Pete Nash, creator of Striker, published by The Sun and online on Planet Striker, has given us a sneak peek at some of the pages of the first ever sequential collection of the hugely popular football strip,
Striker: The Complete Collection The Black and White Years, 1985-1990 is bing offered as a limited edition book is A4, hardback with a gloss laminated cover – and runs to a whopping 320 pages.
If this volume sells in enough numbers to make a profit, further collections should follow every three months.
Included in the collection is what Pete describes as “a full and frank account (with photographs)” of his meandering journey to the creation of Striker, including his expulsion from school, his time in prison during an unhappy and misspent youth, the lucky break that took me into journalism, and the many months of teaching himself to draw.
The rest of the book is crammed with all 21 Striker stories from November 1985, to just before the start of the colour strips in 1990, a strip that Began with Pete writing and drawing it himself, succeeded by John Cooper on artwork later.
Although the first Striker story has been previously published, this collection – being offered direct to fans – will feature the original unabridged take, which has never been seen since its first publication, 31 years ago.
“The version of the first Striker story that you may have seen in the weekly Striker comic and one of the only two Striker annuals that were published was a shortened one that I created, because I hated my early artwork”, Pete explains.
“I thought there were maybe a dozen or so strips that I’d left out, but when I compiled the strips for this book, I discovered there was almost two months worth of strips that I’d removed from history!
“I should never have done that, and Ive made up for it now.”
Pete has also included his my thoughts and memories on the stories at the end of each one and before the start of the next, commentary that includes why he doesn’t think the first story could ever have been published today – at least not in The Sun.
“I’m asking Striker fans to buy the books now rather than later for two reasons,” Pete says. “One, The Sun‘s fee no longer covers Striker‘s production costs and two, there’s a limited print run for this first edition.”
As a thank you to those who buy before 11th November 2016, Pete will be giving away ten original strips from the first Striker story – each one signed – to ten purchasers whose names will be drawn from a hat. Each book purchase will count as a separate entry in the draw.
“One of those ten strips will be the very first strip that I rejected at the last minute,” he reveals. “I explain why I pulled it in the book!”
• Buy Striker: The Complete Collection The Black and White Years, 1985-1990 (a choice of signed – £29 – or unsigned – £24) can be found at strikerworld.co.uk/pages/shop (and on planetstriker.com). Unsigned copies should be mailed between 16th – 18th December, but signed copies may take longer to be sent out
• Read the latest Striker stories on Planet Striker: planetstriker.com | Find Planet Striker on Facebook | YouTube
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.
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