Name/Title
Ray and Nicola Collins CollectionEntry/Object ID
MS.75Scope and Content
Ray and Nicola Collins Collection
MS 75
Ray and Nicola Collins Collection
Political satirist Ray Collins was born March 17, 1931 and raised in the Northwest. He discovered his artistic talent at a very young age and eventually became a member of the art staff at the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" where he spent 30 years. Collins developed a comic strip titled "Cecil & Dipstick," and in 1979 he left the "Post-Intelligencer" in a failed effort to syndicate his series. Collins drifted to Ohio where he worked on video graphics for a cable television station in the early 1980s. It was at this time Collins was also diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Ray returned to Seattle in 1984 where he met his wife, Nicola "Nicky," and the two ran off to Mexico together. On a trip to visit Las Vegas in 1989, Ray and Nicky passed through Boulder City and decided to stay. In 1990 Collins revived "Cecil & Dipstick" for HBC Publications, and the strip appeared in the "Boulder City News," the "Henderson Home News," and the "Green Valley News", eventually earning Collins four state press awards.
In 1996, responding to several political and economic developments threatening the quality of life in Boulder City, Collins established the "Bolder Bugle", a broadside of political cartoons whose satire was aimed at the Boulder City Council and its questionable activities. "Cecil & Dipstick" ceased appearing in the local papers and the Bugle began appearing throughout Boulder City tacked to public bulletin boards and handed out at local businesses. The "Bolder Bugle" carried some of the most brilliant satire ever published in Boulder City, and the result was predictable: while the public enjoyed Collins' work and eagerly awaited each new issue, city staff, city councilmen, the mayor, and assorted city groupies and hangers-on hated the "Bugle". These people threatened businesses who carried the Bugle, and took them off whatever public space the broadside appeared on. Collins' satire drew positive attention from the Las Vegas press, which further infuriated Boulder City's powers-that-be. Collins quit producing the paper Bugle in 1997, but continued it on-line for about another year. MS 75 includes all the original artwork for the "Bolder Bugle" and several "Cecil & Dipstick" strips.
For more on Collins, see "Collins Wins Second State Award for Cartoon" ["Boulder City News," October 1, 1992, 2A]; "Top Hat and Tales" ["Boulder City Bulletin, January 13, 1995, 1 and 6]; and "Cartoonist Uses Bugle to Shake Up Boulder City" ["Las Vegas Review-Journal," March 4, 1997, 1B and 4B].
* * *Collection
ManuscriptsArchive Items Details
Notes
MS 75
Ray and Nicola Collins Collection
inventory
[1 box]
Box 1 of 1
ff no.
1. Bolder Bugle compilation [with Ray Collins photo an biography]
2. Bolder Bugle [c. January 1996]
3. Bolder Bugle [May 4, 1996]
4. Bolder Bugle [May 20, 1996]
5. Bolder Bugle [May 31, 1996]
6. Bolder Bugle [August 24, 1996]
7. Bolder Bugle [September 19, 1996]
8. Bolder Bugle [September 22, 1996]
9. Bolder Bugle [adapted from September 22, 1996]
10. Bolder Bugle [October 4, 1996]
11. Bolder Bugle [October 13, 1996]
12. Bolder Bugle [October 22, 1996]
13. Bolder Bugle [October 22, 1996]
14. Bolder Bugle [November 10, 1996]
15. Bolder Bugle [November 18, 1996]
16. Bolder Bugle [November 25, 1996]
17. Bolder Bugle [December 9, 1996]
18. Bolder Bugle [December 14, 1996]
19. Bolder Bugle [February 3, 1997]
20. Bolder Bugle [February 5, 1997]
21. Bolder Bugle [February 10, 1997]
22. Bolder Bugle [March 4, 1996]
23. Bolder Bugle [March 10, 1997]
24. Bolder Bugle [March 23, 1997]
25. Bolder Bugle [c. April - June 1997]
26. Bolder Bugle [April 1, 1997]
27. Bolder Bugle [April 10, 1997]
28. Bolder Bugle [April 13, 1997]
29. Bolder Bugle [April 19, 1997]
30. Bolder Bugle [May 6, 1997]
31. Bolder Bugle [May 30, 1997]
32. Bolder Bugle [c. June 1997]
33. Bolder Bugle [June 10, 1997]
34. Bolder Bugle [June 19, 1997]
35. Boulder City Disposal comic [c. 1996]
36. campaign sign artwork [c. May - June 1996]
37. Cecil & Dipstick - atomic blast at Hoover Dam [1995]
38. Cecil & Dipstick - country singer [1995]
39. Cecil & Dipstick - "Lake Lumps" [May 18, 1995]
40. Cecil & Dipstick - Lake Mead boat wreck [1995]
41. Cecil & Dipstick - Lake Mead Marina tourists [1995]
42. Cecil & Dipstick - rock sitting [1995]
43. Cecil & Dipstick - sick duck [1994]
44. Cecil & Dipstick - Thanksgiving [1994]
45. "Dump the Dump!" artwork [1996]
46. "Dump the Dump!" artwork [c. December 1996]
47. polar bears [n. d.]
48. "Las Vegas City Council Visits Boulder City" [n. d.]
49. "The Air Strike On Boulder City … " [n. d.]
50. "Who Does the Interim City Manager [Robert "Bob" Boyer] Resemble?" [n. d.]
51. "Boulder City Mud Turtles’ Society" [n. d.]
52. "Mount Las Vegas" [Boulder City Landfill (n. d.)]
53. "Justly, For All" [William "Bill Andrews, city attorney (n. d.)]
54. Bolder Bugle and Glynn Dunlap political cartoons
faxed to the Boulder City Library, 1996-97
[original faxes]
55. Bolder Bugle and Glynn Dunlap political cartoons
faxed to the Boulder City Library, 1996-97
[copies]
* * *Created By
admin@catalogit.appCreate Date
November 10, 2002Updated By
bcmha.archives@gmail.comUpdate Date
September 4, 2025