The debut of BILLY THE CAT (1967)

The Beano's famous crimefighter Billy the Cat first appeared in a 1/4 page teaser ad (above) in the Easter 1967 issue of The Beano (No.1288). His strip began the following week, in The Beano No.1289, dated April 1st 1967. Although this was the April Fool themed issue, there was no mention of that in Billy's debut strip.

The artwork was by David Sutherland, who had been drawing The Bash Street Kids since 1962 (and indeed still draws those Kids today). An excellent artist who is able to adapt his style from humour to adventure. Curiously, there's no origin story. We're not told how William Grange became such a remarkable acrobat or who made his costume and the funny looking customised biker helmet with the whiskers. However, years later, a fan named David Carman wrote his own origin for the character and published it online with the permission of D.C. Thomson. You can read it here:
http://www.davidcarman.co.uk/billy.htm

Presumably The Beano had decided to feature a superhero in their pages because of the success of the Batman TV show, although Billy's premise was closer to that of Spider-Man (running at that time in rival comic Pow!). Billy the Cat became very popular with the readers and ran on and off until 1974, even joined by his cousin, Katie the Cat, for later adventures. He was later revived and rebooted as a slightly older character in Buddy comic in 1981, and you can read that story here:

https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/buddy-no1-1981.html

The Beano has revived Billy the Cat on occasion, drawn by various artists including Wayne Thompson, Nigel Dobbyn, and Laura Howell. With the current popularity of superheroes, and this being The Beano's 80th anniversary year, it'd be nice to see him return again. My choice would be Steve Beckett as artist, as he's another creator who can switch from humour to adventure, and he has that suitable light adventure style that works well in The Beano. 

Will Billy the Cat return? I've no idea, but time will tell.

BUDDY No.1 (1981)

It's been 37 years since D.C. Thomson launched Buddy No.1 on Friday 6th February 1981. Clearly intended to be a step away from the "grittier" style of comic such as Warlord, Bullet, and Crunch, that Thomsons had previously moved into, Buddy was a return to a more traditional type.

The cover was reassuringly friendly and non-aggressive. Even the design of the masthead looked more like that of a humour comic than the battle-damaged style that Warlord and Crunch had used. The comic's mascot and pretend-editor was Buddy himself, the toothy, blonde, freckled-faced boy shown using the free Pop Pistol. (Note to those who complain that modern UK comics value gifts over content; that first issue of Buddy is all about selling the comic on the basis of the free toy. No stories are even mentioned on the cover.)  

To put Buddy into context we must remember that by 1981, the sales of traditional weekly comics were well past their glory days. Children were becoming more attracted to brands, and even more distracted by television than ever. Comics based on licensed properties would soon become ever more dominant in newsagents. With Hornet, Bullet, Crunch, and most recently, Hostspur, having folded, it seems that Thomsons felt that the way to attract readers was to revive and revamp some of their older successful characters for a new generation, and Buddy was the vehicle in which to do it. 

Buddy's 32 pages were packed with new, updated versions of top D.C. Thomson heroes, leading with the football story Limp-Along Leslie, originally a Hotspur character, and now drawn by Neville Wilson...

The Wolf of Kabul was next. Originally a text series in The Wizard from 1922, later a picture strip in Hotspur, and now in Buddy, drawn by Mike Dorey...

Deep-Sea Danny's Iron Fish was of course a revamp of The Beano's Iron Fish. Danny Grey now replaced by Danny Boyle, and drawn by Alfredo Falugi...

Tuffy, A Boy All Alone was a revamp of The Wizard's Scrappy, A Boy All Alone. The concept of a homeless boy against all odds was always popular in Thomson comics. (Does anyone know the artist's name?)

I'm not sure if Hammer! was based on a previous strip or was all-new. Great artwork by Denis McLoughlin...

Jonah was the only reprint in the comic, but if you have to reprint something, there's no better strip. Ken Reid's classic Beano hero, reprinted from the very start...

Billy the Cat was another popular Beano hero, now updated (and slightly older) for brand new adventures for Buddy. Here's the full episode, drawn by Pete Foster...

Rounding off issue 1 was Boy on the Run, a gripping thriller drawn by Carlos Cruz. Again, I'm not sure if this was a revamp or new, but I'm betting it was an updated version of some strip...

The back page revealed the forthcoming free gifts. We don't get free whistles in comics any more (in case they're mis-used I believe) but this week's Beano does have free balloons similar to the Super Zoomer!

In later weeks, other old characters would be revived for Buddy, such as General Jumbo, Starhawk, and more. Overall, Buddy was a very good adventure comic but it didn't last. The time for such comics was sadly ending. Despite gaining a new look and new logo with issue 99, it merged into Victor in 1983 after 130 issues. 

Here's a small selection of Buddy covers. For a major part of its run it featured strips starting on the covers. While that's a technique I've always liked, it must have looked quite dated to kids of the 1980s...

...and finally, here's the advert for Buddy No.1 from The Dandy No.2046, dated Feb.7th 1981...

All artwork and characters in this post are ©D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd.

The Easter BEANO (1967)

This year's Easter issue of The Beano will be out on Wednesday but for today, let's look back at a few pages from the issue of 49 years ago in 1967.

The Beano No.1288 dated 25th March 1967 (on sale March 22nd) had the regular Biffo the Bear strip on the cover by Dudley Watkins but with an Easter egg design to the panels. A simple but eye-catching cover. 

Inside, the theme of the Easter hare is used in the Billy Whizz strip drawn by Mal Judge...

In their usual centre page position, The Bash Street Kids with great artwork by David Sutherland...

That week's Minnie the Minx pages by Jim Petrie were fun as always but the most memorable thing about this issue was right underneath the Minnie strip; our very first glimpse of British superhero Billy the Cat in a teaser ad for his series that would begin in the following issue.

On the back page, great stuff by Davey Law with Dennis the Menace and an ostrich. Easter Eggs at 5 shillings (25 pence) each! I've no idea how much they cost now but it's sure to be a lot more than that. Then again, the average wage was only about £20 a week then!

Christmas Cover Collection

Some Christmas comics had promising covers but didn't deliver much in festive stories inside, so I thought I'd group a few together in one post. We start with the Christmas issue of Diana from 1970, above. I don't know who the illustrator is (can anyone help?) but it's a fantastic piece of artwork. 

Inside, the only Christmas themed strip was a humour one; Up-To-Date Kate. Looks like the artwork of Michael Barratt to me.

On the back page, another festive strip; Rosie Red Riding Hood. 

A few years later, the issue of The Wizard dated December 25th 1976 promised a "ghostly tale for Christmas". 

Inside, the story the cover related to, The Lightning Tree, actually had no festive element, but telling a ghost story was an old Christmas tradition so it was quite appropriate.

The back page of that issue of The Wizard was certainly festive, with the Christmas Crackers feature illustrated by Andrew Christine (later to draw the popular newspaper strips Beau Peep and A Man Called Horace).

Three years later, the 1979 Christmas issue of 2000AD and Tornado sported a Carlos Ezquerra cover...

Seven stories in that issue, but only one relating to the season: Tharg's Christmas Tale, again drawn by Ezquerra...

In 1982 the Christmas issue of Buddy featured Billy the Cat in a Santa outfit, delivering presents. Despite this, none of the interior pages had a festive theme. By the way, if you're thinking the "great news" announcement heralded a merger you'd be mistaken. It referred to Buddy getting a new look and a couple of new stories with the next issue.

A year later, the 24th December 1983 issue of Spike featured Charlie 'Iron' Barr dressed as Santa but there was little in the way of festive cheer inside. (I'll be taking a look at other issues of this comic soon.)

Christmas Day is fast approaching but there's a few more old Christmas comics to feature yet. Look out for another post soon!

The Christmas BEANO (1967)

Published on the same day as the Christmas issue of The Topper I showed here the other day this festive 1967 edition of The Beano was packed with seasonal stories. The cover by Dudley Watkins is superbly designed, incorporating a 'Merry Christmas' message in the centre of the page whilst still being part of the strip.

Inside, Billy the Cat showed off his all-white 'snow-cat suit' for the first time. Usually of course Billy was dressed all in black. Art by Dave Sutherland.

Here's Little Plum! Art by Ron Spencer.

The Beano featured two adventure strips every week at this time, with the other being The Q-Bikes. Art by Andy Hutton.

On the back page, Dennis the Menace in his regular slot. Art by Davy Law.   

The day Biffo met Billy the Cat

Looking through my Beano collection for character reference for a puzzle page I'm currently drawing I found this old issue dated January 13th 1968. It's always been a long-standing tradition for Beano characters to wander into each other's strips but this was an unusual instance of an adventure strip character meeting a humour character - on the cover, no less. 

This is possibly the only time Dudley Watkins drew Billy the Cat. The character appeared in his own strip inside drawn, as usual, by Dave Sutherland in a style not unlike that of Dudley Watkins, strangely enough. So this is Dudley Watkins mimicking a style that was influenced by his own! 

Anyway, as you can see from the name penciled on the top of the comic, this is the very copy I had reserved for me when I was a child. I haven't kept all my old Beanos from that period but this Biffo/Billy team-up impressed me so much that I held on to it. I hope you enjoy it too.