This issue of Classic Comics contained an adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Deerslayer, published by the Gilberton Company, Inc. in January 1944. Evelyn Goodman adapted the novel, and Louis Zansky composed the cover art. The cover depicts Natty Bumppo battling the Huron. The Deerslayer was published as the last in Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales series in 1841. The novel is a prequel to the series that included The Last of the Mohicans and Pathfinder.
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.