Four Color #228
Four Color #228 is the first licensed comic book appearance of Zorro, the masked vigilante Don Diego de la Vega — placing it at the very foundation of the character's long print history that would span Dell, Western Publishing, Topps, Dynamite, and beyond. The issue arrived 30 years after Johnston McCulley's original pulp creation, bridging the character's rich prose and film legacy directly into the Golden Age comic book format and introducing the swashbuckler to an entirely new, younger readership. As the first proper, creator-attributed comic adaptation of the story, it stands apart from the unlicensed, attribute-stripped cameo Zorro received in Quality Comics' Hit Comics #55 (November 1948), which depicts him without a mask and without crediting McCulley. The issue launched a pre-Code Dell run of seven Zorro Four Color entries and laid the groundwork for the iconic Alex Toth Disney TV tie-in issues that followed in 1958.
In "The Mark of Zorro," Don Diego Vega, secretly the masked vigilante Zorro, navigates a web of romance and intrigue in 1949’s Four Color #228. As Captain Ramon courts the spirited Lolita Pulido, Zorro must protect her from both unwanted advances and the corrupt governor’s wrath—especially when Ramon has her family imprisoned. With art by Bill Ely, this classic tale blends daring escapes and quiet courage, all under the watchful eyes of a town on the edge of chaos.
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Dell Publishing released the issue on or around March 29, 1949 — the on-sale date documented in the Catalog of Copyright Entries — under the indicia title 'THE MARK OF ZORRO, No. 228.' The copyright was held by Grosset & Dunlap, the publisher of the 1924 novel that retitled McCulley's original 1919 serial 'The Curse of Capistrano' to match the hugely successful Douglas Fairbanks silent film. The adaptation script is credited to Steve and Mick Dubin (per the same copyright catalog), while artist Bill Ely handled both the interior story and the wraparound cover, signing his work on both the front cover and the first and last pages of the story. As an additional distribution push, some copies of this issue were given away as premiums bundled with subscriptions to Dell's The Lone Ranger comic, as advertised in The Lone Ranger #20 (February 1950).
Trivia · 8 facts
- First licensed comic book appearance of Zorro (Don Diego de la Vega), published by Dell in the Four Color anthology series, on sale March 29, 1949.
- The story adapts Johnston McCulley's 1924 novel 'The Mark of Zorro' — itself a retitling of the original 1919 pulp serial 'The Curse of Capistrano' — with copyright held by Grosset & Dunlap.
- Script credited to Steve and Mick Dubin; full art (cover and interiors) by Bill Ely, who signed his work on the wraparound cover and on both the first and last story pages.
- The issue features a wraparound cover — an unusual format for the Four Color series — illustrated by Ely.
- An unlicensed, non-canonical predecessor exists: Hit Comics #55 (Quality Comics, November 1948) features Zorro summoned as a soul by Kid Eternity, but depicts him without a mask and without any attribution to creator Johnston McCulley — making Dell's Four Color #228 the first officially attributed appearance.
- Some copies were distributed as subscription premiums with Dell's The Lone Ranger comic in late 1949–early 1950, with the cover reprinted in miniature in a subscription ad in The Lone Ranger #20 (February 1950).
- The issue launched Dell's pre-Code Zorro run of seven Four Color issues (#228, 425, 497, 538, 574, 617, and 732), later followed by Disney TV tie-in Zorro issues beginning in 1958 featuring artwork by Alex Toth.
- The entire pre-Code Dell Zorro run, including this issue, was collected and reprinted in full color by Hermes Press in 2014 as 'Zorro: The Complete Dell Pre-Code Comics,' with an essay by Max Allan Collins.
Cast · 2 characters
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Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Captain Ramon seeks the hand of the lovely Lolita Pulido, but the senorita's parents wish her to marry Don Diego Vega, but she finds him dull. Don Diego, as Zorro, tries to get the senorita and her parents to help him fight the corrupt governor, but her father calls for the soldiers. Lolita is infatuated with Zorro, who has to protect her from Captain Ramon's unwanted advances. Ramon convinces the Governor to jail Lolita and her family. Zorro then organizes a party to free the Pulidos from jail.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).