Gary Lineker's Hot Shot

[stevezodiac]

I don't think this comic lasted very long but it had a few strips in it one drawn by Cam Kennnedy. Inside the first issue i found a four page flyer advertising it, can't remember where that came from. I know its not the most interesting comic and Mr Lineker himself hardly exudes charisma but I include it here for the sake of the archives.

[Terry]

I remember it, wasn't very good as I remember, did it not merge with Roy of the Rovers, in the end?

[Lew Stringer]

I know they have their fans here but have football comics ever been very popular? Roy of the Rovers had a good long run, but titles such as Score n Roar, Scorcher, Hot-Shot, and Striker had very brief life-spans as I recall.

Seems that whilst football strips are popular, they can't support an entire comic as a theme.

Lew

[Digifiend]

Striker didn't even last two years as a stand-alone comic. It had distribution problems throughout its run though. Only one place sold it where I live - the largest one of our four WHSmith branches.

[Terry]

Striker didn't even last two years as a stand-alone comic. It had distribution problems throughout its run though. Only one place sold it where I live - the largest one of our four WHSmith branches.

Striker done well to last the time that it did, along with the distrubution problems, stockist didn't really know where to place it on their shelves, as a lot of them didn't see it as a comic, anyway I miss it big time.

[Digifiend]

Trouble is, it was a comic, but one aimed at adults. It should've been stocked alongside Viz, not kids footy mags like Match!

[colcool007]

Is it my imagination or is that second Hot Shot cover an Ian Kennedy?

[Lew Stringer]

Is it my imagination or is that second Hot Shot cover an Ian Kennedy?

Yes, definitely.

Trouble is, it was a comic, but one aimed at adults. It should've been stocked alongside Viz, not kids footy mags like Match!

I think it tried to be all things to all ages. It doesn't work, as Oink! and The DFC also discovered.

Striker was particularly schizophrenic. Reprints of Billy's Boots and Kangaroo Kid alongside CGI topless pin-ups. But even so, as I said earlier, footie comics don't have a good track record (RoTR being the one exception) so it was always going to struggle.

Lew

[philcom55]

I think the DC Thomson Football title which appeared in their Commando format had a pretty healthy run. For that matter, quite apart from individual football comics like Roy of the Rovers and Scorcher, it could probably be argued that mining the soccer lode proved to be highly lucrative for IPC and other British publishers during the early 1970s. Colour photographs of football teams had already begun to proliferate towards the end of the 1960s in comics as diverse as TV21 and Eagle, and in many ways these led directly to the stupendous success of football magazines like IPC's Shoot which probably replaced sports comics in the affections of many young boys during that period.

Personally I was never very interested in football comics, but one notable exception was the short-lived monthly which featured Roy Race's son during the 1990s, and for a time took the genre to a whole new level of maturity:


- Phil Rushton

[philcom55]

I know they have their fans here but have football comics ever been very popular? Roy of the Rovers had a good long run, but titles such as Score n Roar, Scorcher, Hot-Shot, and Striker had very brief life-spans as I recall.

Actually I just checked and Scorcher lasted for nearly five years. Not brilliant perhaps, but better than many titles, including Wham! - and only a few months less than the most successful Power comic Smash!

- Phil R.

[felneymike]

I think the DC Thomson Football title which appeared in their Commando format had a pretty healthy run.

- Phil Rushton

I think it was called "Football Picture Story Monthly", started in 1986 and ran up until 2003! (making it the longest running Football comic?), however distribution can't have been very good as i don't remember seeing a single issue, though i didn't get into "old" comic collecting until 2006, and if i saw it in my childhood whilst looking for Commando on old-fashioned spinning racks i probably would have ignored it.

[felneymike]

I think the DC Thomson Football title which appeared in their Commando format had a pretty healthy run.

- Phil Rushton

It was called "Football Picture Story Monthly" and ran from June 1986 to October 2003 (making it the longest-running Football comic?). However distribution can't have been brilliant as i don't ever recall seeing a single issue (then again i didn't get into collecting "boys own" comics until 2006, and when i was a child and looking for Commando comics at the seaside i would have ignored a footy one entirely).

With Commando seemingly increasing in popularity recently (and distribution improving too, you can now buy it inland!) thanks to those big books perhaps a re-launch could be worth a try? Or if that's not feasable a big book of selected stories in the style of the Commando Collections could probably work... isn't there a world cup next year too? It could hardly go wrong in that climate!

[Lew Stringer]

Actually I just checked and Scorcher lasted for nearly five years. Not brilliant perhaps, but better than many titles, including Wham! - and only a few months less than the most successful Power comic Smash!

- Phil R.

Yes, much as I liked them the Odhams comics were not considered to be a great success in the history of comics. I can understand why Wham! folded after four years though, - its quality had declined by then (it had lost Baxendale and Reid for starters). The "Power Comics" spread themselves too thin over five comics (three launched within months of each other) instead of focusing all their energies on one or two titles. But that's business.

Wham, Smash, and Pow were too similar to each other. (A mistake IPC repeated with some of their comics.) A sixth Power Comic, Spitfire, was planned, which would have been different, (albeit more traditional, like Fleetway's comics) but it was abandoned when IPC took charge. No idea what happened to the stories produced for Spitfire. (Mike Higgs did a new strip but it was never used.) Perhaps a few turned up in IPC's Smash! revamp?

Lew

[Lew Stringer]

With Commando seemingly increasing in popularity recently (and distribution improving too, you can now buy it inland!) thanks to those big books perhaps a re-launch could be worth a try? Or if that's not feasable a big book of selected stories in the style of the Commando Collections could probably work... isn't there a world cup next year too? It could hardly go wrong in that climate!

Possibly, although Commando has a faithful ex-squaddie readership I believe? Expecting the same loyalty from footie fans is a different kettle of fish. Commando is set in real conflicts, so appeals to military enthusiasts, whereas the Football book used fictitious teams IIRC? Not quite the same level of involvement. Although the Roy of the Rovers books seem to be doing ok so you might be right.

Lew

[philcom55]

Interestingly, the Fleetway equivalent, Tiger Sports Library, only lasted for six months - however as that was in 1961 it probably counts as the first ever football comic.

As for publishing new football comics in the picture library format I bet titles based on Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, etc. would sell really well: unfortunately the rights would almost certainly be cripplingly expensive. I wonder if the clubs could be interested in producing comics themselves to be sold in their souvenir shops? (in fact I think there have been a number of club histories in comic strip form).

Best of all would be a new Roy of the Rovers series in which Melchester Rovers were slotted into the modern Premiership with real-life teams providing the opposition. Goodness knows how they'd get the necessary permissions though!

- Phil Rushton