Murray Thomson sent in a book which he thought may be of interest to myself and BwB readers.
It is one I had certainly not come across before.
It’s called ‘Football Comic Book Heroes’ and was put together by Adam Riches, along with Tim Parker and Robert Frankland, and published by Mainstream.
The book is a celebration of the many years of boys’ comics such as The Rover, Tiger and Hotspur, and is a definitive history of the comic book footballer.
The age group of many who follow this column will definitely identify with these titles.
Comic books nearly always featured a football hero (nay, god!).
As a youngster, I was enthralled by tales of Roy of the Rovers, Gorgeous Gus, Limp-Along Leslie, Bernard Briggs and many other favourites.
In the book, stories (some actually factual), sketches, photos and drawings abound and swell the publication to over 250 pages.
Over the coming issues, I’ll share several with you.
The first one (below) is a front page cover from The Hotspur from September 12, 1959.
If you have any tales of sports stories in The Hotspur — or any other comic book — along with names of your comic book football hero, then get in touch.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.