The Beano/Billy Whizz

Billy Whizz is a character in the Beano. He made his debut in 1964. He is the fastest kid in the world and always runs at 'Whizzspeed three'. The character was drawn by Malcolm Judge until his death in 1989. David Parkins became the artist the following year, and Trevor Metcalfe started drawing him from 1992 to ease Parkins' workload. In 1992, Billy was given a new tracksuit. Vic Neill then took over drawing the comic strip until his death in 2000, making further changes to the character, notably giving him a very inoffensive personality, and changing his hairstyle. After Neill's death, G Hall took over as artist. In 2003, the character was becoming a major letdown and his popularity with the readers had plummeted. The comic's editors even considered dropping him. Instead, it was decided to retain the strip with a new artist, Wayne Thompson, who revitalised the strip, drawing it in a style reminsicent of that of Judge. In 2007, they started to run reprints of him by a number of artists including Vic Neill, Trevor Metcalfe and David Parkins.