For the most part, the Classics Illustrated comic covers appealed to boy readers’ piqued curiosity and invited questions like “What the heck is goin’ on here?”, making kids plunk down their 15 cents (regular comics cost 10) to find out.
(How did this lucky stiff find so much treasure?)
(Why is this man being guillotined?)
(Why is this knight charging a windmill with a happy face?)
(@#!&+?)
(Why is there a monster-ghost behind this chemist?)
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Issue # 15–both versions, were politically incorrect today (toward blacks) and I’ve not shown it.
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(why is this guy whipping the other guys on a ship?)
(why is this monster uprooting trees and being struck by lightning? Is he Frankenstein?–the old classic confusion)
(who is this couple and why are they in this situation? Politically incorrect today, women characters in CI were generally assigned limited roles, often adventure-story damsels in distress.)
(what exciting stuff will happen to these town-folk as a volcano explodes in the background?)
(will this man get away from the villagers throwing spears at him, trying to kill him?)
(why is this crazy woman attending this church service?)
(why are these two rough-looking kids pounding each other to a pulp?)
(why is this man being threatened with being shot?)
(why is the man on the horse being pointed at by a man about to be hanged?)
(does the unsuspecting man see the giant octopus? Will his knife protect him?)
(who is the ghost-woman? What will she do next?)
(why is the man holding a baby on a make-shift raft? How did they get there?)
(what does the title have to do with the illustration?)
(what does the black tulip in the pot have to do with the beating in the jail cell?)
(what is going on here? What will happen next?)
(what does the noose have to do with the men and the title?)
(why is the man imagining a floating dagger?)
(why is this woman submissively and adoringly clutching this man? Political incorrect today.)
(how do the primitive sea monsters relate to the title and story?)
(when and where is this taking place? What is the crisis?)
(what is happening here? My favorite cover when I was a kid.)
(why is the man invisible? Another of my favorite covers)
(what do the train and man on the horse have to do with the title?)
(why is a giant hen making off with a boy?)
(where is this scene taking place? What does the devil have to do with the title? This BTW was actually a draft of the cover released accidentally much to the chagrin of the illustrator.)