Roy of the Rovers was a British comic strip about the life of a fictional footballer named Roy Race.

The strip began in 1954 as a weekly feature in the magazine Tiger and ran there until 1983. In 1976 the strip was given its own magazine, 'Roy of the Rovers', which continued until 1993. It was resurrected once again in the Match of the Day magazine until it closed in 2001.

The story followed Roy Race, a striker for the team Melchester Rovers, and his heroics on the field as he aided his team through the trials of their league and cup. Only on two occasions did Roy leave Mel Park for another club: once to play for Walford Rovers, and secondly for a brief spell as manager of AC Monza.

Roy was created by the cartoonist Frank Pepper, who had previously created the similar strip 'Danny of the Dazzlers', but he only drew four installments of Roy of the Rovers for the magazine due to commitments to another of his characters, 'Captain Condor'. His role was taken by Joe Colquhoun, who used the pen-name Stewart Colwyn, who was himself replaced by Derek Birnage and then Tom Tully.

External links

• Official site