Euro Previews: ‘Billy & Buddy Volume 9 — Symphony In Buddy Major’

Another joyously simple Euro comedy now, Billy & Buddy, the misadventures of one mischievous little boy and his adorable cocker spaniel.

Billy & Buddy (originally Boule & Bill) really is one of those simple things, a collection of single-page gags that sometimes work into longer-themed tales. The tone will be immediately familiar to those of you who love the likes of Dennis The Menace and Calvin & Hobbes, where the chaos created is always gentle chaos and there’s a real sense of warmth in each strip, together with some wonderfully done gag work in the words and the art.

Billy & Buddy basically exist to have plenty of lovely, silly, mischievous adventures and have been delighting Europe and selling many, many volumes of their adventures since their creation by Jean Roba in 1959. Subsequent volumes have been continued by various writers and artists, including Roba’s assistant Laurent Verron and this more modern team of Christophe Cazenove and Jean Bastide, always in the style of Roba.

Billy’s the young lad, Buddy’s his cocker spaniel. They live their lives with mom and the frequently put-upon, frustrated, and generally hapless dad. Over the course of the pages, you’ll find so much to love in here, gently funny, perfectly silly stuff as Billy and Buddy find themselves causing all manner of mischief and upheaval for family and those they come into contact with.

This volume’s got a little bit of a musical theme, all started when Buddy takes up the flute, leading to dad finding out his old bagpipes, of all things, from the loft. As you can imagine, it’s a tortuous noise for all concerned, although always delivering a damn fine gag. It all starts when dad, being dad, decides that they’re not going to be buying Billy a flute but will make one themselves… it doesn’t go well…

There’s a fine bit of comedy work at play there – the top three panels full of clever comedy, letting dad’s words and mishaps all happen off panel so you just see Billy’s facial expressions do the work – it might be simple but it’s damned funny stuff.

And that’s the sort of thing you’ll find throughout the volume, throughout any volume – the joy is found in the way writer and artist play around with the characters, the situtations, and deliver on the gags. It might be a simple tale with simple, almost one-dimensional characters, but it definitely does the job. It may not be laugh-out-loud humour, but it’s one that will certainly put a smile on your face and, perhaps more importantly, put a smile on the face of younger readers, who’ll see a heck of a lot of their own world in this one.

Billy & Buddy 9 – Symphony In Buddy Major
Written by Christophe Cazenove

Illustrated by Jean Bastide (in the style of Roba)

Colours by Luc Perdriset and Jean Bastide

Published by Cinebook on 28th March 2024

Now, a little preview for you…