ABSTRACT
The series included the works of such notable writers as Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy, Jules Verne, and Mary Shelly. As a child I read most of them. I mistakenly thought, and so did my teachers, that I was well acquainted with the great books of Western literature. After all, these comic books had everything you generally needed to take part in a discussion or to pass a school exam: plot, setting, main characters, etc. And because they were largely pictorial with a few key utterances thrown in, I even “knew” such things as how people dressed and what the architecture looked like, and had a sense of geographic setting. The few words that were spoken by the characters were usually quotable and memorable because most of the words from the real books were missing. I guess I had subscribed to the old saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” It was the triumph of illustration over print. In time, even I learned that there is more to literature than this. But it was a place to start, and it did meet a need that led to the desire in time to read the real books.
