Four Color #1169
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFour Color #1169 is the opening chapter in Dell's two-part attempt to bring Sherlock Holmes into American comic books with fully original — not Doyle-adapted — adventures, making it a notable waypoint in the long and sparse history of Holmes in the comic medium. The issue demonstrates the Dell Four Color series functioning exactly as designed: as a proving ground where a title could audition for its own ongoing series. That the line never grew beyond two issues only sharpens its historical interest, preserving this and its companion issue as the complete record of Dell's Holmes experiment. For students of comics history it also documents artist Frank Giacoia returning to a character he had spent years rendering in newspaper strips, producing what enthusiasts regard as his most polished sequential Holmes work.
In "The Deadly Inheritance," Holmes is convinced that a series of mysterious accidents threatening to derail the cross channel tunnel's construction are no coincidence—but the deliberate work of saboteurs, orchestrated by the elusive Professor Moriarty. With sharp deduction and a growing sense of urgency, Holmes races to uncover the hidden hand behind the chaos, all while the tunnel's fate hangs in the balance. The story, illustrated with precision by Frank Giacoia and lettered by John Duffy, captures the tension of a classic mystery in a crisp, early 1960s comic format.
In "The Tunnel Scheme," Holmes, ever the keen observer, suspects that the series of mysterious delays in the cross channel tunnel’s construction are no mere coincidence—but the calculated work of a mastermind. With Moriarty’s shadow looming, the detective races to uncover the sabotage before the project collapses entirely.
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Frank Giacoia had drawn a daily-and-Sunday Sherlock Holmes newspaper strip written by radio dramatist Edith Meiser from March 1, 1954, through November 17, 1956; five years after that strip concluded, Dell brought him back to the character for Four Color #1169, cover-dated March–May 1961. The Grand Comics Database credits the two stories inside to Giacoia as penciler and inker, while also noting the possibility of pencil assistance from Mike Sekowsky on at least some pages — a collaboration pattern consistent with Giacoia's broader working relationships during this period. The issue carried a copyright notice in the name of the Estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, confirming that Dell obtained a formal license rather than simply drawing on public-domain characters. The second Dell Holmes issue, Four Color #1245, followed later in 1961 with art attributed to Bob Fujitani, suggesting the two issues were conceived and produced as a paired tryout package rather than a spontaneous follow-up.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published March–May 1961 by Dell Comics as part of the long-running Four Color anthology series (Series 2), under the indicia title 'NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, No. 1169.'
- Contains two original Sherlock Holmes stories — 'The Case of the Deadly Inheritance' and 'The Tunnel Scheme' — neither of which is an adaptation of any Arthur Conan Doyle source story.
- Art on both stories is attributed to Frank Giacoia, who had previously illustrated the Edith Meiser–written Sherlock Holmes daily newspaper strip (1954–1956); the Grand Comics Database also flags possible pencil assistance by Mike Sekowsky.
- Professor Moriarty appears as the villain driving the plot of 'The Tunnel Scheme,' in which Holmes deduces that a series of accidents delaying a cross-channel tunnel project are acts of sabotage directed by Moriarty.
- The issue was produced under license from the Estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as stated in the copyright indicia.
- Dell's Four Color series functioned as a try-out platform; the Holmes experiment extended only to one companion issue, Four Color #1245 (November 1961–January 1962), after which no ongoing series materialized.
- Both Dell Holmes issues were reprinted in black and white by Eternity Comics in 1989 as Sherlock Holmes Casebook #1–2, and later collected together in a single paperback volume by Coachwhip Publications.
- The cover artist for Four Color #1169 is not definitively identified in available sources; the cover of the companion issue #1245 is credited to painter George Wilson.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Special Collection #5 (2001)
Key issues in Four Color
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