Each novel's story is told in the form of a limited series, the issues of which are later collected as a trade paperback.
Their first title was a 64-page one-shot adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, by Mary Jo Duffy, Gil Kane, and P. Craig Russell, which collected material originally published in 1983 in Marvel Fanfare.
Other titles launched in 2007 included The Last of the Mohicans, The Man in the Iron Mask, and Treasure Island, all of which were adapted by Roy Thomas.
2008 saw publications of The Iliad, Moby-Dick, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Three Musketeers, all adapted by Thomas.
In 2009 Marvel Illustrated published Kidnapped and Thomas' telling of the Trojan War, as well as the first of Nancy Butler's adaptations of Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice.