mitzi mccoy

“Help!”

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Once I started collecting my grandfather’s comics, I came up with two goals: publish a book and collect them all. In 2018, “The Complete Mitzi McCoy” was published, so—halfway there!

Kreighs’ comics appeared in newspapers every Sunday from November 7, 1948 until February 27, 1972, about two and a half decades. Adding it all up—the 23 complete years, the two partial years, and the four times leap years resulted in a year having 53 Sundays (1950, 1956, 1961, 1967)—amounts to 1,217 individual episodes. WIth so many of them, it’s easy to see why I chose to publish a book first.

Admittedly, I had a great head start with so many of the episodes having been given to me by my uncle. But while my grandfather saved a lot of stuff, I do not have examples of all of the individual episodes. With all 99 MITZI McCOY episodes and less than half of the UP ANCHOR! comics, what I had focused on primarily was the missing KEVIN THE BOLD episodes, but I’ve recently been making progress on my collection of UP ANCHOR! episodes too.

At some point, I was clued into the existence of comic sections found online at newspapers.com, so there aren’t any episodes I haven’t seen—but these online versions are of varying quality and are in black and white.

As for the different formats available, my preference for obtaining digital images goes as follows: color half pages, color half tabloids, color tabloids, original artwork, black and white velox proofs, black and white tabloids, color thirds, black and white thirds, etc. Obviously, I prefer to have original hard copies of the episodes, but scans are just as good as far as I’m concerned. Perhaps someone could help me fill some holes in my collection with their scans—I’d be happy to trade.

The first hole in my collection, appears about a decade into KEVIN’s run: April 24, 1960. 

A few months later, the October 2, 1960 episode draws a blank.Through 1958, I have full-sized (half-page or tabloid) versions of just about every comic, but by 1960, many of my comics are one-third page versions (sigh).

A previously published version of this post resulted in a reader sending me a bunch of scans to trade (Thanks, Arnaud!), but I’m still looking for a color version of the September 17, 1961 episode—and the one for June 23, 1963.

Here are the dates of the comics  listed above: 
April 24, 1960
October 2, 1960
September 17, 1961
June 23, 1963

Not bad for the first 18 years of my grandfather’s cartooning career—only 18 missing episodes left!

For the last three years of “Kevin the Bold,” I used to need quite a few, but a connection with a collector in New Jersey (Thank you, Dave!) has helped fill in a lot of the blanks. However, these still elude me:
January 2 , 1966
June 26, 1966
July 17, 1966
July 24, 1966
January 8, 1967
March 5, 1967
March 26, 1967
April 9, 1967
March 10, 1968
March 17, 1968
April 7, 1968
April 21, 1968
May 5, 1968
September 15, 1968

Dave has also helped me complete my collection of UP ANCHOR! strips, but there are quite a few still missing…
January 26, 1969
June 8, 1969
June 15, 1969
June 20, 1969
November 9, 1969
December 7, 1969
December 28, 1969
August 30, 1970
September 27, 1970
October 25, 1970

…especially from 1971 and 1972:
January 3–March 21, 1971 (12 episodes)
April 4–May 30, 1971 (9 episodes)
June 13–September 12, 1971 (14 episodes)
September 26, 1971
October 31–November 7, 1971 (2 episodes)
December 5–December 19, 1971 (3 episodes)
January 2–February 27, 1972 (all 9 episodes)

It looks like I’m missing about 32 episodes of KEVIN THE BOLD and 36 from UP ANCHOR! Do you have any of these in your collection? I’m more than willing to trade scans (or hard copies). If you’re willing to help, please leave a message here on my blog or contact me directly at brianedwardcollins1(at)gmail.com

Thank you! See you in the funny papers!

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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.

Recyclable Material

I started my professional career as a graphic designer in 1987. Like a lot of young people in the publishing industry, I was a big fan of Spy magazine. Spy was a satirical monthly that ran from 1986 to the mid-90s and was based in New York City, like me. There were plenty of interesting components to the magazine, among them “Separated at Birth.” It wasn’t a high-brow feature, and no doubt it’s been parodied to death.

Kreigh Collins often had characters that were inspired by ones from his previous comics. Occasionally ideas were recycled too, but these are examples of the former.

Separated 1-3

These examples might not be as elegant as those found in Spy, but they are still pretty interesting. Sometimes it wasn’t so much a recurring character as it was an object.

Separated 4-6

“Up Anchor!,” Kreigh’s final comic feature, was set aboard a representation of his own boat, the 45-foot long Heather. The Bowdoin didn’t feature in any of Kreigh’s comics, but the historic 88-foot long schooner was the design upon which the half-size Heather was based.

Uniquely designed for Arctic exploration, the Bowdoin was launched in 1921. Under the direction of skipper Donald B. MacMillan, it made dozens of trips above the Arctic Circle. Earlier, MacMillan had accompanied Robert Peary on his historic expedition to the North Pole in 1909.

Kreigh’s wife Theresa described how Heather came to be in the article she wrote, and which Kreigh illustrated, “The Wake of the Heather.”

When [Arctic] explorations were in the forefront of the news, a Chicago doctor wrote to the ship’s designer and asked him to design a half-sized schooner, built as she was and able to go anywhere and do anything. The doctor died two years after his boat was launched in 1927, and the superbly built schooner passed on to a succession of owners until we bought her twelve years ago [1955]. This is our Heather, little sister of the Bowdoin.

Kreigh and Teddy met MacMillan after they sailed into Mystic Seaport in the summer of 1966. They had known of Heather’s parentage, and had sought out the Bowdoin. The 92-year-old MacMillan, a rear admiral in the Naval Reserve, invited the couple to dine with him and his wife aboard their boat.

Kreigh and his family sailed Heather for nearly 15 years, and she lived up to her go-anywhere, do-anything billing. Among the places they took her were most of the Great Lakes (Heather never plied the waters of Gitche Gumee, aka Lake Superior); the Erie Canal, the Hudson River, New York harbor, Long Island Sound, the Cape Cod Canal, Maine, the Bay of Fundy; and the Intracoastal Waterway, Florida, the Gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi River. Although they never made it to the Bahamas, as a late-1950s newspaper article mentioned, they certainly covered a lot of water.

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

Hand-to-Hand combat

While Kevin is bold, Freya is certainly brave.

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The illustration of underwater swimming in the final panel is evocative of a decade-old Mitzi McCoy comic and plot device, that of finding a hidden cave with an air pocket.

MM 080749 TH 150 QCC

August 7, 1949

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As in the mid-1949 Mitzi McCoy sequence, a cave is found with an air pocket. It allows Kevin to escape the frigid water, albeit briefly. Meanwhile, as Thord’s men squabble, Kevin seizes his opportunity.

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Besides being a rather gruesome conclusion to a compelling storyline, the August 31, 1958 episode is notable for a couple of other reasons, among them a continuity problem. When Thord and Kevin resurface in the second panel, some stones are visible in the foreground, to Thord’s right. In the next panel, Thord gives Kevin a stiff-arm as he lunges for the stones to his left. The throwaway panel then shows a closeup of a stone in Thord’s left hand, but the following panel shows the stone in Thord’s right hand, as he’s about to strike at Kevin.

Also of note is the introduction of the character Pedro in the final transitional panels. A large and recurring character, Pedro was by Kevin’s side for many of his adventures over the final decade of Kevin the Bold’s run. No doubt he was a favorite of Collins, as a very similar Pedro character played a prominent role in Kreigh Collins’ third and final NEA feature, Up Anchor!

Did Someone Say “MItzi”?

“The Lost Art of Kreigh Collins, the Complete Mitzi McCoy” features the entire run of Kreigh Collins’ first NEA feature.

Mitzi McCoy Cover 150

MITZI McCOY ran from 1948 to 1950 and showcased Kreigh Collins’ skill as an illustrator and storyteller. His picturesque landscapes, lovely character designs, and thrilling action sequences brimmed with detail and charm, and the strip’s ensemble cast rotated in and out of the spotlight taking turns as protagonists in the dozen story arcs collected in this volume. The last story collected in “The Complete Mitzi McCoy” is the narrative bridge that set Collins and his characters off on a new journey, beautifully told for the next couple of decades in the much-lauded adventure strip Kevin the Bold.

The collection includes an introduction by Eisner Award-winning author Frank M. Young, an Afterward by Ithaca College’s Ed Catto, and previously unpublished artwork and photos. Longtime comics artist Butch Guice also provides a new pin-up of the character Mitzi McCoy.

The book is available for $30. For domestic shipping, add $4; for international orders, please add $25 to cover first class shipping. To place an order, leave a comment below or email me at BrianEdwardCollins1[at]gmail.com, and I will give you PayPal or Venmo information. Thank you!

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

No Mere Shepherd

Captain Zinbad has decided to kidnap not only Moya and her family, but also Rory, their imposing Irish wolfhound.

In 1969, my family moved from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Fredonia, New York, when my father took a teaching job at SUNY-Fredonia. Along the trails in the woods behind our house, I remember digging tiger traps with my brother—knowledge passed down from my grandfather to my father to us. (We caught neither tigers nor wolfhounds).

Traitorous Bull Blackie has bad intentions with Moya, but the “witch girl” isn’t going down without a fight!

With Moya and Rory now also held captive, Kevin quickly devises a plan to set them all free.

Before diving overboard, Kevin uses his cutlass to scar Bull Blackie’s face. His Zorro-like swordplay and dialog was recycled from a story Collins had written and illustrated approximately fifteen years earlier. (I think his short story was titled “T Stands for Traitor”—alas, I cannot find the original. But trust me, it’s somewhere in the Grand Rapids Public Library’s Special Collection #56, a must-see for fans).

The introductory chapter ends with Kevin being knighted by the Moya’s father, Lord McCoy. While these roughly-assembled black and white third-page versions are interesting to see, the color half-page versions are quite an improvement—and they are included as the final chapter of The Lost Art of Kreigh Collins: The Complete Mitzi McCoy.

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The Complete Mitzi McCoy

“The Lost Art of Kreigh Collins, the Complete Mitzi McCoy” features the entire run of Kreigh Collins’ first NEA feature, as well as the transitional story arc in which the strip morphs into KEVIN THE BOLD.

Mitzi McCoy Cover 150

MITZI McCOY ran from 1948 to 1950 and showcased Kreigh Collins’ skill as an illustrator and storyteller. His picturesque landscapes, lovely character designs, and thrilling action sequences brimmed with detail and charm, and the strip’s ensemble cast rotated in and out of the spotlight taking turns as protagonists in the dozen story arcs collected in this volume. The last story collected in “The Complete Mitzi McCoy” is the narrative bridge that set Collins and his characters off on a new journey, beautifully told for the next couple of decades in the much-lauded adventure strip Kevin the Bold.

The collection includes an introduction by Eisner Award-winning author Frank M. Young, an Afterward by Ithaca College’s Ed Catto, and previously unpublished artwork and photos. Longtime comics artist Butch Guice also provides a new pin-up of the character Mitzi McCoy.

The book is available for $30. For domestic shipping, add $4; for international orders, please add $25 to cover first class shipping. To place an order, leave a comment below or email me at BrianEdwardCollins1[at]gmail.com, and I will give you PayPal or Venmo information. Thank you!

_______________________________________________________________________________

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

A New Direction

In the summer of 1950, MITZI McCOY started running in the Grand Rapids Press, which was not just Collins’ hometown newspaper, but a client. He had been doing illustrations for them since the beginning of his career, which began about 20 years earlier. (Collins also did work for another local daily, the Grand Rapids Herald).

The first print example is dated July 8, 1950, and it’s the leadoff episode in MITZI’s penultimate chapter, about an exotic woman named Yolo. (That story arc appeared on this blog previously).

The chapter that followed Yolo will be featured over the next two weeks. “The McCoy Legend,” served as the transition point between MITZI and KEVIN THE BOLD. The big change in direction started innocuously enough, with Stub Goodman’s friend, Dick Dixon paying him a visit on a rainy day.

Stub loves to tell stories, and the one he relates to young Mr. Dixon is legendary—so much so that it uses a modified MITZI McCOY logo. For newspapers that had been running MITZI, this logo helped the reader navigate the change in the comic strip’s direction, whereas newspapers that were picking up Collins’ strip with KEVIN’s debut (like the Chicago Sunday Tribune) used an episode with the new KEVIN THE BOLD logo.

At any rate, readers of the Grand Rapids Press were the first to meet Kevin, as these episodes printed in the Saturday edition, scooping other Sunday readers. In it, Moorish pirates were raiding the Irish coast, looking for slaves.

Moya McCoy, Mitzi’s ancestress, has a sudden meeting with Kevin, and this overqualified shepherd soon comes to her aid. After two episodes, the “McCoy Legend” logo was replaced, and the metamorphosis was complete.

This opening chapter was an action-packed classic, and introduced a character who became a fan favorite—Rory the Irish wolfhound.

Having leaped from the cliff into the sea, Kevin makes his way to the pirates’ ship, which he hopes to capture single-handedly.

Kevin fails, but the story isn’t over yet…

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

Sunday, June 5, 1949

Having recently celebrated a milestone birthday, today I present a 75-year-old comic section from New York Sunday Mirror (no, I’m not that old!). 

As usual, Ham Fisher’s JOE PALOOKA ran on the front page, followed by Milton Caniff’s STEVE CANYON and MICKEY FINN by Lank Leonard. Next up are KERRY DRAKE (Alfred Andriola/Allen Saunders), SUPERMAN (Wayne Boring), an ad for Ludwig Bauman electric drill (boring in more ways than one), and Frank Miller’s BARNEY BAXTER IN THE AIR.

Then it’s the good stuff. No offense to THE FLOP FAMILY by Swan and Marty Links’ BOBBY SOX—I am, of course, referring to Kreigh Collins’ MITZI McCOY.

The June 5, 1949 episode of MITZI McCOY features the reunion between a runaway boy and his parents, and is notable for the absence of Mitzi herself. In lieu of the page from the Sunday Mirror comics section (which MITZI shared with a forgettable ad for Super Suds detrergent) is a version of the episode that I cleaned up for my MITZI McCOY book.

The second half of the comic section starts with a page with Roy Crane’s CAPTAIN EASY, drawn here by Walt Scott, and V.T. Hamlin’s ALLEY OOP, plus HENRY by Carl Anderson. Then it’s REX MORGAN, MD by Bradley and Edgington, BOOTS by Martin, and Merrill Blossar’s FRECKLES AND HIS FRIENDS (plus the topper strip HECTOR). Harry Hanan’s silent comic LOUIE, an ad for Camel cigarettes (I don’t think cancer sticks are advertised in the funnies anymore!), OUT OUR WAY by J.R. Williams, and OUR BOARDING HOUSE follow.

Taking its usual spot on the back cover is LIL’ ABNER by Al Capp.

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Want to See More of Mitzi?

“The Lost Art of Kreigh Collins, the Complete Mitzi McCoy” features the entire run of Kreigh Collins’ first NEA feature.

Mitzi McCoy Cover 150

MITZI McCOY ran from 1948 to 1950 and showcased Kreigh Collins’ skill as an illustrator and storyteller. His picturesque landscapes, lovely character designs, and thrilling action sequences brimmed with detail and charm, and the strip’s ensemble cast rotated in and out of the spotlight taking turns as protagonists in the dozen story arcs collected in this volume. The last story collected in “The Complete Mitzi McCoy” is the narrative bridge that set Collins and his characters off on a new journey, beautifully told for the next couple of decades in the much-lauded adventure strip Kevin the Bold.

The collection includes an introduction by Eisner Award-winning author Frank M. Young, an Afterward by Ithaca College’s Ed Catto, and previously unpublished artwork and photos. Longtime comics artist Butch Guice also provides a new pin-up of the character Mitzi McCoy.

The book is available for $30. For domestic shipping, add $4; for international orders, please add $25 to cover first class shipping. To place an order, leave a comment below or email me at BrianEdwardCollins1[at]gmail.com, and I will give you PayPal or Venmo information. Thank you!

_______________________________________________________________________________

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

Sunday Driver

Stub and Tim awaken from their stupor to in front of a very interested government agent. Meanwhilke, Mitzi and Sgt. Douma are in hot pursuit of Zoe and her gang.

The June 18, 1950 episode inspired the cover of an Australian comic book—Tip-Top Special No. 3. In addition to this story arc about the Counterfeiters, Special No. 3 also includes MITZI McCOY’s two previous chapters, “Tiny to the Rescue” and “The Living Pinups.”

In an extremely dramatic episode, the surprise to me was finding out how much Mitzi prized her car! The spirited lass was certainly one of the Sunday funnies’ stereotype breakers.

In choosing the cover artwork for the MITZI McCOY collection I assembled, a solid option would be the splash panel from the August 28, 1949 episode.

However, the chapter with the counterfeiter gang was always my preference. The previous episode’s splash panel was exciting, but Mitzi wasn’t in it. I went with the chapter’s final episode. The episode itself is wonderful, and is a star performance from the comic strip’s titular character.

What MITZI McCOY artwork do you think would have best suit the cover of the book? Please let me know by commenting below or sending an email to brianedwardcollins1[at]gmail.com.

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So… about that book.

“The Lost Art of Kreigh Collins, the Complete Mitzi McCoy” features the entire run of Kreigh Collins’ first NEA feature.

Mitzi McCoy Cover 150

MITZI McCOY ran from 1948 to 1950 and showcased Kreigh Collins’ skill as an illustrator and storyteller. His picturesque landscapes, lovely character designs, and thrilling action sequences brimmed with detail and charm, and the strip’s ensemble cast rotated in and out of the spotlight taking turns as protagonists in the dozen story arcs collected in this volume. The last story collected in “The Complete Mitzi McCoy” is the narrative bridge that set Collins and his characters off on a new journey, beautifully told for the next couple of decades in the much-lauded adventure strip Kevin the Bold.

The collection includes an introduction by Eisner Award-winning author Frank M. Young, an Afterward by Ithaca College’s Ed Catto, and previously unpublished artwork and photos. Longtime comics artist Butch Guice also provides a new pin-up of the character Mitzi McCoy.

The book is available for $30. For domestic shipping, add $4; for international orders, please add $25 to cover first class shipping. To place an order, leave a comment below or email me at BrianEdwardCollins1[at]gmail.com, and I will give you PayPal or Venmo information. Thank you!

_______________________________________________________________

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

Goofballs

As more is revealed about the counterfeiter gang—Zoe, Gar, and Greenbax—the darker the chapter becomes.

Despite his strong reaction to being blindsided by the thuggish Gar—including a two-fer knockout punch—Tim Graham gets blindsided a second time by the blackjack-wielding Zoe.

Clearly the brains behind their operation, Zoe is also the gang’s secret weapon, with her arresting appearance. The cold-hearted Jezebel does show a bit of a conscience in a beautiful throwaway panel, but she immediately reverts to form, dosing Tim and Stub with barbiturates.

Sgt. Douma was a recurring character. His previous appearance was about a year earlier—shown in this half-tabloid from the New York Sunday Mirror. (I love those old advertisements!)

Knowing her car’s capabilities, Mitzi convinces the skeptical Sgt. Douma to take the wheel of Stub’s hotrod.

To be continued…

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