On this site I have drawn a distinction between football magazines and
football comics. (My definition is that magazines are aimed at adults
and comics are aimed at children/teenagers)
Comic strips existed in post war newspapers but the stand out launch in British football comics was the "Tiger- The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly" on the 11th of September 1954.This first issue featured for the first time "Roy of the Rovers" and was an immediate hit. Derek Birnage edited the comic. Roy of the Rovers became synonymous with the Tiger comic and during the 1960's Tiger had a circulation of over 300,000 copies. Tiger survived for 1555 issues and incorporated a number of titles including 'Champion' (1955), 'Comet' (1959), 'Hurricane' (1965), 'Jag' (1969), 'Scorcher' (1974) and 'Speed' in 1980 before being incorporated itself into 'Eagle' (second series) (1985).
Comic strips existed in post war newspapers but the stand out launch in British football comics was the "Tiger- The Sport and Adventure Picture Story Weekly" on the 11th of September 1954.This first issue featured for the first time "Roy of the Rovers" and was an immediate hit. Derek Birnage edited the comic. Roy of the Rovers became synonymous with the Tiger comic and during the 1960's Tiger had a circulation of over 300,000 copies. Tiger survived for 1555 issues and incorporated a number of titles including 'Champion' (1955), 'Comet' (1959), 'Hurricane' (1965), 'Jag' (1969), 'Scorcher' (1974) and 'Speed' in 1980 before being incorporated itself into 'Eagle' (second series) (1985).