Comic Books

Main Characters:
Bayou Billy, Bounty Hunter (a.k.a. the Rajun' Cajun), real name: William Jackson West
Annabel Lee, Assistant District Attorney
Broadside, Strongman of Billy's Team. Large, bald, and black.
Sureshot, Marksman of Billy's Team. Patch over right eye, white.
Tracker, Tracker of Billy's Team. Native American.
"Big Daddy" Giles Gordon, Crime Boss of New Orleans
Rock Gordon, his first born son. Specialties: Gambling and Loan Sharking. Big, fat, white man, like his father.
Rocco Gordon, his stepson from second marriage. Specialty: Bribery. Slender, cooler in temperment than Giles or Rock. Legal schemer of the family.

Issue # 1 Swamp Fire
September, 1989
Script: R.P.M., Penciling: Amanda Conner, Inking: Mike Esposito, Lettering: Bill Yoshida, Coloring / Production: Barry Grossman, Editor: Victor Gorelick

Cover: Bayou Billy in the middle with knife and grinning. Based on the game box. An alligator (Loafer?) on his lower left. Billy pushing up his hat with finger in box in upper-left corner.

Guest Cast:
"Hurricane Hank" Deebe, Arsonist with flame-thrower hand (seen briefly)
Kid Creole, Rocco Gordon's hired thug. Slick, gambler-type dude.
Cut Throat, Another of Rocco's hired thugs. Red-haired, big, not-too-bright type.
Lighting Rod, Enforcer, uses an electric cattle prod as a weapon. Slender, wears long, white coat, rubber gloves, and goggles.
Kalishnikov, Rogue KGB agent. Stereotypical, dumb Commie type.
Wild Bill Yonder, Gordon's military pilot. Not much on him.
Mr. TNT, Gordon's demolitions expert. Big fat guy in hard hat and smoking a cigar. (Guess what he uses to light his dynamite with! =)

Narrator: Bayou Billy

Bayou Billy, on his way to testify in the trial of Hurricane Hank, saves an elderly tourist couple from three street punks. He gives the reward to the couple. At the trial, Billy's testimony helps bring a guilty verdict against Hank. After Hank has been led away, Billy asks Annabel Lee, the Assistant District Attorney, to dinner, but she refuses. Undaunted, Billy gives her a kiss that leaves her a bit dazed. Later, Annabel gets a tip on the Gordons, New Orleans' big crime family, and meets two mysterious men at Pier 12 at midnight. The two men are Kid Creole and Cut Throat, Rocco's henchmen, sent to kill Annabel. Using karate (green belt), she gets away, stealing the boat the men arrived in. Kid Creole shoots her, and she ends up at Billy's place in the swamp. As the Gordons plan an attack, Billy sees to Annabel's wound and feeds her an herbal broth ("Looks and tastes like dishwater."). Billy calls his team together: Broadside, Sureshot, and Tracker. As the team assembles, Billy tells Annabel about putting Rocco in jail for selling army supplies on the black market. The team arrives and puts their plan into operation. Sureshot takes out Wild Bill Yonder with a bow and TNT arrow. One-by-one, the other villians are captured. Billy hides Annabel, then takes on Kid Creole, Cut Throat, and Lighting Rod. Kid Creole and Lighting Rod are quickly taken out of the battle. Annabel, who will not stay out of the fight, uses a frying pan on Cut Throat. A romantic moment between Billy and Annabel is cut short by a bundle of dynamite. Billy clears Annabel away just before the explosives go off. Mr. TNT is trapped in one of Tracker's net traps, hanging upside-down from a tree. Billy uses a cottonmouth snake to get Mr. TNT to sign a confession. Broadside, Sureshot, and Tracker arrive in the Billy-mobiles (Yes, that's what ther're called! =) with the rest of the bad guys (Kid Creole, Cut Throat, and Lighting Rod survived the explosion) in custody. As they watch Billy's house burn, the team makes more plans.

Issue # 2 Inferno
November, 1989
Script: Rick Margopoulos, Editor-in-chief: Barry Goldwater, Art: Amanda Conner & Mike Esposito, Lettering: Bill Yoshida, Coloring: Barry Grossman, Editor: Victor Gorelick

Cover: Bayou Billy is crouched down in front of boxes of explosives, and fire is all around him. The shadow of a man with a blowtorch hand covers Billy. (Bet you can guess who that is! =) The upper-left corner has Billy balancing his knife on his finger.

Guest Cast:
"Hurricane Hank" Deebe
Swamp Gas Charlie Gaskill (first appearance)
Papa Jambo, old black man that taught Bayou Billy all his tricks (A little trivia here: Jambo is Swahilli for "Hello" =)
Alexandra La Rochelle (Alex, Al, Grease, or Grease Monkey), the team mechanic.

Narrator: Bayou Billy. (Hurricane Hank narrates his nightmare sequence at the beginning.)

Hurricane Hank is setting fire to a shipper's boats, warehouse, and docks because the shipper wouldn't pay protection money to the Gordons. He is confronted by Bayou Billy. Billy has spilled gasoline on the floor of the warehouse. Hank does not dare use his torch, which is a simple blowtorch at this point in time. He rips off his fuel tanks and attacks Billy. During the fight, Billy flips Hank into the water. Billy tries to save Hank, but Hank refuses, preferring to drown. The current sends Hank into a tugboat, where the boat's propeller cuts off his hand. Hank wakes up in prison, shaking from the nightmare. Meanwhile, Billy confronts Giles Gordon (in his bed, of all places!) and makes the crime boss pay him fifty-thousand dollars for blowing up Billy's house. At the trial of the bad guy team, this knowledge is all the Gordons' lawyer needs to convince the judge to drop the charges on the bad guys. Annabel stares daggers at Billy, who shrugs and grins sheepishly. Later that night, Hurricane Hank escapes from prison. Tracker tracks him to a warehouse. The next day, Billy and Annabel go house-hunting. Annabel just got a tip about Hank being holed-up in a warehouse, but Billy knows about it. Billy tells her about the two times he "died": Once, in Lebanon, and again, by Swamp Gas Charlie. Broadside performed CPR and saved Billy the first time. An old, black man named Papa Jambo saved Billy the second time. Papa Jambo taught Billy all he needed to know about the swamp - including the broth Billy gave Annabel in Issue # 1! At Al's Garage and Towing, Billy and Annabel meet up with the team and Al. Al turns out to be a young, red-haired and green-eyed, freckled woman named Alexandra La Rochelle. Al insists on being called "Grease", short for "Grease Monkey". Broadside and Sureshot take Helga - a monster truck with a tank engine and a huge snow-plow - and set a trap for Hank. Billy and Hank fight again, recreating their last fight. Billy ends up in the Mississippi River this time. He swims to a tugboat. There, Hank is waiting to haul Billy aboard to finish their fight. Once again, Billy flips Hank into the water. Billy tries to save Hank, but Hank would rather drown. That's the last we see of Hurricane Hank. Or is it?

Issue # 3 Swamp Fever
January, 1990
Script: Rich Margopoulos, Lettering: Susan Fox and Bill Yoshida, Editor: Scott Fulop, Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick, Art: Amanda Conner and Mike Esposito, Coloring / Production: Barry Grossman

Cover: Bayou Billy is fighting Blackie Blue in the swamp. Left-hand corner box has Annabel kissing Billy.

Guest Cast:
Blackie Blue, mutated convict
Alexandra La Rochelle
Dr. Hans Mannheim, genetic scientist (and really wacko!)
Swamp Gas Charlie

Narrator: Bayou Billy. (When Billy is reading the file on Blackie Blue, he reads the notes of Dr. Mannheim. Dr. Mannheim narrates the part with his notes.)

The police have Blackie Blue cornered, but the mutant escapes, tearing the door off the police car and throwing the sheriff into a nearby dumpster. Bayou Billy comes along to help the sheriff out of the dumpster, but puts his team on the case. While Alex and the guys are building a new monster truck, Billy goes looking for Swamp Gas Charlie, starting in Algiers, a run-down part of New Orleans. He meets a guy who picks a fight with him. They go into an alley and begin the fight. (Guess WHO wins! -) Billy walks out of the alley with the information he needs. Meanwhile, Broadside, Sureshot, and Tracker have tracked Blackie Blue down. They try to net him, but Blackie tears the net apart. He catches Sureshot's arrows even as the hunter fires them. Blackie then leaps out a window, about three stories up. Billy arrives just in time for Blackie to land on the hood of Billy's jeep. Later, Billy calls Annabel and sets up a date to see his new house. As he is waiting for her, he reads Blackie's police file. Blackie Blue was a convict on Death Row, who swam in the same chemicals as the Joker (or so we deduce, given Blackie's description of his partner), turning him blue. Blackie traded the death sentence for life by volunteering for one of Dr. Hans Mannheim's experiments. Blackie was horrified to find out that the serum that Mannheim gives him will make Blackie practically immortal. The RNA was spliced with those of a ferret, and the cells already mutated by the chemicals he fell into, changed Blackie Blue into a half-man, half-ferret creature. Blackie escaped from the laboratory and has been at large ever since. Billy stops reading when Annabel comes out. At Billy's new house, Annabel sees a picture of a blonde woman, and she asks who it is. Sureshot tells her that it's Laurie, Billy's wife. When Billy enters the room, Annabel slaps him. Billy then tells her that Laurie was killed two years ago, when the Gordons put a contract out on Billy, but got his wife instead. Blackie Blue attacks and almost drowns Billy. The guys throw raw meat into the swamp to attract the alligators. They tell Annabel that Billy will be okay; he wears a special salve that keeps alligators away. The alligators would only attack Blackie. While Blackie is fighting with the alligators, Broadside rescues Billy. Blackie survives his fight, and escapes. Annabel comes up with the idea of luring Blackie to Swamp Gas Charlie's place, which Billy found earlier. Billy uses a suitcase full of dirty socks to lure Blackie to Charlie's. Using several of his gas grenades, Charlie manages to put Blackie to sleep. Billy then comes in and captures Charlie, taking them both to the police. Later, Charlie uses a smoke bomb to escape from the courtroom during his trial.

Issue # 4 Billy's Night Out
April, 1990
Writer: Rich Margopoulos, Letter: Pat Brosseau, Art: Amanda Conner and Mike Esposito, Editor: Scott Fulop, Coloring / Production: Barry Grossman, Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick

Cover: Bayou Billy is kneeling at Laurie's grave. Behind the scene, in blue, is their wedding photo, a police file photo of Swamp Gas Charlie, Billy's knife, and a couple of bullets. The box in the upper-left corner has a silhouette of Thugs "Two-Head" McGraw.

Guest Cast:
Alexandra La Rochelle
Thugs "Two-Head" McGraw, Gordon's Siamese Twins enforcers.
Snitch, the stoolie
Swamp Gas Charlie
Special Guest Appearence: Laurie La Rochelle West

Narrator: Bayou Billy.

Billy, a member of the New Orleans Police force, has just gotten married to Laurie La Rochelle. (Yes, Alex is Billy's sister-in-law!) Much later, Billy reads in the paper that Rocco Gordon has just been released from prison. Billy wants to move, to protect Laurie, but she does not want to move. She takes his keys to move his jeep so that she can get out for her doctor's appointment. It seems that Billy may soon be a father! Tragically, a bomb meant for Billy went off as soon as Laurie turned the keys in the ignition, killing her instantly. Billy quits the force to become a bounty hunter. He is then seen grieving at Laurie's grave. Billy then wakes up from a nightmare (the memory replay). He gets dressed and goes out to track Laurie's killers. He first goes to an illegal gambling ring run by Rock Gordon. From the terrified players he finds that the bartender at the Rue Morgue Bar might know where Swamp Gas Charlie is. The bartender sends Billy to look for Thugs "Two-Head" McGraw, a giant Siamese Twin enforcer. Just in time to save someone from Thugs, Billy fights the large enforcer. Billy wins and questions him (them?) about Swamp Gas Charlie. Thugs sends Billy to Snitch, a small, nervous man in round glasses. After some of Billy's "special persuasion" (Billy dunks Snitch's head in a bucket of mop water), Snitch tells Billy to go to the Chem Can Plant, where chemical drums used to be cleaned out. Billy goes to Chem Can and gets the drop on Charlie, but Charlie drops a flask containing his newest gas: Kaledidoscope Gas. He then tells Billy that he's going after Annabel. Billy uses a blood-purifying root to counter-act the gas. Meanwhile, Charlie pays a visit to Alex, gasses her, and steals Inga, one of Billy's monster trucks. Billy hurries to Annabel's place, afraid that he might be too late. Charlie rams the Billy-mobile with the monster truck, making it flip. But the jeep is so well balanced that it lands right side up. (Yea, Alex!) Roll bars and a seat belt save Billy's life. Feeling under the seat for anything that might help, Billy finds a can of red paint. He throws it over his shoulder, and the paint hits Charlie's windshield. Billy lures Charlie into an alley, stuffs a rag into the jeep's gas tank and light it. Billy then takes cover in a building as Charlie rams the jeep. There is a huge explosion. Charlie and Inga are unhurt. Billy confronts Charlie and pulls his mask off. Charlie suffers from a respiratory condition; without the mask, Charlie would die. Billy gives Charlie back the mask, then questions him about who planted the bomb that killed Billy's wife. Charlie says that it was Hurricane Hank. But Hank drowned the last time he and Billy fought. Billy then gives Charlie to the police. He cannot help the feeling that he is being watched, though.

Issue #5 Night of the Black 'Gator
June, 1990
Script: Rich Margopoulos, Lettering: Pat Brosseau, Art: Amanda Conner and Robert Downs, Editor: Scott Fulop, Coloring / Production: Barry Grossman, Managing Editor: Victor Gorelick

Cover: Bayou Billy is standing in the swamp, his knife ready. A figure in a black bodysuit and an alligator-tooth necklace is behind him, squatting on a branch. Box in upper-left corner is a head profile of the character in the bodysuit.

Guest Cast:
La Rue, crime boss.
Mitts, La Rue bodyguard, wears a baseball glove on his left hand.
Slugger, La Rue bodyguard, carries a baseball bat.
Black 'Gator, rival bounty hunter.
Schwartz N. Eiger, ex-actor, now criminal.
Papa Jambo (in Billy's dream)
Snitch

Narrator: Bayou Billy.

What seems to be Bayou Billy is attacking La Rue, a mob boss. When "Billy" throws a grenade, Mitts and Slugger catch and bat it into the air, where it can explode harmlessly. "Billy" steals money from La Rue, then leaves, shooting his gun in the air as he drives away. At police headquarters, Broadside, Sureshot, and Tracker bring in a criminal named Migraine Mike. (They beat him with a bottle of aspirin!) The sargeant tells that Billy is wanted for robbery and attempted murder. In another part of town, another bounty hunter, this one in a black bodysuit, sits complaining about Bayou Billy. At the Gordon estate, it is discovered that the "Billy" who attacked La Rue was really an ex-actor turned criminal, Schwartz N. Eiger. Eiger was paid to frame Billy for a crime, sending La Rue's mob and the police after Billy. Billy dreams he is in the swamp, fighting a black alligator. Billy wakes up and tells Papa Jambo about the dream. Papa Jambo tells Billy that the black 'gator represents Billy's secret guilt and hates. Papa Jambo tells Billy that the only person to beat the black 'gator was a student of Papa Jambo's that had so much evil in him that he was the black 'gator. Billy then wakes up from the dream-within-a-dream. When the police arrive to take Billy in, Billy hides in a secret panel - inside the secret panel. (Remember, the one in Issue # 1?) After the police leave, Billy gets some milk to drink and calls up Annabel. When Annabel tells him that he's wanted for robbery and attempted murder, Billy spits the milk out in surprise. He then goes out to track the false Billy. When he gets to Annabel's house, he plans to "borrow" her car, but he is confronted by the man in the black bodysuit. His name is the Black 'Gator. After a long battle, Billy gets away in Annabel's car, with the Black 'Gator hanging onto the roof. Billy shakes the 'Gator off, then goes and sees Snitch. Snitch tells him about the actor and that he can be found at the old Jackson Theater. Billy then leaves. Snitch has a hard time leaving; several people show up, looking for Billy: The Black 'Gator, Billy's Team, and La Rue. Since no one paid him for the information, Snitch phones the police and tells them where to find everybody. Billy gets to Eiger, but hears the Black 'Gator come in. Billy grabs the other's hat and tells 'Gator that Eiger is Bayou Billy. The Black 'Gator finds out that Eiger is not Billy. When Billy attacks 'Gator with a chair, Eiger makes off with the money. Billy tries to tackle him, but is, himself, tackled by the 'Gator. Outside, Broadside, Sureshot, and Tracker catch Eiger. They show the police how Billy was framed and give the money to the police. Meanwhile, Billy and the 'Gator fight. The 'Gator is thrown out a window, but disappears. As Billy leaves the theater, Annabel greets him with a big hug.

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