Pendulum Press was a publishing company based in West Haven, Connecticut, that operated from 1970 to 1994, producing the bulk of their material in the 1970s. The company is most well known for their comic book adaptations of literary classics. The Pendulum Now Age Classics series published black-and-white paperback adaptations of more than 70 literary classics, such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The War of the Worlds, and Moby-Dick. These stories were later widely reprinted by other publishers (including by Marvel Comics) well into the 2000s. Pendulum also published a line of historical comics, a line of comic book biographies, and a line of comic book adaptations of inspiring stories and morality tales. Founded by David Oliphant as a division of Academic Industries, Inc., Pendulum's comics division was overseen by veteran creator/editor Vincent Fago. The company received Title One funds from the U.S. government to produce comics with an educational focus. History Pendulum Illustrated Classics In 1970, former Timely Comics editor-in-chief Vincent Fago was hired by Pendulum to produce the Pendulum Now Age Classics series, which were black-and-white paperback adaptations of literary classics. Specifically designed for classroom use, they used typeset instead of hand lettering, vocabulary appropriate for grade levels, and included word lists and questions at the back. From his studio in Bethel, Vermont, Fago edited and handled production on the nearly one hundred titles in the series. Adaptations were handled by writers like Otto Binder, Naunerle Farr, Kin Platt, Irwin Shapiro, and Fago's son John Norwood Fago. After having difficulty finding American artists to illustrate the comics, Fago turned to Filipino artist Nestor Redondo, who offered to help recruit some of his fellow Filipino comics artists — these artists ended up illustrating almost every comic Pendulum produced. In addition to the work of Redondo, who illustrated more than 20 books in the series, the Pendulum Illustrated Classics featured the artwork of Alex Niño, Gerry Talaoc, Vicatan, Rudy Nebres, Jun Lofamia, Nestor Leonidez, and E. R. Cruz. (Redondo's brothers Virgilio and Frank also illustrated books in the series.) Comics in the series were published from 1973 to 1980; the series ended with a selection of Shakespeare plays adapted into comics form. Ancillaries and reprints From 1976–1981, Fago produced a multimedia read-along program for the series, called New Matter Sounds. Each packet contained a reading booklet, a student activity booklet, a sound cassette, and an answer key sheet.