsstand and mail order sales. As new titles were
added to the series those lists got longer and longer to include the new titles. No One
knew it but Kanter had inadvertently created a system to classify the edition of a title.
When number twelve "Rip Van Winkle" in June 1943 the ordering list now had
twelve titles and reprints of number four and seven also hit the newsstands with the
number twelve original.
At this point there was an original and one
reprint of number one, two, three, four, five, and seven. The originals had no reorder
lists but the reprints had reorder lists ending with number ten or twelve. Many years
later in the 1970's serious collectors noticed the difference and the term HRN or Highest
Reorder Number was born. They saw that with number one there was an original with no
reorder list, then an edition with a list that went to ten, then an addition that went to
twelve. Canvassing collectors all across America they found there were editions of number
one with lists that ended with ten, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, twenty one, twenty eight,
thirty six, sixty, sixty four, seventy eight, ninety three, one fourteen, one thirty four,
one forty three, one fifty, one forty nine, one sixty seven, one sixty six, and one sixty
nine. So my friends the HRN (Highest Reorder Number) system of classifying the editions of
each title was started.
Almost all of the titles (169 of
them) were reprinted, some up to 25 times. Books with HRN's between 10 and 30 are all
Classic Comics. Originals of #1 through #34 are all Classic Comics. Title #35,Last Days of
Pompeii, saw the logo change to Classics Illustrated. That was in March 1947. About this
time an artist appeared who would put an indelible mark on the series. Henry C Keifer had
the pleasure of doing the entire artwork for #35, 40, 42, 43, 44, 47, 48, 53, 59, 62, 63,
66, 68, 69, 72, 75, 76, 78, 104 and 111.lnl955 the Classics Illustrated Special Issues
were started with #129 The Story of Jesus. The World Around Us series began in 1958. Those
serious collectors in the early 1970;s made some other important observations. They
noticed that all original editions of titles #1 through #80 had 10 cents, printed on the
front cover and that reprints never had 10 cents printed on them. Well, almost never,
there wore a few exceptions to the 10-cent rule. Books #37 & 46 had 104 cents, on
their first reprints (HRN62). To confuse you there are 37/62 and 46/62 without l0 cents.
Jane Eyre #39 had 10cents printed on its 3 edition HRN 71. Our observers also noted that
every original had a "Coming Next" ad in it that showed the next book that would
appear. Of course there are a few exceptions to the "Coming Next" rule. 57/75
and 55/75 are reprints that have the ads. Numbers 168 and 169 do not have the ads.
When #81 original came out, to
changes occurred. The new price of fifteen cents appeared printed on the cover of all the
following originals and reprints. Number 81 also had the first painted cover. Never again
did Gilberton use the line drawn cover format that we see on the earlier originals and
reprints of books one through eight.
In the late nineteen sixties the
company foundered. Perhaps it was because of T.V. or perhaps kids were drifting away from
European writers who had dominated the series. A big problem was trouble with the magazine
distributors who actually delivered the Classics (and all other comics and magazines) to
the various retail outlets. They couldn't make enough money with the cover price at
fifteen cents. There are stories about the distributors returning unopened cases of
new Classics to Gilberton.
A company called Twin Circle took
over. They published a weekly Catholic newspaper and thought they could revive the series.
They put new covers on over 20 of the titles and put #168 and #169 into print but the
party was over. |
