Billy the cat versus General Jumbo
This is weird one. I still have dreams of drawing for the Beano and occaisionally doodle Dennis the menace and Billy Whizz. Around 4 months ago when I first got Painter I was messing around with idea of submitting a Billy the Cat story or maybe General Jumbo or maybe even both.
Billy the Cat is one of the Beano's strongest characters, not strong strong but in terms of longevity and possibility. He has all the elements of a traditional superhero and the single page format of the Beano doesn't suit. He's the mild mannered school nerd who dons a cat costume and solves crimes with his acrobatic and detective ability. All keystones in a good action/adventure story. General Jumbo controls a miniature army from a tiny computer on his arm, nuff said. And funnily enough alot of older people always mention both Billy and Jumbo when talking about the Beano yet they have little presence in the weekly comic.
I have a few of the reprints in the 'Classic Comics' series and Billy the Cat and General Jumbo are ripe for an updating. These days kids love speedlines and cell-shading. Mixed with a bit of Teen Titans flavah and there you go. It's a hard one to write though in this age of terror, where bank robbers and lost dogs are too tame but anything meatier is a no-go.
My vague plan was to submit a flash 8 pager with Billy the Cat ,General Jumbo and Brassneck involved in some adventure. "Nobody will think of that!" I said. Wrong!Today on DowntheTubes I read that Billy and Jumbo are teaming up for the next annual! The artist, Nigel
Dobbyn has loads of pages from previous Billy the Cats up on his site and it looks great but it's still not realising it's action packed potential. Again, most definitely restricted by what scenarios can be written. Maybe they could go down the Kim Possible route.
So what I'm saying is, my idea obviously wasn't mad original as everybody seems to agree that they need a re-launch. I'm also saying 'Somebody please give me a job'.
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Billy the Cat is one of the Beano's strongest characters, not strong strong but in terms of longevity and possibility. He has all the elements of a traditional superhero and the single page format of the Beano doesn't suit. He's the mild mannered school nerd who dons a cat costume and solves crimes with his acrobatic and detective ability. All keystones in a good action/adventure story. General Jumbo controls a miniature army from a tiny computer on his arm, nuff said. And funnily enough alot of older people always mention both Billy and Jumbo when talking about the Beano yet they have little presence in the weekly comic.
I have a few of the reprints in the 'Classic Comics' series and Billy the Cat and General Jumbo are ripe for an updating. These days kids love speedlines and cell-shading. Mixed with a bit of Teen Titans flavah and there you go. It's a hard one to write though in this age of terror, where bank robbers and lost dogs are too tame but anything meatier is a no-go.
My vague plan was to submit a flash 8 pager with Billy the Cat ,General Jumbo and Brassneck involved in some adventure. "Nobody will think of that!" I said. Wrong!Today on DowntheTubes I read that Billy and Jumbo are teaming up for the next annual! The artist, NigelDobbyn has loads of pages from previous Billy the Cats up on his site and it looks great but it's still not realising it's action packed potential. Again, most definitely restricted by what scenarios can be written. Maybe they could go down the Kim Possible route.
So what I'm saying is, my idea obviously wasn't mad original as everybody seems to agree that they need a re-launch. I'm also saying 'Somebody please give me a job'.
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