Billy's Boots
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Billy's Boots was a popular British comic strip by writer Fred Baker and artist John Gillatt, later continued by Mike Western. The comic appeared for the first time in the first issue of Scorcher in 1970, and later moved to Tiger when the two comics merged in 1974. In 1985 Tiger in turn merged with Eagle and the strip moved again, however just a year later Billy's adventures relocated once more, this time to Roy of the Rovers. New adventures of his were included in the weekly comic until May 1990 (later followed by reprints), before he switched to Best of Roy of the Rovers Monthly. The strip also appeared in a number of annuals, including annuals for comics which had themselves ceased publication, and is still fondly remembered by fans of the "golden age" of British boys' comics. [1] In Finland and Sweden, Billy's Boots was published in Buster magazine. Back in the UK, stories based on Billy's earliest adventures appeared in Total Football magazine until it closed in 2001, and Billy's story was also reprinted for a few months in the now defunct Striker comic.
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[edit] Story overview
The series concerned Billy Dane, a school-aged aspiring footballer, who was an extremely poor player until he found a pair of old football boots while cleaning his grandmother's loft. The boots, which his grandfather had bought as a souvenir, had once belonged to the famous striker "Dead Shot" Keen. In a manner which was never explained, the boots apparently possess special abilities which turn Billy into a fantastic football player. In addition to giving him the physical skill to score great goals, the boots also grant him the intuition to always be in the right place at the time on the pitch, leading him to feel that they have a "mind of their own".
However, while the strip never bothered to dwell on the perhaps dubious morality of Billy's using the boots (some might argue that their use constituted cheating), there was frequent rumination on whether or not the boots were, in fact, magical - or if they simply gave Billy a psychological boost that allowed him to play to his full potential. He was, however, hardly ever seen to play well when he did not have the boots on. Occasionally the boots would "refuse" to work, leaving Billy to try and figure out how to "fix" the problem. In addition, despite the boots' obvious importance, he would lose or have them stolen with alarming regularity.
During the strip's run in Eagle, the football element of the story was downplayed somewhat, focusing instead on Billy's exploits whilst on the run from a council home where he had been placed when his grandmother (with whom he lived) had been taken ill. There would often be no football action for several weeks at a time, which was odd given that the central premise of the strip was football-based. When the strip moved to Roy of the Rovers, football once again became the central element in the strip. These years predominantly focused on playing for Groundwood School, with the emphasis often placed on whether he could help them win cup competitions rather than needing the boots to be successful.
By happy coincidence, Keen was apparently also a skilled cricketer, and in one strip Billy also discovered a pair of his old cricket boots, which had similar effects on his performance on the cricket field during the summer months (when there was no football to depict in the strip).
Despite his adventures lasting for more than 20 years, Billy remained about 12 or 13 throughout the storyline.
[edit] In popular culture
The Wirral-based rock band Half Man Half Biscuit included the line "Is this me, or is this Dead-Shot Keen?" - in reference to Billy's oft-voiced wondering about his ability - in the song "Our Tune" on their 1991 album MacIntyre, Treadmore and Davitt.
[edit] Translations
Billy Dane is called
Dead Shot Keen is called
- Dutch: Voltreffer Vick, Swedish: Kanon-Keen , Finnish: Kanuuna-Keen
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- McAlpine, Duncan, The Comic Book Price Guide 1996/97 Edition (Titan Books, 1996)
- Official Roy of the Rovers website
- Scorcher page at britishcomics.com
