'Roy of the Rovers' Annual

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In September 1970, Tiger began a second feature, ‘Roy Race’s Schooldays’, but it was not until twenty-three years after his first appearance that the character finally graduated into his own weekly in September 1976. Roy continued to appear simultaneously in Tiger until March 1978. The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. Rebellion buys Roy of the Rovers from Egmont, along with the rest of its Fleetway “classic” characters Melchester Trophy Cabinet

Arguably the most famous British comics character of all, ‘Roy of the Rovers’ sixty year playing career began on the cover of Tiger Number One in September 1953. Since then, the phrase ‘Roy of the Rovers stuff’ has become part of the English language, regularly invoked by pundits to describe the essence of footballing dreams. Young manager Dan Wayne was to face constant battles as manager of Western League minnows Durrell's Palace, who he became manager of in the first episode of the popular series in April 1981. Over the next few years he and veteran assistant/groundsman Joe Croke fought valiantly to keep the club in business amid a series of off-field difficulties, but enjoyed success in non-league cup competitions and even appeared at Wembley Stadium in 1984. The club folded the following year but Wayne remained in the comic in the new Wayne's Wolves story for a year. This saw him managing top-flight side Wolverdon, who were financially crippled. After bringing former Palace players Jess Barton and Duke Dancer with him and operating on a shoestring budget, Wolves defied the odds to avoid relegation and win the FA Cup. [ citation needed] The Marks Brothers [ edit ]

McGinty, Stephen (15 January 2004), "A teen mag for boys–but will they buy it?", The Scotsman, archived from the original on 29 January 2005 , retrieved 10 June 2010 This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. In 1985, following the closure of Tiger, Hot Shot Hamish moved over to Roy of the Rovers, and immediately introduced the characters of Hamish and Mouse to each other. Shortly afterwards, Mouse was transferred from Tottenford Rovers to join Hamish at Scottish club Princes Park, and the strip was renamed Hot Shot Hamish and Mighty Mouse. It was later shortened to Hot Shot Hamish and Mouse, and finally Hamish and Mouse. The series ran continuously from 1985 to 1990, with a brief break that year before returning. The final new stories were published in January 1992, with the remaining issues until Roy of the Rovers' cancellation taking the form of reprints. The Melchester Rovers team disappeared when their aircraft was shot by rebel forces in a South American civil war Re-launches as a monthly comic with grittier storylines aimed at teenage readers. Roy’s playing days are ended after nearly 40 years when he loses control of his helicopter and crashes into a field

Roy of the Rovers stories – Match of the Day – May 2001", Roy of the Rovers.com, archived from the original on 7 December 2010 , retrieved 22 June 2010 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. Mighty Mouse, a Roy of the Rovers strip that began in 1979, featured Kevin "Mighty" Mouse, a successful, skilful Division One player despite being a morbidly obese, short, bespectacled medical student. Hot Shot Hamish, meanwhile, followed gentle Hebridean giant Hamish Balfour, the man with the most powerful shot in the world, and began its days in Scorcher and SCORE, before that title was merged into Tiger. Tomlinson, Alan (2010), "Metaphor", A Dictionary of Sports Studies (onlineed.), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-921381-8 , retrieved 11 June 2010A 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. 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. Dawkes, Phil (21 January 2021). "Roy of the Rovers: How has Melchester striker stayed relevant 67 years on?". BBC . Retrieved 25 March 2022. 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] Roy of the Rovers the weekly comic, edited by Barrie Tomlinson, was launched in September 1976, with Tully writing and Sque drawing the lead strip. Hutton returned to drawing Roy's strip in Tiger until it ended in 1978. Rovers were relegated in 1981, and Penny left Roy. In a plotline lifted from the TV soap Dallas, Roy was shot in 1982. He transferred to Walford Rovers in 1983, but returned to Melchester within the year. In 1986 Mike White took over as artist, and eight members of the team were killed in a coach crash in the Middle East. Barrie Mitchell drew the strip from 1992 until Roy lost a foot in a helicopter crash in 1993, retired from playing, and the comic ceased publishing for six months.

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. Behind the Scenes – The Artists", Roy of the Rovers.com, archived from the original on 30 December 2010 , retrieved 21 June 2010 Find sources: "Roy of the Rovers"comic– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( December 2011) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Roy of the Rovers comic magazine was launched as a weekly on 25September 1976, named after the established comic strip of the same name that first appeared as weekly feature in the Tiger on 11September 1954. The title ran for 853issues, until 20March 1993 [nb 1] ( industrial action prevented publication of 3 issues in December 1978 and a further 5 in May and June 1980), and included other football strips and features. In February 1989, the magazine merged with the similarly themed Hot Shot, and was known for a brief time as Roy of the Rovers and Hot Shot, but reverted to its original title shortly afterwards. The short-lived Egmont Classic Comics reprints first appeared in 2009 and this collection (01/04/09 – 23/06-09) launched the line, which like the others was only on sale through WHSmiths, included a number of sports-related strips as well as “Roy of the Rovers”–“Billy’s Boots”, “The Hard Man”, “Mighty Mouse” and a few more.A Roy of the Rovers computer game was released, on the Commodore 64, [70] Amstrad CPC [71] and ZX Spectrum [72] in 1988. It was split into two parts: the first an adventure game, in which– taking the role of Roy Race– the player had to find and rescue the kidnapped Melchester team, before then playing the second part, which consisted of a charity match to raise funds for the club. The fewer players recovered before the match began, then the smaller the team who could take part. In the extreme, Roy would be the only player for Melchester. The game received mixed reactions; the Spectrum version received 7/10 from Your Sinclair, but only 3/10 from Sinclair User. [73] Tiger was companion comic to Lion, Amalgamated Press’s answer to Hulton’s Eagle. For the new title’s lead feature, AP opted for a very different setting from the outer space of Lion‘s “Dan Dare”-inspired “Captain Condor” whilst turning to the same writer. None of the issues were numbered; the total of 853issues is given in Duncan McAlpine's Comic Book Price Guide 1996/97 Edition. [2]