'Billy's Boots' (Dutch-language version: 'De Wondersloffen van Sjakie').
John Gillatt was a British comic artist, who worked for the magazines published by IPC/Fleetway from the mid-1950s throughout the 1980s. Between 1957 and 1962, he continued the sciencefiction aviation comic 'Jet Logan' in Comet, while doing the same for 'Dan Dare' in Eagle, in 1988. In the magazines Tiger, Eagle and Roy of the Rovers, he was most notable as a sports comic artist. His signature series, 'Billy's Boots' (1970-1998), about a boy and his magic football shoes, was a major success and translated in several languages. Between 1990 and 2003, Gillatt also continued the football comic 'Scorer' in The Daily Mail.
Early life
John Gillatt was born in 1929 in Peterborough in the Cambridgeshire county, where he spent his entire life. He was the son of a mason. Gillatt grew up reading American comics like Milton Caniff's 'Terry and the Pirates' and Alex Raymond's 'Rip Kirby', and studied at the Leicester College of Art. Gillatt began his career as an advertising illustrator and as a draftsman for the Perkins Diesel engineering firm.
'Jet-Ace Logan'.
Jet-Ace Logan
Gillatt switched to making comics in 1957, starting with the adventures of interplanetary RAF pilot 'Jet-Ace Logan' in the IPC magazine Comet. The series was originally launched in 1956 by scriptwriter Mike Butterworth and artist Geoff Campion. By April 1957, David Motton and Frank Pepper took over writing, while Gillat succeeded Campion. He kept drawing the series after Comet and Tiger merged in 1959 into Tiger. Back then, its popularity was such that it could compete with rival magazine Eagle's own aviation adventure comic, 'Dan Dare', published by Odhams Press. Gillatt continued 'Jet-Ace Logan' with intervals until 1962.
'Johnny Cougar'
Sports comics
In Tiger Magazine, Gillatt began his long tenure as a sports comic artist in 1963. He succeeded Geoff Campion in drawing the wrestling comic 'Johnny Cougar' (1963-1969), starring a Native American heavyweight champion. In 1966, he took a short break to draw a comic based on the Canadian TV series 'The Forest Rangers', the superhero comic 'The Black Archer' and a feature about an actor who became a criminal, 'The Great Thespius'. His first soccer comic was the humorous 'Football Family Robinson', written by Fred Baker, about a family who owned a football club. The comic was previously drawn by Joe Colquhoun, and Gillatt continued it well into the 1970s.
'Football Family Robinson'
Billy's Boots
In the first issue of the comic magazine Scorcher (10 January 1970), Gillatt and comic writer Fred Baker launched their signature work, 'Billy's Boots'. The association football-themed comic was a reboot of another comic, also titled 'Billy's Boots' (1961-1963), that ran in the magazine Tiger, drawn by Frank Purcell. However, while Purcell's comic was humorous, Baker and Gillatt's version of 'Billy's Boots' is a more serious, realistically-drawn series. The plot revolves around an English boy, Billy Dane, who is bad in football. One day he puts on the boots of legendary striker Charles "Dead Shot" Keen and suddenly becomes an amazing goal wonder. 'Billy's Boots' was popular with readers and ran for more than 16 years, surviving many mergers between magazines. Between 1971 and 1974, it ran in Scorcher and Score. When this publication folded, 'Billy's Boots' was brought on the field in Tiger (1974-1985), Eagle (1985-1986) and Roy of the Rovers (1986-1988). Other artists who occasionally drew episodes were Barrie Mitchell, Tom Kerr and Colin Page. In 1988, after 16 years, Gillatt passed the pencil to Mike Western, who continued 'Billy's Boots' until 1992.
Reprints of 'Billy's Boots' were published in annuals, released by the respective magazines that ran his adventures throughout the year. Other reprints appeared in the magazines Total Football and Striker.
Gillatt once delved into self-parody for a 1997 comedy book, released by the makers of the humorous sports game show 'They Think It's All Over'. In a spoof of 'Billy's Boots', titled 'Willie's Boots', Willie (a caricature of football player Ray Wilkins) finds a pair of football shoes that belonged to his grandfather, who was a football star. This lets him to believe that by putting them on, he will enherit his talent (the real Ray Wilkins was also related to a former football champion, George Wilkins). Unfortunately, the shoes have side effects. Willie transforms into a typical 1930s football player, complete with old-fashioned language, unhealthy habits and racial slurs. Eventually he dies from rickets.
'Billy's Boots'.
'Billy's Boots': foreign success
'Billy's Boots' also proved successful abroad. The series was translated into Bengali and ran in the Indian magazine Shuktaara as 'Billir Boot'. In Turkey, it was known under the title 'Sihirli Ayakkabılar', printed in the children's magazine Doğan Kardeş. Swedish comic readers read Billy's adventures as 'Benny Guldfot' in the Swedish version of the English magazine Buster. Later it ran in the Swedish magazine Barracuda too. In Finland, 'Billy's Boots' appeared under two different translated titles: 'Benny Dane' and 'Benny Kultajalka'. In Iceland, the series was translated as 'Kalli í knattspyrnu'.
In The Netherlands, 'Billy's Boots' ran as 'De Wondersloffen van Sjakie' (1973-1975) in comic magazine Sjors. Interestingly enough, some stories were altered for this publication. In one story, Billy was sent to the Netherlands to play a match. Publisher Oberon asked Gillatt to redraw the sequence where Billy takes the ferry, and let him hitchhike to the venue instead. As an inside joke, Gillatt added an Oberon truck with a caricature of Dutch album editor Meerten Welleman in this segment. Whereas the British strip ran continuously until the 1990s, the Dutch version had Billy/Sjakie become a professional football player at the end of the comic's run in Sjors, in an extra story drawn by Jaap Vermeij. All in all, 33 albums of 'De Wondersloffen van Sjakie' were published in the Netherlands between 1980 and 2001. 24 of these contain artwork by Gillatt, including exclusive cover illustrations specifically made for these books.
Dan Dare
In 1988, Gillatt joined the IPC magazine Eagle, to draw the science fiction aviation comic 'Dan Dare', for Eagle. The classic feature had been created by Frank Hampson in 1950 and continued by other writers and artists until 1967. A decade later, 'Dan Dare' was revived twice, first in 2000 A.D. (1977-1979) and then in the relaunched Eagle, from 1982 on. Apart from Gillatt, other artists who drew 'Dan Dare' during the 1980s and 1990s were Gerry Embleton, Oliver Frey, Ian Kennedy and Carlos Cruz.
'Scorer'.
Short-lived 1980s and 1990s comics
In the late 1980s, Gillatt worked on a variety of short-lived comic titles, including 'Magic Man' for Hot-Shot! and 'Ring Raiders', a celebrity comic based on the animated TV series of the same name. 'My Pet Alien!' ran in Eagle. Between 1992 and 1993, Gillatt also provided cover illustrations for the Johnny Cougar Wrestling Monthly reprint magazine and drew educational comics for Young Telegraph.
Scorer
From 1990 on, Gillatt took over the daily newspaper comic 'Scorer' in the Daily Mirror, launched a year earlier by scriptwriter Barrie Tomlinson and artist Barrie Mitchell. Tomlinson and Gillatt continued the adventures of the top scoring football player Dave Storry for more than a decade, assisted by David Pugh. In 2003, after having a stroke, Gillat passed 'Scorer' to David Sque, who drew it until the final episode, printed in February 2011.
Final years and death
After his 2003 stroke, Gillat basically retired from drawing comics. In May 2016, he suffered another stroke, leaving him paralyzed down one side and unable to speak. John Gillatt passed away on 4 November 2016, at the age of 87.
Comic book cover for a Dutch-language version of 'Billy's Boots' and cover illustration for Johnny Cougar's Wrestling Monthly issue #2 (November 1992).
John Gillat's obituary on the Bear Alley blog
Lew Stringer on the Dutch publicatons of Billy's Boots