Publisher: Gilberton
Publication Dates: October 1953 – March 1971
Number of Issues Published: 77
(#501 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – #577 – The Runaway Dumpling)
Color: Color
Dimensions: Standard Golden and Silver Age U. S.
Paper Stock: Glossy cover; Newsprint interior
Binding: Saddle-stitched
Publishing Format: Was Ongoing Series
Publication Type: magazine
Pages: 36 Indicia Frequency: Monthly
Authors:
Script:
Mayer A. Kaplan (adapter); Toni Blum
Pencils & Inks:
Alex A. Blum, Bill Walsh [as William A. Walsh] , Dik Browne ?, Peter Costanza (signed),
Letters
Typeset
Classics Illustrated Junior is a series of 77 fairy and folk tale, myth and legend comic book adaptations created by Albert Lewis Kanter as a companion series to his popular Classics Illustrated. The Junior series began monthly publication by Famous Authors, Ltd. in October 1953, and published its last “first edition” issue in 1962. Titles were reprinted over the years until spring 1971 when the series ceased publication altogether.
Issues cost 15-cents rather than the typical 10 or 12-cents, and jumped to 25-cents before the series’ demise. Supplemental features included Aesop fables adaptations, a limerick by Edward Lear, a nursery rhyme or a poem from Robert Louis Stevenson’s “A Child’s Garden of Verses”, a factual article about a bird, beast, fish or reptile, and a dot-to-dot puzzle or a picture to color. Full-page, back cover pinups of story scenes were featured on the first 20 titles.
Kanter allowed only in-house advertising in his publications. Inside back covers sometimes offered lists of back titles and order forms or subscription order forms for the Junior series and sometimes Classics Illustrated. First editions of a title featured a “Coming Next Month” promo on the inside front cover which was dropped in reprints. Artists associated with the series included John Costanza, Kurt Schaffenberger, L. B. Cole, Dik Browne, and Graham Ingels. Kanter distributed the line abroad.
In the new millennium, some titles were reprinted by Jack Lake Productions of Canada, and, in September 2008, Classic Comic Store Ltd., based in the United Kingdom, began publishing the Junior line for distribution in the UK, Republic of Ireland, South Africa,
Australia and New Zealand.
1955's Eagle Annual Number 5 continued the tradition for the 1956 season with its broad selection of adventure, sport, science and fun articles. You can even learn how to make a rope ladder -- just what every boy needed !
