| Katherine Collins | |
|---|---|
| Born | Arnold Alexander Saba, Jr. 1947 (age 64–65) Vancouver, British Columbia |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Area(s) | Cartoonist, Writer |
| Notable works | Neil the Horse |
Katherine Shannon Collins (born Arnold Alexander Saba, Jr. in 1947, in Vancouver, British Columbia), formerly Arn Saba, is a Canadian cartoonist, writer, media personality, stage performer, and composer.
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In 1965, Collins, then known as Arn Saba, began the University of British Columbia on a creative writing scholarship, but devoted almost all his time while at UBC to the campus twice-weekly paper, The Ubyssey, where he created his first comic strip, Moralman (1965–1968), and also wrote and illustrated articles.
Saba discontinued going to UBC after the 1967-68 year, opting instead to risk a career in the arts. In June 1968, with his creative partner Gordon Fidler, he spent a six-month internship in Montreal, at the National Film Board of Canada. This award was given on the strength of Fidler and Saba's one-hour experimental comedy film (starring Saba), Dancing Nigel (1965–66). While at the NFB, he directed and edited a short musical film, Euphoria, which frankly celebrated hippies and drug use. It was distributed by the NFB, but not for very long.
From 1974-77, Saba was art director for the Vancouver-based magazinePacific Yachting magazine, and other magazines from InterPress Publications, while at the same time developing his cartooning. During this time he became a member of a stage troupe, Circus Minimus (founded by Ida Carnevali), which toured British Columbia doing avant-garde and experimental circus-like shows for all ages. On stage, he first played Clancy the Cop (later a cartoon character), and then Professor Smoothie, a know-nothing braggart whose forté was being booed off the stage amidst a hail of thrown garbage from the audience. Saba also wrote and performed songs for Circus Minimus.
In 1977, he moved to Toronto, to try for success in a larger arena. He immediately began appearing on, and eventually producing, segments of the popular national CBC Radio program Morningside, where he usually paired with host Don Harron for free-wheeling discussions of favourite old comic strips and other pop culture. He also wrote, produced and acted in scores of comedy skits. Saba made similar appearances on CBC Television, on the Don McLean show. In his appearances Saba demonstrated, with humor, his enthusiasm and knowledge of cartooning, comics history, theatre and music.
In 1979, he wrote and produced a five-part radio documentary on CBC, The Continuous Art, exploring the cultural position of comics. It featured interviews with some of cartooning's greatest names, including Milton Caniff, Hal Foster (his last interview), Floyd Gottfredson, Hugo Pratt, Will Eisner, Jules Feiffer, and Russ Manning. Saba spent several years in late 1970s and early 1980s travelling throughout North America, interviewing famous cartoonists, many of them at that point quite old. (Many of these lengthy interviews were later published in The Comics Journal in the 1980s and 1990s.)
In 1982, Saba moved (for the first of four times) to California, ceasing all other media activity in favour of cartooning.
Saba/Collins' most famous creation is Neil the Horse. The series ran in Canadian newspapers from 1975-1982 via the Great Lakes Publishing syndicate located in Toronto. It subsequently appeared in fifteen comic book issues from 1983–1988, published by Aardvark-Vanaheim/Renegade Press.
With a drawing style based in Disney comics, as well as in early-20th Century Sunday pages, Saba added something new to comics: music. The motto for the series was "Making the World Safe for Musical Comedy," and many issues of the comic book feature the characters singing and dancing. When the characters are shown hoofing it, it is to original choreography.
Saba had a vaudevillian approach, changing the format of the comics several times within each issue. This variety act included the comic strip, comic book stories, illustrated stories, originally composed sheet music, crossword puzzles, joke pages and more. In the letters columns, the characters themselves "answered" the mail. To top it off, there were paper dolls and fashion pages, in the tradition of Katy Keene. Neil the Horse was like a modern version of early twentieth-century hardbound children's annuals (especially in Britain) using an endless variety of formats, something rarely seen in comics.
Saba also completed a graphic-novel-length Neil the Horse adventure, and an illustrated Neil children's book that have yet to be published. The final issue of the comic book series demonstrate his prolonged and elaborate efforts to pitch Neil as an animated series. From 1998-93, the "property" (Neil and characters) was optioned three times by Hollywood studios and networks, but was never produced. Saba's business partner for these attempts was John Gertz, president of Zorro Productions of Berkeley, California.
In 1982 Arn Saba wrote a two-and-a-half hour radio musical called Neil and the Big Banana that was twice broadcast in five episodes, in Canada on CBC Radio. Saba wrote the book, music and lyrics, and played the part of Neil. The play was unanimously reviewed with raves across the country, but subsequent efforts to mount later musical-comedy projects were unsuccessful.
In 1986, Saba wrote and produced a twelve-song Neil the Horse music tape, with all new material, which was sold through the comic book. Both the play and the tape were produced with a full twelve-piece band, and live tap-dancers, in jazzy Broadway style.
A transsexual, Collins has officially been living as a woman since 1993.[1]
In 2005, after fifteen years in San Francisco, Collins was deported under the USA PATRIOT Act for "crimes of moral turpitude."[1] Back in her hometown of Vancouver, Collins fell ill and was eventually diagnosed with leukemia. In 2008, she declared herself on the way to a full recovery.[1]