Dawkes, Phil (21 January 2021). "Roy of the Rovers: How has Melchester striker stayed relevant 67 years on?". BBC . Retrieved 25 March 2022. The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s collected the very best of Roy’s thrilling escapades, featuring the cream of Roy’s matches and adventures from the 1980s

Roy was created by the author Frank S. Pepper, [57] who had created the similar strip, Danny of the Dazzlers, but he only wrote four installments of Roy of the Rovers because of his commitments to another of his characters, Captain Condor. Pepper's role was taken by the strip's first artist Joe Colquhoun, who used the pen-name "Stewart Colwyn". [58] He was replaced after four-and-a-half years by Derek Birnage, the editor of Tiger, who had commissioned the strip. In 1960, in an attempt to whip up publicity, it was announced that the footballer Bobby Charlton had taken over as writer, although in reality it was still written by Birnage (who claimed that he did consult with Charlton occasionally for story ideas). [59] The longest-serving writer of the strip was Tom Tully, who began in 1969 on an intermittent basis and then continuously from 1974 until the end of the weekly comic in 1993. Ian Rimmer became the main writer for the strip during the Match of the Day years, until the magazine's closure in May 2001. [57] The 2018 reboot is written by Rob Williams (graphic novels) and Tom Palmer (novels).The first Roy of the Rovers annual was published in 1957 (cover-dated 1958), demonstrating the character’s massive popularity. In February 1964, however, the series lost its permanent spot on the cover of Tiger, alternating thereafter with other features. Find sources: "Roy of the Rovers"comic– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( December 2011) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Originally these were two different humorous strips, both written by Fred Baker and drawn by Julio Schiaffino. [5] Roy of the Rovers stories– Monthly Magazine", Roy of the Rovers.com, archived from the original on 9 December 2009 , retrieved 22 June 2010 The issues were unnumbered; the total of 853 issues is given in Duncan McAlpine's Comic Book Price Guide 1996/97 Edition. [4]

Football-themed stories were a staple of British comics for boys from the 1950s onwards, and Roy of the Rovers was the most popular. [1] The strip usually saw Rovers competing for honours at the top of the English and European game, although in some years the storylines would see the club struggle for form, including a relegation from the First Division in the early 1980s. As well as dealing in on-pitch action, Roy of the Rovers featured high drama off the pitch, with kidnapping storylines a recurring feature of its early decades. From the 1970s onwards, stories included a shooting, a terrorist atrocity, and several celebrity guest appearances. Rovers played in a fictional universe made up of invented teams; however, real-life players including Emlyn Hughes, Bob Wilson and Malcolm Macdonald made appearances in the strip, as did former England manager Alf Ramsey. Roy of the Rovers the weekly comic, edited by Barrie Tomlinson, was launched in September 1976, with Tully writing and Sque drawing the lead strip. Hutton returned to drawing Roy's strip in Tiger until it ended in 1978. Rovers were relegated in 1981, and Penny left Roy. In a plotline lifted from the TV soap Dallas, Roy was shot in 1982. He transferred to Walford Rovers in 1983, but returned to Melchester within the year. In 1986 Mike White took over as artist, and eight members of the team were killed in a coach crash in the Middle East. Barrie Mitchell drew the strip from 1992 until Roy lost a foot in a helicopter crash in 1993, retired from playing, and the comic ceased publishing for six months. Collectors Corner – Memorabilia", Roy of the Rovers.com, archived from the original on 15 July 2011 , retrieved 16 June 2010 Bunge, Nicole. "REBELLION ACQUIRES FLEETWAY AND IPC YOUTH GROUP ARCHIVES". ICv2 . Retrieved 4 November 2016.

Division One Champions – 1931, 1932, 1933, 1951, 1958, 1960, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1980, 1988, 1992 Roy of the Rovers stories – Match of the Day – May 2001", Roy of the Rovers.com, archived from the original on 7 December 2010 , retrieved 22 June 2010 A Roy of the Rovers computer game was released, on the Commodore 64, [70] Amstrad CPC [71] and ZX Spectrum [72] in 1988. It was split into two parts: the first an adventure game, in which– taking the role of Roy Race– the player had to find and rescue the kidnapped Melchester team, before then playing the second part, which consisted of a charity match to raise funds for the club. The fewer players recovered before the match began, then the smaller the team who could take part. In the extreme, Roy would be the only player for Melchester. The game received mixed reactions; the Spectrum version received 7/10 from Your Sinclair, but only 3/10 from Sinclair User. [73] After 22years of continued popularity, the strip was judged successful enough to sustain its own weekly comic, the eponymous Roy of the Rovers, launched on 25 September 1976. The comic ran for 851issues, until 20 March 1993, [a] and included other football strips and features.

The monthly stated that the Roy whose career ended in 1993 had been born in 1954 (the year the strip first appeared), and had debuted, aged 16, in the Rovers' European Cup Final win of 1970 (which had actually taken place in 1969, not 1970, in the strip). All stories before then were implied to have featured his father, also named Roy. In addition to the players mentioned above who migrated from their own strips to the main RotR strip, there were also occasional "crossovers" between strips in the weekly comic — —for instance, in an early episode of The Legend, lead character and superstar player Agostina Da Silva was shown playing against Melchester. TOFFS produced a range of replica Meclchester Rovers shirts in recent years, but these are no longer available. Rebellion buys Roy of the Rovers from Egmont, along with the rest of its Fleetway “classic” characters Melchester Trophy Cabinet Following the closure of the weekly title in 1993, [8] the strip appeared in a relaunched monthly publication in September that year, with grittier storylines intended to attract teen and young adult fans who had read the weekly comic in their youth. Between January 1994 and January 1995, the monthly strips were mirrored by a weekly edition in Shoot magazine, [9] which had in the late 1980s published a parody called Ray of the Rangers. [10] The relaunched Roy of the Rovers comic ended in 1995.The Pink Floyd Super All-Action Official Music Programme for Boys and Girls, the Pink Floyd 1974 tour programme, contained a quartet of comic strips, each based on one of the band members. The strip featuring Roger Waters was entitled ‘Rog of the Rovers’… Steve Holland has more on this project here on Bear Alley. Digital Editions Re-launches as a monthly comic with grittier storylines aimed at teenage readers. Roy’s playing days are ended after nearly 40 years when he loses control of his helicopter and crashes into a field