Kickstarting Comics: The Much-Missed Tim Sale’s Early Work — ‘Billi 99’

Another great Kickstarter to head to and pledge to right now — the beautiful early work of one of comics’ finest, the late Tim Sale, comes back into print — Billi 99.

It was the legendary and gone far too soon artist Tim Sale’s full-length comic debut and it’s finally getting the reprint it deserves in a full-colour hardcover coming from Clover Press and it’s Kickstarting here right now.

Written by Sarah Byam, Billi 99 was originally published as a four-issue series by Dark Horse in 1991 and collected in b&w in 2002. But now it’s being published once more, newly coloured by José Villarrubia. It might have been Sale’s collaborations with Jeph Loeb on stories such as Spider-Man: Blue, Batman: The Long Halloween and Superman: For All Seasons that would elevate Sale to legendary status, but Billi 99 came way before those titles, showing Sale’s brilliance to the world and getting nominated for three Eisner awards.

The book features 200 pages of newly coloured, duo-shade art, with the hand lettering that would become Sale’s official font. The colouring looks incredibly sympathetic and chimes with Sale and Byam’s wish to see a version of the book that was true to their final vision. Fortunately, high resolution scans of all the art were made, meaning that the colouring and reproduction should be spot-on.

Billi 99 was a tale of a heroic teen vigilante hero – Billi Chadam that came with the perfect tag line, “It’s 1999… Do You Know Where Your Civil Rights Are?” Set in 1999, the story tells of a world where the American Dream has vanished, replaced by a world of the haves and the have-nots and poses many questions about the nature of corporate greed and corrupt government. Billi’s the daughter of one of the last of the honest industrialists and heiress to the multi-billion dollar empire. But she’s framed for her father’s death and soon becomes embroiled in murder and corporate espionage with her night-time vigilante actions as the Sword of Toleado.

As for what’s on offer for the Kickstarter, there’s plenty, but the main thing, the reason for backing it is obviously the book itself, presented as a deluxe oversize hardcover format (approximately 7″ x 11″), with all four issues, new colors by Villarrubia, a gallery of pin-ups from some fine, fine talent, including Bill Sienkiewicz, Matt Wagner, Tomm Coker, Rick Hoberg, and Andy Kuhn, plus essays from Byam, Tim Sale’s widow Susan Bailey, and others.

There’s also an exclusive slipcase edition, and a two-volume slipcase set which adds the complete story in its original black and white that won’t be available in retail stores.

Of course it’s already blown past its target, we knew it would, it’s one of the late Tim Sale’s earliest works that now finds new life in colour after all, but that doesn’t mean you should wait to pledge – go here before March 15 and pledge to get in on it.