Billy Bob

Billy Bob is a trainee cowboy. Together with Woody, his somewhat tougher friend, and with a copy of ‘The Big Book of Killing Indians’ in his hand, he roams around the Wild West, doing what a cowboy should do: killing Indians. Only it doesn’t go too smoothly. Billy Bob is a keen student, though, who is full of philosophical questions.

In short sketches of usually just one strip, Nix places his cowboy in the most surreal situations. Billy Bob is tortured with a PowerPoint presentation, for instance, or cowboy and Indian pause to eat chips together. The pages of games at the end of the book are also wonderfully inventive and silly.

Nix, who is best known for his foulmouthed twins, Kinky & Cosy, has proven that he can also make a hilarious and challenging comic for younger readers. The fact that ‘Billy Bob’ was nominated for the best children’s comic at the Angoulême festival makes it clear that the critics agree.