Profile 1: Billy

 

Welcome to the first of many Bone Boy Billy Profiles! Giving you all some more insight into the characters, their history, the world and overall lore of our silly little comic. Who better to start with than the main character himself? The Bone Boy, Billy! So let's get some details out of the way first.

Name: Billy

Age: 10 (when he passed)

Favorite food: Pizza. Just about any kind. 

Theme Song: Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks

Abilities: Regenerates from anything, can disassemble and reassemble himself instantaneously, can roll into a ball to knock someone down.

History: Billy was ten years old when his life changed forever. Because it ended. Billy doesn't talk a lot about his previous life. Though he does admit he was previously a huge scaredy cat. Afraid of his own shadow and cautious every step of the way. It still got him six feet under. Now he's got a new lease on his, uh, afterlife. Brought back from the dead by his powerful witch mother. Billy is a soul inhabiting his original skeleton, since he'd been dead a while before being brought back.

Not long after Billy was back did he see things had changed. His mother had a new son, Georgie, who Billy quickly accepted and grew to love. Along with bringing him back, her spell accidentally brought up a stray demon soul, Oltan, who got stuck in their Jack-O-Lantern. Oltan and Billy became fast friends with the lazy demon often giving Billy insight into the world of the supernatural to help him better understand what they were dealing with.

Billy found his passion in helping other wayward supernatural beings like himself. Trying to understand them instead of run away in fear like he used to. Billy has become a pacifist, not wanting to hurt anyone. Thankfully he made friends with the local neighbor's granddaughter, Nancy, who didn't mind backing him up with her trusted Stab-Bat.

While he may have a greater purpose in life, Billy is still very much a kid. He loves video games and comic books. Would rather watch cartoons than do his homework or clean up. He's sweet, but still a kid with all the flaws that entails. Prone to easy distractions. His heart is always in the right place. Even if it's technically not there.

Always a little over-trusting of others, sometimes he has to clean up his own messes and he always takes responsibility. He's got a lot on his plate. Trying to help out the supernatural world, get good grades and be a solid big brother. Billy's up to the challenge, eager to show the world a better way.

Creator Notes: Everything starts with Billy. A botched Xenomorph doodle turned cute skellington boy going on his own little adventures in a sleepy little Oregon town. Billy's story has evolved a ton over the last 15+ years of developing it. Early on the comic was going to be very different, with Billy having more overt super powers and fighting bad guys instead of trying to resolve things peacefully. 

While his overall role changed a lot, one thing that almost never changed much was the design. Once I started doodling him as a human skellington it just clicked. A super simple, fun to draw design. Most of the changes done to his design were small tweaks at best.

Early Billy had a much bigger head. I think I was going for that more chibi vibe. Eventually I shrunk it down to a more manageable size compared to his body. I also decided that the top of his 'rib cage' (the three lines across his chest) would connect to his arm-noodles. His final change was the eyes. In the past I would sometimes draw them round, sometimes more square, never really settling on a shape. When I finally started drawing the comic proper, I decided to give him candy corn shaped eyes. Just to add a little more Halloweeny-ness to the character.

Originally we were going to see how Billy passed. I felt that was too grim. His first origin was he drowned and was never found in a mysterious lake. Only to emerge out of the lake several years later, a living skellington. The lake's backstory was that it was enchanted by a witch, and the waters could bring back the dead. With Billy's ressurrection being delayed for some reason. The lake, it's magic water was going to be a major plot point. It was how Billy came back, how his best friend had a pumpkin head, how the zombies reanimated and I was even thinking up a Frankenstein monster that pumped the lake water through his veins like blood. Fun stuff.

Over time I grew to dislike the grim death of the main character. I'd rather keep Billy's death something of a mystery, it's not really important how he died, rather what he chose to do with his second chance at life. That was always the main theme/idea of his story. Changing that, the lake started to become something of a problem. If it could just bring anyone back, there was no stakes. It was also just a really poor Pet Semetary kinda shtick I was going for that did not work. 

Getting rid of the lake, I sort of merged the witch who enchanted the lake and Billy's mom into one character. She never really had much of a role up to that point. Having her bring him back from the dead and giving her character a lot more to do. I'll get more into her OG character in her profile as well. 

Billy's biggest change came in making him a pacifist. I really, really loved Steven Universe and how it handled it's larger than life conflicts with such emotionally mature storytelling. So I wanted to give my character a similar quality. While he can defend himself, he doesn't really fight. That informed a lot more of the character and his abilities. Keeping him simpler, but I think a stronger character with a more solid core. 

Unsurprisingly, Billy is based on myself as a kid to a very, very loose degree. Rather, Billy is the kid I wish I had been. Always polite and friendly. Ready to lend a helping hand. Maybe a bit over eager but always trying his best. I was a polite kid but I would much rather have been Billy and resolved things more peacefully. 

Really the inspiration Billy takes from me is his backstory as a coward in his first life. As a kid I was scared of my shadow. I remember saying little prayers every time I got on the school bus hoping it wouldn't crash and kill us all. I was a very grimly imaginative kid who often thought of all the horrible ways I could die. Billy getting a chance to actually die, see it's not that big a deal and get another chance is what I wish my kid self could've done. He'd probably have been a lot less of a neurotic mess back then.

Developing Billy, really finding the soul of the character, has been incredibly rewarding. I feel like I've looked in on myself a lot when making Billy, it's been beneficial for us both.