Neil the Horse

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Neil the Horse is a comic book character created by Canadian cartoonist Arn Saba (now Katherine Collins) in the mid 1970's. Neil is a happy, singing and dancing horse who likes bananas and milkshakes.

[edit] Neil the Horse Comics

Neil the Horse started life in 1975 as a weekly newspaper comic strip, self-syndicated by Vancouver cartoonist and writer Arn Saba, to Canadian regional newspapers. In 1977, Saba and Toronto cartoonist Jeff Wakefield (Bubblegummers) joined forces to found 'Great Lakes Publishing" (GLP), a cartoon syndicate dedicated to promoting Canadian newspaper comics. At its height, GLP sold weekly comic strips, including Neil the Horse, to about 30 newspapers. GLP quietly faded out of existence in 1982.

For the first two years, Neil was a double-tier comedy-adventure continuity strip, afterward switching to a single-tier gag format. The purported gags were highly surreal, and in fact at times deliberately nonsensical and without a real punch line. Arn Saba has referred to these strips as having "symbolised a comic strip", rather than actually being one.

In 1980 and 1981, Neil the Horse appeared as a comics feature in the Canadian Children's Annual, and The 1980 Comics Annual, published by Potlatch Publications (Hamilton, Ontario). This work was seen by Dave Sim and Deni Loubert of Aardvark-Vanaheim (publishers, Kitchener Ontario), which led to their offering to publish a Neil periodical comic book.

"Neil the Horse Comics and Stories" was published between 1983 and 1988 - first by Aardvark-Vanaheim and then by Renegade Press, also under Deni Loubert. The comic books featured the adventures of Neil and his friends Soapy (a savvy, cigar-smoking cat) and Mam'selle Poupée (a hopeless romantic living doll from France). A typical issue of "Neil the Horse" included a story in prose with illustrations, a few short comic strips and a longer comic-strip adventure. As the motto of "Neil the Horse" was "Making the World Safe for Musical Comedy" all issues also included original sheet music for the songs sung by the characters in the course of their adventures. Issues 11 and 13 of Neil the Horse involved a tribute to Fred Astaire with song-and-dance routines that flowed from page to page. Letters to "Neil the Horse" were always (ostensibly) answered by Neil and his friends, instead of the comics' creator.

Arn Saba always worked with other cartoonists, as assistants/collaborators. His primary pairings were with David Roman (Toronto) and Barb Rausch (Los Angeles). It was common for the original art pages to be sent by courier back and forth between the two cities to be worked on; throughout the 1980s Saba frequently moved back and forth from one city to the other, and as well often worked while in transit, setting up a temporary studio in guest rooms and even once in a gazebo in Oakland, Calofirnia.

Saba's ambition was to adapt Neil for animation — preferably a full-length feature, but failing that, a television series. To that end, starting in 1985, he began a major adaptation effort, employing David Roman and a fluctuating number (3 - 12) of experienced animation artists and writers. As a business partner, John Gertz of Zorro Productions (Berkeley, CA) was the salesman, advisor and liaison with Hollywood studios. Between 1988 and 1993, Neil was "optioned" several times by major animation studios and television networks, but no programme was ever produced.

The last published appearance of Neil the Horse was in 1991, in the last issue of Critters magazine (Fantagraphics). There exists a Neil graphic novel which has never been published.