One of the earlier issues of Four Color, featuring Walt Disney's Donald Duck. Note Four Color title below the price.

Four Color, also known as Four Color Comics, was an extremely prolific American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. 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, although the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide nonetheless lists well over 1,000 individual issues. It currently holds the record for most issues produced of an American comic book; its nearest rivals, Action Comics and Detective Comics, both still publishing monthly issues after more than 65 years, only recently passed their 800th issues. The first 25 issues are known as "series 1"; after they were published, the numbering began again and "series 2" began. Image File history File links Four_Color_Comics. ... Image File history File links Four_Color_Comics. ... For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ... Donald Duck is an animated cartoon and comic-book character from Walt Disney Productions. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publications, which got its start in pulp magazines. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide is widely considered the primary authority on the subject of American comic book grading and collection values in the industry. ... Cover of Action Comics #1, which featured the debut of Superman. ... Cover of Detective Comics #27 (May 1939). ...

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. This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... DVD front cover for The Adventures of Captain Marvel, one of the most celebrated serials for both Republic Pictures and of the sound era in general. ... Dick Tracy is a long-run comic strip featuring a popular and familiar character in American pop culture. ... Calvin and the Colonel was an animated cartoon television series in 1961 about a shrewd fox and a dumb bear. ...

Many Four Color titles, if they proved popular enough, would often spin-off ongoing, independent series of their own, usually published by Dell or Gold Key Comics, and the issue numbering of these spin-offs often took into account any previous Four Color issues. Four Color also published many of the first comics featuring characters licensed from Walt Disney. Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing cteated for comic books distributed to newstands. ... For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ...

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. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full 1946 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Documenting the extent of the Four Color series was among the bibliographic tasks undertaken in the early 60s by emerging comic book fandom. Uber-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 legendary 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). Maggie Thompson (born November 29, 1942), is the editor of Comics Buyers Guide. ... Maggie Thompson (born November 29, 1942), is the editor of Comics Buyers Guide. ... Classics Illustrated were comic book adaptations from classic literature, a series that Russian-born Albert Lewis Kanter (1897-1973) began in 1941 for Elliot Publishing. ...

The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic books: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Cyan (from Greek κυανοs, meaning blue) may be used as the name of any of a number of a range of colors in the blue/green part of the spectrum. ... Magenta is a color made up of equal parts of red and blue light. ... A yellow Tulip. ... Black cat, thought by some to cause bad luck (see superstition) Black is the shade of objects that do not reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum. ...

External link

• Contents of the issues in the series