Roy of the Rovers, Battle, Misty and Buster back on shelves

[STARBOY]

Really good to know that "Mighty Mouse" is in this issue - is the art by the same guy that done "Hotshot Hamish"?

[philcom55]

Like many comics fans I tended to ignore the new football titles such as Scorcher that began to appear during the 1970s. Unfortunately this meant we missed out on a number of Ken Reid strips, and while some of them might not have been entirely up to his usual standards they are still worth reprinting; what's more 'Manager Matt' at least stands out as a true classic in my humble opinion:

...The spirit of Brian 'Old Big 'Ead' Clough lives on! If the new Roy of the Rovers title doesn't include at least one example of this blast from the past the people behind it want their heads examining.

- Phil Rushton

[Spencer]

Starboy, yes the artwork is by the one and only Julio Schiaffino - imho, he produced some of the funniest artwork seen in non-humour titles during this period. I remember laughing out loud at both Mighty Mouse and Hot-Shot Hamish back in the day!

Phil, guess they will only use strips that were in the Roy Of The Rovers weekly comic originally - although it would be great if they would run some of Ken's stuff!! Guess we'll have to wait for the Buster special..

[STARBOY]

Great news Spencer thanks for that I love Julio Schiaffinos work on HotShot and Mouse (does anyone know anything else he did? )as you say so funny I always remember a strip where Princes Park (HotShots team) were playng a Dutch club in the European cup winners cup semi finals ( you could tell it was a humours strip when a Scots team got that far - kidding I'm Scots and I know we've won a few Euro trophys in the past) and the 3 Dutch players HotShot swept pasts were called "Hans, Nees and Bom Van Daisy" (well something like that - great fun at the time) - Ahh Ken Reid, truely wonderful I love his stuff so darkly funny ("Sub "and "Football Forum " were fantastic)

[Raven]

The Billy's Boots strips also 'felt' like late 80's. Remember... Billy's Boots only joined ROTR after Tiger merged with Eagle in 1985 (?) so I think these episodes were from after that time...

Ah, I wasn't entirely sure they weren't just using 'Roy of the Rovers' as a kind of umbrella title to publish football strips from different eras and titles. Late 80s strips aren't really of much interest to me, alas.

[Raven]

Like many comics fans I tended to ignore the new football titles such as Scorcher that began to appear during the 1970s. Unfortunately this meant we missed out on a number of Ken Reid strips, and while some of them might not have been entirely up to his usual standards they are still worth reprinting;

Absolutely true - you missed out on these titles without realising that some of your favourites produced lots of work for them. It was similar for me finding some Francisco Solano López work in Score 'n' Roar - and some of Ken Reid's football strips seem really good.

Peter has a page of The Soccernauts, a science fiction themed one, on his Ken Reid site - from Scorcher and Score, I think - and I'd certainly like to see more of that one. The Sub looks interesting, too.

[chrissmillie]

I used to read the football comics, as I was a big footie fan. I'm also Scots (like virtually every other comic fan it seems), so didn't bother with it in the summer, when it turned into a cricket comic.

[PaulTwist]

I bought this, more to support the venture than anything. Was never a football fan, and my only exposure to Roy of the Rovers was reading my brother's copies of it (and its late-80s sister title 'Gary Lineker's Hot Shot!'). I've only read the first Roy of the Rovers strip so far but enjoyed it much more than I expected - I'd forgotten how the crowd gave commentary on the match in order for the reader to follow it. Endearingly cheesy, and quite clever too. Worth splashing out on.

Looking forward to the Buster one the most. Hope these are a success - would dearly love to see an Egmont version of Classics from the Comics, even at twice the price of DCT's comic...

[Kashgar]

Some of Ken Reid's stuff for Scorcher was brilliant. (I'm sure I did a detailed list of his strips for the paper on this site somewhere). I'm with Raven, I'm afraid Roy of the Rovers from the 1980's is a good generation too late for me. Give me Roy in his pre Tiger & Jag days with art by Joe Colquhoun, Bert Vandeput, Yvonne Hutton and their ilk. Sadly all gone now.

[Digifiend]

Looking forward to the Buster one the most. Hope these are a success - would dearly love to see an Egmont version of Classics from the Comics, even at twice the price of DCT's comic...

If it was in colour, I suppose it would cost £3 or £4 instead of £2. Probably why Classics isn't in colour.

I wonder if that Buster special will mention the many comics that merged with it, especially the last one, Whizzer & Chips, which still had several strips running when Buster ended.

[Spencer]

Kashgar, I do agree with you with regards to artists, although I also love David Sque's work. I didn't know Yvonne Hutton was no longer with us - her art was also terrific!

[philcom55]

Kashgar, I do agree with you with regards to artists, although I also love David Sque's work.

...Not to mention Geoff Campion, Fred Holmes, Georgio Trevisan, Josep Marti and Paul Trevillion - all names to conjure with, and at least some of them are still in the land of the living as far as I know!

- Phil Rushton

[Raven]

I'm with Raven, I'm afraid Roy of the Rovers from the 1980's is a good generation too late for me. Give me Roy in his pre Tiger & Jag days with art by Joe Colquhoun, Bert Vandeput, Yvonne Hutton and their ilk. Sadly all gone now.

Not that I'd be anti-late 80s strips per se! Of course, if they're good, it doesn't matter when they're from. But as I'm not really interested in football I think it'd have been the vintage factor that would have tempted me, the quirky nature of many of the football strips back then, plus, as you say, lots of the artists of the period I like.

I was thinking in particular of Billy's Boots - I do have quite a lot of the 80s version in issues of Tiger. It's early Tom Kerr ones I'd have been keenest on seeing.

Lack of an editorial to give it all some perspective and background seems a bit disappointing.

[stevezodiac]

Some years back I picked up a large size (think Guinness book of Records) book of Roy of the Rovers. It was a sort of This Is Your Life - Roy. Featuring a chronological selection of strips. And some text - i think. I gave it to Frank Dobson. Does anyone else remember this book?

[Kashgar]

Kashgar, I do agree with you with regards to artists, although I also love David Sque's work. I didn't know Yvonne Hutton was no longer with us - her art was also terrific!

Yvonne Hutton sadly died in a car accident a good few years ago.
I was on the point of buying this Roy of the Rovers special yesterday but all those 'authentic 1980's strips' put me off. This is no doubt a generational thing but, love football strips as I do, the late 1960's, early 1970's still seems to be my nostalgic watershed certainly where IPC/Fleetway football yarns are concerned.