Classic Comics No. 22: The Pathfinder

This issue of Classic Comics contained an adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Pathfinder, published by the Gilberton Company, Inc. in October 1944. Evelyn Goodman adapted the novel, and Louis Zansky composed the cover art. The cover depicts the hero Natty Bumppo above the battling French, British and Huron. The Pathfinder was published in 1840 as the penultimate book in Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales series. This comic continued the adventures of Natty Bumppo featured in other Classic Comics issues such as The Last of the Mohicans and The Deerslayer.

Classic Comics was a series of comic book adaptations of literary classics published from 1941 until 1971. The series aimed to expose young people to classic literature through the more popular medium of a comic book. Classic Comics was first published by Elliott Publishing in 1941, but founder Albert Kanter spun off publishing to the Gilberton Company in 1942. In 1947 Classic Comics became Classics Illustrated. Kanter sold the company to the Frawley Corporation in 1967, who published the series until 1971.

Currently not on view