Testing the Catapult

The action continues with a couple black and white half pages. It’s too bad, because this chapter is pretty inspired, from start to finish.

I sense some foreshadowing… what could possibly be in store?

Following the two black and white episodes, a nice color tabloid example is just what the doctor ordered. It’s beautifully illustrated and the witty scripting was likely done by Collins, the Da Vinci enthusiast.

After discovering his blog, I was befriended by a prominent illustrator from Denver. In the post I came across, Thomas Haller Buchanan had featured a late period KEVIN THE BOLD episode that he’d clipped and saved as a teenager. After an email exchange in which I told him my plans to publish my grandfather’s work, Thomas mailed three tabloid episodes to me. He was the first long-distance comics friend I made as I began researching my grandfather; sadly, he passed away this past September. I am most grateful for his kindness and encouragement—and I can certainly understand the appeal these tabloids had to a fifteen-year-old art buff!

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For more information on the career of Kreigh Collins, visit his page on Facebook.

Leonardo Redux

In the ninth chapter of “KEVIN THE BOLD,” Kreigh Collins introduced a character from the pages of history, Leonardo Da VInci. (Other real-life characters occasionally appeared in the comic strip—most notably, King Henry). Fifteen years later, in KEVIN’s 75th chapter, Leonardo reappeared.

Leonardo must have been a favorite of Collins. Only three more chapters would run before the strip morphed into UP ANCHOR!, and injecting Da Vinci into the continuation required a bit of flexibility in the timeline. (The previous chapter was about Captain John Smith, dating the action around 1604, while Leonardo Da Vinci died in 1519). So be it.

Kevin learns that that the Italian inventor is an Artist, Sculptor, Mechanic, and Naturalist—no wonder Collins squeezed Leonardo into the action once more.

Da VInci is shown as an elderly man—he died aged 67 in Amboise, France—despite the glitch in the timeline, Collins had obviously done his research.

To be continued…

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For more information on the career of Kreigh Collins, visit his page on Facebook.

Wanderlust

Currently on view at the Ada Historical Society’s Ada History Center is an exhibit on Kreigh Collins. Located at 7144 Headley St SE, in Ada, Michigan, the wonderful collection of comics and memorabilia will be on view until September.

My uncle Kevin will be speaking, and I will be making a presentation on the international reach of my grandfather’s comic strips. This live event is scheduled for Thursday, April 18, 2024.

More information is available at https://www.facebook.com/adahistorycenter

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For more information on the career of Kreigh Collins, visit his page on Facebook.

Hercules

In what could be the worst bachelor party ever, Kevin and Luoth spend the eve of the wedding working hard on a risky and dangerous task.

Following his night of hard labor, Kevin is spent. The panels in the middle tier of the episode above are hysterical—with the first two contrasting the eager bride and the reluctant groom, and the third panel existing somewhere between the screwball and the absurd (and practically begging to be taken out of context). Meanwhile, Kevin faces his moment of truth.

Mascarading as Hercules, Kevin passes one test, but unexpectedly faces another.

Luoth understands that if Barda breaks the engagement, it is mutually beneficial to Kevin and himself. Luoth is willing to take a great risk in order to restore his standing with Barda. Finally, a sudden thunderstorm and some quick thinking allows Kevin to escape his fate as a married man.

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For more information on the career of Kreigh Collins, visit his page on Facebook.

The Obelisk

I wish I had some color half-pages from this sequence to intersperse with the black and white art, but the printer proofs really accentuate Collins’ wonderful line work. And As you can see, the third-page versions that ran in many newspapers during this era of Kevin left much to be desired. With these shrunken comics, each panel was cropped, and the lovely “throwaway” was eliminated.

For the time being, Barda is able to calm her erstwhile boyfriend’s anger, but her situation proves too sticky for any further help from her father. Though Kevin will have his hands full dealing with the jealous, jilted Luoth, he is as calm and confident as ever.

Someone please hide those scissors!

Quick thinking and a sudden, unlikely alliance buys Kevin time as he tries to dig his way out of trouble.

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For more information on the career of Kreigh Collins, visit his page on Facebook.

The Trap

Barda has a new muse, and she gives her new toy both freedom and fair warning.

Determined not to make the same mistake twice, Kevin is cautious.

The comic used to patch the hole in this proof reveals the main problem with one-third-page versions—a significant chunk of the opening panel (to the right of Kevin) has been cropped out.

The names of Kreigh Collins’ ancillary characters were generally symbolic. As the child of a druid-inspired cult’s spiritual leader, Barda (“daughter of the earth”) is an appropriate name for a young poetess. Although she seems to relish dominating her love interests, she is not to be confused with Big Barta (a DC comics character with similar proclivities that debuted a decade later).

In the December 11 episode, our poetess riffs on a scene from King Lear (“The knave turns fool that runs…”). Of note, five years down the road Shakespeare would figure even more prominently as inspiration for a “Kevin the Bold” sequence.

Having made Kevin an offer he could not refuse, Barda finds trouble of her own.

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Since  KEVIN THE BOLD appears so frequently on this blog, it seems appropriate to wish everyone a happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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For more information on the career of Kreigh Collins, visit his page on Facebook.

The Secret Valley

The peak years for “Kevin the Bold” were the 1950s, but by mid-1957, the Chicago Tribune, an early champion of the comic, was running inferior one-third page versions of the strip. While other papers continued running the strip as a half-page, like the Detroit News, many soon followed suit with the dreaded one-thirds.

Finding half-page examples of the comic from the late-50s can be difficult, so I am lucky to have numerous syndicate proofs in my collection. These proofs (veloxes?), show the entire half-page comic, and are printed on a nice heavy stock. Kreigh Collins used these to provide color guides to the NEA. He would paint them with watercolors, and these would be used by the NEA as guides while colorizing the comics. Extra copies of the proofs were kept in Collins’ studio, and sometimes these ended up being used like coloring books by either his youngest sons or his grandchildren. In retrospect, it’s a real shame, but at the time it probably seemed like a “grand” idea (to use a word that reminds me of Gramma Collins). While some of these proofs were colored or painted on, others suffered a worse fate, as the aspiring artists attempted collages, apparently, cutting holes in the proofs with scissors.

The following sequence, which ran from November of 1960 to January of ’61, has 11 episodes. I have cleaned up one that was painted on (our young artist hadn’t gotten very far with the November 27 episode—for once a short attention span proved beneficial), and I used some one-third page comics to patch up two others.

Despite these flaws, the sequence itself is wonderful. It contains all of the strip’s classic elements: beautiful scenery, a gorgeous young woman (smitten with Kevin, naturally), mystery, and action, plus a nice feat of engineering. It begins with Kevin taking a needed break from his adventures; he has returned alone to Ireland.

After falling into the trap, Kevin’s captors comment on his size and strength, comparing him to one of the ancient gods they worship. Despite his appearance, a perplexed Kevin is released to Barda, the daughter of the cult’s leader.

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For more information on the career of Kreigh Collins, visit his page on Facebook.

Special Man Is Wanted

Artists and illustrators often have models pose for them — Kreigh Collins frequently enlisted his family with the task. Occasionally, a special situation would call for a hired model, and such was a case for an early “Kevin the Bold” sequence. Getting a help wanted ad on the front page of the local paper was helpful, and the Grand Rapids Herald provided some nice promotion for Collins’ year-old comic.

The “special man” needed to be of a specific stature, as he would be donning a centuries-old suit of armor recently donated to the Grand Rapids Public Museum. Since historical authenticity was important to Collins, having a live model for reference would be very useful, as knights in armor were a staple of his comic strip.

The newspaper page was trimmed so that no publication date showed, but an article on the page had some information that placed it in late July of 1951. The NEA’s production schedule required comics to be inked two to three months ahead of their publication date, and with this sequence appearing in September, the timing of the newspaper article made sense.

The fifth “Kevin the Bold” sequence introduced a new villain, Baron Von Blunt. Was his new Flemish armor modeled after the set from the Grand Rapids Public Museum?

Most of the early “Kevin” comics in my collection are from the Chicago Sunday Tribune, but the September 30, 1951 comic shown above ran in the Detroit News. (Most likely, the comic had debuted in the News with this sequence). Collins’ artwork is especially strong in this period, but the printed results from the News are no match for those of the Tribune.

Kevin and his squire, Stub, had been separated during the previous sequence, in which Kevin was gravely injured. Once reunited, Stub fills his knight in on the details of the task he has been assigned — training an army of men to face Baron Von Blunt, the same ruthless man that had already made an enemy of Kevin. The October 7 comic is another beauty from the Trib, with more to follow.

Of note: The Grand Rapids Public Museum has a rather impressive collection of Kreigh Collins’ original artwork.

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For more information on the career of Kreigh Collins, please visit his page on Facebook.

The Double-Cross

Despite getting away with the gold, the greedy Hammerhead schemes to cut Frenchy out of the deal—and turn him into the fall guy.

However, suspecting as much, Frenchy returns with a plan to turn the tables on Hammerhead. A detail I hadn’t previously noticed was Captain Frenchie’s peg leg. Reviewing the previous episodes indicates it was indeed apparent, but I didn’t catch any references to it in the captions or dialog.

A term that could perhaps use an explanation, the “ship’s boat,” is found in the final panel. Not a redundancy, the ship being a large vessel and its boat being the small utility boat it carried (or towed).

Despite his injured leg, Kevin manages to ensnare Frenchy and alert the soldiers at Governor Pedro’s fort. The chapter concludes, and in an extremely unlikely transition, Kevin and the Elysia are blown a bit off course (more than 8,000 miles!). The storm managed to send the Elysia all the south way from the Irish Sea, until it rounds Cape Horn and eventually settles… in Japan (and another 10,000 miles off course).

That chapter can be found here.

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For more information on the career of Kreigh Collins, visit his page on Facebook.

Kevin the… Klutz?

A rare case of clumsiness leaves Kevin in a tough spot.

I don’t have any color versions of these three episodes, but Kreigh Collins’ amazing linework really shines in these black and white velox proofs.

Dramatically rendered in three silent panels, Kevin climbs aboard, despite a bum ankle.

Meanwhile, Pedro is nervous about the gold…

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For more information on the career of Kreigh Collins, visit his page on Facebook.