Billy Love Nibbles

By Travis Bundy

A story about a man and his dog.

Creator Travis Bundy tells a story that is both heartwarming and filled with some serious action. The story takes place around Billy, a man with special needs who lives with his mother. We start off on Billy’s birthday where a chance encounter his mother has on the way home ends up bringing Billy a new friend. The bond between Billy and Nibbles ends up propelling the story into something completely different from where it started, because if you hurt Billy’s dog… you’d better run.

The artwork is consistently excellent from beginning to end, often times filled with brightly colored panels and some intense scenes when the action is taking place – Billy doesn’t take kindly to those who don’t apologize. A great couple pages comes after Billy first gets Nibbles and we see a few snapshots atop a calendar as the months are going by and the two are creating new memories. They quickly create a bond that ends up turning Billy into a “hero” when Nibbles is involved in an accident – his quest to receive an apology for those involved sends him on quite the adventure.

One of the action scenes in this story comes when a man tries to confront Billy. He hits Billy first, so in self-defense Billy fights back and slams the man into a brick wall with a single swoop of his hand. The artwork does well to make you feel the impact of the hit – this guy might need some dental work after that one. The man’s friends look on in terror from behind Billy as the giant is able to defend himself while still holding Nibbles gently in his other hand.

The turn in Billy’s emotions come quickly as we see everyone in town getting along perfectly fine with him – a small few give him a hard time. Billy is often quick to fix his own mistakes and just asks that others do the same.

A great deal of drama comes from this story as the accident involving Nibbles puts Billy and his mother in a hard place. How will they come up with the money? Billy’s mother works a job all day as Billy stays home, but life without Nibbles just wouldn’t be the same…

Travis Bundy hits all the right notes with this story as the gift of a dog turns one man into the hero his city needs.