Brazil In 1948, the
Brazilian comic book publisher (EBAL) 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. BSV was acquired by
National Periodical Publications (DC Comics) in 1966. In October 1973, the publisher became Williams (independent of BSV), 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 (
Klassiká Eikonografiména, meaning "Classics Illustrated") and has been published continuously since 1951 by Εκδόσεις Πεχλιβανίδη (
Ekdóseis Pechlivanídi, Pechlivanídis Publications). 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 (Pechlivanídis Publications), was founded by three brothers of the Πεχλιβανίδης (Pechlivanídis) family from the
Greek-speaking parts of
Asia Minor: Μιχάλης, Michális, Michael; Κώστας, Kóstas; and Γιώργος, Giórgos, George), collectively known as
αδελφοί Πεχλιβανίδη (Pechlivanídis brothers). They had extensive experience in
publishing from the 1920s, mainly in advertising – but also in
children's books after 1936, when Κώστας Πεχλιβανίδης (Kóstas Pechlivanídis) 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 (Atlantis Publications) 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 (
with 336 multicolored illustrations as the front page advertised). Its cost at the time was 4,000
drachmas, and the first edition (90,000 copies) 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 (and a few original stories) 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 #43 in 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 (by
Illustrerade klassiker /
Williams Förlags AB) 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 (i.e. the first one imported would be issue 513). In October 2012 (when issue 44 had been dispatched), 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 (issues 45–48) was produced in October 2013. The second batch (49, 57–62) was available in August 2016 (although the issues stated "First Published May 2016"). The gap (50–56) 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 (issue #32) became the first new title in the 48-page series since Gilberton's 1969 publication of #169 (
Negro Americans: The Early Years). The artwork came from the November 1950
Stories by Famous Authors Illustrated (Seaboard Publishing) edition of
Nicholas Nickleby and retained the original Gustav Schrotter interior art.) :#
Dunkirk (originally published in 1962 in Spanish by Editorial Novaro) :#
D-Day: The Normandy Invasion (originally published in 2015 in Spanish by Editorial Novaro) :#
Beowulf (originally published in 1963 in Spanish by Editorial Novaro) --> == Issues ==