They think it's all over... it is now.
The seemingly indestructible independent football comic Striker has published its final issue as a 52 page special. The concept has a long pedigree, starting out as a daily strip in The Sun in 1985, then becoming an indie weekly comic in 2003 for 87 issues. Then it returned to The Sun as a strip in 2005 until 2009, transferred to lads mag Nuts in 2010 for several months, went on hiatus until 2013 when it returned once again to The Sun until 2016. Was then relaunched as a weekly comic again in 2018, went on hiatus after 24 issues, and is now back for the final special.
One has to give Striker's creator Pete Nash his due. He's stood by his creation for 34 years and has endured a lot of problems from publishers and distributors, not to mention the considerable expense, in order to bring his vision to his dedicated fans. Speaking of which, those fans deserve a round of applause too, for helping to support the comic through investing in shares and via Kickstarter.
Some people seem to think that football comics are sure sellers in the UK. Not so. Roy of the Rovers has really been the only one with longevity. Scorcher lasted for four years, but titles such as Score 'n' Roar, Hot-Shot, and Champ had very brief runs. (Tiger had a very long run but that's because it wisely cast its net to cover a variety of sports stories, not just football.) Although on the pocket-sized format front, D.C. Thomson's Football Picture Story digest ran for 15 years. In the whole though it seems that football fans would rather read a factual magazine about the game (e.g.: Shoot! or Match of the Day Magazine) than bother with serialised fiction. (Certainly when I was a child, classmates who were mad keen on football were the least likely ones to read any comics.)
Yet despite its stop/start history, Striker did resonate with a lot of footie fans young and old. It cleverly used the Roy of the Rovers approach of including "soap opera" style sub-plots and ongoing continuity, but for an older reader. This could be somewhat controversial at times, such as women appearing in skimpy bikinis (or even topless) in the Striker CGI comic strip, while at the same time the comic was reprinting Billy's Boots and Kangaroo Kid from Scorcher for younger readers.
Yes, Striker was bought by a totally different readership than yer average comic fan. With its tits and bums lowbrow humour and stereotypical depictions of European players it often read like an episode of Minder or some 1970s sitcom. It was a comic for the bloke in the replica football shirt, shorts and flip-flops, plodding around Lidl with his identically-dressed son. But let's not mock that. Most adventure comics lost their appeal to the average person long ago, and now cater to an insular fanbase with impenetrable stories that require a nerdy 30 year knowledge of the characters. What Striker did was go back to the basics, and understood the mindset of the general public. All publishers would love to appeal to readers outside of the hard core comic fan market, but Striker achieved it!
Striker: The Final Whistle, 52 full colour pages for £4.95, is on sale now in selected branches of WH Smith or you can buy it directly from the Striker webshop at this link:
https://www.planetstriker.com/striker-final-whistle-the-last-comi
The bumper Christmas edition of Striker is in WH Smith now, and should be with all subscribers. It's a special 48 page issue that not only features the latest festive-themed story but also reprints some Christmas pages from the strip's past. (It would have been nice to have a new cover though. The mistletoe scene is a reprint from the cover of the 2003 edition.)
Sadly, there's a possibility that this could be the final issue. It all depends on whether the Kickstarter scheme can acquire pledges totalling £45,000 by Wednesday! At present, it's at £32,311. If it makes it, the comic will continue. If not, it's not viable.
You can pledge at this link, - and remember, no monies are taken unless it reaches its target:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1672374693/striker-weekly-comic-issues-13-to-24
Weekly British comics are sadly a rarity these days. There's Beano, The Phoenix, 2000AD, Striker, and (in digital form only) Aces Weekly. It was good to see Striker return to newsstands this year after an absence of 13 years, thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. Now, after 12 issues, it needs your help again.
Publisher Pete Nash has launched a new Kickstarter campaign to fund issues 13 through to 24 of Striker. At least £45,000 is needed, and it's already off to a good start with the figure up to £13,755 as I type these words.
What is Striker? It's a 32 page football comic about fictional team Warbury, told in comic strip form using CGI techniques. The strip itself has been around a looong time, starting as a newspaper series in The Sun in 1985, and as a newsstand comic that ran from 2003 to 2005. That's the shorthand version. You'll find the long, complex story elsewhere.
Striker doesn't just focus on the match. The current story involves gangsters, and crime often features in the storylines. The comic may not appeal to everyone. It definitely has a "bloke down the pub" feel to it, and although it's pitched at all ages, the scenes of semi-nude women in the first run of the comic were controversial. An aspect that has wisely been absent from the new series of comics.
An acquired taste then, but Striker is a comic that deserves respect. Like The Phoenix, it fought against beliefs that WH Smith would not take new comics that are not based on a toy or TV show, and got itself out there. Admittedly, it hasn't been without problems. WH Smith cocked up distribution of issue 2, and then told Nash that a later issue of the comic was unsuitable for all ages because it featured a criminal with a gun on the cover. Yet Pete Nash stuck to his guns, if you'll pardon the pun, and the comic is still there.
If you want to back Striker to ensure it survives for another 12 issues, visit the Kickstarter page here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1672374693/striker-weekly-comic-issues-13-to-24
Remember, no money is taken unless the project reaches its target.
The Striker website is here:
https://www.planetstriker.com
Who says British comics are dead? Thanks to the dedication of its creator Pete Nash (and the support of readers via a crowdfunding project) the football comic Striker will be revived on September 12th as a weekly comic on sale in newsagents and by subscription.
The long-running Striker strip has quite a history from its origins as a daily strip in 1985 in The Sun, evolving into a CGI strip, and springing off into a weekly independently published comic in its own right in 2003. Sadly, despite the best efforts of Pete and co., it didn't survive beyond 87 issues (but even that was a longer run than many mainstream comics managed). It ended up back in The Sun, then went to Nuts magazine, then back to The Sun again... rather than me explain it all, you can read all about its history here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Striker_(comic)
Now, Pete Nash is reviving Striker comic and, like the 2003 version, will be a 32 page weekly. It'll be distributed to newsagents and will have a very reasonable cover price of £2.70. - Or you could make sure of your copy (for a slightly cheaper cost) by subscribing for just £30 for 12 issues. (That's what I've done.) Here's the link:
https://www.planetstriker.com/new-striker-comic-12-week-print-subscription-138-p.asp
I felt that one of the drawbacks of the previous Striker weekly was that it alienated its potential younger readership by including pin ups of CGI topless models and suchlike. Let's hope the new version is appropriate for all ages to maximise its audience.
We'll know more about the new Striker comic when it's published next week, and you can also keep up to date with info by following the Striker website:
https://www.planetstriker.com
Well done to Pete Nash for having the determination to revive Striker as an independent weekly comic, and let's wish him and his team good fortune for the title.
