Never shy of causing controversy, Pete Nash, creator of the long-running football newspaper strip and spin-off comic and games Striker, has adopted Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist in the creation of a full 40th anniversary edition story.
Initially hand drawn by Pete Nash himself followed by the late John Cooper, the “Striker” football strip launched in The Sun back in 1985, later adopting a format created in Lightwave that went fully operational in 1998. It helped the strip prove an enduring success, loyal readers following the strip across a weekly comic, launched in 2003, published by Pete’s own company, Striker 3D. (There were plans, then, to also create a War of the Worlds-inspired SF comic, which foundered due to Jeff Wayne’s trademark claim on the title).
After sales of the weekly comic sadly foundered, Striker was published in the lads mag, NUTS, before returning to The Sun in 2016. Pete also published a second Striker comic, which had a limited run, ending with a Commemorative Edition in 2019, also collecting the strip in a series of now completed hardcover albums.
Striker: Ever the Maverick
After recently consulting Striker fans, aware of potential controversy about his plans, but also conscious the technology he had used to create the strip for decades delivered a similar look, Pete pressed the launch button for an AI-assisted all-new Striker story to mark its 40th anniversary.
“I’m … aware of the controversy that AI has caused in the comics industry, but since Striker has always been something of a maverick in the industry, it’s not a problem for me,” Pete said earlier this year. “The opposite in fact, because without AI, this book would not even have got to the idea stage.
After completing the art, he plans to complete the project through crowdfunding, buoyed by previous success to finance Striker projects thanks to keen fan support.
“This wasn’t even conceivable until I discovered the astonishing potential of AI barely three months ago,” he explains, “yet now I have already written the story and finished 42 pages of what will be in excess of a hundred.
“It’s been a huge decision to do this because I’ve had plenty of doubts,” he continued, “most importantly, whether it would be wrong to bring Striker back for a new story after I was so convinced it had finally burnt itself out. What has surprised me, as much as the AI itself, was the easier than anticipated path to creating a storyline and writing the script for 2025.
Above: More AI assisted art for the 40th Anniversary Striker story
Striker soaring back into action?
“Obviously the fans will be the jury on the quality of the story and art, but I’m quietly confident it’s going to work with knobs on,” Pete enthuses on the Strikerworld Facebook group. “Which brings me to the next development…
“All of you who’ve followed Striker‘s behind the scenes adventures over the past 40 years will be aware of the many false dawns with regards to taking Striker further – and those disappointments were one of the reasons I had for ending it. But once again, AI has come up trumps. It has produced a blueprint for not only exploiting the Striker archive and preparing the Kickstarter, but has identified reasons why Striker, with its 40-year heritage, is ripe for development. It is, in effect, an actionable business plan.
“Where is this leading to? I’m not entirely sure yet but one thing is clear – as someone on this forum had said, this anniversary book shouldn’t be rushed.
“Barring a health-related setback, the story and art will be complete by the 40th anniversary on November 11 – but the AI action plan has advised on preparing a month-long promotional campaign before the Kickstarter launch, which itself will take a month (and yes, original art will be available to buy).
“More importantly, the success or otherwise of the Kickstarter will determine whether there will be new Striker content in the future. I never thought I’d be saying that, but that’s the new reality, courtesy of AI. More later.”
• Planet Striker is online at planetstriker.com
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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.
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Shameful. AI should have no place in the comics industry.
There’s a difference, though, between a creator who owns their IP developing their own comic assisted by AI and comics created solely by AI. It requires some technical skills and support, but it is possible to “ring fence” your own assets, and use an AI engine to create new art utilising only your work (not AI art drawing on a potentially dubious pool of scraped assets, this documented elsewhere, and, perfectly understandably, the subject of several ongoing lawsuits in the US and UK, charted here, for example). Some illustrators have been doing that for a while now, offering two tiers of process for their work – full art, full price or full art, and an AI background for a reduced price, giving smaller publishers the means to buy the work of a name artist they couldn’t normally afford. I’m very conscious that any use of AI in creative industries is contentious, but I also suspect a lot of it is going to disappear when the AI bubble bursts, just as other technologies have imploded in the past (the internet implosion of the early 2000s, the mobile implosion of the mid 2000s springing to mind).
What about the impact on the environment? Surely that remains the same whether the software is plagiarising one’s own work or someone else’s?
https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117
Yep, that’s an issue, too; I don’t have answers for that, but there are solutions on offer, noted here in article from Penn State. Whether an industry being encouraged by The Orange One who, it appears, has no time for renewables will adopt any of the suggested strategies is another matter, of course.