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| Episodes of the 1987 Striker story 'Dirty Money'. The strip today is published in CGI. Striker © 2010 Pete Nash. |
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."
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| Striker today. Find out how it's produced here on the official Strikerworld web site |
"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
Football comic Striker has kicked off its 25th anniversary year by signing exclusively to Nuts, Britain’s biggest-selling weekly mens lifestyle magazine published by IPC. (We're betting the team mascot might just be a bit racier than its past cheerleader, pictured here).
The computer-generated adventures of Warbury Warriors football club, which previously featured daily in The Sun and, for a time, in their own weekly comic, will launch in the issue going on sale on Tuesday 26th January.
Striker will have its own page in Nuts and will feature all-new adventures, starting with the resurrection of the destitute Warriors by Arab billionaire Sheikh Mustapha Futti Kulub (Gedditt!?).
Striker was created by journalist and artist Pete Nash back in 1985 and made its debut in The Sun newspaper in November of that year as a three-panel black-and-white cartoon, switching to colour four years later. In 1999, Striker became the first daily newspaper strip in the world to be created entirely in computer-generated 3D software.
“Nuts will be the perfect new home for Striker," says creator Pete Nash. "The magazine’s readership of young adult males matches Striker’s core following and the cheeky, entertaining style of Nuts is exactly on a par with Striker.
“What’s more is that a weekly format, rather than daily, will give me time to work on developing Striker into a movie and possible TV series. Talks are at an advanced stage with two producers and I can’t wait to see the Striker characters come to life in Nuts and on the screen.”
Launched in 2004, Nuts has established itself as the biggest brand in men's media and is the PPA Consumer Media Brand of the Year 2009, accounting for one out of every two men's lifestyle mags purchased at newsstand. Online, 
