Classics Illustrated

In Donna Richardson’s recent article on Classics Illustrated , a drastically inaccurate account of my views appeared. To set the matter straight: In 1988 I published in The Village Voice a memoir of how the childhood reading of “classic comics” powerfully influenced my early perceptions of literature and history. My interest was in the process by which cultural properties are recycled and transformed, and in the inadvertent radicalism of some of the formal devices employed by Classics Illustrated .

The tone of my piece, which might be characterized as affectionate irony, was entirely misrepresented by Ms. Richardson, who interpreted it as a high-minded attack on Classics Illustrated , and characterized a zealous Classics fan as “defending the series against the Geoffrey O’Briens of the world.”

As someone who has written at length and with deep enthusiasm about many aspects of popular culture, I rather resent being lumped with the anti-comics crusaders of the fifties.