'Roy of the Rovers' Annual

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Both The Safest Hands in Soccer and Goalkeeper suffered occasional scheduling issues due to the health of artist Torta, occasionally having to skip instalments or, in one instance, be substituted with a text-only story. The Old Ones Are Still the Best", Irish Examiner, 24 December 2005, archived from the original on 29 September 2007 , retrieved 20 June 2010

Roy of the Rovers taught sportsmanship, etiquette and why a fractured ankle, a broken rib and an early case of Polio should never stand between a determined team captain and victory in the FA Cup." [13] A number of official Melchester Rovers Subbuteo teams were produced in the 1980s and 1990s. There was also an officially licensed board game in the 1980s, which saw players take on the role of Roy Race and manage the club. [74] Replica Melchester Rovers shirts have been available at various stages of the series' life, up to and including a strip designed and produced by Hummel for the 2018 reboot.This article was in part first published in episodic form on the Boys’ Adventure Blog and content from those articles by Richard Sheaf is reproduced here with permission a b "Behind the Scenes – The Writers", Roy of the Rovers.com, archived from the original on 14 December 2010 , retrieved 21 June 2010 After Joe Colquhoun departed, he was succeeded first by Paul Trevillion, then by Yvonne Hutton, who illustrated from 1967 to 1974, before David Sque [60] took over in 1975. [61] Despite reportedly not being a football fan, [e] he was responsible for one of the strip's more definitive looks in its early '80s period. He was replaced in 1986 by former 2000AD artist Mike White, who gave Roy a more muscular look and the strip a more modern feel. [63] Barrie Mitchell took over in 1992, with a style quite similar to White's. [37] A number of artists worked on the monthly comic, such as David Jukes, Sean Longcroft and Garry Marshall, in contrast to the lengthy tenures of the weekly strip's creative team. [37] Tony Harding often illustrated Roy for the Roy of the Rovers annuals and also drew the Roy's Action Replay strip that appeared in All Action Monthly in the late eighties ( Fleetway). Mitchell returned in 1997 as the sole artist of the Match of the Day strips for all four years. [64] The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s collected the very best of Roy’s thrilling escapades, featuring the cream of Roy’s matches and adventures from the 1980s

Barrie Tomlinson’s recently -released Real Roy of the Rovers Stuff, telling the real-world story behind the creation of the football legend, complements this rather nicely. Designed with a comic strip opening each chapter, the text takes the reader through Roy’s many incarnations and gets the inside stories from the editors, illustrators and story creators who worked on the comic through the years. It also has memories and contributions from sports celebrities involved in the comic, such as Bobby Charlton and Gary Lineker. Find sources: "Roy of the Rovers"comic– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( December 2011) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) The first non-comics Roy of the Rovers tale, published by New English Library, was released in 1977. Written by James Hart, and simply called Roy Of the Rovers, the story revolved around Melchester’s bid for the European Cup Winners’ Cup, hampered by acidental team injuries and deliberate sabotage.Rebellion buys Roy of the Rovers from Egmont, along with the rest of its Fleetway “classic” characters Melchester Trophy Cabinet Roy of the Rovers Publications", Roy of the Rovers.com, archived from the original on 13 October 2008 , retrieved 20 June 2010 Roy is gunned down in his office by a mystery assassin. It later turns out to be a disgruntled actor who played him on TV Division One Champions – 1931, 1932, 1933, 1951, 1958, 1960, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1980, 1988, 1992

On 29 February 2008 it was announced that Titan Books had acquired worldwide book publishing rights to a range of Egmont's comic strips, including Roy of the Rovers. The first of their compilations of Roy's playing days, The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s was released in May 2008 and included the "Relegation" and "Who Shot Roy" story arcs. The Bumper Book of Roy of the Rovers was published in October 2008, and reprinted strips, articles, short stories and features taken from Roy annuals dated from 1957 to 1971. Two further titles were released in 2009, The Best of the 1970s and The Second Bumper Book, and a third Best of, focusing on the World Cup, was released in 2010. All five of the titles were edited and compiled by David Leach.The Amstrad CPC Resource: Roy of the Rovers by Gremlin Graphics for the Amstrad CPC/GX 4000", CPC Zone, archived from the original on 27 September 2007 , retrieved 15 August 2009 The Today newspaper ran from 1986 to 1995 and included Roy of the Rovers stories drawn by Kim Raymond in early editions, some at least collected in the Roy of the Rovers Collection No. 1.

a b Wilson, Chris (23 March 2009), "Roy of the Rovers profile: All You Need to Know About the Classic Football Comic", Daily Mirror , retrieved 10 June 2010 The format must have been a success because Roy of the Rovers wasn’t the only comic character to front a quiz book around this time. Published in 1980, the 2000AD Space Quiz Book was compiled by Roy Preston. After 22years of continued popularity, the strip was judged successful enough to sustain its own weekly comic, the eponymous Roy of the Rovers, launched on 25 September 1976. The comic ran for 851issues, until 20 March 1993, [a] and included other football strips and features. Another of the comic's more popular strips (after the strip ended in 1985, it was revived after just three months), this strip told the story of teenaged Tommy Barnes. Initially it centered on his bid to be allowed to form a soccer team at rugby union-playing Crowhurst School. Later, Tommy and his pal Ginger Collins formed Barnes United FC and played local league football. Two rugby playing pupils at Crowhurst, football hating Waller and Swate, became Barnes's sworn enemies after first resenting Barnes starting a football team, then, after Crowhurst switched to playing Association Football and finding they actually enjoyed the game, being ousted from playing the new sport for the school team by Barnes. The pair repeatedly used any means possible to sabotage their efforts and cause trouble for Barnes and Barnes United F.C.They said, 'This is football! You're not interested in football' and I said, 'No I can draw anything.' People are people, figures are figures– just put a football shirt on them or whatever! Now of course I was sworn to secrecy and couldn't tell the Sunday papers that I didn't like football when I was doing the national footballing hero in comics! Obviously I've played it, but I'm a doer not a watcher. I loved playing football at school and in later years." [62] Reconciling the continuity of the monthly strip with the stories that preceded and followed it presented difficulties, forcing the story's writers to alter its history in a number of ways, a technique known as retroactive continuity. Significantly, the strip rewrote various parts of Melchester's history, and shortened Roy Sr.'s recorded playing career to a more realistic level. [37] The Pink Floyd Super All-Action Official Music Programme for Boys and Girls, the Pink Floyd 1974 tour programme, contained a quartet of comic strips, each based on one of the band members. The strip featuring Roger Waters was entitled ‘Rog of the Rovers’… Steve Holland has more on this project here on Bear Alley. Digital Editions