'Roy of the Rovers' Annual

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Arguably the most famous British comics character of all, ‘Roy of the Rovers’ sixty year playing career began on the cover of Tiger Number One in September 1953. Since then, the phrase ‘Roy of the Rovers stuff’ has become part of the English language, regularly invoked by pundits to describe the essence of footballing dreams. 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.

The Spandau Special", Roy of the Rovers.com, archived from the original on 22 June 2008 , retrieved 27 March 2010 September 1976– 20March 1993 as a weekly, relaunched as a monthly in September 1993 until March 1995 [1] This article was in part first published in episodic form on the Boys’ Adventure Blog and content from those articles by Richard Sheaf is reproduced here with permission During the domestic season, the series concentrated on the team’s campaign, usually in pursuit of a trophy, but there were bad times too – relegation in 1981 and cup humiliations at the hands of Fourth Division sides and Norwegian part-timers. Acton, P.; Jarman, C. M. (1994), Roy of the Rovers: The Playing Years, Queen Anne Press, ISBN 978-1-85291-548-3Roy 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 The issues were unnumbered; the total of 853 issues is given in Duncan McAlpine's Comic Book Price Guide 1996/97 Edition. [4] On 29 February 2008 it was announced that Titan Books had acquired worldwide book publishing rights to a range of Egmont's comic strips, including Roy of the Rovers. The first of their compilations of Roy's playing days, The Best of Roy of the Rovers: The 1980s was released in May 2008 and included the "Relegation" and "Who Shot Roy" story arcs. The Bumper Book of Roy of the Rovers was published in October 2008, and reprinted strips, articles, short stories and features taken from Roy annuals dated from 1957 to 1971. Two further titles were released in 2009, The Best of the 1970s and The Second Bumper Book, and a third Best of, focusing on the World Cup, was released in 2010. All five of the titles were edited and compiled by David Leach. Division One Champions – 1931, 1932, 1933, 1951, 1958, 1960, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1977, 1980, 1988, 1992

Of the overall readership, 9percent were aged seven to eight, 18per cent were aged nine to ten, 57per cent were eleven to fourteen, 6per cent were fifteen to sixteen, and 10per cent were aged seventeen to nineteen. [4] Pre-season visits to fictional South American republics like Parador generally saw them embroiled in off-pitch intrigue. Roy of the Rovers starts up as a separate comic with the first edition released on 25th September. It runs for 853 issues, until 20th March 1993The Today newspaper ran from 1986 to 1995 and included Roy of the Rovers stories drawn by Kim Raymond in early editions, some at least collected in the Roy of the Rovers Collection No. 1. Roy also rubs shoulders with a number of other comic heroes in Football’s Comic Book Heroes by Adam Riches with Tim Parker and Robert Sandland. Published by Mainstream, published in 2009, it’s a celebration of the football comic genre and the many legendary characters they produced. The Quiz Books FA Cup – 1907, 1934, 1937, 1938, 1947, 1953, 1959, 1961, 1966, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1984, 1990, 1999

a b "Behind the Scenes – The Writers", Roy of the Rovers.com, archived from the original on 14 December 2010 , retrieved 21 June 2010 In 1985, following the closure of Tiger, Hot Shot Hamish moved over to Roy of the Rovers, and immediately introduced the characters of Hamish and Mouse to each other. Shortly afterwards, Mouse was transferred from Tottenford Rovers to join Hamish at Scottish club Princes Park, and the strip was renamed Hot Shot Hamish and Mighty Mouse. It was later shortened to Hot Shot Hamish and Mouse, and finally Hamish and Mouse. The series ran continuously from 1985 to 1990, with a brief break that year before returning. The final new stories were published in January 1992, with the remaining issues until Roy of the Rovers' cancellation taking the form of reprints. In the interests of keeping the strip exciting, it seemed that no season for Melchester Rovers could ever consist of mid-table obscurity. Almost every year, the club was either competing for the major honours at the top of the domestic and European game, or struggling against relegation to lower divisions. Often, such spells of good and bad fortune and form would directly succeed one another—a Rovers team that won the European Cup one year could find itself struggling to stay in Division One the next. [45] [d]Another of the comic's more popular strips (after the strip ended in 1985, it was revived after just three months), this strip told the story of teenaged Tommy Barnes. Initially it centered on his bid to be allowed to form a soccer team at rugby union-playing Crowhurst School. Later, Tommy and his pal Ginger Collins formed Barnes United FC and played local league football. Two rugby playing pupils at Crowhurst, football hating Waller and Swate, became Barnes's sworn enemies after first resenting Barnes starting a football team, then, after Crowhurst switched to playing Association Football and finding they actually enjoyed the game, being ousted from playing the new sport for the school team by Barnes. The pair repeatedly used any means possible to sabotage their efforts and cause trouble for Barnes and Barnes United F.C. Reconciling the continuity of the monthly strip with the stories that preceded and followed it presented difficulties, forcing the story's writers to alter its history in a number of ways, a technique known as retroactive continuity. Significantly, the strip rewrote various parts of Melchester's history, and shortened Roy Sr.'s recorded playing career to a more realistic level. [37] Tomlinson, Alan; Young, Christopher (2000), "Golden Boys and Golden Memories: Fiction, Ideology, and Reality in Roy of the Rovers and the Death of the Hero", in Jones, Dudley; Watkins, Tony (eds.), A Necessary Fantasy?: the Heroic Figure in Children's Popular Culture: Vol 18, Garland Publishing, pp.177–206, ISBN 978-0-8153-1844-6

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 Gordon Stewart would later be rebooted to appear as Melchester Rovers' goalkeeper in the 2018 Roy of the Rovers revival.Even before the establishment of the weekly comic, Tiger published Roy of the Rovers annuals every year from 1958 onwards. In 1958, the annual was simply known as the Roy of the Rovers Football Annual. For 1959 and 1960, the title changed to Tiger Book of Roy of the Rovers, and after that the titles would be Tiger Roy of the Rovers Annual (or slight variations thereon) until the last one in 1975, after which the Roy of the Rovers Annuals themselves would begin, to tie in with the standalone comic. The final three annuals of this iteration, however, would change their title to Roy of the Rovers Yearbook. The Daily Mail describes Steven Gerard as a modern Roy and commissions special art to illustrate their story