Billy The Cat

[NP]

Nice model here, in the David Sutherland style.

[SID]

Billy the Cat was my favourite character in The Beano as a child and so keep meaning to buy it.

[Dunder Ed]

I love Billy the Cat and am always excited to read a new strip. One funny thing about it is the beginning few paragraphs always seem to be the same. It says bespectacled Billy and Billy the cat were one and the same. Have a look in your comics and see if it say something like this.

[Peter Gray]

would have been more fun if he was in a action mode of some sort..

i would love to get the black Bob figurine one day

[SID]

In the 70s, it was William Grange and Billy the Cat.

Before the likes of 2000AD, Black Bob and Billy the Cat (and Katie) were my favourite comic characters. I've got the Black Bob figurine (I collect all the RH Dandy characters) but would like Billy.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, Billy's civilian identity has always been William Grange, never Billy. Even in the more modern versions.

Speaking of Billy, this week's Retro Active uses a lot of classic artwork, mostly of Codename Warlord, but one panel uses frames from the stories whose characters are used, including Billy the Cat. For some reason, the K on Katie's helmet, which like the B on the Billy figure above was used to tell them apart, is missing. As a result, we can't be sure they didn't show the wrong cat! Also, William Grange has appeared in a previous episode as a Caucasian policeman, yet Kat (as Katie is now known) is dark skinned. They're meant to be cousins. Someone messed up with her character design.

[SID]

Haven't really read the modern Billy the Cat. But couldn't Kat (Katie) simply be from a mixed marriage?

[Digifiend]

Problem is, Retro Active wasn't her first full colour appearance, and both the hair colour and skin colour don't match.

[Phoenix]

Billy The Cat was also a character in stories in BUDDY from issue 1 to the end of its run.

[SID]

Yes he was and I loved his first artist in the comic.