The Bootneck Boy
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8 March 1975 to 12 November 1977
| "The Bootneck Boy" | |
|---|---|
 The cover to the 10 April 1976 edition of Battle Picture Weekly, featuring Danny Budd of "The Bootneck Boy". | |
| Publisher | IPC Magazines |
| Publication date | 8 March 1975 – 12 November 1977 |
| Genre | |
| Title(s) | Battle Picture Weekly 8 March 1975 to 12 November 1977 |
| Main character(s) | Danny Budd |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Ian McDonald Gerry Finley-Day John Wagner |
| Artist(s) | Juan Giralt |
| Editor(s) | Dave Hunt |
"The Bootneck Boy" is a British comic war story published in the weekly anthology Battle Picture Weekly from 8 March 1975 to 12 November 1977 by IPC Magazines. Set during World War II, the story follows Danny Budd, a youth from the fictional Northern England town of Tynecastle as he strives to join the Royal Marines.
Having been hired by IPC Magazines to create the new anthology Battle Picture Weekly in 1974, freelancer writers Pat Mills and John Wagner both had mixed feelings about writing a war comic, and as a result tried to take a more realistic approach with working class heroes as protagonists.[1][2] They recruited fellow freelancer Gerry Finley-Day, having had good experiences working with him on IPC's line of girls' comics.[1] Battle assistant editor Steve MacManus recalled Finley-Day being an important sounding board for Mills and Wagner.[3] All three had worked for rival DC Thomson, and Finley-Day took inspiration from Alf Tupper, the working class athlete who starred in sports strip "The Tough of the Track" in the Scottish company's long-running Victor. Finley-Day would work with Ian McDonald on the story, while Spaniard Juan Giralt handled art duties.[1]
Publishing history
The first episode of "The Bootneck Boy" appeared in the debut issue of Battle Picture Weekly, dated 8 March 1975. McDonald wrote the first two weekly episodes before Finley-Day took over as writer for two weeks before the next two episodes were written by Wagner, after which Finley-Day returned and remained on the strip until it finished.[4] He would later name "The Bootneck Boy" as his favourite strip to work on for Battle.[5]
The story was popular with Battle readers, and would run until the 12 November 1977 edition, when it finally made way to accommodate incoming stories from the comic's merger with Action.[6]
"The Bootneck Boy"'s first episode was reprinted by Egmont Publishing in a 2009 Classic Comics special edition of Battle Picture Weekly.[7] Since 2016, the rights to the story have been owned by Rebellion Developments.[8][9]