Comics UK

Phoenix wrote:

big bad bri wrote:i never had rotr as a kid until billys boots transfered from eagle.

Billy's Boots was in Tiger at least as early as 1977. He was also in the Tiger Holiday Special for 1978. I'm not sure whether there ever was a point when he crossed over to Roy Of The Rovers.

Billy's Boots started in Scorcher in 1970, moved to Tiger and Scorcher in 1974, then to Eagle and Tiger when Tiger merged into it, then to Roy of the Rovers when Eagle folded.

Although the saga never properly concluded in the UK, it did have a ending in Holland, where Billy actually grew older than the 12 year old he'd been throughout his British comics life. More info here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/ ... boots.html

Lew Stringer wrote:Billy's Boots started in Scorcher in 1970, moved to Tiger and Scorcher in 1974, then to Eagle and Tiger when Tiger merged into it, then to Roy of the Rovers when Eagle folded.

Fascinating, Lew. Thanks for that information. I actually only bought Roy Of The Rovers and Tiger between 1976 and 1978, if I remember correctly. I used them to help teach Andrew to read. I still have the issues, of course, but they are boxed up.

Although the saga never properly concluded in the UK, it did have a ending in Holland, where Billy actually grew older than the 12 year old he'd been throughout his British comics life. More info here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/ ... boots.html[/quote]

I wish these books as featured on the link at lews blog would see the light of day in this country in english. i would love to see a return to proper weekly comics in the shops,beano aside.
On a different note i saw today the final hardback vol of charley's war is that the whole lot reprinted from battle & were they all reprints in eagle as im sure the story ran longer than the 10 hardbacks available.

SID wrote:

big bad bri wrote:I think i'm gonna start reading these as i never had rotr as a kid until billys boots transfered from eagle.

I take it Billy's Boots moved over in 1991 straight after Eagle's demise?

Billy boots moved to roy of the rovers quite a while before eagles demise,i think it could have been with a new look or format change for Eagle,i could never understand why it never went to rotr straightaway after tigers demise as it always seemed out of place in Eagle

big bad bri wrote:Although the saga never properly concluded in the UK, it did have a ending in Holland, where Billy actually grew older than the 12 year old he'd been throughout his British comics life. More info here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/ ... boots.html

I wish these books as featured on the link at lews blog would see the light of day in this country in english. i would love to see a return to proper weekly comics in the shops,beano aside.
On a different note i saw today the final hardback vol of charley's war is that the whole lot reprinted from battle & were they all reprints in eagle as im sure the story ran longer than the 10 hardbacks available.

Yes, Charley's War went to reprint in Battle before it ended, so all the Eagle strips were reprints.

There was also a Charley's War sequel set in World War 2, drawn by Joe Colquhoun but not written by Pat Mills. Those stories have not been reprinted in the books as they're nowhere near as good as Pat's stories, and the series never concluded due to Joe passing away, if I recall correctly.

Regarding Billy's Boots, bear in mind those Dutch books are from the 1980s and 90s and the weekly it featured in ended in 1975. I've no idea how healthy, or not, the comic scene is in Holland now. I think comic sales are down in most countries so I can't see a return to traditional weekly comics anytime soon, if ever. Kids have far more distractions to occupy themselves with today.

Yes, the WW2 Charley's War episodes were a real let-down after Mills departed - though Joe Colquhoun's artwork was still pretty good. I wonder what it'd be like if Pat was given carte blanche to write new dialogue for them...?

For anyone who's not seen it before here's an episode of Charley's Other War:





- Phil Rushton

philcom55 wrote:Yes, the WW2 Charley's War episodes were a real let-down after Mills departed - though Joe Colquhoun's artwork was still pretty good. I wonder what it'd be like if Pat was given carte blanche to write new dialogue for them...?

- Phil Rushton

I don't think reworking the dialogue would help much. If I remember correctly, some plots were even repeated from the first series. Also, I would think Pat would approach it all differently. However, Joe Colquhoun's art was as superb as always of course.

It's good that the whole WW1 series has now been collected. Must buy them all one day. I have the strip clipped out from Battle, but it'd be nice to have it in book form.

I love the plan of the fort, though. That's the kind of stuff I adored in Warlord - technical details. Story is ok, but for a boy you can't beat technical details.

Lew Stringer wrote:It's good that the whole WW1 series has now been collected. Must buy them all one day. I have the strip clipped out from Battle, but it'd be nice to have it in book form.

I clipped out most of the original episodes too and, while it's nice that they've now been packaged together in deluxe hardbacks, I do think the reproduction in the collected editions is noticeably poorer.

Personally, I've always felt they ought to take a leaf out of Japanese Manga and reprint the whole series in giant 'telephone directory' editions on ultra cheap paper. These would be a great resource for schools (though I doubt if Michael Gove would approve of them if his recent comments about the War Poets are anything to go by!).

- Phil Rushton

philcom55 wrote: I clipped out most of the original episodes too and, while it's nice that they've now been packaged together in deluxe hardbacks, I do think the reproduction in the collected editions is noticeably poorer.

Yes, that's why I stopped buying them after the first couple of books. However, I understand the later books use some of the original artwork so the repro should be better.

philcom55 wrote:Personally, I've always felt they ought to take a leaf out of Japanese Manga and reprint the whole series in giant 'telephone directory' editions on ultra cheap paper. These would be a great resource for schools (though I doubt if Michael Gove would approve of them if his recent comments about the War Poets are anything to go by!).

- Phil Rushton

I completely agree. It could be argued that Charley's War deserves the hardback treatment because it was such an exceptional strip, but the other Battle reprints such as Johnny Red and Rat Pack should have been in a cheaper format IMHO.

I was looking through my ROTR for Billy's first appearance
This is the back page from issue dated 22nd February 1992.


And this is from issue 29th February 1992 Billy's Boot's First appearance in ROTR,a reprint by the looks of it.

steelclaw wrote:I was looking through my ROTR for Billy's first appearance

Hey, welcome back, Paul, you're a sight for sore eyes. Are you planning on staying with us, like Kashgar? It'll be just like old times if you are.

I'm pretty sure all the Billy's Boots in ROTR were original.

chrisb wrote:I'm pretty sure all the Billy's Boots in ROTR were original.

The one shown above carries the caption "Classic story action" and "Blast from the past" so presumably it's a reprint.

Well it's not reprinted from Scorcher or Tiger so I guess it must be reprinted from Eagle.