Roy of the Rovers Holiday Special 1988

7 lessons today’s footballers can learn from Roy of the Rovers

With the notable exception of players like Ryan Giggs and Steven Gerrard, few players show the kind of loyalty exhibited by Roy Race who signed with boyhood club Melchester Rovers in 1954 as a 14-year old and didn’t retire from playing until 1993.

In 1983 he had his one stint away from the club when he played 21 games for Walford Rovers – scoring 45 goals – but couldn’t stay away and returned to Melchester within the year.

1954-2014: 60 years Roy of the Rovers

After being contacted by the Comic Book Heroes forum member and dear friend, Robvanderovers, Egmont confirmed that they indeed have a number of initiatives to celebrate Roy of the Rovers' 60th Anniversary later this year.

They are set to make a number of announcements about this over the next few months, including at least two new titles, further digital releases and marketing activity.

Let's hope 2014 will be the year that our favourite football hero will make his long-awaited comeback!   

Roy of the Rovers Holiday Special 1987

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Barrie Tomlinson remembers Roy of the Rovers Christmas past

Roy of the Rovers editor Barrie Tomlinson talks about his Christmas memories to Mark Towers for the online fanzine "Racey's Rocket" in 2008.

As Editor and Group Editor of children‟s comics, it was always my policy to feature the big celebrities of the day, from both television and sport. I began this policy with TIGER and carried it on when I launched ROY OF THE ROVERS. I figured that television was playing a big part in the lives of young people and the only way we could fight it was to join in ourselves and involve the titles in the world of television. When I later launched the New EAGLE, that policy was heavily criticised and I was accused of being “star-struck”. I had to change my plans to put top celebs in EAGLE. But that‟s another story! Let's get back to TIGER and ROY OF THE ROVERS...

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Could we be about to see the return of Roy of the Rovers? It seems that Ian Rimmer and Barrie Mitchell are working on new material in the hope of getting the story picked up.

I contacted Ian Rimmer about a Q&A for this blog and very kindly accepted, so please post your questions as comments, post them to the RotR forum here or e-mail them to me (strkav@yahoo.gr) so as to forward them to the creators of the latest comic strips, who are trying hard for a comeback. You can do this until the end of December.

Have a look at Ian Rimmer's site here: http://therealianrimmer.com/real-roy-of-the-rovers-stuff/

New Look Roy of the Rovers 1992

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILy_mh7TpIM

Roy of the Rovers stuff...literally

There are 3 pub conversations everyone reading this will have had at least once in their life –

1. Greatest album of all time?

Now this is open to a huge amount of debate - personal taste aside great bands don’t always make the truly ‘great’ albums, do you judge it on sales, mass appeal, or purely personal preference? I will simply say this without ever hoping to answer conclusively. If you say anything other than ‘The Stone Roses’ by The Stone Roses you’re wrong. If you answered with anything by Meat Loaf you can probably stop reading this and go spend some time taking a long, hard look at yourself in the mirror.

2. Greatest film of all time?

To be right just pick any one from these five – Weekend at Bernie’s, Rocky IV, Escape to Victory, Clerks, or Weekend at Bernie’s 2. Alternatively I will accept some pornography. Nothing with dwarfs though. Never again.

3. Greatest footballer of all time?

Now this is the biggie. Do you go Diego - mercurial, breath taking, the entertainer supreme and with the personality to match the talent? What about Pele, the most brilliant of the brilliant Brazilians, an institution in the game, scorer of over a 1000 goals (ish…)? How about Bestie, the wasted talent, the ‘How good could he have been’ argument? Then there’s Di Stefano, Socrates, Bobby Moore, Beckenbauer, Puskas, Messi, Ronaldo, Zidane, Gareth Bale…

Next time this comes up, let me give you a slightly different take. Let me submit to you a footballer whose career spanned decades from youth player to first teamer to player-manager. Off the pitch he survived player rebellions, a takeover of his club, a coma after being shot, a coach disaster, and a high profile marriage break up and reconciliation. On it he won everything domestically (including 9 league titles) as well as every European competition available including a personal favourite – the Cup Winner’s Cup.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Roy Race.

Roy of the Rovers Holiday Special 1984

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RotR artist Joe Colquhoun Interview

The Kommissar thanks Comrade Jane Colquhoun for providing the Politburo with her copy of this rare 1982 interview with her father. Comrade Joe talks about his history in comics and about Charley’s War in particular. Sadly, Joe’s comments about his own future were never to come true. A modest man, Joe rarely spoke to the press, so this is one of the only interviews he undertook:

Roy of the Rovers on Facebook

You can find us on facebook here. Feel free to post your RotR memories!

Football may regret lost values of Roy Race and the comic book heroes

Roy Race schooled you in the romance of the game – the little guy always has a chance against the big guy.

Roy of the Rovers Holiday Special 1982

A Subbuteo ...comic strip!

Ever been interested in reading a comic strip where the actual Subbuteo figures are the stars? If so have a look here! It's rather amusing, if anything!

'Among Friends' blog is sponsored by … Roy of the Rovers

If you’ve been browsing through the blog over the month of January you’ll notice I haven’t wrote that much about football especially the latest exploits.  That should come as something as a surprise to you knowing how much I love football, but it’s just because so much has been happening over the last month, that I was happy to wait until things settled down before offering my opinion, but that doesn’t mean I’ve not been keeping up with things.

Indeed in all the monitoring with what’s going on in football I got all nostalgic and hankered for a simpler time.  A time where the real excitement was represented in comic form.  Back in the day I would not be ashamed to spend all my hard earned money on football stuff – magazines, sure, but especially the football comics.

Roy of the Rovers Holiday Special 1981

These are the RotR comic strips from the 1981 Holiday Special. I've scanned some of the HS comic strips and they are to be uploaded within the next few days!

Dusting Off : Roy of the Rovers, 20th March 1993

Something a bit different for this week’s Dusting Off, as I recently dug out a pile of issues (actually borrowed off a mate) of Roy of the Rovers, in order to look something up in them – and I thought it might be fun to attempt to review one. For non-UK readers who don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, Roy of the Rovers was a weekly comic strip begun in the 1950s, chronicling the adventures of a football (soccer) player named Roy Race, and his team, Melchester Rovers. It was part of a great culture of British sporting comics – one that gradually died out as the 1980s and 1990s went on – and by far the most successful example, starting in an anthology series called Tiger before moving to its own eponymous comic in the ’70s.

Keeping it in the family...

Taken from the MotD annual 2001. As always open in a new tab to read. Enjoy!!!

The 10 best comic book footballers

Surprisingly enough, Roy is NOT No1 on this list! Click below to see more

"Να γίνουμε σαν τον Ρόυ"!!!

Άρθρο του αγαπητού φίλου Νίκου Νικολαϊδη στο ανανεωμένο blog http://roycomesback.blogspot.gr/

Για όλους εμάς που μεγαλώσαμε στις δεκαετίες του'70, του '80 αλλά και του '90 διαβάζοντας (πρώτα στο περιοδικό "Ζαγκόρ" κι έπειτα στο "Δυναμικό ΑΓΟΡΙ" ή στο "ΓΚΟΛ") τις περιπέτειες του "Άσσου των γηπέδων", του "κανονιέρη" αρχηγού της φημισμένης 'Melchester' Ρόϋ Ρέης ("Roy of the Rovers"), η μαγεία αυτού του χαρακτήρα δεν έχει σβηστεί από τη μνήμη.