Most of my Kreigh Collins-related comics and clippings were given to me by my uncle Kevin, one of Kreigh’s four sons. One of the more interesting items I received appears above. It ran in the Grand Rapids Press in May, 1966. I have seen no other mention of this project. Perhaps it was an attempt to clear Collins’s path for doing a new comic. The final installment of “Kevin the Bold” ran a couple years later, on October 27, 1968, and the comic morphed into “Up Anchor.”
The first “Kevin the Bold” sequence features all the classic elements for which the strip would become known — dramatic action, monstrous villains, damsels in distress, heroism… and gorgeous artwork.
Moya McCoy is the first character introduced; Kevin doesn’t appear until the second episode, when the two abruptly meet (or as it says in the comic, “Whoosh!”).
“Whoosh!” is a slang term with which I had been unfamiliar — until I started reading Kreigh’s comics. It must be dialogue suggested by the artist. By coincidence, the word appears in not just the second episode of “Kevin the Bold,” but also in the second episode of “Up Anchor.” Note to conspiracy theorists: it does not appear in the second (or any!) episode of “Mitzi McCoy.”
Note: I stand corrected! See the fourth panel (or “frame,” as Collins called them) of the March 26, 1950 “Mitzi,” below.
Tit-Bits (originally named Tit-Bits from all the interesting Books, Periodicals, and Newspapers of the World) was a British weekly magazine with origins in the late 19th century. (It also makes for a blog post title that might come up in more internet searches than usual).
The publication’s emphasis was on dramatic human interest stories. An Argentinian version was created in 1909, and among other things, it featured American comics translated into Spanish.
In the 1950s, many of the comics it ran were King Features titles (“The Phantom,” “Judge Parker,” “Rex Morgan MD,” etc.) but it also ran “Terry and the Pirates” (the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, renamed “La Sombra”) and “Kevin the Bold” (Newspaper Enterprise Association/“Kevin el Denodado”), among others.
The Tit-Bits covers repurposed art from its variety of source material, and frequently used comics. “Kevin” was featured — generally in cases when it had dramatic double-decked illustrations. (Covers are shown with corresponding original Sunday comics).
Looking at the five originals above, I’m reminded of other comics where Collins used similar devices or poses. The first two have echoes of throwaway panels from some of the earliest KTBs.
At left, an earlier drowning victim (December 3, 1950). At far right, from the KTB debut strip, Moya McCoy displays similar form to the damsel in the red dress.
Based on the publication dates of the Argentine monthlies (and the dates the comics originally ran), I’d speculate that each issue would contain four to six episodes of any given comic. The comics ran in a tabloid format, but in a much smaller size, with other stories wrapping around them on the pages.
Though many are currently listed on eBay, I haven’t seen any physical copies of these publications — the shipping costs put them out of my price range. However, I did spring for a rather unique full-page illustration from Tit-Bits. It shows a trussed up Moya McCoy, as she is being kidnapped by Moors. The artwork is from KTB’s opening sequence, and I will begin running that chapter in four installments starting next Sunday.
Nothing to see here — just a little pre-Code bondage!
British ships approach as visibility fades. With Kevin in chains, young Glenn takes on a more prominent role.
A gauche, les illustrations des tours sont ridicule!
Shots have been fired; Maria has been injured. Chaos. Glenn’s loyalty comes to the forefront.
Ces bandes dessinées doivent avoir été stockés dans une très petite enveloppe pur eux ont été coupée de façon sauvagement!
Kevin and Glenn seem doomed as commander Pereiz de Vargas has lit the fuse to destroy the Seahawk and the navigational secrets hidden inside her hull.
With apologies to francophones, and assistance from Google translate.
Mendoza’s greed has foiled the Spaniards’ plan to destroy the Seahawk, and now Kevin can deliver the secrets of Spain’s naval superiority to Queen Elizabeth. It’s the untold story of how the Spanish armada was defeated and a planned invasion of England was thwarted. And Kevin the Bold was… well, actually in shackles for most of it. But he was there.
Chained in the bilge, Kevin is powerless. Young Glenn continues to be his eyes and ears as the suspense builds.
The Spaniards take action on a plan to safeguard their navagational secrets on the Seahawk, which they have commandeered from Captain Mendoza. Meanwhile, the “Kevin l’audacieux” comics continue to have been butchered. C’est dommage!
The orphan Glenn, his dog Inky and lovely Maria are bound for Spain. They sail aboard the Sea Hawk, with Kevin acting as their escort. Glenn fiercely defends his dog after witnessing some ill treatment by Captain Mendoza. In defending Glenn, Kevin nearly comes to blows with Mendoza. The captain’s reputation as a scoundrel has proven to be accurate. In the October 18 comic, tempers flare again.
The sails of an enormous fleet have been spotted on the horizon. As was his style, Collins has woven history into his narrative — “Kevin the Bold” often reads like an illustrated historical novel.
Finalement! Une bande dessinée intacte. Mais il est noir at blanc! Merde!!
Kreigh Collins had four sons. Like-named characters based on the older two were featured in “Up Anchor.” The younger boys were twins, and one was named Kevin. I’m not sure exactly which was named for whom, but the comic debuted five months before my uncle. Fourteen years later, a character named Glenn appeared — perhaps my other twin uncle thought this was just a bit overdue. Another common name between the comic strip and the artist’s family was Brett, Kevin’s ward and the name of Kreigh’s first grandchild. Again, the character preceded the person (this time by nine and a half years). Glenn’s dog Inky was modelled on not one of the family’s cocker spaniels, but on a neighbor’s dog (also named Inky) who spent a lot of time at the family house in Ada.
The action in the following sequence begins on October 4, 1964. Kevin has sailed to the West Indies, and three new characters are introduced. It is June, 1588.
This first comic came from a tabloid the NEA published featuring its stable of comics. These were dated six days before they appeared in the Sunday funnies.
When I first began collecting “Kevin,” I was frustrated by its lack of availability. Auctions on eBay weren’t showing up very often, and when they did, the prices tended to go beyond my budget. I had complete runs of a few different years, but my goal was to collect the entire 19-year run. I was starting to get impatient.
While searching for books illustrated by my Grandpa Collins on a used book site (in this case, abebooks.com), I came across a couple of listings of “Kevin l’audacieux” — French-language versions for newspapers in Québec. For cheap! I bit on one, thinking I could translate the dialog, and… well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I soon realized that translating them would take an enormous amount of time. Also, they were very poorly trimmed. Mon dieu! They worked out to 46¢ apiece, and I guess I got what I paid for. However, since I did make the initial investment, and especially since I took the time to scan them, let’s follow the action bi-lingually. (Qui sait, peut-être que je vais gagner quelques abonnés français!) The one-third pagers will at least add some color.
Plenty of action and adventure lay behind; a proposed ocean crossing promised further excitement ahead. Once home, the Marlins reunited with their old friend Pedro, who almost seems to have anticipated Heather’s upcoming journey. These comics ran November 14, 21 and 28, 1971. With only 13 more “Up Anchor” comics to come before Kreigh Collins retired, it seems doubtful that Heather ever made it to Europe.
Pedro is a character with a familiar face. As with other characters Kreigh illustrated, his doppelgänger was a friend of Kevin Marlin in his earlier incarnation as Kevin the Bold. Whereas Kevin has aged from one comic strip to the next, Pedro has not. Maybe Pedro’s secret is the Italian beautician’s powder.
(KTB from December 28, 1958)
Heather and crew managed to survive “a notorious Lake Erie black squall,” and despite the trauma, Jane Marlin has an idea for Heather’s next journey, which comes as quite a surprise. It seems her trip to the beauty parlor was quite rejuvenating.
Below are the comics that ran from October 24 until November 7, 1971. They are all silver prints, which Kreigh would receive from the NEA as a last chance for proofing before the comics were published. Some of the proofs he received were of better quality than others, but the nicer ones are almost as crisp as images of the original artwork. When “Up Anchor” appeared in print, it was almost always as a one-third page; the proofs have the bonus of including the topper strip “Water Lore.”
With the storm behind them, skipper Kevin Marlin remembers an incident when a “lunatic gunman” tried to hijack Heather the last time they plied Lake Huron’s waters. That sequence is unfamiliar to me, but while surfing online I did come across the episode (August 10, 1969) from that chapter of “Up Anchor.”
When Kreigh Collins scuttled “Kevin the Bold” and launched “Up Anchor,” he had a fresh start with a new theme. After nearly 20 years of Kevin’s 15th-century exploits, the action was now set in the 20th century. Most of it took place aboard Heather, with a fictionalized version of his family serving as crew.
Much of what was depicted in the new comic was inspired by events the Collinses experienced while cruising the Great Lakes and beyond. In 1966, Heather returned to her home port after a nearly two-year absence. Much of the journey was chronicled in a series of ten articles that appeared in the Grand Rapids Press, much the way blog posts are written today. The articles were illustrated by Kreigh and written by wife Theresa. Later, the articles were adapted into a narrative, “The Wake of the Heather,” which appeared in The World of Comic Art, a trade journal. Eventually, the journey became the basis for one of the final sequences in “Up Anchor.”
Surviving newsprint copies of “Up Anchor” are not very common, but I as able to piece together nine consecutive comics from a variety of sources. There are black and white “silver print” proofs, color comics from the newspaper, and photograph of a piece of original art.
The action begins with the comic from October 3, 1971.
Here is Theresa’s description of the foul weather as it originally appeared in “The Wake of the Heather:”
Nearing Buffalo, we passed through an impressive fruit belt with vast orchards on both sides. Here homes line the canal banks. We had been underway a month and it had rained only once. We reached the North Tonawanda boat yard just as one of the fiercest squalls we had ever experienced hit. The next morning the Heather was rigged, and by noon her masts were once more in place and she was ready to sail again.
Kreigh’s Comics 
