Kevin and Marie have both experienced the sensation of love at first sight, but it’s complicated—Kevin thinks she has forsaken him.
Dealing with mixed emotions, Kevin makes his escape. (The panels from the Yugoslavian comic book are shown below).
Even as she watches her newfound infatuation bolt, Marie continues to help him.
Meanwhile, back in England, King Harold is unaware of the real danger he faces.
The December 11, 1966 episode is a wonderful example of Kreigh Collins’ skills as a cartoonist—the beautiful illustrations are filled with kinetic action and topped off with a historical tidbit found during his research of the subject matter.
The panel with the historical embroidery is also included in the Yugoslavian comic book.
Because the Yugolsavian comic book “BIBLIOTEKA LALE — BROJ 174” began with the third episode of the Norman Conquest chapter, some action at the beginning of the chapter is missing. And since the Norman Conquest story predates the action in KEVIN THE BOLD by a good five centuries, let’s back up a bit and take a look at the two omitted episodes to get a better handle on the events at the onset of the story arc.
The first several episodes (including the first two, below) used the standard KEVIN THE BOLD logo, but by the fourth episode, the title “Story of the Norman Conquest” was added just above the logo. The entire episode ran over 14 weeks, of which I have color 11 half-pages. Unfortunately, the opener is not one of them.
Poor Kevin Cardiff! The lad is out for a sail, dreaming of Saucy foreign gals, when a storm hits, his boat is ruined, and he is set upon by a couple of murderous thugs.
But the beautiful French of his dreams exists, and she quickly takes a shine to Kevin.
The action in the Yugoslavian comic book picks up after this episode (from October 30, 1966)
Lovely Marie certainly resembles Kevin the Bold’s first love, Moya McCoy, and the belle fille even steals a play from Moya’s playbook—with similarly disastrous results.
Sacrebleu! Marie is also taking fashion tips from Moya! I guess that green dress is timeless.
I recently wrote about a wonderful Christmas present I received from my friend Roger in Sweden—another awesome gift I received over the holiday season was sent by a friend in Serbia. Marko sent me scans of a KEVIN THE BOLD comic book published in the former Yugoslavia, likely from the early 1970s.
According to Marko, Biblioteka Lale was a magazine published by in the town of Gornji Milanovac, near Belgrade (now part of Serbia). It was released by Dečje novine, the largest comic book publisher in Yugoslavia. Besides this one, issue numbers 160, 180, and 206 also included Croatian translations of KEVIN THE BOLD.
Appearing on the first 46 pages of the comic book, Issue 174 features the entire “Story of the Norman Conquest” chapter, which originally ran from November, 1966 until January, 1967. Some other interesting comics in the rear portion of the comic book.
The first time I saw these Sunday comics I was confused—Kevin had blond hair! Because my collection was incomplete, I missed the fact that the chapter was a flashback, and the blond Kevin was an ancestor of Kreigh Collins’ protagonist.
The timeframe of the Norman Conquest preceded the action in KEVIN THE BOLD by about five centuries.
For a late-period episode, the illustration work is inspired, and the meeting of Marie and Kevin (Cardiff) is reminiscent of the one between Moya McCoy and Kevin (the Bold) from the comic strip’s debut chapter.
At this late stage in KEVIN THE BOLD’s existence, remember that the entire third tier of panels was absent from the more common third-page version—such a shame!
Kreigh’s Comics 