Little does Kevin know that his unexplained black eye will lead to worse circumstances.
As far as this particular story arc goes, one definite bonus is the fact that I have Chicago Tribune examples of each episode. While the paper was long past its heyday of incredible color separations and reproduction—some “Kevin the Bold” episodes from the early 1950s are simply stunning—the paper still created its own printing plates, which led to higher-quality final results.
Comparing an episode from the Trib with one from the Florida Times-Union could be seen as comparing apples to oranges, with the latter’s output often being rather magenta-saturated, a close comparison between the two shows that the Tribune did indeed use different printing plates than those offered by NEA Services to its regular subscribing newspapers. In some panels it is hard to determine if the difference was simply due to the flood of magenta ink and indifferent press operators, but in the Trib‘s splash panel, the lower portion of Kevin’s cloak clearly shows shades of both orange and red, while in the Times-Union version it’s all reddish orange.
It’s a shame that raven-haired Gertie has gotten mixed up with the Strangler, she’s generally my favorite part of any episode in which she appears!
To be continued…
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For more information on the career of Kreigh Collins, visit his page on Facebook.
Kreigh’s Comics 
This was the end-time of the Chicago Tribune’s high-quality color printing. It’s obvious that Kreigh Collins supplied a different color scheme for the Trib, since he knew their engravers could handle it. Otherwise, the strip went out in versions like the Jacksonville, FL paper’s–or worse, if that’s imaginable. These Tribune episodes really make me admire how painstaking they were. That would come to a fast end, and in a couple of years their Sunday comics were as poorly printed as the rest of the country’s.
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It seems to me that yellow ink hadn’t enough intensity in the Florida Times-Union issue.
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Gregorio, I agree. The The yellow used by the Tribune is very vivid, almost fluorescent.
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