Welcome back to 80s August, The Splintering’s month-long celebration of all things 80s… except for you, 1983. You know what you did…. 

Before enjoying the breakout success of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, Archie Comics attempted to embrace another fledgling video game franchise in The Adventures of Bayou Billy, written by Rich (RPM) Margopoulos (Vampirella) and penciled by Amanda Connor (yes, the esteemed Harley Quinn artist) and inked by Mike Esposito. 
Based on the action adventure game released by Konami for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989, The Adventures of Bayou Billy follows the exploits of a William Jackson West, aka Bayou Billy, a former US Delta Force Army Ranger turned bounty hunter. 

Set in the swamps of Louisiana near New Orleans, each issue had a self-contained story that explored revenge, Billy clearing his name after being falsely accused, a corrupt court system, and of course, bounty hunting. The main through-line arc involves Billy trying to uncover the secret of his wife’s murder, as Mrs. Laurie West was blown to smithereens in a car bomb explosion intended for Billy himself. His quest for justice leads him to an organized crime gang led by The Gangster King of Bourbon Street, Giles “Big Daddy” Gordon, and his two sons, Rock and Rocco, who are involved in racketeering, gambling, money laundering, the illegal arms trade, etc. 

Other than the Gordon family, many of the book’s other villains have ties to the Bayou Billy video game, including Swamp Gas Charlie, Blackie Blue (an invincible were-ferret, no kidding), pyromaniac Hurricane Hank, assassins Kid Creole and The Cajun Cut Throat, and Siamese twins Two-Head McGraw (which may be a interpretation of Thugs McGraw from the game). I think I got ’em all there. 

Konami gave Archie a lot of freedom to flesh out the lore, not that the game was steeped deeply in lore, anyway. With that door opened wide, the Archie team added brand new villains expressly for the comic series, including a KGB defector Kalishnikov (What a country!), military pilot Wild Bill Yonder, explosive expert Mr. TNT, electric tech-powered Lightning Rod, baseball-themed duo Mitts and Slugger, a rival bounty hunter The Black Gator, and a requisite mad scientist complete with a Hitler-esque mustache (or rather an Oliver Hardy/Charlie Chaplin-esque mustache for those who are trigger-happy to any Nazi reference). 

On the protagonistic (yep-it’s a word) side, Billy isn’t all on his lonesome in his battle against the Gordon Gang and their lackies. Billy’s allies include three of his old Army Ranger buddies: marksman Sureshot, Choctaw scout Tracker, trapper Broadside, as well as a smokin’ hot redhead mechanic Grease. The love interest Annabel Lee is pulled from the game, though the writers made her a career girl as a successful district attorney. Much like the game, Billy also makes use of his trusty knife, booby traps, and an M-16 rifle to deliver a bayou beatdown and dispense jambalaya-flavored justice. And Billy will need all the help he can get, He’s been shot three times, stabbed twice, and even poisoned, so similar to Die Hard’s John McClaine, Billy is a tough cracker, but no stranger to getting the boudin sausage beat out of him from time to time.

The tone is unabashedly inspired by high-octane 80s action movies, complete with fast-paced action, explosions, hot babes, one-liners, melodramatics, hot babes, and quite a bit of humor peppered in. While each standalone issue tells a satisfying, if not remarkably memorable story, the series really is rather funny, particularly starting in the third issue, which kicks up the jokes a few notches. Like I mentioned above, there wasn’t much Bayou Billy lore to work with, and Margopoulos does a good job expanding on it. Much like some issues/episodes of The Tick, you could be greeted by a new character at any moment, some of whom seem to be there only for the purpose of a joke or gag. There are plenty of 80s-era references, too, including the Ninja Turtles, the Batman movie, and timely mentions of special military operations in Libya and Lebanon.

It was a little disappointing that the writing doesn’t make much use of New Orleans as a set piece, outside of using a dash of creole language from time to time. There’s plenty of scenes set in the swamplands, but that only means that the stories could easily take place near any slightly large city along the Gulf of America (the gulf formerly known as “Of Mexico”) coastline. There’s no Bourbon Street brawls, no cemetery showdowns featuring above-ground tombs as set pieces, no punching alligators in the face à la the NES game. 

Connor’s artwork is solid, but it isn’t as refined or dynamic as her modern fans are accustomed to. It’s still a step above calling it “Archie House style”, as the action sequences require more staging, and the characters themselves are expressive in both the exciting and comedic moments. There are also a few fun background details that amplified the humor exponentially, which I very much appreciated. 

The Archie Bayou Billy series only made it to five issues before being canceled, so there was no “finale” for Billy West and his fellows. Did the series itself never take off, did Konami pull the plug, or did the bad reputation of the game being punishingly difficult (WTF, Konami of America?!) cause a souring across the entire Bayou Billy franchise? Whatever Archie’s internal postmortems on this series decided, The Adventures of Bayou Billy is definitely a fun artifact from a lesser-celebrated video game license, but I was surprised at how much I genuinely enjoyed it, and I could see myself picking it up again for a re-read in the future.

Sure, anyone without an affinity for the specific video game tie-in or 80s pop culture in general won’t find as much to engage them. If you are looking for a quirky, light-hearted action-adventure book, Bayou Billy certainly scratches that itch. If you are a fan of Amanda Connor as an artist, it’s definitely cool to see her earlier work. It’s also not the priciest piece of retro-gaming/comic synergism (yep-also a word), meaning the buy-in price for all five issues is still very affordable. So much so that I accidentally bought two copies of issue 3 when I was completing the full run and didn’t even blink. I’m trying and failing to end this with a cajun/creole joke, and I’m coming up blank, so The End… I guess.

Thanks for reading!

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