In recognition of one year of posting the comics of Kreigh Collins, we will celebrate traditionally.
Among other papers, “Mitzi McCoy” initially appeared in its beautiful half-page format in the Pittsburgh Press and the Indianapolis Times. Tabloid newspapers, such as the New York Mirror, ran the comic as tabs or half-tabs. In some dailies, such as the Grand Rapids Press, it appeared in black and white.
Famously appearing from its onset in the prestigious Chicago Sunday Tribune, “Kevin the Bold” also ran in the Detroit News and other papers. As the Pittsburgh Press had done with “Mitzi,” the Florida Times-Union used “Kevin” to lead off its comic section.
My collection of comics largely consists of my grandfather’s original samples. They are mostly from the Chicago Tribune and the Detroit News. There are sometimes multiple versions of a particular Sunday, from different papers, in different formats. Entire comic sections are occasionally found, often from newspapers of places Kreigh visited during journeys aboard his schooner Heather.
The inclusion of one of these comic sections always piqued my curiosity. It’s a Tribune section dated December 27, 1959. “Kevin the Bold” is nowhere to be found. Only recently did I realize the significance — in what must have been a devastating blow to the artist, it marked the point when the Tribune dropped the strip after carrying it for a decade. Notably, “Kevin” does appear in another intact section from the same day’s Detroit News.
Kreigh’s Comics 
It’s sad that the Tribune downsized KEVIN to its dreaded third-page format in its later run. The quality of the Tribune comics section’s printing took a nose-dive after 1954; the TLC given the comics by the engravers and printers was not there anymore. But, yes, what a shock that must have been. They did have the decency to end it at the conclusion of a story line, on 12/20/59. Some papers just dissappeared a strip in mid-narrative–the cruelest cut of all.
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