During his 25-year career as a cartoonist for NEA, Kreigh Collins was known to recycle certain ideas and elements of his work. As his early-1972 retirement approached, Collins went back to his most successful device, the flashback. 

Most notably, a 1949 flashback in a MITZI McCOY episode led to the creation of KEVIN THE BOLD. Here, a 1971 UP ANCHOR! episode flashes back to KEVIN THE BOLD. It seems Collins wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to his most famous character.

For this, Collins’ 103th story arc (of 105 total), I only have one color original of its ten episodes. Eight others are represented by photographs of the original artwork, which is held in one of the Grand Rapids Public Library’s Special Collections. The sequence’s first episode comes is a BW image from Newspspers.com, and unfortunately, it is not accompanied by UP ANCHOR!’s topper strip, WATER LORE.

In UP ANCHOR, the protagonist is Kevin Marlin, and Marlin’s buddy is named Pedro. The action flashes back via a book compiled by Pedro’s ancestor (also named Pedro). OG Pedro was best friends with another (bolder) Kevin. (That’s the conceit of the flashback, anyway).

The second panel of the opening episode shows Pedro at a Parisian book stall, with the Cathedral of Notre Dame looming in the background. As a 21-year-old, Kreigh Collins first visited Paris, and among other subjects, he sketched book stalls, and has used these elements in other instances of his career.

To be continued…

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