Unofficial celebration of Roy of the Rovers comic hits the pitch

By John Freeman on 24 July 2026 • ( 0 )

Ian Golden’s unofficial guide to the history of the Roy of the Rovers comic has just been published.

Roy of the Rovers comic (springing from the character’s success in Tiger, first appearing in 1954 in the very first issue) ran from 1976 until 1993 and, at its peak, was among the most popular children’s publications on the market. With its selection of comic strips, features, posters, free gifts, and more, it was everything a young football fan could wish for on a weekly basis.

ROTR@50 – The Book by Ian Golden, director at Sporting Records, a website providing sporting data and websites to a variety of clubs, and a member of the British Football Comics podcast team, is a celebration of a long-lost legend. Ian gives a critical analysis of every strip, season by season, with obligatory marks out of ten, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the comic, as he looks at its history from start to finish. Every strip reviewed. No holds barred!

The book features a front cover drawing by Parker Golden, with back cover pic and all pics inside by Catrin Golden, proofed by Siân Golden. It’s a family affair!

In the packed appendices, there’s a full A-Z of the comic strips, a guide to the issue dates, a full A-Z of “Sign Please”, the popular feature from the early years, an estimate of how many appearances Roy Race did actually make and how many goals he scored, a location guide to the Melchester-verse and much, much more.

“It was due out in September,” says Ian, “but I thought, ‘Who doesn’t love a summer special?’

“We all remember taking a holiday special away with us to read each summer, now you can do the same with this book.

If ordering from Amazon UK (Affiliate Link), it apparently only takes a day to print and send books out, since they sped up their Print on Demand service.

Books normally take two to three days to post, as they are printed and dispatched by Amazon worldwide from your local Amazon factory – so make sure you order from your country’s Amazon site

Roy of the Rovers is ©️ Rebellion

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.