Ten months after first appearing in Sunday comics sections across North America, “Kevin the Bold” underwent a minor revision. Kreigh Collins began creating special versions for the Chicago Sunday Tribune, as a result of a suggestion made by A. M. Kennedy, the Trib’s Sunday editor. When he received this letter, Collins would have been inking the comics that would run three months later, in October. These are the comics that were featured over the last several weeks.

 

A couple of years earlier, the salesforce from the NEA (Collins’ syndicate) had approached the Trib and tried to sell them on the idea of picking up Collins’ first comic feature, “Mitzi McCoy.” Frustrated at the slow pace of negotiations, Kreigh had taken to corresponding directly with the Trib’s brass, and even paid them a visit. Collins had previously lived in Chicago, and was happy to make the 200-mile drive to the big city from his home in West Michigan. His efforts resulted in the Tribune running Collins’ five-week Christmas feature in their Saturday edition, the first NEA strip to grace the Tribune’s pages, and a relationship was forged.

What seemed superfluous to Kennedy were the comic’s throwaway panels. After receiving Kennedy’s letter, Collins mentioned it to his Ernest Lynn, his boss at the NEA. Lynn explained to Kennedy that these small panels were a necessity due to the NEA’s comics formats, but he agreed that Collins could produce special versions for the Trib on occasion.

 

These unique versions ran eight times, initially on October 28, 1951. With fewer panels, “Kevin” would more closely resemble the Trib’s other comics.

Below are the Chicago Tribune’s comics with their corresponding NEA proofs. The comics work nicely either way. Eliminating the throwaway and enlarging another panel produced handsome results for the Trib, but the original versions’ throwaways are charming as well, allowing for an injection of humor, mood, or feminine beauty. The December 2, 1951 comic simply added a gutter to divide one of its panels into a format from which the NEA could produce its tabloid version.

The modified panels were successful, but it became apparent that they weren’t needed in all cases. Lynn pointed this out in a letter he sent Kreigh a couple weeks later, specifically mentioning the November 4, 1951 comic, shown below.

By my count, there were eight comics with the throwaway panels eliminated; the final one was published on January 27, 1952. I don’t have examples showing the throwaways for two of the dates — November 11 and 18, 1952 — those BW proofs are missing. Worse yet is the fate suffered by the proof of the January 13, 1952 comic.

In this case, the collaborating “artist” was either my brother or myself, or one of my cousins. As kids, when we’d go visit Gramma Teddy, she had a wonderful collection of comics for us to read out in Grandpa’s old studio — we must have also thought of them as coloring book fodder. Oh well, at least the October 28, 1951 comic remained unscathed! It’s an absolute masterpiece.