While I was in Wayne Zeno’s comic book store a guy came in with a box of 1960s Classics Illustrated comic books. Wayne bought them for a dollar each. I never collected Classics Illustrated because I thought most of them were boring. Many of them were based on dry19th Century European or American novels that I never wanted to read in school, so why would I want to read the comic book version? However some of them like Conquest of Mexico and Caesar’s Conquests had pretty good battle scenes.

I remember reading the Classic comic Caesar’s Conquests in the 1960s about Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul. I probably didn’t buy it myself. It was probably my brother David’s copy. He collected Classics Illustrated comics in those days which was the only type of comic books he ever did collect. It so happens that Caesar’s Conquests was in the collection Wayne bought. Wayne was content to sell it for $2.00 and I figured I could spend that much to recapture some childhood memories. Also, thinking about it now, that comic probably contributed to my developing an interest in ancient Roman history that I’ve had as long as I can remember.

There was also a Classics Illustrated copy of The Last Days of Pompeii that I remember reading at my grandmother’s house in the 1960s. It didn’t have many battle scenes but I liked it because it was drawn by my second favorite comic book artist, Jack Kirby. I recently bought on DVD the 1980s TV miniseries The Last Days of Pompeii and liked it ok. So next time I’m down at Wayne’s I’ll see if I can pick up the comic book version for another $2.00.