Striker (comic)

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Striker is a comic strip (and for a time, it was a magazine) in the British tabloid The Sun, created by Pete Nash.

Since its inception, the strip has primarily revolved around the life of Nick Jarvis, a former player and current manager of Premiership side Warbury Warriors. Jarvis initially played for non-league outfit Oakville before moving to First Division (at the time) side Thamesford who were suffering from an injury crisis. Jarvis stayed with Thamesford for nine years, eventually quitting in 1994 and winding up at Conference side Warbury. Since then they have gotten to the Premier League, been relegated twice in succession and then promoted again. They won the Championship play-offs at the end of the 2005/06 season, meaning that are playing in the Premier League for 2006/07.

1 History
2 Current Characters
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

[edit] General History

The strip first appeared in 1985 in a black and white format, moving to colour in 1990. It retained the drawn style until 1998, when it was relaunched as Striker VR in a 3D rendered format. While praised by many for its new style (3D rendered art still being quite rare at the time), Nashy was not satisfied with the results and for the rest of the year reverted to the drawn format. The 3D format returned in early 1999, with the strip this time being renamed Striker 3D. The popularity of the strip was evidenced by the fact that by 2001, all but two of The Sun's other comic strips had been dropped in order to allow extra space for Striker.

In late 2003, Striker broke away from The Sun and became its own magazine [1]. While it still maintained a loyal fanbase, it suffered from the fact that many larger retailers refused to stock it and suffered from financial problems throughout its lifetime. It nearly folded in mid-2004, but was saved by a share issue to its readers. The comic lasted for another year, before finally ceasing production in 2005. In the meantime, The Sun replaced Striker with its own 3D football strip named The Premier. The Premier was frequently derided for its poor quality art (which was initially compared unfavourably even to Striker VR, though it did improve somewhat as the strip went on) and storylines which were predictable and ludicrous in equal measure; many noted that at the time of it leaving The Sun, The Premier's plot seemed an almost exact copy of a storyline that was in Striker three years previously.

After an uncertain few months, it was finally agreed to bring Striker back to The Sun for October 2005, unsurprisingly replacing The Premier in the process.

The Striker archives are available to buy at the official website, from 50p per story.

[edit] Thamesford Era

Thamesford were based in or around London, and were managed by Jim Cassidy. Shortly after Nick joined the club, another striker, Gary Lewis decided that Nick was a threat to him, and arranged for him to be falsely accused of statutory rape. Lewis' plan came undone when the accusing girl proved herself to be mentally unstable at the trial and claimed to have slept with a whole host of First Division players. Lewis' involvement in the affair remained unknown to most, but he soon found himself in trouble when he drunkenly crashed a car that he was driving. In desperation he swapped his unconscious girlfriend (who was also Nick's ex-girlfriend) into the driver's seat and when the Police arrived told them that she was the driver. Nick eventually proved that Lewis was the actual driver, resulting in him being jailed for perverting the course of justice.

Some years later, Nick bought a house off the club's newly appointed chairman. However, the chairman's father (also his predecessor as chairman) had put a clause into his will, making Nick not only the owner of the chairman's entire estate, but also Thamesford itself. The chairman attempted to murder Nick and then massively defrauded (and nearly bankrupted) the club before fleeing the country. Nick sold off the property he was now owner of in order to pay off some of the club's debts, but a disgruntled former director of the club managed to get their bank to initiate bankruptcy procedures against them. Nick and Cassidy were forced to sell every player except Nick and a few younger players, and made up the rest of the squad from cheap and free transfers from lower-league clubs. Shortly after an FA Cup victory in 1994, Nick sold his stake in the club and left. By this time however, he was considered past his best and the only club interested in him were Conference side Warbury.

Some fans have noted that in the Thamesford years, the position of Club Chairman seemed to be cursed, with a number of chairman dying, two being forced to flee the country due to criminal acts and Nick having a torrid time as club owner. Oddly enough, the chairman who had arguably the smoothest ride was rock star Rod Stewart.

[edit] Warbury Era

Nick joined the Warbury Warriors as player-manager, under brief from chairman Eric Openshaw to get the side to the Premier League by 1998 - which would have meant getting promotion every year afterwards, without fail. In reality, Eric had entered into a bet with the owner of a supermarket chain that he could do this - and if Warbury failed, Eric would bankrupt the club and hand their ground over to his rival. Eric was nearly successful in this, the side failing at the final hurdle by losing the 1998 Division One play-off final. Fortunately it didn't matter by that time, as an ex-player of the club had burnt the stadium down the previous year and thus invalidated the bet.

Warbury got to the Premiership the following year, initially struggling before finding their feet in their second season. Unfortunately Eric's constant refusals to allow money for extra players took their toll in their third season, and the side was relegated. Afterwards, two corrupt businessmen, Mr. Bullion-Browne and Mr. Grubbet purchased Warbury with the intention of closing the club down as they only wanted the land Gasworks Road stadium sat on. During this time Nick was forced out and the club went briefly out of business. Their plan eventually failed when it was discovered that a one foot wide "ransom strip" around the whole ground was owned by a very old lady called Ethel, who would not give permission for the ground to be used for anything other than sport. Without the stadium their ownership of the club was pointless in their eyes, and they sold it back to Eric Openshaw at a big loss. In the meantime, Nick briefly played for an Australian club, but had his leg bitten off in a shark attack.[2] While doctors were able to reattach the leg, there was no question of Nick ever returning to playing. He returned to Warbury near the end of the season, but as a result of the players being out of condition and the fixture pile-up caused while the club was bankrupt, they were once again relegated.

Back in Division Two, the side won promotion without too much difficulty, but the season was marred by two events. Firstly, Eric's wife, Vanessa, was kidnapped by a gang of petty criminals who forced the club to deliberately lose 9-0 to Manchester United in a League Cup match. Fortunately the ineptitude of the criminals made it easy for the Police to track them, and the match result was voided (though the result of the rematch was little better; United winning 4-0) Secondly, as a result of injuries to their main goalkeepers, Nick was forced to sign an American goalkeeper, Chuck Rivers. Unfortunately Rivers suffered from severe depression and drug abuse, and eventually committed suicide after some of his former drug dealers stabbed and nearly killed one of his team mates.

In the Championship (what Division One had since become), Eric sold some of the club to a Russian gangster, who was operating under the name of Boris Anokov. At the same time, Gary Lewis took over the management of the nearby pub, The Slapper's Arms and came up with a new plan - he would fake his own death at the hands of Nick, and claim the life insurance money. In the meantime, Boris decided that Lewis would prove useful, and made him turn the pub into a brothel, also giving Lewis the money to buy the pub at a reduced price so that he could transfer it to Boris. Lewis never bought the pub and after carrying out his plan fled to the Cayman Islands with Boris' money. Nick came close to being convicted for the murder, but Lewis eventually confessed to the crime after Boris was killed by a rival gangster. Unfortunately for Lewis, he didn't think his alibi through correctly and was jailed again.

After a bad start to the 2005/06 season, and being refused permission to sign Joe Rock (a player from The Premier), Nick attempted to resign and become manager of Portsmouth (this happened some weeks before Alain Perrin was sacked as Portsmouth manager in real life). However, Eric recorded an insulting phone call made to him by Nick, re-edited it and played it back to Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric, with the result that Nick seemed to be turning down the job offer and insulting Mandaric in the process. Recently, a Chinese businesswoman bought the club, with the aim of turning them into the country's top side. Eric stayed in charge of the club, as Chief Executive. Desperate to receive a ten million pound payout promised by Li Ming if Warbury were promoted to the Premiership, Eric convinced a reluctant Nick to sign Ramiro Alvarez, a player from Juventus. However, this turned out to be a disastrous signing when he was unable to speak a word of English, refused to play long ball, and went AWOL when Nick refused to play him in the first team (which Eric had promised him in his contract). Also the other players learned that Alvarez was being paid over double their salaries, which has caused a large amount of unrest between Nick and the players. Li Ming was unhappy that her money had been used like this, and while still confident in Nick's ability as manager, has recently informed him that if he fails to get Warbury to the Premiership at the end of the season, then he would be out of a job.

As the season continued, Warbury continued to gain points in the table, and were able to get through to the play-off which, if Warbury won, would earn them promotion. During this period, Nick and Li Ming met a few times to discuss the club's affair and training schedule. During these meetings, the two began to fall for each other, and during a session of martial arts, things between the two became heated and they decided to pursue a relationship.

When Eric vanished in mysterious circumstances (with the only traces of him being his car and an ominous pool of his blood), questions arose and Vanessa discovered that prior to his disappearance, Eric had arranged a DNA test for his son Todd which had proved he was not the boy's father.

Meanwhile Warbury had gotten through to the play-off final and, despite a last minute penalty, they were able to win. As a result, Warbury would be returning to the Premiership after a four-year absence.

However the drama was far heavier off the pitch than on. Li Ming's father had discovered her and Nick's relationship and, incensed by what he saw as her bringing shame on his family as well as thinking Warbury should have qualified for automatic promotion, ordered her to end the relationship and immediately sack Nick and replace him with the best manager that money could buy. This led to what was one of Nick's worst days...

When Li Ming returned from meeting her father, she told Nick what her father had ordered. Upon returning to Gasworks Road, Vanessa was also waiting, as she had just learned of Nick and Li Ming's relationship from Scrapper. When Nick told her she and him had no future together and that he had no intention of starting a relationship, she vowed to tell the police of Todd's true paternity. Li Ming was also upset and, after Nick explained the circumstances surrounding Todd's conception, told him she was not willing to allow the club to bear the brunt of the scandal the revelation would cause, and sacked him.

Eric returned a few weeks after he disappeared, and revealed that he had gone hiking to Devon to clear his head after finding out about Todd's lineage, while the damage to his car was the result of a bus of tourists accidentally ramming it, the blood being the result of him hitting his nose during the impact. He then walked the moors for some time, before being bitten by a snake (Eric claimed it was an Adder, though he suffered no ill-effects from the bite). Running for help, he eventually found a pub, run by a woman called Doris. Eric and Doris fell in love, and on their return to Warbury, Eric told Vanessa that he would divorce her and marry Doris.

In the meantime, Li Ming failed to have much luck finding a new manager, as none of the candidates (including Sven-Göran Eriksson) were suitable. Despite the wishes of her father, she re-employed Nick, though told him that she didn't want to restart their relationship. When Li Ming informed her father she had rehired Nick and would not be handing over control of the club to her brother, her father slapped her and told his daughter that he would cut off her trust fund meaning the only money she had to run the club was the money she had in her won possession, which only equalled a couple of million pounds. With the club in dire financial straits and Warbury tipped to be favourites for relegation at the end of the season Li Ming found herself under pressure to raise money to buy some new players. With the transfer window about to close until January, Li Ming was able to secure an investment fund to buy players, the conditions of which meant she was only given a limited selection of players to choose from and if the players were sold, the fund would take the lion's share of the profits. As a result Nick bought three new players but was concerned as due to the rush and budget he was given, he wasn't 100% sure of their ability on the pitch, and has held off playing them.

As with Thamesford chairmen, many have noticed an apparent curse on Warbury goalkeepers. The club's first keeper was sacked within hours of meeting Jarvis when he requested to miss the first match of the season to attend a wedding. For most of the following years, the club's goalkeeper was Teflon Davis, who was eventually killed after the side's relegation from the Premiership when, drunkenly, he stepped in front of Fabian De Guisson's car and was run over. As mentioned above, Chuck committed suicide, while since then Rufus Lebonque and Tim Cavendish have both suffered long-term injuries. Ryan Evans also made some bad showings in his first few matches, which badly dented his confidence.

Recently, after bad blood between Li Ming and her father, the Warbury chairwoman was first attacked in the Warbury club car park, and then kidnapped in front of her own house by several thugs. She is now being held by the thugs in some kind of jail. Li's captors have requested two million from Li's father in order for her to remain alive. As Li's father and brother finally reached the captors hideout, Li was secretly escaping. As she escaped, she heard some kind of shot and ran outside to see her father lying motionless on the floor. Chan told her the captors had shot him, and then turned the gun on his sister, saying he had to kill her because no matter what he did; their father always took Li as the better child. Li tried to reason with Chan, and Li's father woke up and distracted him, and he dropped the gun. However, after punching Li, Chan regained control of the gun once more. As he was about to shoot, he slipped and fell down a well covered by wood. Li's father then called Li over, and she tried to ring an ambulance. He told her not to bother, as he would be dead by the time it found them. He then told her he had something important to tell her. He told her he was sorry for trying to control her decisions and he left everything to her.

[edit] Current Characters

As mentioned at the start, Nick Jarvis is the main character of the strip.

Li Ming Wong is the new owner of the club after buying it from Eric, who sold the club for £1 million up front, £10 million if they get to the Premiership this year, and £2 million if they get in to Europe next year. In 2006, Li Ming Wong was kidnapped by hired thugs and taken to a secret hideout. They requested &2 million from Li's father, who was accompanied by Li's brother on his way to the transaction. Li escaped and ran outside to hear a gunshot. She saw her dying father on the floor and soon discovered her vengeful brother Chen was behind the kidnap. Chen was going to kill her until he fell to his death down a mine shaft. Li has since been recovering.

Eric Openshaw is the club's Chief Executive. He made his money from his Pork Scratching Factory, where he started off as a Trainee Carcass griller. However, he was forced to sell it in order to raise money for the club's second stadium in 1997. Eric has a strong northern accent, and likes to use t’ instead of the. He is also famous for saying "Muddy Mildred," as he was not allowed to swear as a child. He often seems like a buffoon and finds himself in strange situations with animals, such as a car accident involving an elephant, and his adventure with Keith the Killer Whale; however he should never be underestimated. Eric is notoriously mean with his money and is always falling out with Nick, over his unwillingness to shell out on players. This is best seen in his choice of Car, a Viceroy Sedan from 1932. This car allowed Eric to foil a bank robbery as he double parked over the getaway car, and could not move as it required winding up. Vanessa's kidnap was in revenge for this. Since becoming Chief Executive Eric has been doing everything he can to ensure Warbury are promoted to the Premiership to gain the £10 million promised by Li Ming, including attempting to plant seeds of doubt in Li Ming's mind about the reliability of Nick as manager. Recently, Eric began to (correctly) seriously question his son Todd's true paternity, given that the child bore little resemblance to him, and after discovering his true parentage, decided to divorce Vanessa. Recently, Eric has got together with a woman more his own age, Doris. Eric has also invested in 'The Slapper's Arms', to make himself some more money, seeing as he thinks a takeover of Warbury is imminent and he wants money coming in from somewhere else.

Vanessa Openshaw is Eric's wife, who has cheated on him with Nick and most of the team - though Eric never for one moment suspected that anything was amiss. As a result of one such liaison with Nick, she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, Todd. She told Eric that he was the father, and even the fact that the baby shared neither Vanessa's nor his hair colour, and the fact she only allows him to sleep with her twice a year, on his birthday, and Christmas Day initially aroused his suspicions. He eventually found out the truth, with potentially dire implications for Vanessa. In 2006, she began dating Fabian de Guisson, but she broke it off in early 2007 when Fabian had apparently cheated on her several times. She told Eric about Fabian, with a furious Eric threatening to get rid of Fabian from the club.

Dave Boreham is Nick's notoriously boring assistant. Unlike Nick, Dave had a totally undistinguished playing career, the highlight of which was nearly winning promotion to the then Division Two with Newport County in 1983. Dave has managed the team on a few occasions, the most prominent of which were in 2002-03 when Nick quit (managing some initial good results but then practically taking them down), and then again when Nick was jailed for Gary Lewis' apparent murder in 2005. This spell was more successful, and he took the side through to the play-offs. Dave has an exceptionally beautiful daughter called Alex, who worked as a lap dancer.

Rufus Lebonque is the side's first choice goalkeeper. Nick spotted him in Haiti after his planned holiday to Barbados went awry, and signed him as a result of a court order that forced the club to sign more non-white players. As a result of this, Teflon Davis was transfer-listed, and went on a drinking spree that ultimately resulted in his death. Initially, Rufus' performances were dire, but once he started wearing Voodoo facepaint his performances improved. The team once had their summer break in Haiti, at a memorable hotel owned by Rufus’ uncle who was also an Elvis impersonator. He is also unusual as he has a Jamaican accent and believes that it may be because his relatives come from there. The side's two reserve players are Tim Cavendish and Ryan Evans.

Scrapper Griswell plays in defence. Initially he suffered from anger management problems, and so was commonly a target for the wind-ups of opposing players (who were often reluctant to do so due to his great stature). Eventually he managed his temper better, but not perfectly. He has had two short stints in prison - one when he was falsely accused of rape, and another when he broke into the office of the club's owners in 2002 to find out what their plans for the club were. He has recently married Bertha, a stewardess at the club and a Bog Snorkelling champion. The wedding, featured in July and August of 2006, ended in disaster when there was a flood, the guests subsequently had to swim to safety.

Phil Austin is a flamboyantly homosexual defender. His partner is Lance.

Gerald de Courcey is another defender, and formerly captain of the club. He has a degree in ancient Greek philosophy, but took up football after finding out that his degree wasn't particularly helpful in finding a job. He is prone to intellectual snobbery at times, and will sometimes make intelligent sounding arguments on subjects such as the law which have no truth behind them. He was once spotted reading "The Joy of Sub particle Physics", while in bed.

Kurt Panzer plays in midfield, and is the club's no nonsense captain. He is nicknamed "The Tank" and has an interest in military history. His favourite phrase is "Zat is very Silly".

Groucho Mendoza is an Argentinian defender, known for his greasy mullet and unpleasant odour. Despite suffering from serious attitude and temperament problems, he maintains a regular place in the side. His girlfriend, Eva Gerron was forced into performing sex acts on Boris Anokov as an act of blackmail, due to the fact that Groucho had bought a fake visa for her off Boris.

Joe Rock is a utility player, who generally prefers midfield. He was originally one of the main characters in The Premier, playing for Red Park City as their captain, and decided to leave the club after its new owner, a Mafia boss, had him assaulted for questioning the running of the club. He nearly moved a few days after he put his request in, but the move fell through when Eric refused to give Nick the money to sign him. In the meantime Red Park's owner was killed by his own boss after it turned out he was embezzling him, and Joe considered staying at Red Park, but one of the club's co-owners branded him a coward for wanting to move in the first place, and refused him permission to return. Joe was Nick's first signing after Li Ming took over.

Callum Angelo is one of the team's main forwards. He had an initially troubled life due to his poor background (his mother, Donna works as a dominatrix in order to make ends meet - something she still does, even with Callum's sizable income), but became one of the team's best players. He was going to be sentenced to jail for joy riding before joining the club, but the judge had a sudden change of heart after seeing his mother, who he was a client of. Callum (and Scrapper) later did get sent to prison for breaking into the office of the club's owners in late 2002, having been sent by Vanessa to find evidence of any suspicious goings-on. He was briefly set to transfer to Newcastle in 2004, but was stabbed by Chuck Rivers' former drug dealers and the transfer was called off while he recovered.

Fabian de Guisson is the side's other main forward. He joined from Paris St. Germain for £500,000 during Warbury's first Premiership season. After scoring he likes to perform his favourite celebration, the Peacock Strut, and once remarked, "Je Suis Fantastique, surely I am the reason they call this the beautiful game". Despite being arguably Warbury's best player, he regards himself as being too good for the club and constantly talks of moving to a bigger team. After the club was relegated from the Premiership in 2002, he sued the club, accusing them of racism in an attempt to get his contract cancelled. Unfortunately for him, he made a racist joke about the intelligence of Belgians during the hearing, and lost out on any compensation that he might have received. He has a son, Romeo from a one-night stand with a pair of twins which rapidly degenerated into a nightmare, ending with them imprisoning him and calling their morbidly obese (but similarly promiscuous) mother in. The mother raped Fabian and became pregnant, eventually deciding that she didn't want Romeo and dumping him at Fabian's apartment during a match. Romeo's existence caused concern for Fabian, as Rufus revealed that a curse had been placed on the de Guisson family as a result of his ancestor conducting a massacre of Haitian slaves several hundred years previously. The curse meant that any de Guisson would die shortly after the birth of his first son - in fact, he revealed that his own father had been killed while serving in the French foreign legion (not while in combat though; he was beheaded for committing adultery with the wife of an Arabian nobleman) shortly after Fabian's birth. More recently, Fabian considered giving Romeo up for adoption but soon changed his mind upon discovering that Romeo was also a good footballer.

In March 2007, Fabian was in court on allegations of sexually assaulting his relationship counsellor, Celia Montgomery.

Ewan Merenghi is the side's first choice forward. He was signed from Cowdenbeath, Scotland (also known as the Blue Brazil) and Nick signed him on the recommendation of a former team-mate from Thamesford. His attitude is often slightly thuggish, and he has one of the worse disciplinary records in the team but he scores a lot of goals. More recently, he has become out of favour in the side, with new signing Mikael Torvern being preferred up front.

Mikael Torvern is a striker, signed in 2006. He soon began to score plenty of goals and has firmly established his spot in the team, taking the place of Ewan Merenghi.