Comics UK

Well, I would've expected it to be mentioned on the issue preview on Tuesday, and it wasn't.

Having looked at the new look Billy several times over, I have decided that I do not like it. (Not a dislike for the character of course, just his revamped appearance).

I find the new style far too wacky. For starters, his hair is coming out of eyes (and he has no eyebrows most of the time!), and his head shape is weird. I dislike his teeth as well, Billy has always looked better without visible teeth. Another thing that annoys me is his plain white shoes, I wish they had more detail on them - at least they could be coloured. This probably sounds like whinging, but this is just me, and Billy is a personal favourite of mine. To be honest, when I opened this week's Beano for the first time and saw it, the first thing I thought was 'good grief, Graeme Hall last time (reprint), Nick Brennan this time (new), are DCT showing us all their worst artists?'

What's worse for me is that I like to draw Billy myself quite a bit, and I am not a fan of Nick Brennan's style. So expect me to continue drawing my own Billy Whizz in the older style. I for one am disappointed with the changes, but I don't think there's much I can do about it. Sigh...

Although I am no massive fan of Nick Brennan or Billy Whizz, they are not my favorites but they both the artwork and the characters have a certain amount of charm to them and are by no means poor.

I think Brennan is a great choice because his overall style is very 'frantic' which conveys the character a lot better than the previous artists, I would agree with you about his design of Billy though Johnny, a bit more care could have been put into it.

On the other hand, I'm quite a fan of Nick's. I was never sold on his version of Ginger (having been brought up on Bob McGrath's version), but he brings a unique sense of fun to anything he draws.

I'm very pleased to see him back.

I would like Nick brennan more if he retained his style of the early nineties. His billy is OK, and I have read a crazy for daisy strip from the mid 2000s where Billy Whizz appears, and his current billy looks no different to me. His style was better in 2004 than how it was in 2006, so I like his billy a lot more than his rather uninteresting Hyde and Shriek. (That said I wouldn't want Tom Paterson to return drawing it, because I wasn't impressed by his H&S of 2005)

I can see why people don't lie the new Billy Whizz. It is quite a big change. I think Nick is good at showing Billy's speed!

I think it looks great. The style really suits a fast moving strip like Billy.

Lew

Billy Whizz is a bit of a difficult one really. Just about every artist has produced a different interpretation of him, whereas for example when DS took over the Bash Street Kids he was ghosting Leo Baxendale.

These are my opinions on Billy's previous main artists:
. His original artist, Mal Judge, had a simplistic but effective style that I believe was always popular with the readers. In some respects, Nick Brennan is quite similar to Mal.
. David Parkins' version was brilliant. His style was wacky but detailed, and he found just the right balance, with his Billy having that real essence of rush. He should have drawn him for years, but other commitments forced to him to stop drawing Billy. Objectively speaking, he was probably Billy Whizz's best artist.
. Trevor Metcalfe drew two different versions (hand-drawn and a with a Wacom tablet). Both of these were fun, and his Billy was popular. He achieved a good balance in most respects.
. Vic Neill's Billy is a favourite of mine, but I can see why traditionalists might not like it (he changed him quite a lot). He was an excellent artist, though he had a definite weakness - in later years, particularly from 1998 on, his Billy was often drawn like he was not actually going very fast. In his earlier years, this wasn't so much of a problem.
. Graeme Hall's version was the worst - a crude, splapdash pastiche of Neill's style. The strip almost got dropped in 2003 when Hall drew him. I've yet to find anyone who actually liked his Billy.
. Wayne Thompson revitalised Billy when he took over in 2003, and his earliest strips had a great, Judge-like feel. However, when he started doing first Joe Jitsu and then Jak, the quality of his work on Billy got worse. The final few strips Thompson drew were pretty poor artwork-wise, although I feel he was not helped by weak scripts.

Personally, I found Nick Brennan's Billy better this week. It's better than his work has been for some time I reckon - his last Beano work on Crazy for Daisy was not good in my opinion.

Yeah, I never liked Crazy for Daisy. This week's Billy Whizz was better than last weeks, but someone please tell the colourist to colour his shoes! Plain white just looks odd.

I agree, his shoes do look better in colour. Also, they should have holes in the soles. Also, if they're to be coloured in, his shoes should be blue and white. Orange and white was okay, but red and white never really worked for me.

I think maybe Nick Brennan's Billy Whizz seems better because, although he has changed Billy's design (not the first artist to do this), he's got the greater discipline of working with an established character, whereas with a strip he originated like Crazy for Daisy, it was all his designs.

I thought it was strange how the rather repetitive Crazy for Daisy far outlasted Tim Traveller (they were in the same vote together), when Tim Traveller was funnier, more creative and had better art (although he was dropped for a different reason, because the editor disliked Keith Reynolds's style after the original artist died).

Yes, Tim Traveller I liked. It's a shame it had to be dropped. It's a similar situation to what happened to Les Pretend, who also got dropped originally because they couldn't find a suitable replacement artist after John Sherwood's death.

I agree, his shoes do look better in colour.

I thought as a Billy Whizz fan, and perhaps aware that he's mostly in a tracksuit, etc, that most running shoes have been white for quite a few years. Decades maybe. Maybe longer. I would've thought that it would be more relevant that they'd be white.

Now, Ball Boy's footy boots, that's a different matter. They should be zany coloured, lots of stripes, and maybe an odd indistinguishable signature on them for good measure.

It's a similar situation to what happened to Les Pretend, who also got dropped originally because they couldn't find a suitable replacement artist after John Sherwood's death.

Is that an actual fact? As in, a search was made, couldn't find anyone suitable, and then dropped the strip?

It's exactly the same situation, another artist took over, but it was quickly dropped. There's been one more new strip since, by Laura Howell, but since then, just reprints.

As for Billy Whizz's shoes, they're trainers, not running shoes, which typically have spikes. Trainers come in all sorts of colours, white isn't dominant.

With your next post, Digi, it will be 1500 and counting. It doesn't seem five minutes since I was congratulating you on reaching 1000.

Just over a month I think. And I hadn't even noticed! Thanks for the congrats.