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Journey to the Center of the Earth
Classics Illustrated is a comic book series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1971, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies reprinted its titles.
The first five titles were published irregularly under the banner "Classic Comics Presents" while issues six and seven were published under the banner "Classic Comics Library" with a ten-cent cover price. Arabian Nights (issue 8), illustrated by Lillian Chestney, is the first issue to use the "Classics Comics" banner.
With the fourth issue, The Last of the Mohicans, in 1942, Kanter moved the operation to different offices and the corporate identity was changed to the Gilberton Company, Inc.. Reprints of previous titles began in 1943. Wartime paper shortages forced Kanter to reduce the 64-page format to 56 pages.
The first five titles were published irregularly under the banner "Classic Comics Presents" while issues six and seven were published under the banner "Classic Comics Library" with a ten-cent cover price. Arabian Nights (issue 8), illustrated by Lillian Chestney, is the first issue to use the "Classics Comics" banner.
With the fourth issue, The Last of the Mohicans, in 1942, Kanter moved the operation to different offices and the corporate identity was changed to the Gilberton Company, Inc.. Reprints of previous titles began in 1943. Wartime paper shortages forced Kanter to reduce the 64-page format to 56 pages.
52 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
About the author
Classics Illustrated
166 books27 followersClassics Illustrated is an American comic book/magazine series featuring adaptations of literary classics such as Les Miserables, Moby-Dick, Hamlet, and The Iliad. Created by Albert Kanter, the series began publication in 1941 and finished its first run in 1969, producing 169 issues. Following the series' demise, various companies reprinted its titles. Since then, the Classics Illustrated brand has been used to create new comic book adaptations.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 12, 2016
If I said to you “Let’s go spelunking at the weekend”, would you have the faintest idea what I was talking about?
Well if you had read the final pages in this “Illustrated Classic” version from 1957 of Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, then you would know that I was suggesting a trip to go exploring or climbing inside caves, otherwise known as “potholing”. “Spelunking” derives from “speleologists”, or cave scientists, who venture far underground to discover new things about the Earth, such as rocks, plants and creatures from long ago. There is a separate article about it at the end (as well as a two page feature, part of a serial on British history).
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth is a story and idea which has captured the popular imagination for decades. The original novel was by the French author of adventure stories, Jules Verne, sometimes along with H.G. Wells called the “Father of Science Fiction” . Inspired by Charles Lyell’s “Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man” of 1863 and probably also his earlier ground-breaking “Principles of Geology” A Journey to the Centre of the Earth was written just a year later in 1864 and entitled “Voyage au centre de la Terre”.
In a sense, unless one reads French fluently, one is always going to read an adaptation of Jules Verne’s original work, although some closer ones are termed “translations”. Jules Verne is the second most-translated author in the world, coming between Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare. This means that his works are very well-known, but there are so many that they are sometimes badly translated or bowdlerised. There are also many abridged versions. For this reason, in the English-speaking world he is often considered a children’s author. Indeed many children will first encounter A Journey to the Centre of the Earth through many of the various adaptations, as I did. I first saw an adventure film from 1959, very exciting, but as with most films, probably very shortened and unlikely to have adhered very closely to Jules Verne’s work.
I also avidly devoured these “Illustrated Classics” strip stories. On the front of this one, there is an illustration of a plesiosaurus and an ichthyosaurus having a confrontation. (Oh - and a raft with some people on behind - a minor detail). For a dinosaur-mad child, this was irresistible. I raced through this story of adventure, as a child already fascinated by collecting shells and pebbles, rocks and fossils. I was awestruck at volcanic eruptions, and spellbound by the strange rock formations, such as the stalactites and stalagmites in the local undergound caverns and limestone caves we sometimes visited. This story wove a weird fantasy around the world I half knew. Some events I knew to be impossible, some things presented as facts simply could not be; science had proved them not to be so, but still ... Imagination is a powerful thing, and this was a great story.
It starts with a German professor, Otto Lidenbrock, having found a message in an old Icelandic book from the 16th century. The manuscript says,
“Go down the crater of Sneffel, that the shadow of Scartaris softly touches before the beginning of July, brave traveller, and you will come to the centre of the Earth. I did it.
- Arne Saknussemm.”
What an opening! Professor Lidenbrock explains excitedly to his nephew, Axel, that Arne Saknussemm was a scientist from history, and that he intends to follow in his footsteps. Axel says that it would be sheer madness to attempt such a thing, arguing that the deeper you go into the centre of the Earth the hotter it will get. It must be at least 20,000 degrees, he protests. But his uncle insists that they go to prove the theory, and so they set off on an expedition.
The travellers, accompanied by a Danish-speaking guide, Hans, reach Mount Sneffel in Iceland. They see three openings, but they know to descend the shaft which is touched by the shadow of Scartaris, at noon, as Saknussemm’s message has said. When the sun comes out, the nearby mountain peak shows the correct crater to take.
All three travellers climb down the shaft for ten hours on the first day, before finding a level place to stop for the night. The next day they continue down another dark chimney, and along corridors of rock, all the time looking for any signs that Saknussemm had preceded them. Sometimes they would find his name or initials carved into the rock, so that they would know they were on the right track.
We see the different attitudes each of the three takes. Professor Lidenbrock is impatient, but brave and adventurous. He is keen to collect his minerals and specimens, whereas Axel seem to be more the Man of Science who knows the facts and statistics. On the other hand, Axel invariably wants to give up and go back, or shows that he is cowardly and panics. Hans is a silent presence, but one who invariably solves the dangerous problems they encounter.
For these are thrilling adventures which they have. For much of the time they are in dire peril of their lives, short of both food and water. They suffer from exhaustion, lose their way, meet with accidents, natural hazards and rock falls. At the precise point when their water runs out, they find an underground stream to follow. But they inadvertently get split up, and one of them falls becomes injured and breaks his lamp. Fortunately, there is a strange echoing accoustic effect in the caves, which allows him to communicate with the others, so they are able to meet up again.
Eventually, after descending many more miles, following the course of the little stream, they term the “Hansbach”, they reach a vast cavern. The illustrations here remind me so much of the Derbyshire limestone caves which were so familiar to me. Professor Lidenbrock explains that this underground world is lit by electrically charged gas high up at its ceiling.
The story ends happily. The travellers are looked after by the people of Stromboli, and return home to Hamburg safely by train. Professor Lidenbrock becomes famous lecturing about their expeditions. Hans then travels back to Iceland, and Axel marries his sweetheart Grauben, who now views him as her hero.
This is a story of derring-do - very much an action adventure, with unbelievable amounts of luck and daring. Is it close to the original? It was published like the earliest film, just less than a hundred years after the original novel.
I have also just listened to a 90-minute radio dramatisation from 2012, a further 60 years on, with Nicholas Le Prevost as Professor Otto Lidenbrock, and Nathaniel Parker as Axel. It has a very different feel again. This most modern one went for a humorous take, rather than thrills and spills. The first ten minutes describes Professor Lidenbrock’s exploits in duels. It is after one of these, that he is told about Arne Saknussemm’s discovery, via the dying breath of one of his opponents. Axel is introduced as an overweight and cake-guzzling lad, obsessed with Grauben’s knees. During one very saucy passage, Grauben encourages her sweetheart to conquer his fears and go on the expeditions, by promising him he can “do what he likes with her” on their return. Perhaps this in more in keeping with the original? There is also a female character, a fearsome hearty upper-class British explorer, fitter and braver than any of them. She funds and accompanies the expedition, and has affairs with both Hans and then the Professor too. Is she in the original French book, perhaps? Or was she added for female interest, much as in each of the films?
As I am unlikely to ever read this in French, I can never know the original tone and feel of the work. But I am encouraged by all these very different version to seek out a good translation. I think it might be quite a good yarn. This “Illustrated Classic” is an average to good read. It bounces along at a good speed, the illustrations are well drawn, and the text is clear fast-moving and direct. However it does lack humour and also much of the atmosphere of some other adaptations.
Well if you had read the final pages in this “Illustrated Classic” version from 1957 of Jules Verne’s A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, then you would know that I was suggesting a trip to go exploring or climbing inside caves, otherwise known as “potholing”. “Spelunking” derives from “speleologists”, or cave scientists, who venture far underground to discover new things about the Earth, such as rocks, plants and creatures from long ago. There is a separate article about it at the end (as well as a two page feature, part of a serial on British history).
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth is a story and idea which has captured the popular imagination for decades. The original novel was by the French author of adventure stories, Jules Verne, sometimes along with H.G. Wells called the “Father of Science Fiction” . Inspired by Charles Lyell’s “Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man” of 1863 and probably also his earlier ground-breaking “Principles of Geology” A Journey to the Centre of the Earth was written just a year later in 1864 and entitled “Voyage au centre de la Terre”.
In a sense, unless one reads French fluently, one is always going to read an adaptation of Jules Verne’s original work, although some closer ones are termed “translations”. Jules Verne is the second most-translated author in the world, coming between Agatha Christie and William Shakespeare. This means that his works are very well-known, but there are so many that they are sometimes badly translated or bowdlerised. There are also many abridged versions. For this reason, in the English-speaking world he is often considered a children’s author. Indeed many children will first encounter A Journey to the Centre of the Earth through many of the various adaptations, as I did. I first saw an adventure film from 1959, very exciting, but as with most films, probably very shortened and unlikely to have adhered very closely to Jules Verne’s work.
I also avidly devoured these “Illustrated Classics” strip stories. On the front of this one, there is an illustration of a plesiosaurus and an ichthyosaurus having a confrontation. (Oh - and a raft with some people on behind - a minor detail). For a dinosaur-mad child, this was irresistible. I raced through this story of adventure, as a child already fascinated by collecting shells and pebbles, rocks and fossils. I was awestruck at volcanic eruptions, and spellbound by the strange rock formations, such as the stalactites and stalagmites in the local undergound caverns and limestone caves we sometimes visited. This story wove a weird fantasy around the world I half knew. Some events I knew to be impossible, some things presented as facts simply could not be; science had proved them not to be so, but still ... Imagination is a powerful thing, and this was a great story.
It starts with a German professor, Otto Lidenbrock, having found a message in an old Icelandic book from the 16th century. The manuscript says,
“Go down the crater of Sneffel, that the shadow of Scartaris softly touches before the beginning of July, brave traveller, and you will come to the centre of the Earth. I did it.
- Arne Saknussemm.”
What an opening! Professor Lidenbrock explains excitedly to his nephew, Axel, that Arne Saknussemm was a scientist from history, and that he intends to follow in his footsteps. Axel says that it would be sheer madness to attempt such a thing, arguing that the deeper you go into the centre of the Earth the hotter it will get. It must be at least 20,000 degrees, he protests. But his uncle insists that they go to prove the theory, and so they set off on an expedition.
The travellers, accompanied by a Danish-speaking guide, Hans, reach Mount Sneffel in Iceland. They see three openings, but they know to descend the shaft which is touched by the shadow of Scartaris, at noon, as Saknussemm’s message has said. When the sun comes out, the nearby mountain peak shows the correct crater to take.
All three travellers climb down the shaft for ten hours on the first day, before finding a level place to stop for the night. The next day they continue down another dark chimney, and along corridors of rock, all the time looking for any signs that Saknussemm had preceded them. Sometimes they would find his name or initials carved into the rock, so that they would know they were on the right track.
We see the different attitudes each of the three takes. Professor Lidenbrock is impatient, but brave and adventurous. He is keen to collect his minerals and specimens, whereas Axel seem to be more the Man of Science who knows the facts and statistics. On the other hand, Axel invariably wants to give up and go back, or shows that he is cowardly and panics. Hans is a silent presence, but one who invariably solves the dangerous problems they encounter.
For these are thrilling adventures which they have. For much of the time they are in dire peril of their lives, short of both food and water. They suffer from exhaustion, lose their way, meet with accidents, natural hazards and rock falls. At the precise point when their water runs out, they find an underground stream to follow. But they inadvertently get split up, and one of them falls becomes injured and breaks his lamp. Fortunately, there is a strange echoing accoustic effect in the caves, which allows him to communicate with the others, so they are able to meet up again.
Eventually, after descending many more miles, following the course of the little stream, they term the “Hansbach”, they reach a vast cavern. The illustrations here remind me so much of the Derbyshire limestone caves which were so familiar to me. Professor Lidenbrock explains that this underground world is lit by electrically charged gas high up at its ceiling.
The story ends happily. The travellers are looked after by the people of Stromboli, and return home to Hamburg safely by train. Professor Lidenbrock becomes famous lecturing about their expeditions. Hans then travels back to Iceland, and Axel marries his sweetheart Grauben, who now views him as her hero.
This is a story of derring-do - very much an action adventure, with unbelievable amounts of luck and daring. Is it close to the original? It was published like the earliest film, just less than a hundred years after the original novel.
I have also just listened to a 90-minute radio dramatisation from 2012, a further 60 years on, with Nicholas Le Prevost as Professor Otto Lidenbrock, and Nathaniel Parker as Axel. It has a very different feel again. This most modern one went for a humorous take, rather than thrills and spills. The first ten minutes describes Professor Lidenbrock’s exploits in duels. It is after one of these, that he is told about Arne Saknussemm’s discovery, via the dying breath of one of his opponents. Axel is introduced as an overweight and cake-guzzling lad, obsessed with Grauben’s knees. During one very saucy passage, Grauben encourages her sweetheart to conquer his fears and go on the expeditions, by promising him he can “do what he likes with her” on their return. Perhaps this in more in keeping with the original? There is also a female character, a fearsome hearty upper-class British explorer, fitter and braver than any of them. She funds and accompanies the expedition, and has affairs with both Hans and then the Professor too. Is she in the original French book, perhaps? Or was she added for female interest, much as in each of the films?
As I am unlikely to ever read this in French, I can never know the original tone and feel of the work. But I am encouraged by all these very different version to seek out a good translation. I think it might be quite a good yarn. This “Illustrated Classic” is an average to good read. It bounces along at a good speed, the illustrations are well drawn, and the text is clear fast-moving and direct. However it does lack humour and also much of the atmosphere of some other adaptations.
June 14, 2020
I am revisiting and rating the various volumes in this favorite illustrated series of mine based on the level of success in adaptation of the text as well as the quality and evocativeness of the illustrations. This is not one which I read as a child in this series but when I visit it now I like the illustrations by Norman Nodel. They capture well the mystery and anticipation of the journey and the mood of this out and out adventure story by Verne. The script is fast-paced but not rushed. The printing at that time wasn't great and this is the scan of an old copy. Nevertheless, like the familiar feel of the Classics Illustrated brand of storytelling and pictures which at a younger age fired one's imagination.
May 2, 2026
After finding a note from esteemed Icelandic scientist Arne Saknussemm, a slightly eccentric German scientists gathers his nephew and an Icelandic guide, and set off to repeat Arne's incredible journey - taking a tunnel down to the center of the Earth! This Cliff Notes version of Verne's famous horrible science but thrilling adventure story does a great job of keeping all the excitement of the original intact, and you explore ever deeper into this fascinating landscape with our intrepid protagonists. The bold artwork does a great job of moving the story forward, and as a whole, this was one of the better Classics Illustrated titles that I've read so far. As always, as a taste test for the real thing, these are definitely the way to go.
June 23, 2025
I love this story and have read it and seen the movie numerous times. Since I have short stories as part of my personal book challenge this year I thought I'd have another read of this adventure tale. Great even in this format!
March 18, 2026
Loving these classic illustrated books so much. They do make some of the more tedious tales fun and easy to read. Of course, in this case, the story itself is so gripping. Love the movie too.
January 21, 2016
This book is called A Journey To The Center Of The Earth by Jules Verne (for some reason on my book cover it also says retold by Pauline Francis, maybe it's a shorter version or something). It's scientific fiction though I would kind of make it fiction because how the people travelled in the story is more like a miracle. It's really easy to read and it kind of makes you wanna do the same. The characters are 2 men and 1 boy.
So, there was a boy called Axel and he lived with his uncle Lindbrock. His uncle worked in a University. One day he came back with a book. He said it's on Icelandic language. When they opened it a peace of paper fell out. It was a chiffre. They put it together and a message came out. It was about a volcano in Iceland that has a path to the center of the earth. Axel didn't like the idea of actually going but his Uncle took him anyway. By the way they pick up a guide whose name was Hans. He only spoke Icelandic so Axel couldn't talk to him but Lindbrock could. Then they find the volcano and...
This book has a really unique idea. I liked it because of how everything happened. They were about to die so many times. It had a lot of dramatic moments and miracles. I would want to do what they did but without close death moments. I would rate this book 8/10. I think it's mostly for 10-13 year old people.
So, there was a boy called Axel and he lived with his uncle Lindbrock. His uncle worked in a University. One day he came back with a book. He said it's on Icelandic language. When they opened it a peace of paper fell out. It was a chiffre. They put it together and a message came out. It was about a volcano in Iceland that has a path to the center of the earth. Axel didn't like the idea of actually going but his Uncle took him anyway. By the way they pick up a guide whose name was Hans. He only spoke Icelandic so Axel couldn't talk to him but Lindbrock could. Then they find the volcano and...
This book has a really unique idea. I liked it because of how everything happened. They were about to die so many times. It had a lot of dramatic moments and miracles. I would want to do what they did but without close death moments. I would rate this book 8/10. I think it's mostly for 10-13 year old people.
November 12, 2014
I had to read this book for school and while I enjoyed the story line, the beginning was really slow for me and towards the end I started to really get into the book. While this story was written in an old sort of writing I thoroughly enjoyed the way that if was formatted as though it was a journal. That being said, it didn't keep my attention that well and I sometimes had to force myself to keep reading. Once you got to the second half though, it was much more bearable.
May 5, 2014
An expedition to the Earth's core is prompted by a coded message. Professor Lidenbrock, his nephew, and their Swiss guide encounter a prehistoric world below the surface. This is a science fiction classic.
November 2, 2014
Read it for school, not this edition though. It's enjoyable and a quick read as well :) yay for Laila attempting to read more classics
July 17, 2017
Fun Read!
As much fun as I remembered when I read this edition as a kid. Read it, read the novel, see the original movie.
As much fun as I remembered when I read this edition as a kid. Read it, read the novel, see the original movie.
Read
December 17, 2017So good I've read it Thrice
The first read was magnetic.
The second engrossed me .
The third was fascinating.
I probably read it again or share it.
The first read was magnetic.
The second engrossed me .
The third was fascinating.
I probably read it again or share it.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews