Roy of the Rovers (comic) Argentine international of the same name. The 1980s saw a slew of popular strips run in the comic, including The Apprentices (1983–84), a short-lived strip detailing the exploits of Melchester's apprentice professionals (effectively acting as the Melchester Rovers story in the comic as Roy was managing Walford for much of its run)—and Harker's War (1985), a strip that took an unconventional angle by showing a former policeman's one-man war on football hooliganism. The mid-1980s also saw reprints of Nipper, a popular strip originally appearing in "Score 'n' Roar" and "Scorcher and Score", that featured Nipper Lawrence, a plucky working class
Roy of the Rovers framed around themes "remarkably similar to those at the center of the Roy Race fiction and ideology ... there was a clear sense of mourning for the loss of an age". "Roy of the Rovers Annual"s were produced every year from 1958 until 1994, and again in 2000. A number of tie-in books were also published, including a handful of paperback prose storybooks in 1977 and 1993, and two football quiz books in 1978 and 1979. Roy of the Rovers never made the leap from page to screen, although he did make an appearance on the BBC comedy sports quiz