Melchester Rovers

''Roy of the Rovers'' is a British comic strip about the life and times of a fictional footballer and later manager named Roy Race, who played for Melchester Rovers. The strip first appeared in the ''Tiger'' in 1954, before giving its name to a weekly (and later monthly) comic, published by IPC and Fleetway from 1976 until 1995, in which it was the main feature.

The weekly strip ran until 1993, following Roy's playing career until its conclusion after he lost his left foot in a helicopter crash. When the monthly comic was launched later that year the focus switched to Roy's son Rocky, who also played for Melchester. This publication was short-lived, and folded after only 19 issues. The adventures of the Race family were subsequently featured in the monthly ''Match of the Day'' football magazine, in which father and son were reunited as manager and player respectively. These strips began in 1997 and continued until the magazine's closure in May 2001.

In 2018, following the acquisition of the strip's rights by comic book publisher Rebellion, a brand new rebooted ''Roy of the Rovers'' story, following the adventures of a 16-year-old Roy in the present day, began publication as a series of original graphic novels and prose novels.

Football-themed stories were a staple of British comics for boys from the 1950s onwards, and ''Roy of the Rovers'' was the most popular. 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 stock media phrase "real 'Roy of the Rovers' stuff" is often used by football writers, commentators and fans when describing displays of great skill, or surprising results that go against the odds, in reference to the dramatic storylines that were the strip's trademark.

Publication history

''Tiger''

Roy of the Rovers first appeared on 11 September 1954, as a weekly feature in the comic magazine ''Tiger'', debuting on the front page of the first issue.

Self-titled weekly comic

After 22 years 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 851 issues, until 20 March 1993, and included other football strips and features.

At the peak of the comic's success, about 450,000 copies were sold each week. There were also hardback annuals and holiday specials featuring a mix of reprinted and original content, and for a brief period, starting in 1986, ''Roy of the Rovers'' was serialised in the now-defunct ''Today'' newspaper. The strip concluded abruptly, mid-story, on 29 August 1987. These were all-new strips, focusing largely on the relationship between Roy and his wife Penny, rather than the action on the pitch. A new strip was launched in the Daily Star on 13 November 1989, written by regular writer Tom Tully and drawn by veteran Roy artist Yvonne Hutton. Hutton's final Roy of the Rovers artwork appeared on 17 January 1992, with Mike Western debuting on the art the following day. The strip concluded on 14 May 1993, two months after the cancellation of the weekly comic. Between 1988 and 1993, a ''Best of Roy of the Rovers'' monthly comic was published, reprinting older stories.

Following the closure of the weekly title in 1993, 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, which had in the late 1980s published a parody called ''Ray of the Rangers''. The relaunched ''Roy of the Rovers'' comic ended in 1995.

''Match of the Day''

The comic strip was resurrected in July 1997, printed as short (usually two-page) features in the BBC
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