The Gilberton Company, Inc. was an American publisher best known for the comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 series Classics Illustrated

Classics Illustrated

Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies...

. Beginning life as an imprint of the Elliot Publishing Company, the company became independent in 1942, before being sold to the Frawley Corporation in 1967. The company ceased publishing in 1971.

History

Russian-born publisher Albert Lewis Kanter (1897–1973) recognizing the appeal of early comic books, believed he could use the new medium to introduce young and reluctant readers to "great literature

Western canon

The term Western canon denotes a canon of books and, more broadly, music and art that have been the most important and influential in shaping Western culture. As such, it includes the "greatest works of artistic merit." Such a canon is important to the theory of educational perennialism and the...

". In October 1941, with the backing of two business partners, he created Classic Comics for Elliot Publishing Company, its debut issue being The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers

The Three Musketeers is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized in March–July 1844. Set in the 17th century, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard...

, followed by Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott in 1819, and set in 12th-century England. Ivanhoe is sometimes credited for increasing interest in Romanticism and Medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages," while...

and The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is often considered to be, along with The Three Musketeers, Dumas's most popular work. He completed the work in 1844...

. In addition to the literary adaptations, the comics featured author profiles, educational fillers, and ads for the coming titles. In later editions, a catalog of titles and a subscription order form appeared on back covers.

By the time of Classics Illustrated #4, in 1942, the title outgrew the space it shared with Elliot, and Kanter moved the operation to different offices, changing the corporate identity to the Gilberton Company, Inc. Reprints of previous titles began in 1943. Wartime paper shortages forced Kanter to reduce the 64-page format to 56 pages, and, in 1948, rising paper costs reduced books to 48 pages. In addition to Classics Illustrated, Kanter presided over its spin-offs Classics Illustrated Junior

Classics Illustrated Junior

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.-Publication history:...

, Specials, and The World Around Us. Between 1941 and 1962, sales totaled 200 million.

The publication of new titles ceased in 1962 for various reasons. The company lost its 2nd-class mailing permit, and cheap paperbacks, Cliff's Notes

CliffsNotes

CliffsNotes are a series of student study guides available primarily in the United States. The guides present and explain literary and other works in pamphlet form or online. Detractors of the study guides claim they let students bypass reading the assigned literature...

, and television drew readers away from the series. Kanter's last new title was Classics Illustrated #167 Faust

Faust

Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...

(August 1962) though other titles had been planned. These titles appeared in the company's foreign editions.

1967 sale and demise

In 1967, Kanter sold his company to Catholic publication Twin Circle and its publisher Patrick Frawley, whose Frawley Corporation brought out two more titles but mainly concentrated on foreign sales and reprinting older titles. After four years, Twin Circle discontinued the line because of poor distribution. By the early 1970s, Classics Illustrated and Junior had been discontinued, although the Classics Illustrated branding would be used on one telemovie, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is a short story by Washington Irving contained in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., written while he was living in Birmingham, England, and first published in 1820...

. Since the series' demise, various companies have reprinted its titles.

Imprints

• Classics International
• Classiques Internationales
• Elliot Publishing
• Famous Authors, Ltd.
• Gilberton Publications
• Gilberton World-Wide Publications

Titles published

• Classic Comics (1941–1947) — Name-changed in March 1947 to Classics Illustrated with issue #35 (The Last Days of Pompeii
  The Last Days of Pompeii
  The Last Days of Pompeii is a novel written by the baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1834. Once a very widely read book and now relatively neglected, it culminates in the cataclysmic destruction of the city of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79.The novel uses its characters to contrast...
  
  ).
• Classics Illustrated
  Classics Illustrated
  Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies...
  
  (1947–1967)
• Classics Illustrated Junior
  Classics Illustrated Junior
  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.-Publication history:...
  
  (1953–1971)
• Classics Illustrated Special Issue (1955–1962)
• The World Around Us (1958–1961)