Comics UK

Roy of the Rovers, Battle and Buster are to be reissued after Egmont and WHSmith sealed a deal.

64 page Roy of the Rovers will be available at the start of April, with the rest following later in the year.

More in this article from the Guardian...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/ma ... rs-edition

Even more details here from Egmont themselves...

http://www.egmont.co.uk/common/upload/p ... comics.pdf

That's curious news! I wonder if Titan's Best of Battle and Best of Buster are still going ahead now?

Regarding the Buster one, the copyright of the characters are divided between IPC and Egmont, with Egmont only owning the post-1970 years I believe. So don't get your hopes up for any Maxwell Hawke or other 1960s strips in that collection. That said, there's plenty of stuff to choose from including superb work by Jack Oliver, Leo Baxendale, Reg Parlett etc and, perhaps even John Stokes' Marney the Fox?

Lew

This is great news, I will definitely be buying them, things are really looking up for British Comics OK reprints and only one of each but a good start hopefully they will sell tons of them, and I'm looking forward to Toxic 16 pager in just over a week too.

Really looking forward to the Buster special...
It's always been a regret that my mum made me chuck out my collection when I was younger... I opted to keep the Beanos and Dandys instead.

WOW fantastic news - quietly slipped in there as this is the first I had heard of this - will def pick up a few of those (if not all) I never read Battle when it came out and stopped reading the rest regularly in the mid 70's so they will be new to me - obviously someone see a market who knows what will be next.

Good news - though 64 pages seems so short if you'd been hoping for relatively comprehensive collections; only twice the length of a typical weekly issue at most.

I have no interest at all in Roy of the Rovers (a Score 'n' Roar or Scorcher collection would have been different!), but the Buster one should be a definite buy for me, Misty an almost certainly and Battle a most probably. Actually, I'm pretty certain I'll be getting all those three.

Raven wrote:Good news - though 64 pages seems so short if you'd been hoping for relatively comprehensive collections; only twice the length of a typical weekly issue at most.

I suppose the idea is for them to be more of "holiday special" type of publications rather than anything more comprehensive. They're exclusive to Smiths so presumably they'll be shelved with the comics.

Perhaps whichever one sells the most will see a second edition in 2010. It'd be good if these were being done as a test to see if the market could support a brand new comic but I think that's unlikely. More reprints would be the most likely scenario, - which is good for nostalgic collectors, but bad for freelance creators.

Lew

Lew Stringer wrote:
I suppose the idea is for them to be more of "holiday special" type of publications rather than anything more comprehensive. They're exclusive to Smiths so presumably they'll be shelved with the comics.

The slim size would make more sense if they were mooted as the first in a series each. With the 'adventure' titles, they wouldn't be able to fit in complete storylines of more than a couple of strips though, presumably - and isolated single instalments of serials will be a bit strange.

I expect these will definitely be aimed at the nostalgia market rather than testing the waters for a new title - it's a proven market following all the recent collections, some of which have been big successes.

Wonder if your top strip Tom Thug will be in it..

Buster holiday specail is a must to buy..
hope they do a Monster Fun one..Whoopee..Whizzer and Chips..Krazy..Cheeky..etc..

Raven wrote:Good news - though 64 pages seems so short if you'd been hoping for relatively comprehensive collections; only twice the length of a typical weekly issue at most.

I have no interest at all in Roy of the Rovers (a Score 'n' Roar or Scorcher collection would have been different!), but the Buster one should be a definite buy for me, Misty an almost certainly and Battle a most probably. Actually, I'm pretty certain I'll be getting all those three.

Raven never mind "Roy of the Rovers"(Although I like it) it has "Billy's Boots" in it so it will be well worth buying.

steelclaw wrote:
Raven never mind "Roy of the Rovers"(Although I like it) it has "Billy's Boots" in it so it will be well worth buying.

Actually, I do quite like the early Billy's Boots.

I really like Score 'n' Roar because it's full of quirkier strips; The Mudlarks - canal barge kids who only play well on slippy mud, Tom Kerr's Peter the Cat - playing football while crimesolving in his spare time, Phantom of the Forest with its ghost player etc. And all on posh paper!

And Scorcher for the likes of Kangaroo Kid - the boy brought up by kangaroos so he's great at bouncing up and heading the ball, and Ken Reid's humour strips.

Same way I love Raven on the Wing for all its weirdness and horror and bizarre humour and adventure themes.

Roy was too conventional for me as I'm not actually interested in football itself at all!

But yes, Billy's Boots, especially drawn by Tom Kerr, was a nice series.

Raven wrote: I expect these will definitely be aimed at the nostalgia market rather than testing the waters for a new title - it's a proven market following all the recent collections, some of which have been big successes.

My information tells me new material is being considered by Egmont, as well as reprints. I guess it all depends on the success of these reprints.

Chris

I heard on the radio that there are also plans for Roy of the Rovers to return in his own 12 issue comic.

- Phil R.

Got word from Egmont yesterday about this. I'm currently finalising details of Buster fans being able to have a say in the contents of the Buster special due later this year.....hopefully a poll will be online soon

It's top news though - and with Buster's 49th Birthday this May, it's a great way to begin the celebrations towards the big Five-Oh!