Even better than Cliff Notes - Classic Illustrated Comics. Who remembers them?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

I LOVED them when I was little. The one I remember best is Silas Marner.

The comics focused pretty exclusively on plot, but they were also able to economically give some great insight into character as well as being extremely cinematic. I think that they could be considered as "story boards" for a very literal screen interpretation of a classic.

[Greybnk48]

1. I loved them too, from the late 50's early 60's (at least for me).

The one I remember the most was The Prince and the Pauper.

[Hugin]

2. I had almost all of them...

My personal favorite was "War of the Worlds".

[Fovea]

3. Some books fared better than others.

Prisoner of Zenda was pretty recognizable later when I read it.

Lord Jim, not so much.

[Warpy]

4. I loved those stupid things

and always read the book after I'd read the synopsis in the comic.

[elocs]

5. I read them a lot in my comic book glory days when I even had Spiderman #1.

(So where did that ever go, Mom?) I did use Cliff Notes exclusively for an English Lit class in my final semester at college--Shakespeare's Tragedies which was so depressing with everyone dying.

[El Supremo]

6. I have many of them.

Even bought some that I'd lost from a collector.

I really liked some of the special issues like The History of Aviation.

I seem to remember that The Black Rose was one of the highest valued.

[El Supremo]

7. They had a starring role in 'Major League'

That's when Jake first read 'Moby Dick' so he could answer his ex-wife's questions.

[donco6]

8. Loved them.

Read them 'til they literally fell apart.

[housewolf]

9. For many years they were the only comic books we were allowed to read

Eventually my parents gave it and let us read some of the funnnies, like Archie & Casper, but for a long time we read Classics Illustrated. Read them all and loved them.

[BlueJazz]

10. Wasn't their one on "A Tale of Two Cities" ??

[Captain Hilts]

15. Yes! I read it. And I loved "CT Yankee in King Arthur's Court." "Les Miserables" also. nt

[Bozita]

11. I remember the store where we bought 'em.

A real hole-in-the-wall on Michigan Avenue in Detroit. If it sold for a quarter or less and made kids drool, it was there. The owner/operator was as enthralled by his inventory as were his customers.

Kites, balsa wood airplanes, comic books of every stripe, tubes of stuff that made huge plastic-like bubbles, candy, gum, and invisible ink.

Heaven!

Where else could you find "Puddin'head Wilson" in a comic book form?

[opihimoimoi]

12. They were a GodSend to us who had to make BOOK REPORTS

[The_Casual_Observer]

13. I avoided them on the rotating wire stand & bought the DC

Superman ones instead. Another youthful bad choice.

[TreasonousBastard]

14. Of course i remember them, and now I...

can't help thinking of the unsung heroes who took those classics and turned them into 30 or so pages of brilliant synopsis.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. I remember David Copperfield and The Invisible Man

:-)

[raccoon]

17. Yes. I had lots of them. I remember one story that I especially liked

--IN THE REIGN OF TERROR, by G.A. Henty.

But when I read it several decades later on Project GUtenberg, it didn't do it for me.

[Captain Hilts]

18. Not enough pictures in the Gutenberg version. nt

[Tighelander]

19. Marvel did some in the 70's

Are you talking about these as well?

[Enthusiast]

20. I have some old ones,

maybe twenty or thirty, in a drawer. We loved them when we were young.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

21. Oooh, I envy you!

What I think is particularly neat about Classics Illustrated is that many of them were considered classics to our parents and their parents but are pretty much lost to most people nowadays - stuff like Tom Brown's Schooldays and someone else mentioned Puddin'head Wilson.

Could you share with us the more obscure titles in your collection?