Football's Comic Book Heroes - new book.

[Digifiend]

Is the Went To War one I posted OK, or is that erroneous too?

[Digifiend]

Al, the first post on the last page of the thread is disappearing again. Please fix this problem.

Second attempt at posting this... Is the Went To War one I posted OK, or is that erroneous too?

[Phoenix]

Meg Foster, the first female football star

Here's a preview of the girl herself, strutting her stuff. I think this is from 1921 or thereabouts.

[Digifiend]

And there I was thinking ladies didn't play football until the 1990s! At least not professionally.

[Rogerhat]

Hi,

I'm one of the people who worked on these books.

Unfortunately there are mistakes on the Amazon page for "When the comics went to war". The cover artwork is wrong, it's just a rough I did at the beginning of the project, I've attached the correct version. Also there's only one author, Adam Riches, I'm the designer and Robert Frankland did research, The book is not coming out until October, but the football book is out in September.

We don't really have any control of what is posted on the book websites

tim

[Digifiend]

Thanks Tim. A much better front cover than the other one as well, with comic covers spanning five decades.

[felneymike]

These books look incredible! Nice to see the story-paper roots given equal weight as the later picture-strips too. I'll certianly be in line for them.

[Richard S.]

The Wimbledon Guardian is my local free paper but it didn't get delivered for 20th August so I would have missed this article entirely except for the kindness of Stevezodiac scanning it here. Anyway, there was a competition to win a copy of the book and I won! So thanks again stevezodiac as you've saved me £20. I'm hoping to get the book in the next few days.

[steelclaw]

Just ordered my Football comic book heroes from Amazon should be here any day.

[Digifiend]

The Wimbledon Guardian is my local free paper but it didn't get delivered for 20th August so I would have missed this article entirely except for the kindness of Stevezodiac scanning it here. Anyway, there was a competition to win a copy of the book and I won! So thanks again stevezodiac as you've saved me £20. I'm hoping to get the book in the next few days.

Good for you!

[Rogerhat]

Anyway, there was a competition to win a copy of the book and I won!

Congratulations! I hope you enjoy it.

In a spot of shameless self-promotion, the Daily Mail are supposed to running something about the book this week, not sure what day though

tim

[shed_dweller]

Just to add to Tim's shameless self-promotion, I'll throw in my two bobs worth... along with Robert Frankland, I'm appearing on Friday's Hawksbee and Jacobs show on Talksport (4th september at 1.45pm) to talk about Football's Comic Book Heroes, if anyone's interested.
cheers
Adam (author Football's Comic Heroes and When the Comics went to War)

[toxteth o'grady]

This is my selection, taken exclusively from post-war Thomson text story papers.

(GK) Bernard Briggs (Darbury Rangers) [The Wizard]

(RB) Napper Todd (Riverport United) [The Hotspur]
(LB) Gregor Cowdrey (Barchester United) [Adventure]

(RH) Leslie Tomson (Darbury Rangers) [The Wizard]
(CH) Rory Grant (Longport Wanderers) [The Wizard]
(LH) Arnold Tabbs (Kingsbury Rovers) [The Rover]

(OR) Baldy Hogan (Burhill United) [Adventure]
(IR) Pickford (Redstoke United) [The Wizard]
(CF) Cannonball Kidd (Greyport Rovers) [The Hotspur]
(IL) Gorgeous Gus (Redburn Rovers) [The Wizard]
(OL) Nick Smith (Kingsbury Rovers) [The Rover]

(Subs) (GK) Lanky Hutton (Redstoke Rovers) [Adventure]
(CF) Ishmael (Darbury Rangers) [The Wizard]
(CF) Wally Brand (Midford City) [The Rover]

(Manager) Ritchie (Radwick Rangers) [The Hotspur]

Great sounding names and I'm too young to remember any of 'em but 'Subs' ...?
As my mum always points out to me : when Blackburn Rovers were beaten 3-0 by Wolves in the 1960 FA Cup Final, in part due to Dave Whelan breaking a leg, "(and)there were no subs in them days".

[Phoenix]

Well, TO', Jonny Whizz wanted a fantasy football team, so of course the subs are only fantasies as well. Most of them will be dead anyway. The youngest, Gregor Cowdrey was 16 in 1956 so he'll have his bus pass by now, in fact he will have to renew his driving licence either this year or next.

Actually, substitutes weren't unknown in those story paper days. As early as the summer of 1948, Baldy Hogan took his Burhill United team on a close season tour of the USA and Canada. In Kentucky they played Haxboro University, who had eleven reserves on the bench. The accompanying picture shows six of them. As you can see, they all had different roles and their coach sent them on individually when their skills were required. It was a bit like a revolving door, but the upshot was that Burhill's eleven were tiring at 2-2 and yet their opponents still seemed full of running. When Billy Brent got hurt, Baldy took him off and went on himself as possibly the first substitute in British football history. When in Rome.......... In shirt sleeves, grey flannels and shoes, would you believe it, he scored the winning goal.

I saw that Blackburn v Wolves Cup Final on TV. Wolves had finished second in the First Division, Blackburn seventeenth. They froze on the day and bottled it. Mind you, their centre forward, Derek Dougan, putting in a transfer request on the morning of the match didn't help matters. Whelan's broken leg probably made them realize finally that it wasn't going to be their day.

[Phoenix]

I received an email today from Amazon. I transcribe it below.

We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated Roy of the Rovers Archives (Roy of the Rovers) have also purchased Football's Comic Book Heroes: Celebrating the Greatest British Football Comics of the Twentieth Century by Adam Riches. For this reason, you might like to know that Football's Comic Book Heroes: Celebrating the Greatest British Football Comics of the Twentieth Century is now available. You can order yours for just £10.99 (45% off the RRP) by following the link below.

And what's wrong with that, you may be wondering. Well, I did order the Roy of the Rovers book before last Christmas. I waited and waited and then complained. A representative of the company did then get in touch with me and informed me that the book was not going to be published after all, as I reported on this Forum at the time. They do not yet appear to have informed Amazon, who are obviously expecting it any day. Dear me!!!!!!