Coming soon: Book on football comic heroes

[Lew Stringer]

This may be of interest to anyone who likes football comic strips:




http://www.play.com/Books/Books/-/92/14 ... type=genre

"Ever since comics for boys were first published in the late nineteenth century, they have offered their readers fun, adventure and escapism. As participation and attendance at sports events rose dramatically during the first half of the twentieth century, boys' comics began to regularly feature sportsmen of all types, and footballers became the ultimate favourite. The introduction of football comics presented in a cartoon-strip format became immensely popular during the 1960s, with Rover, Hotspur and Wizard amongst the top titles. Although these comics are no longer in circulation, there is still a significant level of interest amongst boys and men of all ages, and the culture of the comic-book hero continues.Renowned publisher D.C. Thomson has delved into its archives to produce the definitive document of the most legendary footballing characters to grace the pages of boys' comics, including such favourites as Limp Along Leslie, Roy Race, Billy Dane and Hotshot Hamish.Extensively researched to cover the history and the storylines associated with these comics and their heroes, this is a unique, nostalgic account of the football comic-book phenomenon that will jog the memories of older readers and introduce the magic of these imaginary sporting stars to a new generation."

Publisher :Mainstream Publishing (United Kingdom)

ISBN9781845964085

Format Hardback - 256 Pages
colour and b/w illustrations throughout

[Kashgar]

If, as this publicity blurb suggests, Thomson's have been digging into their archives to produce this book they must have gotten the Black Sapper to help burrow their way into the Fleetway/IPC vaults too as only one of the characters mentioned, Limp-along Leslie, was actually a member of Thomson's soccer squad.

[grumpy old man]

Wot no Gorgeous Gus, Brampton Keys, Wee Bandy, Napper Todd etc

[Raven]

Well, if it is IPC-laden*, I hope at least half the book is devoted to Raven on the Wing.

And that Peter the Cat gets in there.




(* though I expect it probably won't be at all if it's from D C Thomson.)

[steelclaw]

This looks excellent right up my street,I would rather have this then the Hotshot Hamish book.

[Ian]

Its right up my street too.British comic fans have never had it so good.

Strange to see DCT publish a book with ex IPC strips not that I am complaining as in my opinion IPC were miles ahead of DCT in regards to football strips.IPC were much more original and had some superb characters and storylines.

[Lew Stringer]

Strange to see DCT publish a book with ex IPC strips

It's published by "Mainstream Publishing" which although a Scottish company are not, as far as I know, a Thomson imprint. I think the book description just got things wrong a bit and assumed DCT owned all the characters.

I think we may be in danger of there being too many books on British comics being published at present, oddly enough. (I never thought I'd say that!) I hope they're all diverse enough to do well but personally speaking, with the History of The Beano volume coming up, plus Rick Random, plus Bellamy's King Arthur, plus Best of Battle, I think I'll be passing on the football volume.

Lew

[colcool007]

I've got to agree with Lew. While DCT may have contributed images and copy, I can't see them as being the authors of a book that use IPC's Tiger and font as the header.

I can make out only 3 images on the front cover as being DCT based. So only 3 out of 10 being DCT based makes it even more unlikely that DCT is the author as I am sure that a lot more DCT imagery would have been more prominent if they had been responsible for the book.