Marvel Classics Comics was an American comics magazine which ran from 1976 until 1978. It specialized in adaptations of literary classics such as Moby-Dick, The Three Musketeers, and The Iliad. It was Marvel Comics' attempt to pick up the mantle of Classics Illustrated, which stopped publishing in 1971. Thirty-six issues of Marvel Classics Comics were published, 12 of them being reprints of another publisher's work.
Overview
Classics Illustrated, created by Albert Kanter, began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Editor Vincent Fago's Pendulum Now Age Classics, published by Pendulum Press, began adapting literary classics into black-and-white comics beginning in 1973. The Pendulum series was the direct antecedent to Marvel Classics Comics — in fact, the Marvel series' first 12 issues were colorized reprints of selected Pendulum comics, with new covers. These issues featured writers like Otto Binder, Kin Platt, and Irwin Shapiro doing the adaptations; with art by Filipino artists Alex Niño, Rudy Nebres, and E. R. Cruz, among others.
Issues in the Marvel Classics Comics series were 52 pages with no advertisements.