We love a good kick-ass storyline featuring a female protagonist taking on the system and challenging people in positions of power. If you’re a fan of early 90’s comic books, you’ll be familiar with the iconic BILLI 99, which featured illustrations by the famed and well-loved late artist Tim Sale. Tim was one of the most celebrated and beloved comic book artists of his generation. Tim illustrated seminal stories featuring Batman, Catwoman, Superman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk, and Daredevil as well as the cult favorite TV series ‘Heroes’. Over the course of his career, Tim received many accolades and awards including three Eisner Award nominations for BILLI 99.
First published by Dark Horse in 1991 as a four-part mini-series, BILLI 99 is a cautionary tale about corporate greed and a corrupt government. It asks: what is power when everything has been taken away?
The book contains 196 pages of breathtaking art and the hand lettering that would become Tim Sale’s signature font. The story introduces the teen vigilante hero Billi Chadam, who takes up her late father’s sword to bring down the powers of oppression and give the people of her city back their lives. BILLI 99 is a story of hope and inspiration.
Today, Tim’s legacy lives on, and Billi’s story continues in an exciting new hardcover release, written by Sarah Byam and published through Clover Press. This new edition is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter. The Clover Press Edition of BILLI 99 includes multiple pin-ups, including a portrait tribute of Tim Sale by legendary artist Bill Sienkiewicz and an essay by Susan Bailey, Tim’s wife, which we are lucky enough to share below. Susan’s beautiful piece gives some background into how she first met Tim, and how he championed women’s rights and feminist issues.
At a time when the world is craving stories that feature multi-layered, complex female characters, BILLI 99 delivers in 2024 as it did in 1991, helmed by a team determined to breathe Tim’s feminism into this new edition, and championed by a publishing entity that is known for stories that break boundaries using creativity and diversity.
On September 28, 2011, I saw a stranger on the internet who looked so incredibly familiar I was compelled to send him a message asking if I had ever met him. Did he live in my building? Was he at that Humping Credenzas with Bobby Kennedy book signing at Elliott Bay Books? Was he one of my daughter’s teachers? Did he date my sister in high school? No. No. No. And no. So, I didn’t know him, at least not at the time, but that was about to change in a big way. His name was Tim Sale and he would go on to become the love of my life.
As the weeks passed, I got to know Tim in a deeply personal way. I had no idea that I was messaging back and forth with a comic book icon, so all our banter was about our personal lives. He would tell me things about himself and, due to my own history, I doubted and questioned so much of what he revealed he must’ve felt he needed to bring receipts.
Had Tim really read Our Bodies Ourselves as a teen? He had. In fact, he remembered more details about it than I. I asked a client who was a co-chair for the book’s 25th anniversary and, yes, Tim had quoted it correctly. Had he really attended women’s rights rallies in the 1970s? Yes, and there was photographic proof.
I found him fascinating. But did any of that actually make him a feminist? For all I knew he could have actually read Our Bodies Ourselves in an effort to learn about female anatomy and the ins and outs of birth control. Maybe he attended those rallies to try to pick up girls.
As the weeks went by, we planned to meet while he was in Seattle visiting his parents. He came up to my office and sat across from my desk and later he said I grilled him for the next two hours. I explained that it was an interview, not a grilling, but he did say to me, regarding his work, that he was “kind of a big deal”, to which I responded, “uh, huh, big deal. So, tell me, why haven’t you ever married?” I was still clueless as to who Tim was professionally until we were officially dating, shortly after this interview took place. Still, there was plenty to learn aside from his work.
Then I met his mother, Dorothy, a strong supporter of civil rights in the 1960s and a women’s rights activist from the late 1960s and through the mid-1970s. She had purchased Tim’s copy of Our Bodies Ourselves and told him it was required reading. And, being a teenage boy, he studied it with enthusiasm. She had taken him to some of the rallies she was leading and organizing on the local level. Dorothy Young Sale had, indeed, raised a feminist son. There was no question as to why this man was so female-focused. He was his mother’s son.
Tim proudly sported t-shirts that featured images of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the words Nasty Woman both at home and on the comic convention circuit. He donated to Women for Women International (they had no idea T. Sale wasn’t a woman). And he supported my work with transgender women (and men) 100%.
Without a doubt, Tim loved women as a group. He was especially fond of complicated, strong, righteous women, both real and fictitious. Billi Chadam was one of those characters. Sarah Byam’s Billi 99 is a unique perspective on the comic book hero. It’s as fresh today as it was in 1991 when it was first published. You’ll see why Tim was proud to be part of the telling of this twist on the typical comic book hero, especially if you knew him personally, after reading the book. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when Tim first introduced me to Billi.
A few final words on Tim’s illustrations and perspective on his work on Billi. He readily admitted to anyone who asked that it wasn’t his best work. Back in 1991, when Billi was first published, Tim was a good artist, but not yet great. Sarah must’ve seen some talent there and took a chance on this unknown artist and she, along with a few others who came along later, helped him to become a better storyteller and co-creator.
A couple of years ago, I asked Tim if he had the opportunity to re-draw any book he’d worked on in the past, which one would it be? Without pausing, he said “Billi 99”. When I asked why, he replied, “I’d just have more fun doing it again. I hadn’t quite mastered the side-eye and, of course, I would ink wash a lot of it.” I would have loved to have seen what Billi Chadam would have looked like had he had the opportunity.
Thank you for taking the leap of faith, Sarah.
To support the Clover Press edition of BILLI 99 on Kickstarter, click HERE.
