Month: December 2021

Boxing Day

Today is Boxing Day, a day on which servants, tradespeople, and the needy are traditionally presented with gifts. It originated in the United Kingdom, and is primarily celebrated in countries formerly part of the British Empire.

It precedes Kevin the Bold, who might have celebrated it differently.

Panel taken from KEVIN THE BOLD’s third episode (October 15, 1950)

I learned of Boxing Day more as a day to share holiday leftovers and good cheer, and this post will follow that line of thinking. In my more freewheeling younger days, my brother (Brett) and I would often host Boxing Day parties where we’d encourage attendees to dress in boxer shorts and play a few rounds of Rock-em Sock-em Robots.

Brett and I are comics fans from way back but didn’t start throwing Boxing Day Parties until the late ’80s.

Brett was Kreigh Collins’s first grandchild and my brother’s namesake character was a major player in KEVIN THE BOLD from January 1952 until April 1965.

A character named Brian only appeared in a single 1961 sequence and although the characters Brett and Brian both preceded my brother’s and my existence, I can’t help but feel a bit jealous about the discrepancy in those characters’ roles—though I’d be smart to avoid mentioning this to my Uncle Glen (Uncle Kevin’s brother).

At least Brian, the Duke of Duval, was a bad guy and basically shared a name with a tasty Belgian beer.

Speaking of Belgian beer, the painting above, from the Grand Rapids Public Museum’s collection, with its unusual composition, is unlike any other I have seen by Kreigh Collins. Its date (5/14/31) indicates it was produced while Kreigh and his wife Theresa were summering in Europe, shortly after they were married.

Although there were no major characters named Brian in my grandfather’s comic strips, I was bestowed a cool nickname in the Christmas letter he and my grandmother sent out in 1964. (I was born three days before his third grandchild, my cousin Josh).

KTC xmas 64 150

With that, I wish you all a Merry Christmas, a gay holiday season, and that you look forward to 1965 2022 with as much anticipation as I look forward to all of the adventures the year promises to bring.

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

Brett in in the Lions’ Den

At each others’ throats just moments before, Kevin and Karl are now completely aligned.

The short chapter’s quick pace continues, and with Brett’s lion cub/baby switcheroo, the story begins to transition to Kevin’s next adventure.

Before Kevin’s lady friend gets a chance to share it, her story comes alive!

This story line would continue in the pages of the Monomonee Falls Gazette. KEVIN THE BOLD debuted in issue No. 109 (January 14, 1974), which featured Kreigh Collins’ artwork on the cover. For the next six months, KEVIN ran on the gazette’s back cover, and continued inside until the demise of the publication four years later.

In case you can’t get your hands on MFG issues 109–232, the next dozen or so KEVIN THE BOLD chapters are collected in the book Kevin the Bold: Sunday Adventures. The 154-page collection, about 97% of which was compiled from BW syndicate proofs, is available on Amazon.com.

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

The Mountebank’s Lions

This short chapter appeared at the tail end of 1954. Its five episodes were all taken from the Chicago Sunday Tribune, and although they are a bit past that newspaper’s prime years (as far as reproduction and printing of Sunday comics is concerned), they are beautiful examples nonetheless. This early chapter—KEVIN THE BOLD’s 17th—immediately precedes the episodes that ran in the Menomonee Falls Gazette.

As noted in the opening caption, the action is set in 1491. The year is somewhat arbitrary—my feeling is that it just serves to peg the action as occurring just before Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the New World. It was a busy year for Kevin—the strip’s three previous chapters also took place in 1491. These were the first times a specific date was referenced for KEVIN THE BOLD’s action.

This sequence also kept Kevin busy—quite a bit of action was packed into its five episodes, which lacked the longer exposition normally found at the beginning of a chapter.

Having just arrived, Kevin makes immediate impressions on both the town’s law and order man and his pretty female friend. The jealous Swiss guardsman insults Kevin and moments later they square off to fight. Oh, and there are lions!

As quickly as it started, the fight ends, and the two combatants join forces in a common goal, finding the lioness’s cub. It’s all happened so quickly that I barely had time to look up the definition of mountebank—if he’s a charlatan, the townsfolk don’t seem to mind. Now back to the action!

In an odd form of payback, the lioness kidnaps a baby. Brett emerges as the voice of reason, the lion cub returns and… has Brett lost his mind?

To be continued…

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

Allas Veckotidning—1958

Allas Veckotidning (“Everyone’s Weekly”) is a Swedish weekly first published in 1931. Its general-interest content is typical for a weekly, and it also included several comic strips. Generally running in two colors, a Swedish translation of KEVIN THE BOLD (Falcon Stormfägeln), debuted circa August 1951 and ran for at least 15 years.

Actress Elsa Martinelli graced the cover of 1958’s issue No. 17. Defaced slightly by a bit of doodling from a blue ballpoint pen, at least the culprit didn’t give the young actress a mustache or a missing tooth. But as they say, it’s what’s inside that is important.

Inside was the explosive episode originally appearing on May 26, 1957. In 1958 issues of Allas Veckotidning, Falcon Stormfägeln often ran opposite CAROL DAY, by David Wright, a relatively new British soap opera comic strip. However, it wasn’t given as much space as Kreigh Collins’ strip, and although its title was printed in a second color, the artwork only appeared in black and white.

The original KEVIN episode is even more dramatic in full color, although its explosive subject is a bit incongruous for a late-1950s general interest women’s magazine.

Issue No. 23 featured a lovely lass enjoying an all-day sucker, and its cover beckoned its audience to read about Esther’s escapades.

Since the only word in Swedish that I remember is farfar (paternal grandfather), I’ll stick with what I know and skip right to page 39.

A better fit for the magazine, the episode shows a nervous Pierre Van Arden proposing marriage. The original episode, from July 7, 1957, is shown below. This episode is from a chapter whose villain is Count Noir.

Issue No. 27, with an attractive model enjoying some time at the beach, also featured some nice art direction—though if there was ever an occasion for a polkadot bikini, this was it.

Again appearing on page 39 was another episode in the sequence with Count Noir.

As it appeared in the Detroit News, here is the August 4, 1957 episode.

Issue No. 30 featured another beautiful cover model, and an even more attractive cover. I might be a sucker for polka dots, but I think this is stunning. But it’s something else that leads this to be my favorite issue of Allas Veckotidning.

For the only time in my limited collection of Allas Veckotidning magazines, Falcon Stormfägeln ran on the back cover, and in full color. The action from the Count Noir chapter continues.

The episode looks splendid. I don’t mean to badmouth these half-page examples from the Detroit News—after all, by this time, the Chicago Tribune was only running third-page versions—but the reproduction of Falcon Stormfägeln from Allas Veckotidning far surpasses the original episode (I guess using a paper stock better than newsprint is a bit of an unfair advantage).

(A sincere thank you to my friend Roger for sending me these copies of Allas Veckotidning).

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