This Game is Gonna Be the Death of Me!
Back in the mid-1990s, I ran into an Englishman in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia who asked me to explain baseball to him. I pointed out it was very similar to his own country’s game of rounders, which he rather snootily pointed out was a girl’s game. I responded that yes, that was true, in much the same way as soccer was in the United States. 
Well, it kind of was, at the time.
Not my proudest moment, both for the quick and less-than-amicable termination of what had promised to be a pleasant conversion, but also for the misguided misogyny with which my riposte was laden. I do apologize for that. I was younger and muc less evolved in those days. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
I had not given that other kind of football much thought since then, at least until recently, when I, along with what seems like most of the world, went absolutely gaga over a delightful television show called Ted Lasso. You may have seen it. The title character is an American college football coach who is hired by a foundering English soccer team to lead them to glory. This takes him no less than three seasons, as he knows nothing about soccer. The series concluded in the most perfect way imaginable, leading the writer in me to be satisfied that it ended just as it should have, but the fan in me desperately wanting more.
Is there any higher praise than that for an artistic endeavor? I think not.
At the end of my second binge of the program, I started wondering if there weren’t some way to bring a bit of Ted Lasso to these hallowed pages. And sure enough, there is. I know I just did a comics-themed post last month, but I’ve never done one about an English comic book. So, let’s all cross the Big Pond to take a look at Roy of the Rovers, a long running title all about what most of the world means when it says the word ‘football’.
Doesn’t mean they’re right.
Specifically, I would like to draw the populace’s attention to a back-up feature in the title. “Buster’s Ghost” ran in the final fifty-five weekly issues, beginning with the February 29, 1992 edition, as well as in the 1994 Annual, usually at or near the end of the book. It told the tale of the late great soccer player, Buster Madden, who returned from the afterlife to ferret out who engineered the car accident that killed him four years earlier, and in the process to turn his hapless but talented cousin, Nigel Foster, into a player as great as he himself was. To accomplish these disparate goals, Buster stoops so low as to possess Nigel, among other tactics. The Blackpool Raiders do enjoy greater success due to Buster’s interference, which leaves Nigel feeling a bit like a cheater. As well, since no one else can see the spectral footballer Nigel’s teammates all think he’s crazy when he talks to the spirit, which is even more disconcerting.
Once Buster’s killers are caught, more ghosts start popping up, causing additional problems for poor Nigel and starting storylines that weren’t resolved before Roy of the Rovers was canceled, and “Buster’s Ghost” along with it, including one in which the new manager of the team can see the ghosts. All the ghosts. Alas, nothing ever came of it.
Oh, well.
By the way, Buster resembles nothing so much as Griffin Dunne’s character from An American Werewolf in London about halfway through his decomposition process. Nigel resembles a Nebraska farm boy in the wrong kind of football uniform. I’ve been to the United Kingdom a couple of times, and don’t recall ever seeing anyone with a flat-top haircut. Maybe I just hung out with the wrong crowd, in the wrong decade.
The regular series episodes ran two-and-a-half pages each, with a six-page story in the annual. This is typical of English comics, which doesn’t provide for much rapid story development. There were other features in the magazine, none of which had any supernatural elements. Roy of the Rovers ended its 851-issue run on March 20, 1993.
Adios, Roy. Vaya con Dios, Buster. So long, Nigel.
At least Ted Lasso wrapped up all its various plots and subplots. Hmph.
I have yet another comics-related obituary to share. John Romita, Sr., the primary artist on The Amazing Spider-Man for a number of years, died on June 12 at 93. In his long career, he illustrated every genre imaginable, including quite a few horror tales for Atlas Comics, the company that grew up to become Marvel. Of which you might have heard.
Until next time, I bid you to be afraid…
Be very afraid.
HorrorAddicts.net 