The action in the following sequence begins on October 4, 1964. Kevin has sailed to the West Indies, and three new characters are introduced. It is June, 1588.

This first comic came from a tabloid the NEA published featuring its stable of comics. These were dated six days before they appeared in the Sunday funnies.

When I first began collecting “Kevin,” I was frustrated by its lack of availability. Auctions on eBay weren’t showing up very often, and when they did, the prices tended to go beyond my budget. I had complete runs of a few different years, but my goal was to collect the entire 19-year run. I was starting to get impatient.

While searching for books illustrated by my Grandpa Collins on a used book site (in this case, abebooks.com), I came across a couple of listings of “Kevin l’audacieux” — French-language versions for newspapers in Québec. For cheap! I bit on one, thinking I could translate the dialog, and… well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I soon realized that translating them would take an enormous amount of time. Also, they were very poorly trimmed. Mon dieu! They worked out to 46¢ apiece, and I guess I got what I paid for. However, since I did make the initial investment, and especially since I took the time to scan them, let’s follow the action bi-lingually. (Qui sait, peut-être que je vais gagner quelques abonnés français!) The one-third pagers will at least add some color.