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

After Joe Colquhoun departed, he was succeeded first by Paul Trevillion, then by Yvonne Hutton, who illustrated from 1967 to 1974, before David Sque [60] took over in 1975. [61] Despite reportedly not being a football fan, [e] he was responsible for one of the strip's more definitive looks in its early '80s period. He was replaced in 1986 by former 2000AD artist Mike White, who gave Roy a more muscular look and the strip a more modern feel. [63] Barrie Mitchell took over in 1992, with a style quite similar to White's. [37] A number of artists worked on the monthly comic, such as David Jukes, Sean Longcroft and Garry Marshall, in contrast to the lengthy tenures of the weekly strip's creative team. [37] Tony Harding often illustrated Roy for the Roy of the Rovers annuals and also drew the Roy's Action Replay strip that appeared in All Action Monthly in the late eighties ( Fleetway). Mitchell returned in 1997 as the sole artist of the Match of the Day strips for all four years. [64] Both The Safest Hands in Soccer and Goalkeeper suffered occasional scheduling issues due to the health of artist Torta, occasionally having to skip instalments or, in one instance, be substituted with a text-only story. McGinty, Stephen (15 January 2004), "A teen mag for boys–but will they buy it?", The Scotsman, archived from the original on 29 January 2005 , retrieved 10 June 2010Behind the Scenes – The Artists", Roy of the Rovers.com, archived from the original on 30 December 2010 , retrieved 21 June 2010 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. The magazine was relaunched as a monthly in September 1993, but finally closed in March 1995, after a further 19issues.

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. Johnston, Rich (25 August 2016). "Rebellion Buys Fleetway Archive – Roy of the Rovers, Oink, Tammy, Battle, Whizzer And Chips And More". Bleeding Cool . Retrieved 4 November 2016.a b Wilson, Chris (23 March 2009), "Roy of the Rovers profile: All You Need to Know About the Classic Football Comic", Daily Mirror , retrieved 10 June 2010 Designed with a comic strip opening each chapter, the text takes the reader through Roy’s many incarnations and gets the inside stories from the editors, illustrators and story creators who worked on the comic through the years. It also has memories and contributions from sports celebrities involved in the comic, such as Bobby Charlton and Gary Lineker. The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival.