Korky the Cat dated 8 January 2005, in which, possibly hinting at his unpopularity, he turned up at a school reunion and found that no one knew who he was. However, on 21 September 2005, it was announced on the Dandy website that Korky was to return in December with a new artist and in new adventures. Quite why the Dandy staff decided to over-rule the decision to retire him is unclear, but most likely apathy from fans brought about this change. Korky returned from issue 3338, dated 19 November 2005, this time being drawn by Andrew Painter on computer. The strip was
Billy the Cat and Katie Cat story, though he reappeared in the 2010 annual, starring "William the cat" in a Victorian setting which turns out to be the hallucination of an unconscious William Grange, on a school trip to a museum. He made a guest appearance in the 70th anniversary Beano in 2008, this time drawn in a Manga-like style by Laura Howell. Billy returned to the comic shortly after in issue 3454 (dated 18 October 2008), as a single-page strip illustrated by Barrie Appleby. Despite this, Nigel Dobbyn's version of the strip appeared in the Beano Annual 2011 . However, Dobbyn was unhappy with