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WILLIAM B. JONES JR. is the author of CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED: A CULTURAL HISTORY (McFarland, 2002), a study of the well-loved 1941-71 series of comic-book adaptations of literary masterpieces. The work was declared "definitive" by jazz critic and biographer Gary Giddins and was acclaimed as an "Americansk pionervaerk" by the Tegneseriemuseet i Danmark (Comics Museum in Denmark).

Since 2003, Jones has written introductions and author biographies (Virgil, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Robert Browning, L. Frank Baum, Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, etc.) for Jack Lake Productions' revived CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED, CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED JUNIOR, and CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED SPECIAL ISSUE lines. The books are being reissued by the Toronto-based publisher with the original painted covers and interior art.

Among the titles in the three series that William has written material for are THE AENEID, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, MOBY DICK, A TALE OF TWO CITIES, GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, HUCKLEBERRY FINN, FRANKENSTEIN, TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, TREASURE ISLAND, THE CALL OF THE WILD, THE TIME MACHINE, ROMEO AND JULIET, THE PIED PIPER, PINOCCHIO, THE WIZARD OF OZ, THE MAGIC PITCHER, HOW FIRE CAME TO THE INDIANS, THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE STORY OF AMERICA, and THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES.

At present Jones is working on a second, revised edition of CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED: A CULTURAL HISTORY. The new book will feature chapters on the resurrected original series from Jack Lake and contemporary editions by Papercutz. Publication is scheduled by McFarland for 2011, the 70th anniversary of Albert Kanter's launching of CLASSIC COMICS, as the series was originally known.

William has also edited and contributed to ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: NEW CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES (McFarland, 2003), a collection of essays by such internationally renowned Stevenson scholars as Jenni Calder, Richard Ambrosini, Graham Tulloch, Katherine Linehan, Richard Dury, Alan Sandison, Eric Massie, Ann C. Colley, and Barry Menikoff. An academic paper by Jones, "Hello, Mackellar: CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED meets THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE," has been published in the JOURNAL OF STEVENSON STUDIES, Volume 4 (Centre for Scottish Studies, University of Stirling, 2007).

WILLIAM B. JONES JR. is the author of CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED: A CULTURAL HISTORY (McFarland, 2002), a study of the well-loved 1941-71 series of comic-book adaptations of literary masterpieces. The work was declared "definitive" by jazz critic and biographer Gary Giddins and was acclaimed as an "Americansk pionervaerk" by the Tegneseriemuseet i Danmark (Comics Museum in Denmark). Since 2003, Jones h... More