kevin the bold

A Trumped-up Story

Heralded by a beautifully-rendered splash panel, Kevin gets a temporary reprieve, but Sir Thornberry still schemes against him.

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Instead of listening to Thornberry and having Kevin killed, King Henry would rather have some entertainment.

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Kevin quickly takes the measure of his opponent, and impresses the audience with his showmanship.

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After baiting Conyngham and scoring a decisive win, Kevin takes aim at Thornberry. In an interesting choice of words, Sir Guy accuses Kevin of telling a Trumped-up story. A Trumped-up story is, of course, something that is is faked or fabricated. As any KEVIN THE BOLD reader knows, Kevin lives by a moral code that would not allow such behavior. Reacting to the slanderous comment, Sir Guy backs down, lest he also face Kevin’s sword.

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

Mistaken Identity

Just in time, Marion arrives.

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In a case of mistaken identity, Kevin suddenly realizes the danger he is in. As with my torn copy of the March 6 episode, it’s always good to have backup.

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While Stephen finds safe harbor, Kevin lands in the Tower. In the notorious prison, Kevin faces questioning from an equally imposing brute, illustrated marvelously by Collins. It seems that only a fool would save Kevin now.

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

Jealousy

My collection of my grandfather’s comics began when I acquired two complete years of Florida Times-Union Sunday half pages (1955–56). Thanks to a leap year, there were 105 episodes in all. That bit of good news was offset slightly by the middling print quality of many of the episodes. Below, the opening splash panel shows quite nicely, but by the third panel, skin tones are represented by near-solid patches of magenta ink. Whenever possible, I will post comics from other sources.

In last week’s introductory episode, the stage was set—London, 1515. Among a large crowd, Kevin witnessed the arrival by boat of a delegation from Venice, bound for a meeting with King Henry VIII. However, other business had brought Kevin to the city.

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Kevin’s friend Stephen Moore is introduced; the handsome, friendly painter is obviously one of the  good guys. On the other hand, we meet the conniving Sir Guy Thornberry. The two have the same intention, marrying the beautiful Marion Drake.

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With King Henry having given his blessing to Thornberry, and Queen Catherine approving Marion’s own choice of a husband, quite a dilemma has been established. The Queen, Catherine of Aragon, was Henry’s first wife, but obviously not his last. This disagreement is a portent of real-life marital trouble down the road for the royals, and while Catherine’s demise is tragic, at least she did not suffer the fate of wives No. 2 and 5!

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As the plot thickens, we learn that Thornberry’s vanity and jealousy is matched only by his ruthlessness. As with several other episodes from this story arc, the visual is upgraded to a crisp NEA proof—which in this case has a hole cut into it—likely the casualty a craft project undertaken by one of Kreigh Collins’ younger children or grandchildren (moi?). I guess those Times-Union halves come in handy after all.

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

Historical Fiction

Generally set in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Kevin the Bold can be labelled as historical fiction, with its early story arcs and characters being Kreigh Collins’ brainchildren.

After a couple of years, famous historical figures started appearing—sometimes as ancillary characters, and at other times being more integral to the action. The first of these was Leonardo da Vinci, who made a couple of brief appearances in 1952. (Da Vinci would make another memorable cameo in 1967, in one of Kevin’s final adventures).

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The historical figure appearing most frequently was King Henry VIII; in the September 24, 1961 episode he appears along with a mention of a noted portraitist of the era, (Hans) Holbein the Elder .

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In 1964, a young William Shakespeare was a central character, and a few years later Captain John Smith figured prominently.

King Henry first appeared in 1956, and that entire sequence will run over the next few Sundays. The tone of this story arc is different than most of what had preceded it, and it is likely that Kreigh Collins was extensively using other’s scripts for the first time. In between the more historical storylines (with King Henry, Shakespeare, etc.), Collins’ own chapters become easier to spot. This change in direction was caused in part by burn out. According to an oral history done by Kreigh’s wife Theresa , “Kreigh was always trying to think up the next story. It was the equivalent of writing a full novel every ten weeks.” Giving up the writing likely meant a cut in pay but with the overall ascendance of “Kevin the Bold” and the income it generated, it was a good tradeoff for Collins.

As Henry’s first chapter got off the ground, any time Collins saved by not writing looks like it may have been spent on the illustration. The Florida Times-Union‘s reproduction is mediocre, but the artwork is quite nice, with many compelling scenes and characters.

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To be continued…

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

Baghdad on the Subway

The tale continues…

The action is very reminiscent of mid-period KEVIN THE BOLD, and is a welcome sight among comparatively more tepid UP ANCHOR! episodes.

The tale ends abruptly and the focus shifts back to “present-day” family life aboard a schooner.

The episode ends and would be a fitting finale for UP ANCHOR! But there were two more chapters to follow, told over the course of 22 weeks, before the strip ended, and Collins retired.

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

Flashing Back Further

In this 1971 episode, part of an UP ANCHOR! flashback to KEVIN THE BOLD, Kevin, Pedro, and Carmelita become trapped in a cave. To remedy the situation, Kreigh Collins flashes back even further, to the August 7, 1949 episode of MITZI McCOY.

It features an underwater cave in a very similar scene. The original took place in Lake Michigan, where sharks and barracuda weren’t a concern.

What results is a case of out of the frying pan and into the (line of) fire!

Kevin’s solution, muffling the oars, sounds fanciful but is a real thing. But will it be effective?

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

Some Days You Just Can’t Get Rid of a Bomb

The pirates’ mortar ball hits its target… but its fuse hasn’t yet detonated the bomb.

This episode has always reminded me of the Batman meme.

(Not the first time Collins’ artwork has reminded me of Batman).

Quick thinking by Balador, and the fortuitous location of a low stone wall, allow him to survive the explosion—and he takes several prisoners.

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

Carmelita

A tense moment is quickly diffused, and pretty Carmelita introduces herself. Her appearance is familiar, which seems appropriate for a story arc so close to UP ANCHOR!’s swan song. Carmelita has the svelte build of many of Collins’ female characters—characters whose poses were originally modeled by Kreigh’s wife, Theresa. At this point in his career, however, it’s doubtful the artist employed his 65-year-old wife as a model.

As this chapter set sail, there might have been some confusion as to what the sequence was called. The first two episodes carried the line “The Adventures of Pedro and Kevin” but the third one, from August 15, 1971, reversed the characters’ order—”The Adventures of Kevin and Pedro”. Most likely it was a mistake made by the NEA artist that handled the lettering.

Kevin’s resourcefulness with the old culverin goes to no avail, and the pirates return fire.

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

The Adventures of Pedro and Kevin

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.

The Mountebank’s Lions (continued)

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.