Billy Whizz

Billy Whizz is a character in the Beano comic. He first appeared in issue 1165 dated 16th May 1964. He was originally drawn by Malcolm Judge, who also drew The Numskulls and The Badd Lads in the Beezer, and later Ball Boy in the same comic. Billy is a boy who can run at exceptionally high speeds

Judge remained Billy's artist until his death in January 1989. The strip was briefly taken over by Barrie Appleby before Steve Horrocks drew it into 1990, when Beano newcomer David Parkins took over. Parkins gave the character something of an overhaul, making the effects of Billy's whizzing more destructive to his environment and introducing a new tracksuit in 1992. When the Beano changed to full colour printing, Vic Neill took over as artist, partly due to David Parkins' workload, though Trevor Metcalfe continued as occasional understudy into 1994. Neill changed the character further with his familiar two long hairs being changed into a thunderbolt in mid-1994. He continued to draw Billy until his death in 2000 when Graeme Hall became artist.

Around this time, Billy's popularity took a sharp decline and by 2003 the Beano's editorial staff seriously considered dropping the strip for good. It was eventually decided to keep it, but Hall stopped as artist in March 2003 with Wayne Thompson taking over the following month. The change of artist revitalised the strip and the new artwork style, based on that of Malcolm Judge's original but with a modern twist, brought new life to the character and the stories. However, by 2005 Thompson's increasing workload led to the return of Trevor Metcalfe, now drawing the strip on computer using a Wacom tablet.