Phenomenal UK talent from the worlds of comics and children’s fiction sign on for the return of a football icon. 

Rebellion Publishing is proud to reveal its latest set of signings:  the creative team for the highly anticipated 2018 reboot of Roy of the Rovers. 

Internationally acclaimed comics writer Rob Williams (Amazing Spider-Man, Adventures of Superman) and artist Ben Willsher (2000 AD, Doctor Who Magazine) are the team behind the brand-new Roy of the Rovers graphic novels, beginning with Roy of the Rovers: Kick-Off, to be released 6 September 2018.  Best-selling children’s author Tom Palmer (Football Academy, Foul Play) takes the lead on Roy of the Rovers: Scouted, Rebellion’s first foray into middle grade fiction, to be released 4 October 2018.

Also on the Roy of the Rovers team sheet is graphic novel editor Keith Richardson, and Rob Power, who will be editing the middle grade fiction alongside his role as Roy of the Rovers Brand Manager.  

•  Rebellion to launch a brand new, rebooted Roy of the Rovers in 2018.

•  Leading British comic talent Rob Williams and Ben Willsher are the creative team behind new Roy of the Rovers graphic novels.

•  Best-selling British children’s author Tom Palmer to write Roy of the Rovers middle grade fiction. 

•  Publishing plan includes three 56 page hardback graphic novels per football season, launching in September 2018, January 2019 and April 2019.

•  Middle grade illustrated fiction titles to be released alongside the graphic novels, launching in October 2018 and following on in February 2019 and May 2019. 

For more information please contact Roy of the Rovers brand manager rob.power@rebellion.co.uk. 

Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley OBE commented: “Roy of the Rovers is an enormously exciting project for us, and we’ve been working hard to ensure that we respect the legacy of this iconic British character. We’ve assembled an incredibly strong team to bring Roy Race back for the 21st century, and I look forward to following Roy’s journey through the always exciting world of modern football.”  

Rebellion Head of Publishing Ben Smith commented: “We’re delighted to have such a high calibre of creative talent on board for our reboot of Roy of the Rovers. Rob, Ben and Tom’s stories are bursting with all the excitement, drama and football fervour of the classic Roy of the Rovers comics, while giving us a thoroughly modern take on the character.  We can’t wait for a new generation of fans to read them.” 

Rob Williams commented: “I read and loved Roy of the Rovers as a boy – I even had the old Gola Melchester Rovers kit – and I have very fond memories of the Roy annuals arriving on Christmas Day with wonderful David Sque art on their covers. Roy’s a British football icon. Even now, a ‘rocket’-like goal is a Roy of the Rovers moment. So I’m delighted to be part of the passionate team bringing Roy’s adventures to a new era of football fan.” 

Tom Palmer commented: “Millions of girls and boys dream about being their favourite football player and being scouted and playing for their favourite team. I had that dream. Sadly it didn’t come true for me. But, being scouted and succeeding in my trial to write Roy of the Rovers fiction is a dream that has come true. There is no other fictional footballer I would rather be and write. And I intend to write these books with the same passion and commitment Roy shows when he pulls on the red and yellow of Melchester Rovers.” 

Ben Willsher commented: “Roy of the Rovers was a big part of my childhood. The annuals stacked up in my bookshelf, and the comics burst out of my cupboards. Growing up I dreamed of helping Roy score goals and lead Melchester to the top…. I finally get to do that- result!”

Rob Williams is a writer, mainly of comic books. He is currently writing Suicide Squad for DC Comics, where his previous credits include Martian Manhunter, Batman 66, Sensation Comics, Adventures of Superman, Legends of The Dark Knight, and Madame X. He has also written Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor for Titan Comics, and Amazing Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and The Falcon, and Revolutionary War for Marvel. His Rebellion credits include Judge Dredd, The Ten-Seconders, and The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael for 2000 AD. Rob supports Arsenal. In 5-a-side he is, sadly, more Nigel Winterburn than Thierry Henry.
For more information, visit www.robwilliamscomics.co.uk

Tom Palmer is the author of 40 books for children about sport and history. His books include the Football Academy and Foul Play series, published by Puffin, as well as Over the Line, a fictional account of the World War One Footballers’ Battalion. Tom is a regular speaker in schools and works closely with organisations like the National Literacy Trust and the British Council to promote reading for pleasure.
His website is www.tompalmer.co.uk

Ben Willsher is a British comics illustrator, whose credits include Judge Dredd, Durham Red, Strontium Dog, Tharg’s Future Shocks and Sinister Dexter for 2000 AD, alongside extensive cover work for both 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine. Ben has also illustrated several stories for various Doctor Who annuals, and his work has been regularly featured in the Doctor Who Magazine.
For more information, visit www.benwillsher.co.uk

Rebellion is an internationally renowned video games developer/publisher and leading publisher of comics and fiction, based in Oxford, UK. Founded in 1992 by Chris and Jason Kingsley, Rebellion’s titles include the bestselling Sniper Elite series, the wildly popular Nazi Zombie Trilogy, and PlayStation VR title Battlezone. The company is home to legendary UK comic 2000 AD and is the proud custodian of Judge Dredd, and recently acquired an extensive archive of Fleetway comics from Egmont UK, in a deal that included titles such as Roy of the Rovers, Misty, Charley’s War and many, many more. The publishing division is also home to award-winning science fiction imprints Solaris and Abaddon, and is proud to publish some of the finest talents in genre fiction.

Roy of the Rovers is the stuff of legend. Charting the career of charismatic Melchester Rovers striker Roy Race, Roy of the Rovers first appeared as a strip in Tiger in 1954, proving an instant smash with football-mad boys. Graduating to its own comic in 1976, Roy of the Rovers was where a generation of British football fans went for drama and glory, and ran for over 800 issues. Extolling the virtues of fair play, teamwork and great goals, Roy of the Rovers is the definitive football comic, and is set to return in 2018.

On Thursday 22nd March I was invited, along with a selection of other Irish authors, to read at the inaugural Flash Fiction Armagh event held in the Mulberry Bistro in Armagh City.  The venue was beautiful, situated opposite on of the city’s two picturesque cathedrals – hey, why have one cathedral when you can have two, right! 🙂 – and there was a very lively and appreciative and receptive crowd in attendance.

The event was very ably organised by Byddi Lee, who coordinates a writer’s group in Armagh City, and herself grew up in Armagh and moved to Belfast to study at Queen’s University. She has since lived in South Africa, Canada, California and Paris before returning to live in her hometown, Armagh relatively recently. She has published flash fiction, short stories and, in 2014, her novel, March to November. She is currently working on a trilogy that starts in Armagh in the near future, where the elderly have suddenly begun to get younger with devastating consequences. Byddi also blogs about life, both at home and abroad called, “We didn’t come here for the grass. www.byddilee.com.

The line-up for the first Flash Fiction Armagh event was selected after their work was submitted for consideration and can be seen below:

Jay Faulker, ‘Rain’
Catherine Carson, ‘Spectrum’
Réaltán Ní Leannáin, ‘Dílis’
Damien Mallon, ‘Reading The Trees’
Pamela Brown, ‘Mansfield House’
Réamonn Ó Ciaráin, ‘The Boy Corps of Eamhain Mhacha’
Trish Bennett, ‘Power of a Peeler’
Karen Mooney, ‘A Fond Farewell’
Seán Ó Farraigh, ‘Neamhchiontach go dtí go gcruthaítear a mhalairt’
Christopher Moore, ‘The Dark Hedges’
Malachi Kelly, ‘Scoring in the Seventies’

It was a really, really strong mix of genres and styles including darker fiction, mythology, poetic literature, etc; while I suppose us writers shouldn’t have our favourites – maybe it’s like choosing between our children – for me (even though it was extremely hard as their wasn’t a single weak story in the whole night) I had two stand-out pieces: Karen Mooney’s’ A Fond Farewell’ was a very personal story about the passing of her father but it was told in such a way that it was about the loss of everyone’s loved ones but it never got saccharine or even maudlin, it was celebratory as well as loving.  Catherine Carson’s ‘Spectrum’, for me, though was the stand-out story of the night; it told the tale of a moment in time – probably no more than minutes, at most – in the day in the life of a mother and her growing up too fast/too soon/too hard son with autism, but it also told the tale within a tale of that same son when he was still a small child when he looked at her, and really saw her, and how quickly that moment passed. It was a tale of love and struggles, and constant tiredness and never giving up. I adored it. I adored Catherine’s writing. I cannot wait to read more of her work!

One of my sons, Mackenzie, was with me – and persuaded me to let him stay out waaaaaay after his bedtime – and when asked what his favourite part of the night was, or his favourite story was, he just looked at me, wide-eyed, and said three words: “All of it!” Fair to say he enjoyed himself …though you’d think that there’d have been at least some nepotism in there and he might have said ‘Rain’, ey?! 🙂

For me it was only one of a double handful (certainly less than 10) times I’ve done a public reading – more if you include times I’ve spoken about medical matters I suppose but I don’t count them  as, unfortunately, they may be science but their definitely not fiction 🙂 – and only the second that I’ve been filmed.  I normally don’t even like photos let alone videos but, this time, I just rolled with it (a very dear friend of mine, whose advice I constantly listen to and always ‘try’ to follow …even if I don’t always manage to ‘do’ it … called Mercedes is amazing in front of the microphone and screen and when I interviewed her on the radio I recall she said just ‘be yourself’, and is always just that, she just rolls with things, no matter how hectic – and our lives are ALWYAS hectic 🙂 ) so I’m taking her advice, again, and posting the video of me, my actual face, my actual voice, reading my actual words.

So one more random weird thing: at the reading I read my piece, ‘Rain’, which is about a fireman who is in the middle of a search and rescue operation for two boys lost in a flood; it’s not the happiest of pieces, and told in first person, from the perspective of the dejected, tired, and very cold fireman who is losing hope very fast. I was told, afterwards, that people enjoyed the story and I read well but – and I’m SO glad I didn’t know this in advance! – there was an actual fireman in the audience and he told me he loved it and I’d really captured the feelings and atmosphere well but … someone that could have been the protagonist was there, listening to me talk about him.  Yeah, no pressure!!!~

Anyway, here is my reading:

I’ve just found out that I’ve been nominated for a 2018 British Martial Arts Award!

To say that I am amazed and humbled doesn’t quite begin to explain how I’m feeling but it’s an exceptionally special honour as I approach the 30th anniversary of starting my journey in martial arts this coming April.

Big thanks to Anthony Sean Pillage, Sarah and everyone at Warrior’s Assemble for this, as well as the rest of my instructor team at Imperial Dragon Kung Fu who – literally – are world class: Richard Dawson, Lyndon Irwin, Steve Quinn, Jonny Graham and, of course, to all the students throughout the years  because without them I wouldn’t be much of an Instructor now would I? 🙂

Back in the day, before I started writing, I thought that I was going to pursue a career as an artist, preferably as a comic book artist (preferably with Marvel Comics …though I do have a lot of love for DC too). While I am, professionally speaking, an IT Manager for a Criminal Justice Sector organisation, specialising in Information Assurance by day, and attempting to be a writer by night (and parts of some days too) I’m actually, educationally speaking (at least according to my Degree) and artist.

So when I saw a new trend going around on Facebook and Twitter today, called #ArtVsArtist, where people were posting a picture of themselves surrounded by artwork that they had done. Now initially when I saw the sheer array of talent that was on show I decided that I would simply scroll through it all and enjoy what I was seeing rather than post anything myself but then, as time went on, I realised that just because I didn’t* produce artwork as much anymore didn’t mean that I couldn’t/shouldn’t be brave enough to show off some of the work that I had enjoyed making.

So here it is; here is me #ArtVsArtist

Time for First Line Friday folks!

On Friday, authors post the first one or first two lines of a potential work, a work-in-progress, or a published work on their blog, and title the post #FirstLineFriday (just like this). It’s a lot of fun, so feel free to join in!

You can share your link on my blog comments, or on Rami’s (the brains behind FLF), or on Joleene’s, or even or all three places if you want to go crazy 🙂

My #FirstLineFriday comes from something that I have actually just submitted to an anthology that is themed around the concept of ‘Freedom’; my short story is about a man who has spent most of his life in prison after an altercation with his best friend resulted in his death. While there is the obvious take on physical freedom I’ve also tried to touch upon the more ‘spiritual’ freedom that the main character finds in his journey towards redemption as his tries to forgive himself as he finally walks out of jail for the first time in years.

Anyway, here are the first two lines of ‘Shave‘:

The blood seeped into the crease in the folded paper, staining it red, before I felt the cut, and my eyes tried to make sense of the vibrant colour spreading across the letter as the pain hit me. It was just a paper cut but, despite the almost invisible nature of the fine wound, it hurt; it hurt a lot.

So, what do you think? Let me know in the comments below.  While you are at it why don’t you try #FirstLineFriday too? What’s your first line of your current work?

Trying something new here, inspired by Joleene and Rami.

On Friday, authors post the first one or first two lines of a potential work, a work-in-progress, or a published work  on their blog, and title the post #FirstLineFriday (just like this). It’s  a lot of fun, so feel free to join in!

You can share your link on my blog comments, or on Rami Ungar’s (the brains behind FLF), or on Joleene’s, or even or all three places if you want to go crazy 🙂

My #FirstLineFriday comes from something that I originally wrote as a piece for an anthology (which is shaping up to be a great one, by the way!) that came in at just shy of 8500 words; I wasn’t actually happy with it as I felt that I had to cut the story short to keep it within the allowed word limit of 9000 words and while rejections are never pleasant in some ways this story not making the final cut in the anthology came as a blessing, as I now have the chance to expand it and tell the tale that I actually wanted to originally. Judging by the outlining I have done so far I estimate that it will come in at somewhere around the 20,000 word mark when it is finally finished, so rather than a short story I will have a novella on my hands to wrangle into shape.

Anyway, here are the first two lines of ‘Twice Upon A Time‘, a post-apocalyptic tale of a father and daughter’s struggle to survive in a world that has, quite literally, been turned crazy:

He wasn’t sure what woke him first, the shattering noise as the window exploded inwards, shards of glass peppering his exposed face and arms with pinpricks of hot agony, or the sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach as gravity suddenly lurched, the world dropped, and he was thrown from his bed to land heavily against the wall of his bedroom; he realised, as he opened his eyes with a groan of agony, that it didn’t matter which it was. He was awake either way and, more than that, as he climbed gingerly to his feet, blood running down his muscled chest to pool at the waist band of his shorts, and took in the devastation of his room from the early morning light filtering through the broken window, he realized was lucky to be alive.

So, what do you think? Let me know in the comments below.  While you are at it why don’t you try #FirstLineFriday too? What’s your first line of your current work?