"Muddy Mildred!"
 

    Back in 2003, the star players and associates of Warbury FC moved out of
    the pages of "The Sun" and into their very own, fully-fledged weekly.
    "Striker" the comic was an all-3D affair that somehow totted up 87 barmy
    issues before it folded, and the Warbury management returned to the interior
    pages of "The Sun" once more. It may been a short-lived venture, but
    it gave its readers one heck of a ride...

    Pete Nash's "Striker" strip first appeared Britain's favourite tabloid in
    November 1985, and back then it was a standard four-panel creation in
    black and white. The striker of the title was Nick Jarvis, and the strip
    followed his day-to-day adventures both on and off the field and, indeed,
    into the bedroom with a succession of dollybirds. Jarvis was a player on
    the rise, moving from Oakvale to Thamesford FC, until eventually, he
    was recruited as the player-manager of the Warbury Warriors. And so
    began the extraordinary love-hate relationship beteween this star striker
    and Warbury's larger-than-life chairman Eric Openshaw - It's their
    continuing spats and feuds that form the nucleus of the strips
    in the comic...

.   Ah, yes. Back to the comic. It didn't just appear overnight, of course.
    "Striker" shifted from monochrome to colour in 1990. But that first step to
    glorious Photoshop 3D didn't come until nine years later. After at least
    one false start, the new-look strip was given a regular 3D fixture in "The Sun"
    every Saturday from January 1999. And as the strip developed in look, so it
    develped in tone. The storylines began to embrace the absurdities
    of the modern game. Nothing was out of bounds, and the strip's increasing
    popularity with readers convinced the fledgling 3D team that there was room
    for an even bigger and broader soccer parody outside of this tabloid home.

    Striker: The Web Site was thus born, and "Striker" the comic subsequently
    launched on August 28th 2003. And what's more, the comic surpassed
    everyone's estimates, shifting more than 38,000 copies of its first edition.
    The gamble had paid off handsomely. "The Sun" though, tried to scupper
    the departure of its top strip with an all-new football-based comic strip.
    ("The Premier") Cheekily, they even hinted at the demise of Warbury FC
    in the opening panels of their toon. Yet it was too little too late. Nash
    and his team had already snatched their comic glory...

    Only, that glory was short-lived, because from then on, readers were
    treated to a weekly rollercoaster ride as the 3D team struggled to
    build a bigger readership and thus gain enough backing for their big future
    plans. This struggle was immediately evident to any one who ventured
    in to their local newsagents. The comic's risque content confused retailers
    and the purchasing public alike. Was it a comic, or a lad's mag? Its
    location varied from store to store. Then there was the fact that so many
    of the strip's readers had, in fact, been a captive audience, reading it
    within the confines of their favourite newspaper. How many of them
    could be persuaded to buy this standalone offspring?

    Not as many as they'd hoped, alas. In June 2004, Pete Nash and company
    were forced to take drastic measures. They issued a share scheme so that
    the most avid readers might invest in the company directly and keep their
    favourite weekly afloat. It was a comic first, and an extraordinary
    development, but incredibly they achieved their target investment.
    Funnily enough, the ups and downs of these enedeavours were reported,
    week on week, within the comic itself as a kind of absurd running
    commentary that, at times, seemed to mirror the craziness of
    Warbury FC itself.

    So "Striker" the comic now had public co-ownership. But even this cash
    injection felled to stem the tide. In May 2005, it was forced to fold,
    although there was one last crazy twist in the tail, because Pete
    Nash and his former emploers were at last able to put their previous
    acrimony to bed, allowing Warbury FC to return once more to the
    pages of "The Sun" - You really couldn't have scripted it better...

    
  
    Strike this!

    Originally, Nick Jarvis was the star player for a fictional football team
    called Oakvale. After his dazzling display in a cup-tie with Manchester
    United he was poached by Thamesford FC, but eventually his star began to
    fade and - in a typically audacious mood - Warbury FC's larger-than-life
    chairman Eric Openshaw signed him up as the Warriors' new player-
    manager. Eric had a dream. Warbury had just been promoted from the
    Vauxhall Conference League, and he now sought promotion to the
    premierleague in successive seasons. Although they didn't quite
    achieve the dream that year, success eventually came two years
    down the line, in 2000. Then things unravelled, big time. Firstly,
    Jarvis quit the club and moved to Australia, only to have his leg
    bitten off by a shark on Bondi Beach. Though the limb was safely
    reattatched, clearly, his playing days were over. He returned to find
    Warbury FC in dissarray and come the end of the 2001-2002 season,
    Warbury were relegated to the First Division...

    And that was where "Striker" the comic stepped in. And with
    all those pages to fill, the all the trials and tribulations of the tabloids
    were played out through the squad, who were a hotchpotch of homegrown
    talent and  international imports with all the usual hang-ups, peculiarities,
    WAGs and foibles.

    Each issue presented us with a continuing main story concerning life off
    and on the Warbury pitch, plus a support item detailing the team's 
    encounters on it, against their "real life" opposition. The original
    older strips were also reprinted alongside cgi pinups of the associated
    dolly-birds and 'star' reviews of the latest sports cars and accessories,
    and the whole thing introduced by the unforgettably absurd Eric 'muddy'
    Openshaw...

 
    
    All in the detail

    Eagle-eyed fans should keep their eyes on indiviual Striker panels.
    There's always plenty to look for. Here's a quick quartet for you:
    
    •  In issue #4, in the first panel of 'Lose 9-0 or Vanessa's Toast' we are
       shown Chronos Restaurant - an addition from artist Gio Chronopoulos,
       perhaps?

    • In issue #2, our nasty villains in 'Loose 9-0' are drinking 'Strong Beer'
       with a big strong boy on the label. Surely it's one of the 3D team.
       Does anyone know who, exactly?

    • From issue #10, the main Striker strips became officially sponsored
       by a Pinner-based businessman. His company names appear on all
       the hoardings in the strips, and they even feature in the cover detail!

    • Ah, the pressures of producing a 3D weekly. If you look at issue #3,
       bottom of page 6, you'll find the whiteboard in the Warbury changing
       has been printed back-to-front by mistake!

 

     In the news

     
     The Hound: May 2005
     Striker Comic folds...

     The Hound: December 2004
     Striker team get War Of The Worlds rights...

     The Hound: July 2004
     Striker hits its shares target...

     The Hound: April 2004
     Striker Comic seeks investors...

     The Hound: August 2003
     Striker Comic is launched...

 

      Strip credits


     Lose 9 - 0 or Vanessa's Toast!
     issues 1-12

     story & storyboards: Pete Nash
                       3D artists: Simon Ravenhill, Juan Carbrera
                 final artists: Joel Carpenter, Gianluca Bonomo
            other 3D artists: Jason Edwards, Giorgos Chronopoulos,
                                   Kevin Richter, Chris Dymond

     Chuck's Choice
     issues 13-40

       story & script: Pete Nash
            3D artists: Simon Ravenhill, Juan Cabrera,
                            Will Turner, Jimmy O'Ready, Matt Pearson
         final artists: Joel Carpenter, Luca Bonomo


     McMisery
     issues 41-48

     story & script: Pete Nash
            3D artists: Simon Ravenhill, Juan Cabrera,
                          Will Turner, Jimmy O'Ready,
                          Matt Pearson
        final artists: Joel Carpenter, Luca Bonomo


     Boris the Bad
     issues 49-87

     story & script: Pete Nash
          3D artists: Simon Ravenhill, Will Turner,
                          Kate Bratley, Oliver Spinks, Juan Cabrera,
                          Micha Noordegraaf, Phil Radford,
                          Jimmy O'Ready
       final artists: Joel Carpenter, Luca Bonomo


     The Big Match
     weekly fixtures / issues 1-87

      3D artists: Damian Ram, Adrian Denne
     final artist: Joel Carpenter, Luca Bonomo