The Match of the Day Years - August 1999

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The Match of the Day Years - July 1999

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Back to the future: How comic book heroes came to life in the Premier League - Was Wenger a reader of The Cannonball Kidd and did Crouchie first play for Rockley Rangers?

The era of the football comic book hero may have been consigned to history but the storylines that entertained young boys nationwide every week would not look out of place on the back pages of today's newspapers.

For over a hundred years, the hopes and dreams of football fans were played out in weekly magazines such as Hotspur, Wizard, Buddy, Champ and Tiger by heroes Roy of the Rovers, 'Hot Shot' Hamish, Charlie 'Iron' Barr, Nipper Lawrence, Andy Steele Playmaker and Limp-Along Leslie.
Those superstars played for Melchester Rovers or Blackport Rovers, wore boots more appropriate to deep sea diving and often played on pitches more akin to slurry pits.

But the modern-day youngster now enjoys interactive, 24-hour, wall-to-wall coverage of the nation's game played in purpose-built stadiums on picture perfect surfaces, yet the narratives they devour are much the same as the football stories that comic readers enjoyed.

From corrupt chairmen to success in adversity, cup final heartache, last-minute winners and fancy-dan players, there's much that football lovers from different generations have had in common over the years. It would seem that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Continue reading (enjoying some fabulous comic strips) here

The Match of the Day Years - June 1999

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What 'Roy of the Rovers' means to me

My love of football can partly be traced to Roy of the Rovers. I was not around when the weekly Roy of the Rovers story started in the first issue of Tiger on 11 September, 1954 but when the stand alone comic began in 1976, I followed the exploits of Roy Race religiously until the tragic closure of the comic on 20 March, 1993. For me, Roy of the Rovers represents the glamorous and unpredictable nature of football with last-minute goals in Cup finals and a never-say-die attitude which I try to take with me every time I step on the pitch.

The Match of the Day Years - May 1999

 

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"Fan art" missing matches

"Storky Knight" is a reader of this blog who had a very original idea. He has played around with the scans of the comic strip with the aim of filling in missing matches from great seasons of the past.

All he's done is think of a match that wasn't included in the comics; reuse blocks, recolour strips (and crowds) and think of a suitable story. You can see what he's come up with here

Roy of the Rovers in FourFourTwo magazine (July 2003)

Αφιέρωμα του περιοδικού FourFourTwo, τον Ιούλιο του 2003.

The Match of the Day Years - April 1999

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The Match of the Day Years - March 1999

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The Match of the Day Years - February 1999

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Roy Race A Brief History by Mark Towers

Roy Race soccer star first appeared in Amalgamated Press' new sports and adventure comic, Tiger in September 1954. The first issue showed Roy playing for Milton Youth club in a cup tie. In true storybook fashion the score was 0-0 with only minutes to go, but Roy tireless and still on his toes, pounced on a loose ball and pushed it past a lunging defender and ripped a shot towards goal from the edge of the six yard box, which flew past the visitors' goalkeeper.

Roy Race related forums

The place to talk about anything related to Roy of the Rovers and football comics is general is The Roy Race Talk-In. It used to be the official forum, but now it's run only by us, the fans.

Please visit: http://btheroyracetalkin.runboard.com/
and talk about some serious RotR stuff!!!

And here's another interesting forum to talk about British football (and more!) comics. You can access it here: http://champweareunited.proboards.com/ There's a whole section to talk about Roy and Co.

Keep up the nice work, fellas!

The Match of the Day Years - January 1999

Merry Christmas and a happy new year RotR fans!

Many wishes from the Greek RotR fan club to all the loyal fans around the world! Up the Rovers!!!

Enjoy the Roy of the Rovers Christmas themed covers below:

The Match of the Day Years - December 1998

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The Match of the Day Years - November 1998

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Roy of the Rovers and me‏

I would love to say that it was love at first sight but if I'm honest as a young kid I had no interest in the adventures of Roy Race and the mighty Melchester Rovers.

Comics have always been my life and even before I could read every long journey was equipped with a collection of comics for me to look through. Spiderman, Batman, Superman and even the Beano and Dandy comics were my favorites... who wants to read about football when I've got superheroes. My earliest memory of Roy of the Rovers was hearing that Spandau Ballet and the annoying one of Question of Sport (Emlyn Hughes) played for them really turned me off the comic.

So what was it that changed my mind?

The Match of the Day Years - October 1998

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Roy of the Rovers - Comics Britannia

As shown on BBC 4 on September 17, 2007