Four Color #5
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFour Color #5 (Dell, 1942) holds a quiet but meaningful place in comic book history as one of the very first two original-story issues in Dell's Four Color Series 2 — a distinction it shares only with Four Color #9 (Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold). While the first eight issues of that newly relaunched series recycled newspaper comic-strip reprints, #5 represented Dell's earliest commitment to publishing purpose-built, all-new comic book stories rather than repackaged strip art. It is also the first comic book devoted entirely to Johnny Gruelle's beloved rag doll characters, Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy, bringing a literary franchise that had already sold millions of books to the comic book medium for the first time.
In "A Very Mysterious Mystery," Raggedy Ann and Andy return to the whimsical realm of Loonie Land after realizing the Old Horse is missing, guided by a mysterious elder Loonie to the castle of the unexpected Dreadful Dragon. With the Dragon’s help, they soar through the skies until they spot the Old Horse—but their relief is short-lived when they discover the entire Loonie population has vanished, taken by a colossal force. George Kerr’s distinctive art brings this eerie, dreamlike adventure to life, capturing the innocence and wonder of a 1942 comic where even the most fantastical journeys begin with a simple question: what happened to the Old Horse?
In "A Very Mysterious Mystery," Raggedy Andy and Raggedy Ann uncover a curious theft when toys start vanishing from the toy room. When they track the culprit—a mysterious Loonie—to a hidden tree, they venture into the strange, dreamlike land of the Loonies, where nothing is quite as it seems.
Raggedy Ann and Andy return to Loonie Land one moonlit night, determined to find the Old Horse after realizing he never came back with them. Guided by a mysterious old Loonie, they journey to the castle of the Dreadful Dragon, who surprisingly becomes their ally. With the Dragon’s help, they soar through the skies until they spot the Old Horse—only to discover that the Loonies themselves have vanished, taken by a towering giant.
Raggedy Ann and Andy find themselves airborne after getting caught in Marcella’s balloons, drifting to a mysterious island where they’re captured by the odd duo of Snoopwiggy and Grinny Bear—owners of a sailboat that jumps with a mind of its own. Tangled once more in the balloons, the quartet floats off to the castle of Prince Gallant and Princess Joy, the sailboat’s rightful keepers.
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Johnny Gruelle, who died in January 1938, had built Raggedy Ann into one of America's most beloved children's properties across two decades of books beginning in 1918, with Raggedy Andy joining her in a 1920 sequel. By 1942 the characters were being managed by Gruelle's widow, Myrtle, through the Johnny Gruelle Company, and Dell — working through its Western Publishing editorial arm under editor Oskar Lebeck — secured the license for the new Four Color series. The interior stories and art in #5 are credited to unknown creators per surviving records; the comic includes an article recounting how Gruelle created the Raggedy Ann books, signaling that Dell treated the issue partly as an introductory showcase for readers unfamiliar with the property's origins.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published in 1942 by Dell Comics as issue #5 of the Four Color Series 2 (indicia title: 'RAGGEDY ANN AND ANDY, No. 5').
- First comic book devoted entirely to Johnny Gruelle's Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy characters — their debut in the comic book medium.
- One of only two original, non-reprint stories in the first ten issues of Four Color Series 2; the other was #9, Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold.
- Interior stories include 'A Very Mysterious Mystery,' 'The Lost Loonies,' and 'The Jumping Sailboat,' all featuring Ann, Andy, and supporting characters from the Gruelle books such as the Loonies and the Old Horse.
- The issue also contains an in-comic article explaining how creator Johnny Gruelle (1880–1938) originally invented Raggedy Ann, grounding the debut in the character's literary history.
- Raggedy Ann was created by Gruelle in 1915 as a doll; the first Raggedy Ann book appeared in 1918; Raggedy Andy was introduced in the 1920 sequel — by the time of this issue, the combined book series had reportedly sold over 5 million copies.
- The Four Color franchise would return to the characters repeatedly: Four Color #23 (1943) was another Raggedy Ann and Andy issue, and the characters eventually anchored a Dell standalone ongoing series beginning in 1946 that ran 39 issues, as well as later Four Color appearances and a Gold Key revival in 1971.
- The comic's interior creators are listed as unknown in surviving records; John Stanley, who would later work on other Dell licensed characters, is documented as having contributed to Raggedy Ann and Andy material at Dell during this era, though his specific involvement with #5 has not been independently confirmed.
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