Four Color #12
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFour Color #12 (1942 Series) marks the first comic book appearance of Bambi and his supporting cast — Thumper, Flower, Friend Owl, Faline, and the Great Stag — giving Disney's fifth animated feature an immediate print companion that planted these characters in Golden Age comics history. Published as a near-64-page, ad-free, single-story comic, it is remarkable enough in format that at least one comics scholar has argued it qualifies as a graphic novel by any reasonable standard, making it an unusually immersive artifact for 1942. It also stands as one of the earliest examples of a major Hollywood animated film receiving a same-year, full-length comic adaptation, helping establish the template Dell would use throughout its decades-long Disney licensing partnership. The issue's cultural footprint extended well beyond comics: the Bambi imagery originally licensed for this and related Dell publications was lent by Walt Disney to the U.S. Forest Service for fire-prevention campaigns, indirectly spurring the creation of Smokey Bear.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 20 grades ▾
This exact issue on ebay
Raw / ungraded ▾ $111–$254 3 listings
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Dell Publishing released this issue in 1942 to coincide directly with Walt Disney's fifth animated feature film, which had its world premiere in London on August 9, 1942, before opening in the United States. The interior story adapts the film's script — itself derived from Felix Salten's 1923 Austrian novel — with Chase Craig writing the comic adaptation and Ken Hultgren handling all the art; Hultgren was a working Disney studio animator who had contributed model sheets and layouts to the Bambi film itself, making this his debut in the comics medium. The copyright indicia reads 1941 and 1942 by Walt Disney Productions, reflecting the production overlap between the film's completion and the comic's release. The issue exists in at least two known cover variants: a standard edition with 'Four Color Comic No. 12' printed on the cover and a rarer pressing that omits that designation entirely — the reason for the variant printing and its distribution method remain unknown.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First comic book appearance of Bambi and his core cast: Thumper, Flower, Faline, Friend Owl, Ronno, and the Great Stag.
- Published in 1942 by Dell Publishing as issue #12 of the Four Color series (Series 2), with an indicia title of 'Walt Disney's Bambi, No. 12.'
- Art by Ken Hultgren, a Disney studio animator who worked on model sheets and layouts for the Bambi film itself — this was his first comics work.
- Script adapted by Chase Craig, based on Felix Salten's original story and the 1942 Walt Disney animated feature.
- A known cover variant exists that does not carry the 'Four Color Comic No. 12' designation; the reason for this alternate printing is undocumented.
- A direct sequel, 'Bambi's Children' (Four Color #30, October 1943), also illustrated by Hultgren, adapted Salten's second novel and followed the adventures of Bambi and Faline's fawns.
- When the film was re-released in 1947, the original 1942 comic was not reprinted; instead, Dell commissioned an entirely new adaptation (Four Color #186, April 1948), illustrated by Morris 'Mo' Gollub, himself another former Bambi film animator.
- The Bambi imagery from these Dell comics was later licensed to the U.S. Forest Service for wildfire-prevention campaigns, a partnership that — after Disney's one-year loan of Bambi ended — led directly to the creation of Smokey Bear.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Walt Disney's Bambi #3 (1956), Walt Disney's Bambi #1 (1963), Walt Disney's månedshefte #4/1968 (1968)
Key issues in Four Color
★
★
★
★
★
★
★Variants (1)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.