Month: May 2020

Sidling Up

Like other cartoonists, Kreigh Collins looked to his family and friends when it came to naming characters, but sometimes the comic strip characters’ names came first. “Kevin the Bold” debuted several months before Collins’ son Kevin was born, and Kevin’s ward Brett appeared about nine years before my brother made the scene.

I’ve always wondered what my uncle Glen (Kevin’s twin) thought of the title of his father’s best-known strip—at least two characters named Glen eventually appeared, but they didn’t have large rolls. And while Brett played a major part, I always thought it would be nice if  there was a character named Brian.

In a case of “be careful what you wish for,” eventually a Brian appeared—he was a misogynistic cad. Appearing a few years before I was born, It’s not like I was named for him, but couldn’t his name have been spelled with a “Y”? This guy is especially onerous.

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A black-hearted rogue, indeed! (What is especially galling to me was that the Duke’s bad behavior was in the name of procuring a birthday gift, and this episode ran on my birthday).

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I guess I’m not the only one being overly sensitive, the Duke also seems a bit prickly.

Perhaps curious only to me, but in the two panels after the throwaway, the movement Kevin is making can only be described as “sidling.” Not commonly represented in comics—or anywhere, really—the only place I ever remember hearing the word is in this 1965 Johnny Cash A-side. A shame—it’s a great word!

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Here are the first two episodes in color, as third-pages; I don’t have a color example from June 18, 1961.

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

 

Setting a Snare

With his vast experience dealing with both dastards and the downtrodden, Kevin is a quick judge of character. Upon meeting meek Percival Southwick, he must have sensed something in him—and he must have seen something in the character of the Duke of Duval, as well. Kevin decides to make a man of Percival, which he’d done before—a decade earlier with Prince Rupert. Therein lies my beef with new writer Jay Heavilin—in his first credited story, he’s already rehashing old plot devices…

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…Kevin is also back to playing matchmaker, but his clever plot is uncovered.

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Kevin’s first lesson on manliness is interrupted, and things escalate quickly.

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Here are the three episodes in color, as third-pages.

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

 

Changing of the Guard

As the battle intensifies and the zaniness builds, the story arc reaches its conclusion. Here, “having sport with cheeses” means knocking the fire brigade from the rigging.

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The only way this could be better was if it was flaming cheese (a Detroit favorite).

An interesting detail in the April 23, 1961 episode above is how the strip’s logo is partially obscured  by Grommet’s monstrous ship. By the next Sunday’s comic, the old logo will have disappeared, replaced by a new one, and accompanied by the byline, “Story by Jay Heavilin.” While this new chapter carries over a couple of characters from the one that preceded it, the tone of the comic strip’s narrative changes.

After begging her father to accompany Kevin to England, Elsa and her mother set off on the journey across the North Sea with him. Allowing his wife and daughter to make the crossing in Kevin’s small boat—Kevin obviously made quite an impression Mr. Van Loo.

Meanwhile, in London, King Henry meets young Percival Southwick, and quickly sizes him up.

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The new logo was enlarged slightly for the May 7, 1961 episode, below, and looks great—its proportions work quite nicely with the amount of vertical space provided by a single tier of panels. A taller logo meant it took up more real estate horizontally, and apparently Collins didn’t like the tradeoff. As far as I can tell, the logo would always appear at the smaller size going forward.

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Here are the three episodes in color, as third-pages.

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

 

Drough Sabotage

The good news is that there aren’t any newspaper.com images this week; the bad news is that one of the BW proofs was “embellished.” But the good news is that whoever did it, did a pretty nice job. (Maybe I’ll take credit for this one, LOL)

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Kevin is up to some of his usual antics, climbing aboard an enemy’s ship, disabling a bad guy and using their clothes as a disguise. He has one more trick up his sleeve.

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In a couple of episodes from years past, Kreigh Collins showed how a sea anchor was used in order to stabilize a boat in the midst of a storm. In this case, Kevin used one as a brake, in order to slow the progress of Grommet’s monstrous ship. This bought some time for Kevin and the townsfolk time to implement a defensive plan—using fire arrows and… WHAT was the other thing?! (Fire arrows were another device Collins had used in the past, but I don’t recall any other instances of cheese ordnance).

I wonder if my grandfather ever needed to use a drough on his own sailboat—sea anchors loomed large enough that I can recall my father describing their use to me when I was young.

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The drough/drogue/sea anchor also was featured in the topper “Water Lore” for Collins’ final NEA comic, “Up Anchor!”

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Here are the three episodes in color, as third-pages.

 

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

 

Premature Celebration

Kevin finally arrives to warn the local officials of Grommet’s nefarious scheme.

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All together now, a polder is land reclaimed from the sea! This WILL be on the test!

The explosion has destroyed the dyke, and the Van Loo family struggles to stay afloat among the flotsam. The panel in the lower left corner shows poor Elsa and her little dog (modeled after the Collins family’s former spaniel, Inky) struggling.

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While Kevin has saved Elsa, he also seems to have broken her heart.

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As Grommet prematurely celebrates, Kevin boldly confronts him.

Here are the three episodes in color, as third-pages.

And here are a couple of Collins’ other renderings of Inky, from the 1930s.

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