On some occasions, too, the RotR strip would be split (usually due to where the colour pages in the comic were), both opening and closing the issue and featuring a cliffhanger at its break.
Written by Fred Baker and drawn by John Gillatt,[5] it told the story of Billy Dane, a hopeless schoolboy footballer who suddenly developed amazing skill and intuition whenever he wore the old boots of legendary striker "Dead Shot" Keen.
Written by Fred Baker and usually drawn by Ramiro Bujeiro, the strip began in the first edition of Roy of the Rovers in 1976, finally disappearing permanently a decade later.
There he met the fat, bald, camp but extremely successful Hungarian manager Viktor Boskovic, with the strip taking on an increasingly humorous tone in the process.
Written by Gil Page and drawn by Osvaldo Torta,[5] The Safest Hands in Soccer told the story of Gordon Stewart, Scottish goalkeeper for second division Tynefield City.
Having previously been the lead strip in the short-lived Hot Shot comic, Playmaker moved to Roy of the Rovers upon the merger of the two titles in 1989.
Written by Gil Page (under the pseudonym "H. Manning") and drawn by G. Marchetti and later Barrie Mitchell,[5] the story followed Andy Steel, a prodigious 15-year-old midfielder for Millside City in the First Division.
Later strips would see him transfer to rich Second Division club Lands Park, and finally to big-name Spanish side Real Catania, along with his teammate and fellow prodigy Kevin Radnor.
Over the next few years he and veteran assistant/groundsman Joe Croke fought valiantly to keep the club in business amid a series of off-field difficulties, but enjoyed success in non-league cup competitions and even appeared at Wembley Stadium in 1984.
After bringing former Palace players Jess Barton and Duke Dancer with him and operating on a shoestring budget, Wolves defied the odds to avoid relegation and win the FA Cup.
It began with older brother Steve playing in attack for top-flight giants Kingsbay and Terry being the star defender for struggling Fourth Division neighbours, Stockbridge Town.
An older Nipper had previously shown up in the RotR strip itself, appearing in the England team that Roy Race selected during his one-match tenure as national coach.
Goalmouth (1990–92) took quite a modern tone, following brilliant young goalkeeper Nick "Rapper" Hardisty, who was also part owner of the struggling Fourth Division club he played for, and who had a propensity for rapping very loudly at opponents and teammates during matches.
Buster's Ghost (1992–93) was a sequel of sorts to Nipper, created by the same writer (Tom Tully) and artist (Solano Lopez) and featuring the same club, Blackport Rovers.
Buster Madden had been a top-class player for the club, but was killed in a car crash, and reappeared as a ghost to aid his former teammates on the pitch in a variety of bizarre ways.
His cousin Nigel Foster, also a Blackport player, was the only person who could see him (a similar story called The Footballer Who Wouldn't Stay Dead had run a decade earlier).
Another spin-off was The Son of Racey (1989–90), which gave schoolboy Roy Race Jr his first prominent role in the comic just before he joined the Rovers as an apprentice.