And, of course, collected in one place the repetitive elements that young readers will not have noticed over two years stand out all the more noticeably. Those coming in to the strip afresh will need to accept that it was structured for weekly, incremental delivery вЂ“ a constant rhythm of resolving the previous weekвЂ™s cliffhanger, moving the action onwards, and then setting up that weekвЂ™s cliffhanger. Writer Fred Baker ably mixes the soap opera elements (BillyвЂ™s problems at school with other pupils and teachers, his worries for his gran who he lives with) with the sporting action (both the school teams and other clubs Billy goes on to represent). This first volume from RebellionвЂ™s Treasury of British Comics imprint вЂ“ subtitled вЂThe Legacy of Dead-Shot KeenвЂ™ вЂ“ reprints the first couple of yearsвЂ™ worth of two-page colour strips in a handsome hardback edition. But the heart of the strip is less about performance enhancement and more about wish-fulfilment about a classic underdog character, orphaned and disadvantaged, using the one small break he gets to make something of himself. ItвЂ™s very easy from a 2021 viewpoint of course to look on BillyвЂ™s Boots and question whether BillyвЂ™s lucky find gave him an unfair advantage over his peers that perhaps shouldnвЂ™t warrant our sympathetic connection with the character. When Billy put them on he discovered he could suddenly play in the style of Dead-Shot, with the boots having a seemingly supernatural power to improve his skills and guide his actions on the football pitchвЂ¦ However, when clearing out his grandmotherвЂ™s attic he came across a battered old pair of footie boots that once belonged to вЂDead-ShotвЂ™ Keen, a legendary player of yesteryear who had also been part of the England international team. Starring 12-year-old schoolboy Billy Dane, its premise added an unlikely fantastic twist to the standards of sports stories of the time.Д«illy loved football but was unfortunately one of the worst players in his school. TREASURY OF BRITISH COMICS WEEK! First appearing in the pages of British football anthology Scorcher in 1970, BillyвЂ™s Boots was a serialised strip that would find a home in a number of popular weekly comics over its two-decade history, including Tiger, Eagle, Roy of the Rovers and Vulcan.

Strip football story