Striker was a fictional British comic strip created by Pete Nash in 1985 and ran in various formats until its last issue was published in 2019. The strip first appeared in The Sun newspaper on November 11, 1985, and was published daily until August 2003 when the creator decided to launch the strip as a weekly independent comic book. However, the strip returned to The Sun during October 2005, after the comic book had published 87 issues and suffered financial problems. Over the four years the newspaper strip was published daily until the end of September 2009, when it transpired that Nash had served a years notice to bring the strip to a conclusion. However, Striker returned on January 26, 2010, as a full-page comic strip in the weekly UK lads magazine Nuts, where it was published as a weekly strip until October 2010. It subsequently went unpublished until January 7, 2013, when it started to be published in The Sun newspaper. Over the next three years it was published seven days a week, before it was announced that Striker would no longer be published in the paper after February 13, 2016. Later that year, it was announced that the strip would be brought back to the paper by popular demand, with matches shown live on the internet for the first time.
Publication history Striker was created during 1985 by Pete Nash, who had just become a design sub-editor on The Sun newspaper, where he was exposed and took inspiration from the original artwork of strips like George and Lynne and Axa. As a result, he decided to create a newspaper cartoon strip and explored a number of ideas, before deciding on a football theme, as the only other strip was Roy of the Rovers, which he personally believed had become "tired and dated". Nash subsequently drew the first ten panels and despite the amateurish, overdrawn and messy look to them, he showed the strips to The Sun's managing editor at the time Kelvin MacKenzie. Kelvin subsequently asked Pete to show the strip to his deputy and managing editor, before the first newspaper strip was published on November 11, 1985. Over the next few years, the strip was published, in a pencil, brush and ink format in A3, before it was reduced in size by photocopier to the size it would appear in the paper. During August 1990, Striker started to be coloured in with Pantone markers, after being reduced to publication size. During 1994, as Striker approached its tenth year, Nash felt that the newspaper strip needed a "major update" with fresh faces and new characters. As a result, Nick left Thamesford FC and joined Warbury Warriors as their "Player-Manager" during July 1994, with the challenge of taking them from the conference to the Premiership in successive seasons.
During 1997, the author was looking at several demonstrations of computer programmes including Photoshop and Illustrator, as they could be used to colour Striker in a cleaner, simpler and more effective way than markers. He remarked to a demonstrator that "it was a shame [that], it couldn't instantly calculate perspectives", the demonstrator subsequently recommend that Nash looked at the 3D software packages. Three months later Nash sat down at his computer with a consultant and a copy of Lightwave and learned how to produce 3D-generated artwork. However, because this took up a lot of time, the author hired another John Cooper to draw Striker, until the strip was ready to be launched in 3D. Striker subsequently made its debut as the world's first 3D-generated cartoon strip on March 16, 1998, however, this proved to be a disaster as his retouching of the 3D images looked heavy and clumsy, and the images lacked the comic feel. The then editor of The Sun Stuart Higgins, did not like it and nor did most of his staff before the author decided to revert to 2D after three weeks. For the rest of the year, Striker was drawn in 2D by Cooper, while Nash worked with another writer on some of the stories. Towards the end of 1998, The Sun dubiously agreed to the authors request to publish Striker in 3D again, but this time the strip was expanded to be a double-deck strip. This time Nash "was reasonably happy" with the "overall look and composition" a lot better than during the previous attempt.
The new-look Striker, subsequently proved to be a turning point for the strip's success, as the Daily Mirror, Daily Express and the Daily Star tried to poach the comic strip. During June 1999, the author decided to set up his own company Striker 3D, and set about recruiting staff in order to improve Striker, while laying foundations for future projects like a website and a comic book. The Sun also liked the new-look strip and as a result decided to increase its size to a triple-deck strip, while commissioning Striker 3D to create 3D-graphics to illustrate its and the News of the Worlds news and feature articles. Striker's new look also made it commercially viable to attract corporate sponsorship and during 2001 Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile became Striker's first sponsor. However, at around this time Nash's long-term relationship with The Sun started to deteriorate, as, in addition to the newspaper strip, the author wanted to publish a weekly comic that would feature Striker as a major part of its content. Over the next few months, The Sun and Nash had several issues that could not be resolved, which resulted in the author reluctantly giving a years notice, to terminate his contract with The Sun during August 2002. These issues included licensing issues, with The Sun trying to claim ownership of Striker and trademark the brand and characters without the authors knowledge.
On August 28, 2003, Nash published Britain's first weekly comic strip in twenty-five years, with a launch budget of around £300 thousand, after he had put his house firmly on the line. Striker's distributors originally projected that 39 thousand copies of the comic had been sold, however, it was later revealed that they made a mistake and they revised their estimate to 29 thousand. The author was disappointed by this, as it was considered to be only just over their break-even amount of 28 thousand copies being sold. Over the next few weeks, sales of the comic were consistent, which was considered to be mainly due to a promotion that WH Smiths, were running in conjunction with the comic. However, once this promotion came to an end, availability of the comic plummeted, with sales slowly starting to slide as a result and eventually slipped below the break-even mark. Over the next few months, Striker 3D held several meetings with wholesalers and retailers, who told them that they had a very good product, but needed to spend more money on promoting it. They also were inundated with phone calls from readers who were disappointed that they could not find Striker, and in turn, they inundated their distributors with phone calls and held several meetings with them.
During issue 34 that was published at the end of April 2004, the author announced that the comic might end during June as it was "chronically underfunded" and "cash-strapped". As a result of this, the author decided to convert Striker 3D into a public limited company, which eventually meant that Nash could sell shares in his company to the comics readers. Despite fears that they would not raise the minimum £300 thousand that they needed to survive, the share offer was successful as the raised around £200 thousand, while an advertising agency pledged another £100 thousand by agreeing to trade future invoices for shares. As a result, the future looked promising once again, with Striker 3D managing to cut their operating costs, while increasing the number of pages to 36 and adding a glossy cover to the comic. Over the next few months, the company moved into the black, while having meetings with potential investors who were impressed by Striker, but refused to invest as they could not understand why adults would want to buy such a comic. As a result of this and sales continuing to decline, Nash decided to accept that after 87 issues, Striker was not going to make it as a stand-alone publication, with the final comic published on May 12, 2005.
After the comic folded Nash was offered the chance to take Striker back to The Sun, on terms that he hoped would pave the way for a better relationship. As a result, the strip returned to the newspaper on October 3, 2005, where it replaced The Premier and was published six days a week for the next four years. However, the relationship did not improve over the years, with the newspaper not getting behind the strip as they said they would. During September 2009, fans of the newspaper strip started to ask where it was, after the strip had not been published in the newspaper. It subsequently transpired that Nash had served a year's notice to bring the strip to a conclusion, with the last strip appearing on September 18, 2009, as he had run out of ideas and wanted to pursue other avenues. The author subsequently received an email from the weekly lads magazine Nuts, which offered to adopt Striker and give it a new home. Striker was subsequently first published in the magazine on January 26, 2010, after Nuts had spent £500 thousand promoting the magazine, in a series of poster campaigns in football stadiums and adverts on Sky TV. However, due to the harsh economic climate, the magazine was not able to find a corporate sponsor for the strip, which meant that the income was not sufficient to cover the artwork and production costs. As a result, the author decided that it was not viable to continue producing the strip and served a months notice, that the final strip in Nuts would be published on October 5, 2010.
Striker subsequently went unpublished until January 2013, when it returned to The Sun where it replaced The Shadows comic strip and was published in the newspaper and on its website, every day for the next three years. During the opening months of 2016, the then editor of The Sun, Tony Gallagher decided to end the two surviving comic strips in the paper, Hagar and Striker. However, less than two weeks after The Sun had dropped Striker from the paper, the paper asked the author to bring Striker back following a protest from fans, but initially only offered space for 3 panels a day. According to Nash, they explained that the decision was taken as a result of cost-cutting measures caused by declining sales and advertising revenue, however, the author announced that he did not wish to place all of his eggs in their basket again. As a result, long negotiations ensued including with another unnamed newspaper, before Nash achieved a deal with The Sun, enabled him to explore the commercial opportunities for Striker outside of The Sun. However, the price for this non-exclusivity was a big drop in the income from The Sun for Striker, which the author commented wasn't enough to cover production costs.