Burglar Bill

An early incarnation of the Burglar Bill character appeared in Paul Grist's first two self published (and copied) "mini comics". The final version was supposed to be the star of a six issue limited series, first from UK publisher Trident (they actually released a #1 but then stopped doing creator-owned b/w comics altogether) and later Tundra UK (they did not even print one single page). The good thing that came out of those desasters was Paul's decision to self-publish, and since he did not want to start with reprinting an already published book (i.e. Burglar Bill #1), he decided to do another crime series altogether, which was Kane.

Apart from the Trident issue, all former (and even some unpublished) BB stories have been reprinted in recent Dancing Elephant publications and should be easily available. The exact history is told by the creator himself in the back of the Summer Fun Special and in Kane #4.

Finally, the original six issue series started seeing the light of day in 2003 in bi-monthly installments from Dancing Elephant Press, only to come to a halt again because the demand did not meet the expectations. Fortunately it was restarted more than a year later, again with #1, this time from Image Comics, Paul's sole publisher at that time, but again only to be stopped after issue 4 due to low demand.

What was supposed to be issue 5 appeared as a backup feature in issues 14 trough 18 of the Image Jack Staff book in 2008.

Burglar Bill Is Out Tonight
b/w, 4 pages
Shotr Stories
FP Short Stories
Dancing Elephant Press 6/86		 Burglar Bill Summer Fun
RP Burglar Bill Summer Fun Special
Dancing Elephant Press 6/96

 Burglar Bill #1
RP Burglar Bill #1
Image Comics 11/04
Warm Hands, Gold Heart
b/w, 12 pages
Burglar Bill Exploits
FP The Exploits of Burglar Bill
Dancing Elephant Press 9/86		 Burglar Bill Summer Fun
RP Burglar Bill Summer Fun Special
Dancing Elephant Press 6/96
Burglar Bill
b/w, 6 pages
!GAG! #7
!GAG! #7
Harrier Comics 6/89		 Burglar Bill Summer Fun
RP Burglar Bill Summer Fun Special
Dancing Elephant Press 6/96
John Thaw Always Made It Look So Easy (Series chapter 1)
b/w, 25 pages (expanded from 24)
Trident Burglar Bill #1
FP Burglar Bill #1
Trident Comics 12/90

 Burglar Bill #1
RP Burglar Bill #1
Dancing Elephant Press 5/03

 Burglar Bill #1
RP Burglar Bill #1
Image Comics 11/04
Burning Ambitions
b/w, 10 pages
dated 1991
???
prepared for a proposed,
but never published,
Trident Comics winter special		 Kane #4
RP Kane #4
Dancing Elephant Press 6/94

 Burglar Bill #1
RP Burglar Bill #1
Image Comics 11/04
Kelvin Flats Is A
b/w, 6 pages
dated 1992
Burglar Bill Summer Fun
FP Burglar Bill Summer Fun Special
Dancing Elephant Press 6/96

 Burglar Bill #3
RP Burglar Bill #3
Image Comics 04/05

 Jack Staff #16
RP Jack Staff #16
Image Comics 04/08
Kelvin Flats
b/w, 1 page
dated 1992
Burglar Bill Summer Fun
FP Burglar Bill Summer Fun Special
Dancing Elephant Press 6/96

 Burglar Bill #3
RP Burglar Bill #3
Image Comics 04/05
Dead End Stories (Series chapter 2)
b/w, 24 pages
Burglar Bill #2
FP Burglar Bill #2
Dancing Elephant Press 8/03

 Burglar Bill #2
RP Burglar Bill #2
Image Comics 01/05
Pablo Picassos Pigeon (Series chapter 3)
b/w, 23 pages
Burglar Bill #3
FP Burglar Bill #3
Dancing Elephant Press 11/03

 Burglar Bill #3
RP Burglar Bill #3
Image Comics 04/05
Jungle Animals (Series chapter 4)
b/w, 24 pages
Burglar Bill #4
FP Burglar Bill #4
Image Comics 10/05
(Chapter 5, part 1)
b/w, 7 pages
Jack Staff #14
Jack Staff #14
Image Comics 02/08
(Chapter 5, part 2)
b/w, 6 pages
Jack Staff #15
Jack Staff #15
Image Comics 03/08
(Chapter 5, part 3)
b/w, 6 pages
Jack Staff #17
Jack Staff #17
Image Comics 06/08
(Chapter 5, part 4)
b/w, 7 pages
Jack Staff #18
Jack Staff #18
Image Comics 10/08