“I ran ‘em all!”

April 6, 2009 5:07 AM

'Roy Of The Rovers' is back... The footballer* has returned to the newsagents in a one-off special.

Roy was just one of a number of British comics sport stars that have appeared over the years... such as the notorious 'Look Out For Lefty', er, 'Striker'. My favourite being Alf Tupper - 'Tough Of The Track', a runner whose only performance enhancer was a fish and chip supper straight off the newspaper.

*That'll be 'soccer' to our friends across the water.

posted by fearfulsymmetry (14 comments total)

The hero is a working-class guy named Alf who welds for a living, lives on fish and chips, sleeps on a matress at his auntie's, and was kicked out of the local running club for fighting?
posted by pracowity at 5:20 AM on April 6

Plus the mighty Billy the Fish.
posted by Electric Dragon at 5:25 AM on April 6

As a Yank, I learned about Roy in this book, highly recommended for a somewhat offbeat analysis of English footy.
posted by stargell at 5:30 AM on April 6

[Damn - I click Post Comment way before I intended to. I didn't even check the spelling. Well, the hell with it. I'm off for some fish and chips.]
posted by pracowity at 5:34 AM on April 6

He's got the same haircut as he-man... coincidence?
posted by pwally at 5:41 AM on April 6

No love for Hamish and Mouse?
posted by PenDevil at 6:11 AM on April 6

My sports comics went to America and all I got was a lousy Tank McNamara.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 6:25 AM on April 6

And how could I forget Ben 'the Keeper' Lieper in 'The Goalie's Got Guts!' the adventures of a goalkeeper for a top-flight team who also happened to be medical student in his spare time.

I really hope my memories of one story, where he broke his arm saving a vital penalty then on the same day went on to save a little girls' life by removing her appendix one-handed, are actually true...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:33 AM on April 6

In 1995, I drew a football comic strip-- on the back of a receipt in the Duck and Drake in Leeds, in order to impress some new friends. It featured Rod Wallace being sodomized by Otto von Bismarck, who was attached to the bottom of a zeppelin. The only dialogue was Bismarck yelling "Nehmen Sie meinen Schlong, Hünde!" I didn't take much care with the artwork, so Bismarck was identified by his Prussian helmet and Wallace by a label reading "Rod Wallace" and an arrow.

I left the pub in a bit of a hurry, so I didn't take the comic with me. If anyone reading this has it, I would like it returned.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:49 AM on April 6 [1 favorite has favorites]

'Phew! What a scorcher!'
posted by i_cola at 6:50 AM on April 6 [1 favorite has favorites]

Damned fine pub Mayor Curley!
posted by hardcode at 7:57 AM on April 6

Deathrunner will never die!
posted by Artw at 9:09 AM on April 6 [1 favorite has favorites]

The only British Comic Strip more boring than Roy of the Rovers was Black Bob. Who the hell ever read those comics? Not me, that's for sure. Maybe Sgt. Serenity, Abiezer and jackmo would be interested in the mountain adventures of a border collie when they were kids, but I don't think any kid south of the Scottish border ever read the damn thing.

See also Black Bag, the faithful Border Bin Liner.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:16 AM on April 6

And let's not forget Lenin of the Rovers, which is floating around Torrent sites, apparently.
posted by Abiezer at 12:35 PM on April 6