Billy the Cat and Katie

"Billy the Cat" (later "Billy the Cat and Katie") was a comic strip in "The Beano". Drawn by David Sutherland, it ran from issue 1289 (dated 1 April 1967) to 1677 (7 September 1974).

William Grange, later joined by his cousin Kathleen, alias Billy the Cat and Katie, were acrobatic crime fighters who helped the police to solve crime and catch "crooks" in the town of Burnham. They both wore "cat-suits" in order to conceal their true identities.

Minus Katie, it returned to "The Beano" for six weeks from issue 3195, dated 11 October 2003, drawn by Wayne Thompson. In 2005, it made a second brief return, this time drawn by Nigel Dobbyn, who has also drawn several Billy and Katie stories for Beano Annuals, including the 2008 annual. The story in that annual was written by Bash Street Adventures artist/writer Kev F Sutherland. The 2009 annual will not have a Billy the Cat story drawn by Nigel Dobbyn, but he has had a script approved for the 2010 annual. [http://www.nigeldobbyn.co.uk/oldsite/news.html] He made a guest appearance in the 70 years Beano it was drawn by Laura Howell

Billy the Cat and General Jumbo

This was a crossover between "Billy the Cat" and General Jumbo in the 2008 Beano Annual. 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.)

External links

* [http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/b/billycat.htm Billy the Cat and Katie] - internationalhero.co.uk information page