The quintessential comic strip football hero started out as the lead strip in Tigerin 1953, got his own comic in September 1976, and also starred in his own newspaper strip.
Roy of The Rovers was published weekly between 1976 and 1993, absorbing Hot Shot in 1989. The comic was relaunched as a monthly publication in 1993 but was finally cancelled in 1995.
Developments in the ‘Roy of the Rovers’ strip over the years saw the Melchester Rovers relegated in 1981, and Roy Race being shot in 1982 (in a storyline lifted from Dallas). He transferred to Walford Rovers in 1983 but returned to Melchester within the year.
In other dramatic storylines, eight members of the team were killed in a coach crash in the Middle East in 1986, and Roy lost a foot in a helicopter crash in 1993, which forced him to retire from playing and become a manager instead.
