Four Color #932

Dell's 1958 one-shot Smokey the Bear: His Life Story promises an adventure worthy of America's most recognizable conservation mascot. The cover by Morris Gollub is genuinely striking — a full-grown Smokey, wearing his signature ranger hat, jeans, and belt, stands his ground wielding a stick against a pack of snarling wolves, while a smaller bear clings to a tree branch behind him. At ten cents, this is a charming piece of mid-century comics storytelling built around the real bear's life, told with the kind of dramatic painted energy that made Dell's painted covers so appealing in their day.