Four Color Comics - Dell's Magnum Opus

In 1939, George Delacorte, the founder of Dell publishing, started a series of comics which came to be called Four Color comics.  For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, the series began with a 25 issue run that was then stopped and restarted at issue #1 in 1942.  The series did not focus on one character or story.  Rather, each issue had it's own theme.  In the first 25 issues, you would find Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates by Milton Caniff, Little Orphan Annie, Tillie the Toiler, and Smilin' Jack (shown here).  The first 25 issues are not common, but not super scarce either.

As the series progressed, it became a vast library of American pop culture in the 1940's and 1950's.  Ending in 1962, there are over 1200 issues of Four Color comics.  Everything from I Love Lucy, to Captain Kangaroo, to Roy Rogers and most things Disney were covered in the second series.  Artists were often good...sometimes outstanding, sometimes run of the mill.  But as a whole Four Color was astounding for its variety, volume and overall quality.

I am only introducing this series to my blog here.  I figure the scan above of Four Color Series 2 #1 is a good place to start.  This character, Little Joe, is not well known today.  The book features news paper comic strip reprints of the character.  Original comic material printed in comic book form didn't really start in earnest until the late 1930's....and even then reprint comics were being published well into the 1940's even 1950's.  I frankly do not know enough about this character to know if any of the material in this book was original or not.

I am envisioning many future blogs on the topic of four color comics.  It's a great series with all kinds of interesting highlights to talk to.

Until next time....