Roy of the Rovers (comic) occasional "cross-overs" between strips in the weekly comic—for instance, in an early episode of "The Legend", lead character and superstar player Agostina Da Silva was shown playing against Melchester. Roy of the Rovers (comic) The Roy of the Rovers comic was launched as a weekly on 25 September 1976, named after the established comic strip of the same name that first appeared as weekly feature in the "Tiger" on 11 September 1954. The title ran for 853 issues, until 20 March 1993 (industrial action prevented publication of 3 issues in December 1978 and a further 5 in May and June
Roy of the Rovers that were more realistic". There has been no new material since 2001, but reprints of the strip have appeared online and in print. The "Roy of the Rovers" website has archived all of the "Match of the Day" years' material, in addition to excerpts from other classic strips. In October 2007, Setanta bought the original strips, which they featured on their web site. Then-rights holder, Egmont, published a 64-page "collectors edition" of the comic strip in April 2009, gathering together a number of 1980's era Roy of the Rovers stories in addition to other backup strips from the comic. Two