The Story of Colonel Drake

A single-issue educational comic published by the American Petroleum Institute in 1954, The Story of Colonel Drake dramatizes the life and work of Edwin Drake, the man who drilled the first commercial oil well in the United States. This promotional booklet, distributed to schools and the public, uses a straightforward narrative style to celebrate the dawn of the petroleum industry. While not a traditional ongoing series, it remains a notable artifact of mid-century industrial public relations and the use of comics for corporate storytelling.