Striker creator Pete Nash and his dedicated team have just launched a Kickstarter to launch his much-loved football strip as a weekly comic – and they’ve set an ambitious opening target of £35,000 to finance the production of the first twelve issues.
Sports broadcaster Hailey Coxon is on board to deliver the animated match commentary that will be part of the project if it gets the backing Pete’s hoping for.
Launching in September 2018, if successfully funded, the new, full colour comic, part of Pete’s wider ambition to make Striker a global brand, will offer a lead strip based on main serialised storyline as featured daily in Britain’s The Sun newspaper.
The new title, also planned be on sale in UK shops, will also include at least one secondary strip, focusing on the young wannabe footballers at the academy.
Just like the long-running Striker comic Pete published previously between 2003 and 2005, he also plans to feature four or five pages of classic football strips from the 1970s or 80s each week, together with news, interviews and features on the characters, plus stats on the new “Striker World League” clubs and players.
Striker first appeared in November 1985, as a black-and white, three-panel comic strip in The Sun, becoming ecame the first comic strip in the world to be created in 3D animation software in 1988. It continues to this day in the best-selling paper, seven days a week.
“We’re on Kickstarter because we need support to help us launch a weekly comic and turn Striker into a global franchise,” says Pete.
“The creation of the World League is a major development that means Striker has outgrown the space available for it in The Sun. We want to launch an independent weekly comic – in digital and print formats – so we can grow Striker and weave characters from other world league clubs into the stories.”
The strip currently revolves around the characters at Warbury Warriors Football Club – but most of the action takes place off the pitch, with intriguing soap-style storylines that mix drama, romance, crime and comedy.
Pete has already printed four volumes of the Striker archive, with a fifth on its way, and is no stranger to the world of self publishing. While £35,000 is quite a target, it’s no surprise he’s already gained the support he has from Striker‘s loyal fan base.
This Kickstarter project is for the first 12 weekly issues of the Striker comic – but the goal is to publish 50 weekly issues a year. Issues 13 onwards will be funded by the renewal of subscriptions and continued retail sales, combined with further Kickstarter projects.
Sports Broadcaster Hailey Coxon is on board to be commentator for the Striker animated matches. “What have I let myself in for?” she jokes in the project’s Kickstarter video
The longer-term ambition, in tandem with animated football, is to create a virtual Striker World League universe in which Striker’s passionate and loyal fans become members of their favourite club – and have a say in the running of it.
“With enough support from existing and new fans, we believe we can eventually form regional fan bases and regional comics (creating opportunities for local artists and writers),” Pete says, “so fans can follow clubs from their own countries as they compete on the worldwide stage.
“Every penny raised from this and any subsequent Kickstarter campaigns will be used to invest in the comic and the weekly animated football,” Pete notes. “The more money we raise, the bigger and better Striker will be.”
• Find out more about the project and back it here on Kickstarter
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “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.
Categories: British Comics, Crowd Funding Projects, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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