Dell

1929 - 1988
Country:
United States
Indicia / Colophon Publishers:
8
Brand Groups:
4
Brand Emblems in Use:
38
Total Number of Series:
519
Total Number of Issues:
6782
Show Covers by Month:
using on-sale date or using publication date
Show Issues by Month:
using on-sale date or using publication date
Creator Checklist:
via linked story records
Notes:
Info for Dell in the early years:
Dell Publishing Co. 100 Fifth Avenue, New York NY;
Harry Steeger (editor);
Abril Lamarque (comic art editor);
Edythe Seims (assistant editor);
George T. Delacorte, Jr. (managing editor).
(Information from "The American Comic Book: The Evolutionary Era, 1884-1939" by Denis Gifford.)

Dell was founded in 1921 and first published comics with the original 1929-30 run of "The Funnies", which looked like a newspaper insert but was distributed on newsstands. Eastern Color Printing Company was involved with several of Dell's earliest comic book ventures, although the exact nature of each partnership is not always clear. Later Dell worked closely with Western to produce a line a comics before Dell produced a line of comics wholly on their own for about a decade. The company's comic book division folded in 1973, although Dell continued to publish the occasional book with comics content, including newspaper strip collections. Dell became part of Bantam Doubleday Dell (http://www.comics.org/publisher/5554/) in 1988, ceasing to exist as an independent company.

Dell's first three regular titles -- Popular Comics (February 1936), The Funnies (October 1936), and The Comics (March 1937) -- were packaged and printed by M.C. Gaines at the McClure Syndicate offices. These followed Gaines' early format for Famous Funnies by using newspaper-strip reprints.

Around 1936, Dell started to work with Western (also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company, a Racine, Wisconsin firm), first using Western's plant in Poughkeepsie, New York as their printer. Dell turned over production duties on Popular Comics and The Funnies to Western in 1939. In 1944 they formalized their arrangement, with Dell financing the comics and Western providing the editorial work and the printing. Western retained complete control over select titles such as Red Ryder and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories, though even those titles carried the Dell emblem after 1948.

(Some of the information for the above from Funnybooks: The Improbable Glories of the Best American Comic Books by Michael Barrier and Mark Evanier's "News from Me" blog [http://www.newsfromme.com/iaq/iaq07/])


******* "© Robert S. Callender" Explained *******

When Western Printing produced comic book content that was not a licensed property, it was copyrighted in the name of Robert S. Callender (or, sometimes, Oskar Lebeck, e.g. Animal Comics, a Lebeck project). Callender was not the writer. He was Western Printing's copyright holder.

Robert S. (Bob) Callender, b. 1913, youngest child of Gene Callender of Racine, Wisconsin society, was an executive at Western Printing. On Oct. 9, 1937 Mr. Callender married Wynnefred Wadewitz, b. 1916, daughter of Edward H. Wadewitz.

Robert S. Callender's father-in-law, Edward H. Wadewitz, had risen by initiative to be the secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Western Printing & Lithographing Company: he was a moving spirit in the development, enlargement and control of that undertaking.

Robert S. Callender (Mr. Wadewitz's son-in-law) was the Managing Editor and Business Manager for Whitman Publishing Co., Poughkeepsie, N.Y., owned by Western Printing and Lithographing Company of Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Series Year Issues Covers Published
1000 New Jokes [m] 1934 0 issues (0 indexed) No Covers 1934
Movie Classic [m] 1954 0 issues (0 indexed) No Covers 1954
Twelve O'Clock High [m] 1965 0 issues (0 indexed) No Covers 1965
100 Pages of Comics [m] 1937 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [1937]
77 Sunset Strip [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery July-September 1962
87th Precinct 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery July-September 1962
Abraham Lincoln Life Story 1958 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [March] 1958
Adlai Stevenson [m] 1966 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [December] 1966
Alice in Wonderland [m] 1950 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery 1950
Alvin and His Pals in Merry Christmas with Clyde Crashcup and Leonardo [m] 1963 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery December 1963-February 1964
Alvin and His Pals in Merry Christmas with Clyde Crashcup and Leonardo [m] 1966 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [April] 1966
Alvin for President [m] 1964 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery August-October 1964
Around the Block [with Dunc & Loo] [m] 1961 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery October-December 1961
Around the World Under the Sea [m] 1966 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [December] 1966
Bachelor Father [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery September-November 1962
Backfield in Motion 1974 1 issues (0 indexed) Add 1974
Barry M. Goldwater [m] 1965 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [March 1965]
Battle of the Bulge [m] 1966 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [June] 1966
Beach Blanket Bingo [m] 1965 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery July-September 1965
The Beatles 1964 1 issues (1 indexed) Have 2 (Need 1) September-November 1964
Beetle Bailey and Sarge [b] 1958 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery December 1958
Best Cartoons of the World [b] 1969 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery August 1969
The Blazing Forest [m] 1962 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery 1962
The Blue Phantom [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery June-August 1962
Boatniks [b] 1961 1 issues (1 indexed) Have 1 (Need 1) June 1961
Bodé's Cartoon Concert [b] 1973 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery September 1973
Boys Love Girls...More or Less [b] 1970 1 issues (1 indexed) Have 1 (Need 1) November 1970
Brenda Lee Life Story [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery July-September 1962
Brenda Starr [m] 1963 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery October-December 1963
Bug Movies 1931 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery 1931
Bugs Bunny's Christmas Party [m] 1955 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery November 1955
Bugs Bunny's County Fair 1957 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery September 1957
Bullwinkle [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery July-September 1962
The Bullwinkle Mother Moose Nursery Pomes [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery May-July 1962
Cadet Gray of West Point [m] 1958 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery April 1958
Calling Nurse Nellie! [b] 1961 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery May 1961
Calvin and the Colonel [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery July-September 1962
Camp Runamuck [m] 1966 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery April 1966
The Castilian [m] 1964 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery November 1963-January 1964
The Cat [m] 1966 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [December] 1966
Cheyenne Autumn [m] 1965 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery April-June 1965
The Chief [m] 1951 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [April-June] 1951
A Christmas Treasury [m] 1954 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery 1954
Cimarron Strip 1968 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery January 1968
Circus World [m] 1964 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery September-November 1964
Clementina, the Flying Pig [m] 1950 1 issues (0 indexed) Have 1 (Need 1) 1950
Countdown [m] 1967 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [October] 1967
Cracked in the Saddle [b] 1975 1 issues (0 indexed) Have 1 (Need 1) June 1975
Cracked Up [b] 1974 1 issues (1 indexed) Add June 1974
The Creature [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery December 1962-February 1963
David Ladd's Life Story [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery October-December 1962
Davy Crockett Christmas Book [m] 1955 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery 1955 ?
Dazey's Diary [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery June-August 1962
Deadwood Gulch 1931 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery 1931
Die, Monster, Die [m] 1966 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery March 1966
The Dirty Dozen [m] 1967 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [October] 1967
Disneyland Birthday Party 1958 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery October 1958
Diver Dan 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery June-August 1962
El Dorado [m] 1967 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [October] 1967
Dr. Who and the Daleks [m] 1966 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [December] 1966
Dwight D. Eisenhower [m] 1969 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery December 1969
The Emperor's New Clothes [m] 1950 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery 1950
Ensign O'Toole [m] 1963 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery August-October 1963
Ensign Pulver [m] 1964 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery August-October 1964
Espionage [m] 1964 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery May-July 1964
The F.B.I. [m] 1965 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery April-June 1965
The Facts of Life for Grown-ups [b] 1963 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery July 1963
Famous Funnies: Series 1 [m] 1934 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery 1934
Famous Gang Book of Comics [m] 1942 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery [November 1942]
Ferdinand the Bull 1938 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery 1938
Flash Gordon [m] 1953 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery May-June 1953
Flash Gordon Raids Japan [m] 1943 1 issues (0 indexed) Have 2 (Need 1) 1943
The Flintstones on the Rocks [b] 1961 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery 1961
Four Frightened Women [b] 1950 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery 1950
Friday Foster [m] 1972 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery October 1972
Funny Side Up [b] 1952 1 issues (0 indexed) Have 1 (Need 1) 1952
Fury [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery June-August 1962
Get Me Cracked [b] 1973 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery March 1973
Gil Thorp [m] 1963 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery May-July 1963
The Gods from Outer Space: Descent in the Andes [b] 1978 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery October 1978
Golden West Rodeo Treasury [m] 1957 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery October 1957
The Great Race [m] 1966 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery March 1966
Gulliver's Travels [m] 1965 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery September-November 1965
Half-Cracked [b] 1974 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery April 1974
The Hallelujah Trail [m] 1966 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery January (February) 1966
Hatari [m] 1963 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [January] 1963
He Done Her Wrong [b] 1963 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery May 1963
Hope Ship [m] 1963 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery June-August 1963
The Horizontal Lieutenant [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [October] 1962
How Gross! [b] 1973 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery October 1973
Huck and Yogi Jamboree [b] 1961 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery March 1961
If I Were a Cowboy [m] 1950 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery 1950
The Incredible Mr. Limpet [m] 1964 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery June-August 1964
It's a Cracked World [b] 1975 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery July 1975
Ivanhoe [m] 1963 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery July-September 1963
Jack the Giant-Killer [m] 1963 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery [January] 1963
Jason and the Argonauts [m] 1963 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery August-October 1963
Jimmy Hatlo's Little Iodine [b] 1955 1 issues (0 indexed) Gallery 1955
Johnny Jason Teen Reporter [m] 1962 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery June-August 1962
Jules Verne's Mysterious Isle [m] 1963 1 issues (1 indexed) Gallery November 1963-January 1964

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