Boule et Bill

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. Bill is a dog while Boule is a young boy.

History

Boule et Bill first appeared in the comics magazine Spirou on December 24, 1959.^[2] The debut was made in a so-called micro-story, a story in 32 very small pages, printed on four pages 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. 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 related the homely adventures of a seven-year-old boy Boule and his dog Bill, a Cocker Spaniel. The dog, 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. Bill is a brown and white dog with a collar that give Boule ideas or gags. Most gags happen in or around the house, while almost every year a few gags happened on the holidays of the family, usually at the beach. Boule's family is his mother and father, and their two pets Bill and Caroline, a turtle.

Sources

Footnotes

External links

• Boule et Bill official site (French)