Editing Four Color (section)

{{short description|1939–1962 anthology comic book series}}
{{about|the comic book series|the topological graph theory|Four color theorem|the four color model|CMYK color model}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox comic book title  <!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics-->

| image = Four Color Comics.jpg
| caption = Cover for ''Four Color'' #9 (October 1942), featuring [[Carl Barks]]' first comic, ''[[Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold]]''
| schedule = Various
| ongoing = y
| publisher = [[Dell Comics]]
| date = July–September 1939<ref name=gcd-s1>{{cite web |title=Four Color (1939 series) |url=https://www.comics.org/series/120/ |website=Grand Comics Database |access-date=10 August 2019}}</ref>&nbsp;– April–June 1962<ref name=gcd-s2>{{cite web |title=Four Color (1942 series) |url=https://www.comics.org/series/279/ |website=Grand Comics Database |access-date=10 August 2019}}</ref>
| issues = 1,354
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| subcat=Dell Comics
| sort=Four Color
}}
'''''Four Color''''', also known as '''''Four Color Comics''''' and '''''Dell Four Color''''', is an American [[Comics anthology|comic book anthology]] series published by [[Dell Comics]] between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the [[CMYK color model|four basic colors]] used when printing comic books ([[cyan]], [[magenta]], [[yellow]] and [[black]] at the time).<ref name=booker>[https://books.google.com/books?id=hnuQBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA6 Booker, M. Keith, ed. ''Comics Through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas.] Greenwood, 2014, p. 6. {{ISBN|978-0-313-39750-9}}.</ref> The first 25 issues (1939–1942) are known as "series 1". In mid-1942, the numbering started over again, and "series 2" began.<ref name=Funnybooks>{{cite book |last1=Barrier |first1=Michael |title=Funnybooks: The Improbable Glories of the Best American Comic Books |date=2014 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0520283909 |chapter=Carl Barks Makes His Break}}</ref> After the first hundred issues of the second series, Dell stopped putting the "Four Color Comics" designation on the books, but they continued the numbering system for twenty years.<ref name=Funnybooks/>

More than 1,000 issues were published, usually with multiple titles released every month.<ref name=Becattini>{{cite book |last1=Becattini |first1=Alberto |title=Disney Comics: The Whole Story |date=2016 |publisher=Theme Park Press |isbn=978-1683900177 |chapter=Four-Color Daydreams: The U.S. Disney Comic Books}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Overstreet |first1=R.M. |title=The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide |date=2011 |publisher=Gemstone Publishing |isbn=978-1603601306|edition=41st }}</ref> Comics historian Alberto Becattini cites 1332 issues.<ref name=Becattini/> It currently holds the record for most issues produced of an American comic book title;<ref name=booker /> its nearest rival, [[DC Comics|DC]]'s ''[[Action Comics]]'', reached the [[Action Comics 1000|1,000-issue milestone]] in 2018.<ref name="bcrev">{{cite web |url=https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/04/19/action-comics-1000-review/ |title=''Action Comics'' #1000 Review: Happy Birthday, Superman |last=Davison |first=Joshua |date=April 19, 2018 |publisher=[[Bleeding Cool]] |access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref>

''Four Color'' published many of the first licensed [[Disney comics]]; about 20 percent of the ''Four Color'' issues were devoted to Disney characters.<ref name=Becattini/>