Month: September 2024

The Chase Is On

Kevin and Erik continue journeying west.

They have seen a lot. After canoeing the length of Lake Ontario and witnessing the majesty of Niagara Falls, they continue on, through Lakes Erie, St. Clair, Huron, and Superior, finally reaching what would become Duluth, Minnesota. But not only are they seeing wondrous new things, so is the young lady who spies upon them.

Even more surprising, Captain Spur and his men have kept pace on the 1,500-mile cross-continental trek!

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

On a Mission from the Queen

This next chapter of Kreigh Collins’ comics comes from the mid-1966 run of KEVIN THE BOLD. Kevin is aboard a ship making a voyage to the New World. These early crossings were extremely challenging.

A detail that piques my personal interest is the name of Kevin’s companion, Erik. My father’s name was Erik, and while he and my grandfather didn’t always get along so well, it’s wonderful to see a virtuous character named for him.

From the Maritime Provences all the way to Montreal, Kevin and Erik have really covered some ground.

To be continued…

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

One Man’s Trash…

Throway panels 1950s 72 Gals

“Throwaway Panels” — such an unfortunate term for these wonderful little illustrations. Deleted in order to squeeze and rearrange a half-page comic into a tabloid format, they were usually incidental to the action. In “Kevin,” they often showed damsels — in distress, or otherwise.

Other options included villains, exclamations, or random bits of scenery. Kevin himself also made frequent appearances in this panel.

Throway panels 1950s 72 Thugs  Throway panels 1950s 72 exclamations

Throway panels 1950s 72 nice illo

After seeing enough of these, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Lotería, a Mexican game of chance similar to Bingo. With the strip having a presence in Mexico (“Kevin el Denodado”), I think the NEA missed a marketing opportunity!

loteria sets

(From the Mexican monthly magazine “Revista Ferronales” magazine)

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

Harsh Mistress

With a sudden storm having wrecked their sailboat, Kevin and Bunny desperately cling to its swamped hull.

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With word of her husband’s rescue coming via radio and newspaper, Jane betrays a bit of jealousy toward her husband’s co-star. However, her fears are assauged with the arrival of a telegram, which reveals Bunny’s true colors.

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On reflection, it’s interesting to note the “modern” touches of these late-period comics of Collins (e.g., the pasted up photostat of the Western Union Telegram); I guess everything is relative, even the groovy dialog.

The sequence immediately following this one ran previously, and can be viewed here.

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

Line Squall

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As he’s escorted around Hollywood by his co-star and director, Kevin learns how the movie game is played. As the action in the comic intensifies, the mood of the topper strip “Water Lore” darkens.

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Jane trusts her husband Kevin enough to ignore the rumors propagated by the Hollywood hype machine — or is she just putting on a brave face? Meanwhile, Kevin and Bunny are lost at sea without ship-to-shore communication. Rescue efforts get under way, and Pedro manages to press the spineless movie star Cecil Dunn into service.

Of note: movie director Rex Fox bears a certain resemblance to one of Collins’ old “Mitzi McCoy” characters, publisher Stub Goodman. Stub was based on the character Frank from the 1947 novel by Thomas W. Duncan, “Gus the Great.” Like Stub, Frank was a newspaperman, and a very richly developed character. Midway through the book, he retires to California (and to my disappointment, isn’t heard from again). It’s nice to see one possible outcome was Frank’s reinvention as a Hollywood director.

Stub on the phone

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