Boule et Bill

Boule et Bill (known in English as Billy & Buddy) is a popular comic, created in 1959 by Belgian writer artist Jean Roba in collaboration with Maurice Rosy. In 2003, the artistic responsibility of the series was passed on to Roba's former assistant Laurent Verron. The stories center on a typical family: a man and his wife, their young son Boule and Bill the cocker spaniel.

Boule et Bill first appeared in the Belgian comics magazine Spirou on December 24, 1959. The ambition was to make a sort of European Peanuts. The debut was made in a so called mini récit (mini story), a story in 32 very small pages, printed on the inner spread 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. Some of the strips were even published in the rival Le Journal de Mickey, which was based mainly around Walt Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. From 1961 to 1965, the strip appeared in British comic Valiant, renamed It's A Dog's Life. Boule's name was changed to Pete and Bill's was changed to Larry. Apart from those changes this strip was mostly the same. 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.

Boule et Bill relates the homely adventures of seven year old boy Boule and his dog Bill, a Cocker Spaniel, as well as that of Boule's mother and father and Caroline the turtle. Bill, 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. Most of the gags happen in or around the house, but also include an almost yearly holiday setting with the family travelling away from home, usually at the beach.

In 1999, the Boule et Bill series was entirely reedited by Dupuis, in albums of 48 strips, whereas the former albums were composed of either 64, 56 or 48 pages. This series consists of 24 albums published by Dupuis plus three albums originally published by Dargaud and reedited. The nine first albums of the original collection were replaced by 14 albums with different names. The other albums kept their original names, apart from the former 22nd album which was renamed Les v'la!. This new series went on after Roba's death with three new albums drawn by Verron: Quel Cirque! (2003), La bande à Bill (2005), Graine de cocker (2007). In 1979 Une extraordinaire aventure de Boule et Bill: Bill a disparu ! was published in Spirou; written by André Paul Duchateau, Bill goes missing and the various characters from Spirou magazine search for him. In 1987 L'album de famille de Boule et Bill was published by Dargaud. In 1997 Boule et Bill en famille was published. In 1999 Boule et Bill font la fête was published in commemoration of Boule et Bill's 40th anniversary. Four Best of Boule et Bill albums composed of previously published strips were published in 2003 and 2004: Plumes poils et compagnie, En vadrouille, Jeux d'hiver, and Home sweet home. A series of books for children was published in pocket format, illustrated by Roba and written by Fanny Joly, published by Mango as part of the Bibliomango line. An album, A l'école vite !, was published in 1999 by Atlas. Various special advertising albums were published.

Boule et Bill is among the best selling French language comics, with 300,000 copies for the new album by Verron in 2009.

In 2013, a Belgian French Luxembourgian film was released, "Boule et Bill (fr)", based on the comics. It stars Franck Dubosc as the father, Marina Foïs as the mother, and Charles Crombez as Bill. It was dubbed in different languages. The movie received bad reviews, but was commercially successful enough to warrant a sequel "Boule et Bill 2", released in 2017.

A Nintendo DS video game based on the comic was launched in 2008 by Atari and Anuman Interactive.

In the Belgian Comic Strip Center in Brussels the permanent exhibition brings homage to the pioneers of Belgian comics, among them Jean Roba and his series Boule et Bill. Boule et Bill is among the many Belgian comics characters to jokingly have a Brussels street named after them. The Rue au Beurre/ Boterstraat has a commemorative plaque with the name Rue Boule et Bill / Bollie en Billie straat placed under the actual street sign. In 1992 a wall painting representing Boule and Bill was painted in the Rue du Chevreuil in Brussels. It was designed by G. Oregopoulos and D. Vandegeerde. In 2000 a statue of Boule and Bill was erected in Jette, Belgium, next to where Roba lived. It was sculpted by Tom Frantzen. In 2014 the statue was subject of vandalism. In 2002 La Poste, France's post office system, issued two postage stamps illustrating Boule and Bill. Three out of eight were semi postal stamps benefiting the French Red Cross. In 2006, the Boterstraat in Brussels was given a second name, rue 'Boule et Bill'.