Boule et Bill

Boule et Bill

Boule and Bill with the logo of the series
Publication information
Publisher Dupuis, Dargaud (in French)
Cinebook Ltd (in English)
Format Bande dessinée
Publication date 1959 - present
Main character(s) Boule, Bill
Creative team
Writer(s) Roba (until 2003)
Artist(s) Roba
Creator(s) Roba, Maurice Rosy

Boule et Bill is a popular comic, created in 1959 by the Belgian writer-artist Jean Roba in collaboration with Maurice Rosy.[1] In 2003 the artistic responsibility of the series was passed on to Roba's former assistant Laurent Verron. The stories center around a typical family: a man and his wife, their young son Boule and Bill the cocker spaniel.

Contents

History

Boule et Bill first appeared in the comics magazine Spirou on December 24, 1959.[2]. The ambition was to make a sort of European Peanuts. The debut was made in a so-called mini-récit (mini-story), a story in 32 very small pages, printed on the inner spread of the magazine. Roba had until then mainly made illustrations for the magazine and had helped some other authors (including André Franquin), and now started with his own series. A few months later, a four page comic with the same heroes appeared, and shortly thereafter Roba created a weekly one page comic. For the next twenty-five years, Boule et Bill was one of the most popular series of the magazine, and appeared mostly on the back cover. Some of the strips were even published in the rival Le Journal de Mickey, which was based mainly around Walt Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. From 1961 to 1965, the strip appeared in British comic Valiant, renamed It's A Dog's Life. Boule's name was changed to Pete and Bill's was changed to Larry. Apart from those changes this strip was mostly the same. 21 Albums were edited by Dupuis until 1985, containing one long story and some 800 gags. Thereafter, Roba changed from editor, moving to Dargaud. In 2006, Jean Roba died, but he had announced that he wanted the series to be continued, and had appointed Verron as his successor.

Story

Boule et Bill relates the homely adventures of seven-year-old boy Boule and his dog Bill, a Cocker Spaniel, as well as that of Boule's mother and father and Caroline the turtle. Bill, while slightly anthropomorphized, basically acts as a normal dog, and the whole series places comical adventures in the realistic setting of a normal family in a normal town, with normal lives. Most of the gags happen in or around the house, but also include an almost yearly holiday setting with the family travelling away from home, usually at the beach.

Characters

Original albums

Boule et Bill were first published by Dupuis, then from 1988 by Dargaud.

  1. Tel Boule, tel Bill
  2. Boule et Bill déboulent
  3. Les Copains d’abord
  4. Système Bill
  5. Bulle et Bill
  6. Tu te rappelles, Bill ?
  7. Bill ou Face
  8. Souvenirs de famille
  9. Le fauve est lâché
  10. Bill, chien modèle
  11. Bill de match
  12. Sieste sur ordonnance
  13. Papa, Maman, Boule et… moi
  14. Une vie de chien
  15. Attention chien marrant !
  16. Jeux de Bill
  1. Ce coquin cocker
  2. Carnet de Bill
  3. Ras le Bill
  4. Bill, nom d'un chien !
  5. Bill est maboul
  6. Globe-trotters
  7. Strip-Cocker
  8. Billets de Bill
  9. Les V'là !, 1999
  10. Faut rigoler !, 1999
  11. Bwouf allo Bill ?, 1999
  12. Les Quatre Saisons, 2001
  13. Quel cirque !, 2003
  14. La Bande à Bill, 2005
  15. Graine de cocker, 2007
  16. Mon meilleur ami, 2009

Other publications

English translations

Cinebook has published two books in English, with Boule and Bill renamed Billy and Buddy, respectively.[3]

  1. Remember this, Buddy? - Jun 2009 - ISBN 9781905460915
  2. Bored Silly with Billy - Sep 2010 - ISBN 9781849180498

Impact

Boule et Bill is among the best-selling French language comics, with 300,000 copies for the new album by Verron in 2009.[4]

Sources

Footnotes

External links