Billy the Cat and Katie

Not to be confused with Bill the Cat or Billy the Cat.

Billy the Cat (later Billy the Cat and Katie) was a British comic strip published from 1967 until 1974 in the comics magazine The Beano. The strip featured William Grange, later joined by his cousin Kathleen, alias Billy the Cat and Katie. Both were acrobatic crime fighters who helped the police to solve crime and catch "crooks" in the town of Burnham, and they wore "cat-suits" to conceal their true identities.

Background

The original version of the strip was drawn by David Sutherland, and ran in distinct series from issue 1289 (dated 1 April 1967) to 1677 (7 September 1974). When the strip made the final appearance of its original run in 1974, it was one of the last remaining adventure strips in the Beano. An older version of Billy, without Katie, and now set in Marham, appeared in Buddy comic in the 1980s.

Minus Katie, the strip returned to The Beano for six weeks from issue 3195, dated 11 October 2003, drawn by Wayne Thompson and Richard Elson. In 2005, it made a second brief return, scripted by Mike Chinn and this time drawn by Nigel Dobbyn, who has also subsequently drawn several Billy and Katie stories for Beano Annuals, from the 2007 annual onwards. The story in that annual was written by Bash Street Adventures artist/writer Kev F Sutherland. The 2009 annual did not have a Billy the Cat story, though he reappeared in the 2010 annual, starring "William the cat" in a Victorian setting which turns out to be the hallucination of an unconscious William Grange, on a school trip to a museum.

He made a guest appearance in the 70th anniversary Beano in 2008, this time drawn in a Manga-like style by Laura Howell. Billy returned to the comic shortly after in issue 3454 (dated 18 October 2008), as a single-page strip illustrated by Barrie Appleby. This was the strip's eighth series in the comic. However, it was removed from the comic the following year because it was not popular enough. This was said to be because readers felt the story needed more pages, or that the stories weren't exciting or adventurous enough. On the Beano website a humorous video was put up showing what 'happened' to Billy the Cat, illustrating Billy jumping onto a building, then out of nowhere, he's crushed by 10 tones.

Despite ths, Nigel Dobbyn's version of the strip appeared in the Beano Annual 2011 . However, Dobbyn was unhappy with how his artwork had been stretched in that year's annual, and as a result Billy did not appear in the 2012 annual.

Billy the Cat and General Jumbo

This was a crossover between Billy the Cat and General Jumbo in the 2008 Beano Annual written by Kev F Sutherland and drawn by Nigel Dobbyn. It involved Jumbo's radio control having been modified by a sentient model infantryman, taking control of Jumbo's actions. Billy had to save the day, firstly by removing Jumbo's wrist-controller and secondly by causing it to feed back on its creator – who, however, in homage to a classic B-movie motif, shows faint signs of life in the final panel while the heroes make their exit. (There is further homage in the naming of some of the model infantrymen, although using "Sergeant-Major" as "Wilson"'s rank is a departure from the strictly parallel.) This story was concluded in the 2009 annual, again written by Sutherland, but this time only featured Jumbo and was drawn by another artist.

External links

Billy the Cat and Katie – internationalhero.co.uk information page
– Animated trailer for Billy The Cat v General Jumbo

References

DC Thomson comics

Currently Running Comics	The Beano BeanoMAX Commando Fun Section in The Sunday Post

Adventure Comics	Adventure Bullet Buddy Champ Commando The Crunch The Hornet The Hotspur The Rover The Skipper Spike Starblazer The Vanguard The Victor Warlord The Wizard

Girls Comics	Bunty Judy Mandy Nikki

Humour Comics	The Beano BeanoMAX The Beezer Buzz Classics from the Comics Cracker The Dandy Fun Size Comics Hoot The Magic Comic Nutty Plug Sparky The Topper

Pre-School Comics	Bimbo The Magic Comic Twinkle

Notable Strips	Alf Tupper Baby Crockett Bananaman The Bash Street Kids Beryl the Peril Black Bob Biffo the Bear Big Eggo The Broons Calamity James Cuddles and Dimples Dennis the Menace Desperate Dan Ginger Gnasher Ivy the Terrible Jonah Keyhole Kate Korky the Cat Little Plum Lord Snooty Matt Braddock Mickey the Monkey Minnie the Minx Nero and Zero The Numskulls Pansy Potter Roger the Dodger Tricky Dicky Oor Wullie Willy Nilly Winker Watson Wilson the Wonder Athlete Wolf of Kabul

Comic annuals	The Beano Annual The Beezer Book The Bimbo Book The Dandy Annual The Hotspur Book for Boys The Sparky Book The Topper Book The Victor Book for Boys Warlord Book for Boys

Character annuals	Bananaman Annual The Bash Street Kids Annual Beryl the Peril Annual Black Bob Book The Broons Annual Dennis the Menace Annual The Desperate Dan Book Oor Wullie Annual

Notable Artists	Barrie Appleby Nigel Auchterlounie Leo Baxendale Gordon Bell Nick Brennan Paddy Brennan Sid Burgon Reg Carter Wilbur Dawbarn Karl Dixon The Etherington Brothers Hunt Emerson Andy Fanton John Geering Barry Glennard Charles Grigg Ken H. Harrison Laura Howell Diego Jourdan Malcolm Judge David Law Alexander Matthews Trevor Metcalfe Allan Morley David Mostyn Vic Neill Robert Nixon Gary Northfield Nigel Parkinson Tom Paterson Jim Petrie Ken Reid Bill Ritchie David Parkins Jon Rushby Jamie Smart Lew Stringer David Sutherland Kev F. Sutherland Dudley D. Watkins Stevie White

Notable Writers	Mike Chinn Gilbert Lawford Dalton Alan Grant Ian Gray R. D. Low Grant Morrison Tom Morton John Radford Cavan Scott John Smith

See Also	Beanotown Racing List of D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd publications List of Fleetway and IPC Comics publications List of Beano comic strips List of Dandy comic strips List of Beezer comic strips List of Beezer and Topper comic strips

The Beano

Current strips	Ball Boy Bananaman The Bash Street Kids Beaginnings Biffo the Bear Billy Whizz Calamity James Dennis the Menace Gnipper Les Pretend Little Plum Lord Snooty Minnie the Minx Number 13 Beano Street The Numskulls Pansy Potter Pup Parade Rasher Roger the Dodger Tom, Dick and Sally Tricky Dicky

Notable former strips	Baby Face Finlayson The Bash Street Kids - Singled Out Beaginnings The Belles of St. Lemons Big Eggo Billy the Cat Colin the Vet Colonel Crackpot's Circus Crazy for Daisy Danny's Nanny Derek the Sheep Fatty Fudge Freddie Fear Fred's Bed General Jumbo Gnasher's Bit(e) Gnasher's Tale Gnash Gnews Gordon Bennett Grandpa Hairy Dan Helpful Henry The Germs Ivy the Terrible Jack Flash Jimmy and his Magic Patch Joe Jitsu Joe King Johnny Bean from Happy Bunny Green Jonah Lord Snooty the Third The Magic Lollipops Maxy's Taxi The McTickles Meebo and Zuky Morgyn the Mighty The Nibblers Nicky Nutjob Olaff the Madlander Ping the Elastic Man Pirates of the Caribeano Ratz Robbie Rebel Richard the Lion Simply Smiffy Smudge Splodge Super School The Three Bears Tim Traveller Tin-Can Tommy Wee Ben Nevis Wee Peem Winnie the Witch Winston The Yeti with Betty Zap Zodiac

Supporting characters	Bea Gnasher Gnipper Soppy Susan Walter the Softy Foo Foo

See also	The Beano timeline Bash Street School Beanotown The Beano Annual Beano comic libraries BeanoMAX The Beano Summer Special List of Beano comic strips List of Beano comic strips by annual Beanotown Racing Dennis the Menace Annual The Magic Comic Fun Size Beano

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