Striker on the Subs Bench Again...

Episodes of the 1987 Striker
story 'Dirty Money'. The strip
today is published in CGI.
Striker © 2010 Pete Nash.

Long-running football strip Striker’s run in Nuts magazine will come to an end next month, creator Pete Nash reports.

Sadly for Striker fans who have followed the strip from The Sun to its weekly own comic, then back to the daily paper once more and now, Nuts, the magazine has told Pete they haven’t been able to secure a sponsor which means the income is insufficient to cover the artwork and production costs.

Striker, which has been produced as a Computer Generated strip for several years, has previously been sponsored by big brands such as Virgin.

"It simply isn’t viable to continue," Pete told fans on the official StrikerWorld web forum, revealing the last issue of Nuts featuring Striker will be the one from 5-11 October.

"There will be no big bang ending, just a wrapping up of the current story," he added, before also noting that this might, finally, be the last hurrah for the strip.

"I am long enough in the tooth to know you should never say never but I don’t see any likelihood of Striker re-emerging elsewhere," he says. "Twenty five years is a hell of a run and I feel the time to stop, or at least take a substantial break, is probably overdue. I am finally going to concentrate on my other writing projects."

Striker today. Find out how it's
produced here on the official
Strikerworld web site

Despite the bad news for the strip, there is some good news for its fans - the StrikerWorld web site, which is publishing an archive of past strips, is doing well and Intelligence Ltd – its designers and hosts – are committed to keeping the archive and forum going.

"We are going to shoot a promotional video for the archive to host on Youtube," Pete reports, "so hopefully visitor traffic will improve and the forum will eventually attract more members."

• Visit the StrikerWorld web site at: www.striker3d.com

• Pete's guide to producing Striker in CG