Four Color
#290 - The Chief
(August 1950)
Dell,
1942 Series
- Price
- 0.10 USD
- Pages
- 52
- On-sale Date
- 1950-07-18
- Indicia / Colophon Publisher
- Dell Publishing Co. Inc.
- Brand
-
A Dell Comic
- Printer
- Printed in U.S.A.
- Editing
- Oskar Lebeck
Issue Notes
On-sale date per Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series 1950, and induction from that volume's records of the on-sale dates (© icon) for Four Color issues #289 (1950-07-11) and #291 (1950-07-25), showing a separation of 14 days between them, hence 7 days at the midpoint between 289 & 291 being #290, 1950-07-18.
Editor inferred from page 281, Michael Barrier's "Funnybooks" (UC Press, Oakland, 2015): "[Lebeck] was still working for Western in March 1951 ... but he left sometime soon after that. ... His successor, George Brenner, ... held the job only briefly before his death in March 1952. He was succeeded by Matthew H. Murphy."
Indicia title is "THE CHIEF, No. 290." Code number is CHIEF O.S. #290-508. Copyright 1949, 1950 by Western Printing and Lithographing Co. First Four Color issue. Continues as The Chief (Dell, 1951 series) with #2 (April-June 1951).
Editor inferred from page 281, Michael Barrier's "Funnybooks" (UC Press, Oakland, 2015): "[Lebeck] was still working for Western in March 1951 ... but he left sometime soon after that. ... His successor, George Brenner, ... held the job only briefly before his death in March 1952. He was succeeded by Matthew H. Murphy."
Indicia title is "THE CHIEF, No. 290." Code number is CHIEF O.S. #290-508. Copyright 1949, 1950 by Western Printing and Lithographing Co. First Four Color issue. Continues as The Chief (Dell, 1951 series) with #2 (April-June 1951).
[no title indexed]
The Chief / cover / 1 page
- Pencils
- Morris Gollub (painting)
- Inks
- Morris Gollub (painting)
- Colors
- Morris Gollub (painting)
- Letters
- typeset
- Genre
- western-frontier
- Synopsis
- American Indians doing a night-time dance.
- Keywords
- dancing; Indians; Native Americans
Indexer Notes
Pencils, inks, and colors credits for this sequence from Alberto Becattini (May 14, 2007).
Blackfeet Chieftain
illustration / 1 page
- Genre
- non-fiction
- Synopsis
- Head-and-shoulders portrait of a Blackfeet chieftain, wearing a head-dress.
- Reprints
-
from The Lone Ranger (Dell, 1948 series) #11 (May 1949)
-
Indexer Notes
Inside front cover; black and white.
Buffalo Caller
comic story / 14 pages
- Genre
- western-frontier
- Characters
- Running Wolf ["Buffalo Caller"]; Pawnee Chief War Eagle
- Synopsis
- While his three comrades eat breakfast, Running Wolf, a Pawnee, nephew of Chief War Eagle, finds a buffalo herd that could feed the tribe for a year. Three Cheyenne enemy hunters appear, rivals for the herd, and liable to scalp him. Running Wolf's bow-string breaks. He flees, diving in the river, hiding underwater against a rock in the rapids. The Cheyenne believe him dead. Running Wolf runs home; he alerts War Eagle of the herd and the Cheyenne.
War Clubs and Tomahawks
text article / 1 page
- Genre
- non-fiction; western-frontier
- Synopsis
- Illustrations of war clubs, tomahawks, and lacrosse sticks, with hand-lettered text.
Indexer Notes
Pencils and inks credits for this sequence from Alberto Becattini (May 14, 2007).
The Towers of Death...
comic story / 20 pages
- Genre
- western-frontier
- Characters
- Pawnee Chief War Eagle
- Synopsis
- Once upon a time there was a nearby Pueblo Indian town of stone and brick. One rainy night a Pueblo band sneaked in the Pawnee village and stole the Pawnee's sacred bundle.
The next evening, Pawnee Chief Wounded Bear led a band of his braves to attack the Pueblo town and retrieve the sacred bundle, but they were surprised by the Pueblos, and only Wounded Bear escaped. He raised an army, but they found the Pueblo town deserted, but for some corpses. The sacred bundle was missing. The trail was lost, and Pawnee fell ill with the Pueblo sickness.
Indexer Notes
Art signed in splash panel.
Apache Grass Hogan
Home Builders / comic story / 2 pages
- Genre
- non-fiction; western-frontier
- Synopsis
- The building of thatch huts among the Apache in New Mexico and Arizona. Informative text accompanies borderless panel illustrations, with dialogue balloons, of an Apache family building a winter home: Clearing a circle, cutting of saplings for a dome frame, tying bundles of bear-grass to the frame, from bottom to top. (Chippewas use birch bark.) For a summer home: a three-sided house thatched on top, and thatched only part-way up on three walls.
Indexer Notes
Title reads, "Home Builders No. 1 Apache Grass Hogan," suggesting this is intended to be a series about different types of dwellings. Running along the bottom of both pages are a sequence of small illustrations of 12 different types of dwelling-structures, including African huts, bark hogan, tee-pee, south sea stilt hut, log cabin, suburban home. Pencils and inks credits for this sequence from Alberto Becattini (May 14, 2007).
Blunt Arrow Boy
comic story / 11 pages
- Genre
- western-frontier
- Characters
- Badger Cub; Little Doe; Auntie Crowfoot; Pawnee Chief War Eagle
- Synopsis
- Those little rascals of the Pawnee village, Badger Cub and Little Doe, play mischief with Auntie Crowfoot at her labors, as Badger Cub shoots a blunt arrow, knocking over her water gourd for target practice. In her ire, Auntie Crowfoot gives chase. They elude her, and Badger Cub continues target practice, knocking down a cottontail. They come upon a dead rattler, trampled by the hooves of a mare, herself dead of snake-bite; and her colt who will not desert his mother's carcass.
Indexer Notes
Pencils and inks credits for this sequence from Alberto Becattini (May 14, 2007).
Sac and Fox Warrior
illustration / 1 page
- Genre
- non-fiction
- Synopsis
- Head and shoulders portrait of a warrior with mohawk haircut and war paint.
- Reprints
- from The Lone Ranger (Dell, 1948 series) #21 (March 1950)
-
Indexer Notes
Inside back cover; black and white.
Drawing made for the back cover of Lone Ranger #21.
[no title indexed]
illustration / 1 page
- Script
- ?
- Pencils
- Morris Gollub (painting)
- Inks
- Morris Gollub (painting)
- Colors
- Morris Gollub (painting)
- Letters
- typeset
- First Line of Dialogue or Text
- For the first time— Authentic stories, portraying the life and customs of the American Indian, before the coming of the white man.
- Genre
- western-frontier
- Synopsis
- Four mounted Indians, three wielding lances, and one wielding a tomahawk, gallop over a small grassy bluff. The lead Indian wearing a head-dress, holding his lance forward, in a charge. The caption of this house-ad reads, "Authentic stories, portraying the life and customs of the American Indian before the coming of the White Man."
Indexer Notes
Back cover. Pencils, inks, and colors credits for this sequence from Alberto Becattini (May 14, 2007).
Editing
Related Scans
Series Information
Table of Contents
-
0.
[no title indexed]
The Chief -
1.
Blackfeet Chieftain
-
2.
Buffalo Caller
-
3.
War Clubs and Tomahawks
-
4.
The Towers of Death...
-
5.
Apache Grass Hogan
Home Builders -
6.
Blunt Arrow Boy
-
7.
Sac and Fox Warrior
-
8.
["For the first time— Authentic stories, portraying the life and customs of the American Indian, before the coming of the white man."]
This issue was modified by, among others
- Alberto Becattini
- Chris Boyko
- Merlin Haas
- Jerry Hillegas (R.I.P.)
- Michael Hoskin
- R. Lavon Loftin
- Keith Alan Morgan
- Dave Porta
- David Porta
- Tony R. Rose
- Per Sandell
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