Billy the Cat – downthetubes.net

The Beano’s “Billy the Cat”, the origin story?

By John Freeman on April 5, 2024 • ( 0 )

Whatever happened to Billy the Cat? Author David Carman has some ideas

Comic Artist Peter Foster and "Billy the Cat", for Buddy

In Memoriam: “Billy the Cat” Comic Artist Peter Foster

By John Freeman on May 4, 2022

Comics archivist Matt Cole recently reported the passing of Australian comic artist Peter Foster, a contributor to many British comics.

The opening spread of "We Are United" from Champ No. 1, launched in February 1984. Peter recalls DC Thomson were impressed with his test pages and It ended up being the longest run of any of the strips he worked on, but it's not a strip he remembers fondly. "It meant I soon ran out of new ways of presenting football action," he recalled. "I fought to prevent boredom but not always with any great success because I was only repeating myself." "The very first opening was about the whole team and the support people. I therefore had to invent a huge number of characters. Unbeknownst to me, the second script was about the sacking of about a third of the team and the building up of a new group. A large number of the new team had to be re-invented. I felt my first effort had gone to waste. Had I known that was going to happen I'd have not tried to be so creative."

Comic Creator Spotlight: Comic Artist Peter Foster

By John Freeman on October 18, 2020

Spotlighting a popular Australian comics artist who has drawn many strips for British comics

In Memoriam: 2000AD and Sonic the Comic Artist Nigel Dobbyn

By John Freeman on August 30, 2019 • ( 5 )

I’m very saddened to report the sudden passing of 2000AD and Sonic the Comic artist Nigel Dobbyn, a comic creator whose work I very much admired. He was just 56. Via fellow artist Nigel Kitching, Nigel’s wife, Sue, tells us… Read More ›

In Review: Classics from the Comics 171

By John Freeman on June 30, 2010

… and it really is a classic of a comic, with a huge variety of strips from several decades – including some rarely seen examples of picture and text stories from the huge DC Thomson comics archive. The trumpeted ‘superhero’… Read More ›

Tube Surfing: Billy the Cat, Cradlegrave and Cla$$ War for iPhone

By John Freeman on July 28, 2009

• Over on his brilliant site Bronze Age of Blogs, Pete Doree has posted a short article on DC Thomson’s much-loved teen hero Billy the Cat, prompting artist Sean Phillips to respond with this fab drawing of William Grange in… Read More ›