Ball Boy (Beano)

Ball Boy is a strip in UK comic The Beano and also the name of the main character. It first appeared in issue 1,735, dated 18 October 1975. It features a five-a-side football team who usually lose all their matches, often heavily, that includes:

Ball Boy's team kit was originally a red and black vertical striped shirt and black shorts, but it later changed to blue and black stripes. One annual used white and black vertical stripes, but that was before the strip became full colour. Sometimes they get guest players joining the team for a strip, like Bea, or Gnasher. The team sometimes also have other players featured, including a recurring black player called Elvis. Paul Gascoigne made a guest appearance in the strip in 1993 in the issue celebrating Roger the Dodger's 40th anniversary when Roger, who was appearing in every strip in that week's comic, arranged for Gascoigne to sign up for the team.

Ball Boy and his team have both been at two World Cups. Italy in 1990 featured in that year's Beano Book and a long running strip in the comic appeared during the 1998 finals featuring the team in France.

The strip was drawn by Malcolm Judge until his death in 1989. John Dallas took over from him afterwards, and drew it until his retirement in April 2003. Since then, the artist has been Dave Eastbury. Nigel Parkinson and Tom Paterson both occasionally draw the strip as well. In issue 3,481 (2 May 2009) a John Dallas reprint was used.

For issue 3,260, dated 8 January 2005, the Ball Boy strip was meant to feature a French footballer called Henry Thierry who wore a red shirt. In the strip he is shown a red card and then runs from the team bath when a snorkel appears close to him saying "Time to va-va-voom" – a reference to the Renault adverts in which Thierry Henry appears. The Beano editor Euan Kerr decided to destroy the entire print run of that comic so as not to risk the striker's wrath, the issue eventually going on sale with a different Ball Boy strip in its place.

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