Probably the strangest thing about the British character Billy Bunter was he had a second life in Holland where he was known as “Billy Turf”. And while a lot of Fleetway characters were reprinted there Bunter appears to have been a particular favorite. Because when they ran out of reprints for the magazine Sjors Dutch artists Jan van der Voo, Gerard Leever and Robert van der Kroft to produce original material. And reprints of Parlett and Minnitt strips were still being reprinted as late as 1992.

How popular? He appeared in three live-action films there; Billy Turf [Billy Bunter] het dikste studentje ter wereld (1978), Billy Turf haantie de voorste (1981) and Billy Turf contra Kweel (1982). There’s a part of me that wants to stroll over to YouTube and see if I can find clips, but ultimately I feel the same way about these films that I did about the movie version of Watchmen. There are just some things I don’t want to run around unescorted in my reality, and Billy Bunter definitely qualifies as one.

And finally, here are a couple of Billie Turf stories from Sjors.