"Delighted at your continuing Neil the Horse efforts . . . and I'm particularly enthusiastic about your continuing probe of the medium. I welcome you as a fellow explorer." - Will Eisner
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.

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. In 1993, Katherine was obliged to leave comics. This year's Neil book is her first return to the field.

Katherine Collins' profile page