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Billy Whizz
Billy Whizz is a fictional character featured in the British comic The Beano, first appearing in issue 1139, dated 16 May 1964, when it replaced The Country Cuzzins. Billy, the title character, is a boy who can run extraordinarily fast. His speed often causes chaos yet at the same time his ability can prove useful. He also has a younger brother called Alfie Whizz of similar appearance. Alfie is usually shown as a normal boy but occasionally he is shown to be just as fast as his brother.
In strips up until the 1980s, Billy lives in Whizztown rather than Beanotown like most of the other regular characters, however, this later changed and more recent strips place him in Beanotown.
The strip was originated by Malcolm Judge, who had previously drawn Colonel Crackpot's Circus, and would go on to create several more popular strips, including Ball Boy, The Numskulls and The Badd Lads. Judge's style tended to be typified by a wide variety of styles in which Billy's speed was depicted, including trails of dust, motion blur, multiple copies of Billy in a panel, and more besides. Later artists tended to use a single, specific visual device to represent Billy's whizzing. Judge drew every single Billy Whizz strip until the mid-1980s, when other artists, including Barrie Appleby and Graeme Hill, began providing occasional fill-in strips, though Judge still drew the vast majority of the strips from the conception to 1989.
Upon Judge's death in 1989, Appleby acted as artist for a few weeks before Steve Horrocks took over as regular artist. Both Appleby and Horrocks drew in a style that was broadly similar to Judge, but slowly began modernising the strip. Horrocks continued as artist until late 1990, when he was succeeded by Beano newcomer David Parkins, who began a major overhaul of the strip, making the effects of Billy's speed more destructive to his surroundings, giving him a more laid-back attitude, and later introducing a rather alien-looking tracksuit.
Parkins acted as the main artist in this time, but Trevor Metcalfe and Vic Neill also drew occasional strips for the next few years; all three artists used a broadly similar design for Billy, but Metcalfe and Neill's strips featured a much more happy-go-lucky version of Billy. A reshuffle of the Beano's artists (coinciding with the comic's move to all-colour printing) saw Parkins leave the strip in 1993, and Neill became the main artist, upon which he began further tweaking Billy's appearance, the most notable change being that the two long hairs he had always been drawn with were turned into a thunderbolt. He continued to draw the strip until his death in January 2000, and Graeme Hall took it up afterwards.
By March 2003, the strip's popularity had faded badly, and the comic's editors were giving serious consideration to dropping it. Instead, it was decided that the strip would be given a stay of execution, albeit under a new artist. Wayne Thompson took over from the following month. Thompson did another revamp of the strip, creating a version of Billy that was based on Malcolm Judge's work (and to a lesser extent, David Parkins' design of Billy), and gave a new life to the character and feel of the strip. However, due to his commitments with Jak for the Dandy, the strip was understudied again by Trevor Metcalfe, who, aided with a Wacom tablet, drew the strip in a mixture of his own and Thompson's style. Metcalfe later drew the strip full-time, gradually bringing the strip's artwork more in line with his early 1990s work, until his sudden departure from the comic in 2007, after which the Beano started running re-prints of the strips drawn by David Parkins.
This run of reprints continued for the next year (including a few early Trevor Metcalfe and Vic Neill strips along the way) until the comic's 70th anniversary issue, when Barrie Appleby returned to provide a new strip (this time drawn in his own style, as opposed to his 1980s work which followed Malcolm Judge's style). The strip then reverted to being reprints for the following year, mostly of Vic Neill's, with one Graeme Hall reprint in October 2009. At the end of that month a new permanent artist was appointed, namely Nick Brennan who had previously drawn Crazy for Daisy in The Beano, and Blinky in The Dandy.
In the Beano Annual 2008, Billy's story was drawn by Tom Paterson, and in the 2009 annual Wayne Thompson drew it. Tom Paterson again drew Billy in the 2010 annual, while Nigel Parkinson drew his strip in the 2011 annual, in the style of Vic Neill.
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Billy Whizz
Billy Whizz is a fictional character featured in the British comic The Beano, first appearing in issue 1139, dated 16 May 1964, when it replaced The Country Cuzzins. Billy, the title character, is a boy who can run extraordinarily fast. His speed often causes chaos yet at the same time his ability can prove useful. He also has a younger brother called Alfie Whizz of similar appearance. Alfie is usually shown as a normal boy but occasionally he is shown to be just as fast as his brother.
In strips up until the 1980s, Billy lives in Whizztown rather than Beanotown like most of the other regular characters, however, this later changed and more recent strips place him in Beanotown.
The strip was originated by Malcolm Judge, who had previously drawn Colonel Crackpot's Circus, and would go on to create several more popular strips, including Ball Boy, The Numskulls and The Badd Lads. Judge's style tended to be typified by a wide variety of styles in which Billy's speed was depicted, including trails of dust, motion blur, multiple copies of Billy in a panel, and more besides. Later artists tended to use a single, specific visual device to represent Billy's whizzing. Judge drew every single Billy Whizz strip until the mid-1980s, when other artists, including Barrie Appleby and Graeme Hill, began providing occasional fill-in strips, though Judge still drew the vast majority of the strips from the conception to 1989.
Upon Judge's death in 1989, Appleby acted as artist for a few weeks before Steve Horrocks took over as regular artist. Both Appleby and Horrocks drew in a style that was broadly similar to Judge, but slowly began modernising the strip. Horrocks continued as artist until late 1990, when he was succeeded by Beano newcomer David Parkins, who began a major overhaul of the strip, making the effects of Billy's speed more destructive to his surroundings, giving him a more laid-back attitude, and later introducing a rather alien-looking tracksuit.
Parkins acted as the main artist in this time, but Trevor Metcalfe and Vic Neill also drew occasional strips for the next few years; all three artists used a broadly similar design for Billy, but Metcalfe and Neill's strips featured a much more happy-go-lucky version of Billy. A reshuffle of the Beano's artists (coinciding with the comic's move to all-colour printing) saw Parkins leave the strip in 1993, and Neill became the main artist, upon which he began further tweaking Billy's appearance, the most notable change being that the two long hairs he had always been drawn with were turned into a thunderbolt. He continued to draw the strip until his death in January 2000, and Graeme Hall took it up afterwards.
By March 2003, the strip's popularity had faded badly, and the comic's editors were giving serious consideration to dropping it. Instead, it was decided that the strip would be given a stay of execution, albeit under a new artist. Wayne Thompson took over from the following month. Thompson did another revamp of the strip, creating a version of Billy that was based on Malcolm Judge's work (and to a lesser extent, David Parkins' design of Billy), and gave a new life to the character and feel of the strip. However, due to his commitments with Jak for the Dandy, the strip was understudied again by Trevor Metcalfe, who, aided with a Wacom tablet, drew the strip in a mixture of his own and Thompson's style. Metcalfe later drew the strip full-time, gradually bringing the strip's artwork more in line with his early 1990s work, until his sudden departure from the comic in 2007, after which the Beano started running re-prints of the strips drawn by David Parkins.
This run of reprints continued for the next year (including a few early Trevor Metcalfe and Vic Neill strips along the way) until the comic's 70th anniversary issue, when Barrie Appleby returned to provide a new strip (this time drawn in his own style, as opposed to his 1980s work which followed Malcolm Judge's style). The strip then reverted to being reprints for the following year, mostly of Vic Neill's, with one Graeme Hall reprint in October 2009. At the end of that month a new permanent artist was appointed, namely Nick Brennan who had previously drawn Crazy for Daisy in The Beano, and Blinky in The Dandy.
In the Beano Annual 2008, Billy's story was drawn by Tom Paterson, and in the 2009 annual Wayne Thompson drew it. Tom Paterson again drew Billy in the 2010 annual, while Nigel Parkinson drew his strip in the 2011 annual, in the style of Vic Neill.