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The Collected Neil the Horse
Neil the Horse ran for fifteen issues in the 1980s. With its tagline, "Making the World Safe for Musical Comedy," it is the world's only musical comic book. It is a totally original hybrid influenced more by Carl Barks and Fred Astaire than by the underground comics of the time. Originally produced under the name Arn Saba, Neil the Horse's creator transitioned to Katherine Collins after the last issue.
360 pages, Paperback
Published October 10, 2017
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About the author
Katherine Collins
2 books1 followerThere is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
Katherine Collins, born in Vancouver, was known as Arn Saba until 1993 when she came out as a trans-woman. Arn's mother and great-grandmother were both published cartoonists, and he started drawing comics at around age six. In 1977, he moved to Toronto and began appearing on, and eventually writing and producing for, the CBC Radio program Morningside, and other shows. He produced nearly 100 skits, adapting classic newspaper strips. In 1979, he wrote and produced The Continuous Art, a five-part CBC documentary, exploring comics' cultural ghettoization. It featured interviews with some of cartooning's greatest names. His character Neil the Horse ran in Canadian newspapers from 1975-1982, and subsequently starred in fifteen comic books, from 1983-88. Neil was the first (and last) musical comic book, with original songs. There was a five-part Neil musical comedy play on CBC in 1982.
Katherine Collins, born in Vancouver, was known as Arn Saba until 1993 when she came out as a trans-woman. Arn's mother and great-grandmother were both published cartoonists, and he started drawing comics at around age six. In 1977, he moved to Toronto and began appearing on, and eventually writing and producing for, the CBC Radio program Morningside, and other shows. He produced nearly 100 skits, adapting classic newspaper strips. In 1979, he wrote and produced The Continuous Art, a five-part CBC documentary, exploring comics' cultural ghettoization. It featured interviews with some of cartooning's greatest names. His character Neil the Horse ran in Canadian newspapers from 1975-1982, and subsequently starred in fifteen comic books, from 1983-88. Neil was the first (and last) musical comic book, with original songs. There was a five-part Neil musical comedy play on CBC in 1982.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 31, 2018
If you were reading comics during the independent black and white boom of the mid-80's, you could be forgiven for thinking each little pamphlet represented its own particular and autonomous world. Sure, Cerebus and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had clear origins in genre lit, but there were a lot of titles (Zot!, Concrete, Love & Rockets, Usagi Yojimbo, Desert Pearch, Flaming Carrot) that simply appeared sui generis. But perhaps none appeared more like the instantaneous arrival of a fully formed parallel universe than Neil the Horse.
Bearing the subtitle and mission statement "Making the World Safe for Musical Comedy", the title introduced Neil: a strongly Fleischer-influenced cartoony horse with a sweet gullible nature and a love for bananas. His sidekick (and usual instigator of trouble) was Soapy, a cigar smoking cat with a New York (or New Jersey?) attitude. Providing most of the musical comedy was Mam'selle Poupee, a life-sized marionette with a love of theatre and a highly romantic nature. Stories ranged from Carl Barks pastiches to quick two page gags to multi-issue sagas of fairies fighting sprites from video games. There was almost always dancing (with detailed panel by panel breakdowns of the choreography) and music (with sheet music provided after the story!) If the tone wasn't lyrical, it went surreal (for example, the stories often introduced the aviator Gaston Piston, who flew around in a biplane with his family's ancestral tuba).
This volume is a nicely oversized collection of all fifteen issues, with a few columns of introduction and afterword from Katherine Collins. (Arn Saba was the creator, writer, and usual penciller for the series, but transitioned to Katherine Collins shortly after the series ended.) Reading through, there's little sense of plot consistency, but the consistency of tone and character is amazing. Collins created a trio that could handle a host of different stories, but still feel comfortably the same, and the emphasis on music and romance is almost always there. The stories even change format (panel comics to illustrated prose and back) while keeping a cheerful and upbeat tone.
It's hard to think of anything now that compares to this kind of writing. Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother is a cousin (with its mix of story, crafts, and recipes), but it doesn't go as far as Collins went. If you're interested in musical comedy in comics form, I can't recommend anything else.
Bearing the subtitle and mission statement "Making the World Safe for Musical Comedy", the title introduced Neil: a strongly Fleischer-influenced cartoony horse with a sweet gullible nature and a love for bananas. His sidekick (and usual instigator of trouble) was Soapy, a cigar smoking cat with a New York (or New Jersey?) attitude. Providing most of the musical comedy was Mam'selle Poupee, a life-sized marionette with a love of theatre and a highly romantic nature. Stories ranged from Carl Barks pastiches to quick two page gags to multi-issue sagas of fairies fighting sprites from video games. There was almost always dancing (with detailed panel by panel breakdowns of the choreography) and music (with sheet music provided after the story!) If the tone wasn't lyrical, it went surreal (for example, the stories often introduced the aviator Gaston Piston, who flew around in a biplane with his family's ancestral tuba).
This volume is a nicely oversized collection of all fifteen issues, with a few columns of introduction and afterword from Katherine Collins. (Arn Saba was the creator, writer, and usual penciller for the series, but transitioned to Katherine Collins shortly after the series ended.) Reading through, there's little sense of plot consistency, but the consistency of tone and character is amazing. Collins created a trio that could handle a host of different stories, but still feel comfortably the same, and the emphasis on music and romance is almost always there. The stories even change format (panel comics to illustrated prose and back) while keeping a cheerful and upbeat tone.
It's hard to think of anything now that compares to this kind of writing. Jill Thompson's Scary Godmother is a cousin (with its mix of story, crafts, and recipes), but it doesn't go as far as Collins went. If you're interested in musical comedy in comics form, I can't recommend anything else.
November 5, 2025
Forgotten beauty !
https://youtu.be/CXElH-_DtBs
December 20, 2017
I am delighted this book exists. I was a big Neil the Horse fan back when the comic was originally published and deeply regretted it when the book vanished. Reading Collins's account of the circumstances and the turn her life took after the fact, in the Afterward, is saddening. Neil the Horse was an anomalous delight, emerging as it did during the "grim and gritty" phase in comics, as part of the alternative comics boom. Even in that context, is was an odd book, hearkening back, both in its visual style and in its whimsical narratives, to classic Disney comics. It's no surprise that one of the pieces here is a tribute to Carl Barks. It also folded in musical comedy (yes, characters sing and dance, and the sheet music for the songs is often included), which pushed it even further from even the core of typical alternative comics sensibilities. There was nothing else like it on the market--often said, rarely really true, but in this case, it was. Neil, his cat friend Soapy (complete with thick New York accent), and their friend Mam'selle Poupee, the sexiest stringless marionette ever created, were all delightful characters, Neil's naivete balanced off against Soapy's cynicism and Poupee's romanticism. The stories are a delight--not generally laugh out loud funny, but often amusing, capturing much of the light tone combined with adventure of the work of Carl Barks and other classic children's cartoonists. (Despite Poupee's sex appeal, Neil stories are all-age-appropriate; the one exception, perhaps, being the Omaha the Cat Dancer tribute page). Some stories are in prose, with illustrations, but these, too, read lightly and easily. Collins had a delightful touch with gentle satire, absurd plotting, and emotional resonance. As far as i know, this book brings together all the Neil material, including the early newspaper strips, which I had not seen before. These appear at the end, out of chronological sequence, a decision I can understand, as this proto-material is probably not the best introduction to Neil and company, despite the fact that, in reality, it was. You don't need to read it to plunge into the first comic-book stories, though, and having it at the front of the book might have deterred readers. One minor complaint: I wish the book had also included the original comics covers. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book to fans of Canadian comics, fans of classic kids' comics, fans of alternative comics--heck, to anyone who loves comics, really--and to fans of musical comedy.
May 14, 2018
I feel like I’ve always known Neil the Horse. I’ve never read it before, I may have seen a few issues back in comic shops back in the day, but I’ve literally never read a line. Yet somehow, it is as warm and familiar as slipping on an old pair of slippers. A feeling of nostalgia surrounds me on every page, and somehow I get a comforting feeling for things past, even if all the material is new to me.
This is because the influences that shape Neil the Horse come from early childhood (from everyone’s childhood at this point). They are bright spangly cartoons (half in black and white, half in color) that danced about in the 1930s. The old ones from early Disney or Fleischer studios , Betty Boop, early Popeye the Sailor, Koko the Clown, all of which often had music to pad up the experience. These early visions of a cartoon universe gave birth the Neil the Horse and his companions. The entire book is an ode, a love letter, to the masters of the past, which obviously infected the author’s imagination.These are static characters placed in different time periods as is needed by the story. If you’re looking for some world building, or a mythology this is not the book for you. This doesn’t mean the stories are bad, on the contrary, but remember this is simply light hearted fare. Wonderful, whimsical, and silly.
This is because the influences that shape Neil the Horse come from early childhood (from everyone’s childhood at this point). They are bright spangly cartoons (half in black and white, half in color) that danced about in the 1930s. The old ones from early Disney or Fleischer studios , Betty Boop, early Popeye the Sailor, Koko the Clown, all of which often had music to pad up the experience. These early visions of a cartoon universe gave birth the Neil the Horse and his companions. The entire book is an ode, a love letter, to the masters of the past, which obviously infected the author’s imagination.These are static characters placed in different time periods as is needed by the story. If you’re looking for some world building, or a mythology this is not the book for you. This doesn’t mean the stories are bad, on the contrary, but remember this is simply light hearted fare. Wonderful, whimsical, and silly.
October 16, 2024
Super charming. Sad the artist was sort of pushed out of the industry after her transition because these characters are wonderful. Sort of hoping against hope we'll get something from her in the future.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews