By Alyson Fixter
Striker, the former Sun football cartoon, has lost its 21-month battle to survive as an independent weekly comic.
The last issue, number 87, was due to be published this week.
Creator and publisher Pete Nash said that falling sales and failure to
attract corporate investment had made it impossible to continue.
Sales had fallen from 29,000 at its launch in August 2003, to 11,000. Its readers were mostly adults, with an average age of 29.
Related
The
collapse comes a year after some 1,000 of Striker’s readers raised
almost £200,000 by buying shares to throw the comic a lifeline.
Nash
said: “It’s a great shame, but I have to face up to the fact that I bit
off more than I could chew.” He has lost more than £300,000 on the
venture.
“I have no regrets about giving it a go,” he added. “To
have survived for so long on such a small budget was a fantastic
achievement.
Content from our partners
“My only sadness is for the staff who have worked so
hard to make this a success and for our readers, who have supported us
like a real football club.
“Our readers bought more than 3,000
replica shirts of our fictitious football team, Warbury Warriors –
that’s more than many League One football clubs sell.”
Despite the comic’s demise, Nash is trying to keep his team together in the hope of resurrecting Striker.
He is currently in talks with two newspapers about the strip, and is considering launching a series of books.
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
