Four Color - Old School Comics

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Four Color - Old School Comics

Four Color, also known as Four Color Comics and One Shots, was a long-running American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic books (cyan, magenta, yellow and black at the time).

More than 1,000 issues were published, usually with multiple titles released every month. An exact accounting of the actual number of unique issues produced is difficult because occasional issue numbers were skipped and a number of reprint issues were also included. Nonetheless, the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide lists well over 1,000 individual issues, ending with #1354. It currently holds the record for most issues produced of an American comic book; its nearest rivals, Action Comics ended at 904 issues and Detective Comics ended after 881 issues (the two titles were relaunched in 2011 with their numbering reset to #1, and are considered new publications). The first 25 issues are known as "series 1"; after they were published, the numbering began again and "series 2" began. Four Color is notable for having published many of the first comics featuring characters licensed from Walt Disney.

History

Unlike most comic book series of the day, which were either devoted to one character, or were anthologies with collections of stories starring the cartoon characters of a particular studio, Four Color instead devoted each individual issue to different characters. One issue might feature a popular cartoon character, while the next might be an adaptation of a popular movie or TV series. Thus the phrase "one shot" which was used in the publisher's code in the first interior page of the first story. For example issue 223 (1949) was denoted DDOS 223 which translates as Donald Duck One-Shot #223. Most Four Color titles featured licensed properties; relatively few original characters were created for the line. The first Four Color comic featured comic strip and movie serial hero Dick Tracy; the last (issue number 1,354, series 2) was based upon the TV series Calvin and the Colonel.

The primary purpose behind Four Color was as a try-out showcase for potential new Dell Comics series. For example Tarzan and Little Lulu in early 1948 launched their own titles (starting with no. 1) after proving themselves via a number of Four Color try-out issues. However, during the 1940s, the transition was not always so prompt, as a number of prominent funny animal characters starred in 20â€"30 issues of Four Color (these include Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Porky Pig). Comic book historian Michael Barrier notes that by the early 1950s, Dell seemed to be giving more emphasis to subscription sales (promoted via premium giveaways as part of the Dell Comics Club), which necessitated stable series instead of one-shots. At one point in 1951, some issues of Four Color were double-numbered, reflecting the issuances for particular characters; thus issues 318 and 328, featuring Donald Duck, carried the notation "nos. 1â€"2" on the cover underneath the Four Color series number. This may indicate thought at that point was being given to the eventual transition of these characters from one-shots to their own titles. Indeed, beginning in the early 1950s, it became more prevalent than previously for Four Color titles, if they proved popular enough, to become ongoing, independent series. In some cases, the issue numbering of these spin-offs took into account any previous Four Color issues (albeit sometimes miscounting the one-shots; Donald Duck started with #26 despite the publication of twenty-eight Four Color issues with the character preceding it).

Identifying Four Color comics can be a challenge, as only issues published between c.1940 and 1946 actually carried the title Four Color Comics on the cover.

Documenting the extent of the Four Color series was among the bibliographic tasks undertaken in the early 1960s by emerging comic book fandom. Fans Donald and Maggie Thompson took the lead in this endeavor and, in 1968, finally issued A Listing of Dell Special Series Comic Books (and a Few Others) as Bibliographic Supplement no. 1 to their fanzine Comic Art. In its 35 pages, it listed not only individual titles of comic books published in the Color/Four Color series, but those in these series: Black and White, Large Feature, United Feature Single Series, Comics on Parade, McKay Feature Books, Stories by Famous Authors Illustrated, and Classics Illustrated (Classic Comics).