During "The Magnet" era, Billy Bunter is not yet the permanent principal character he would become in the post-war era. The style of the stories is to allow each principal character to take a leading role in turn. Stronger characters such as Remove Captain Harry Wharton, the hard and rebellious Herbert Vernon-Smith and Fifth form duffer Horace Coker are frequently given leading roles in their own series; and even lesser characters such as American junior Fisher T Fish and aspiring actor William Wibley would occasionally be brought to the fore in their own series.