Four Color #98
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFour Color #98 represents one of the pivotal stepping-stones in the Lone Ranger's migration from radio and newspaper strips to the comic-book medium. As the second of seven Lone Ranger one-shots Dell published in the Four Color anthology, it helped establish the character's viability as a recurring comic-book property — a groundwork that directly led to the Lone Ranger receiving his own dedicated Dell title in 1948, which ran for 145 issues. The issue also illustrates how Dell's Four Color anthology functioned as a proving ground for licensed properties throughout the 1940s: rather than launching characters cold into standalone series, Dell tested audience appetite issue by issue, making each successive Lone Ranger Four Color a building block of one of the Golden Age's most successful western franchises.
A 1946 Dell Four Color comic, "Mystery at Pine River; Bad Men Amuck; The Evil Spirit; Six-Gun Saga; Killer Roundup" delivers a rugged Western quintet, each tale spotlighting the Lone Ranger and Tonto in gripping standoffs and moral trials. Written by Fran Striker and illustrated by Ed Kressy and Charles Flanders, the stories blend frontier danger with suspense, from vanished stagecoach drivers to a stolen gold train and a battle over an oil well, all grounded in the era’s classic pulp sensibility.
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The material in this issue reprints King Features Syndicate Lone Ranger daily newspaper strips from 1938 and 1939 — strips scripted by Fran Striker, the prolific writer who co-created the character for WXYZ radio in 1933 and went on to write novels, pulp stories, movie-serial scripts, and the strip itself. The interior art is divided between two strip cartoonists: Ed Kressy handled the first four story sequences while Charles Flanders, who took over the Lone Ranger newspaper strip from Striker in 1939 and continued it until 1971, drew the final sequence. Dell published the issue in February 1946, carrying an indicia title of 'The Lone Ranger, No. 98' — a numbering convention that reflected the Four Color series number rather than any standalone Lone Ranger run.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published February 1946 by Dell Comics as part of the Four Color second series (Series II), with an indicia title of 'The Lone Ranger, No. 98.'
- Identified by the Grand Comics Database as the second of seven Lone Ranger one-shots published in the Four Color anthology, a run that collectively preceded and motivated the launch of a dedicated Dell Lone Ranger ongoing series in 1948.
- All interior content reprints King Features Syndicate Lone Ranger daily newspaper strips originally published in 1938 and 1939.
- Scripts are by Fran Striker, co-creator of the Lone Ranger character and the primary writer of both the radio program and the newspaper strip.
- Interior art is split between two hands: Ed Kressy penciled and inked the first four story sequences, while Charles Flanders — the strip cartoonist who took over the Lone Ranger newspaper strip in 1939 — drew the final 'Killer Round-Up' sequence.
- The issue contains five consecutive story sequences ('Mystery of Pine River,' 'The Evil Spirit,' 'Bad Men Amuck,' 'Six-Gun Saga,' and 'Killer Round-Up') presented without logo separations, flowing together in the manner of their original strip format.
- Recurring characters present include the Lone Ranger, Tonto, Silver (the Lone Ranger's horse), and Scout (Tonto's horse), establishing the full core cast in comic-book form.
- The early Dell Lone Ranger Four Colors — including this issue — consisted entirely of newspaper-strip reprints; original comic-book stories did not appear in the franchise until Lone Ranger #38 (1951) in the dedicated ongoing series.
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