"Striker" Finds Place In Sun MkII

Tony Quinn, editor of Magforum.com reports: "In these post-Hutton days, it is good to see spin alive and kicking at Emap. “Exclusive!” screamed the preview issue of Zoo Weekly, for its weekly Striker 3D computer-generated football-based cartoon strip in the first news-stand issue.
Funny then, that the same strip, though run over four pages, was in the launch issue of the Striker comic back in August last year."
Exclusive? Apparently not, but perhaps Zoo Weekly readers aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer.

The Striker comic, an innovative 3D soccer-themed strip which once graced the pages of the UK's Sun Newspaper, went independent last year, when its creator Pete Nash, turning down a huge and secure salary, sallied forth in the spirit of independence, pulled the strip from the paper and formed his own comic simply called "Striker".
The daily comic strip, which ran to a whole colour page in the Sun on Saturdays, charts the ups and downs of the fictional Warbury Rovers player manager, Nick Jarvis, and has evolved into a cross between Roy of the Rovers and Footballers' Wives.
The new Striker comic features the same computer-generated graphics that replaced traditional hand-drawn artwork in the strip four years ago.
It seems now that Nash has decided to sell secondary print rights to new lads mag "Zoo Weekly", a publication which is aimed at the male versions of Chat magazine readers, -a demographic described by former Chat editor Paul Merrill as "the kind of women who've had three kids by three different prisoners".
Merrill has now left Chat to take the helm of Zoo Weekly.
Pete Nash, "Striker" creator, said last ditch talks to run the new "Striker" comic in conjunction with the Sun feature fell down over licensing rights.
The Guardian reports:
"The Sun wasn't prepared to run second-hand material from the comic and we don't yet have the resources to create fresh material for both the comic and the Sun," he said, adding talks also took place with the Express owner, Richard Desmond, but came to nothing.
"He was prepared to accept second rights and run Striker in the Daily Star and Daily Express - but he also wanted to publish our comic and pay us a royalty, which would have compromised our freedom and independence," Mr Nash said.
Mr Nash said scrapping the £500,000 annual Sun contract was a risk but he wanted to re-establish the concept of a successful weekly comic.
"It's scary and it's risky because I'm putting my house on the line - but I want to make comics great again and that means putting my money where my mouth is," he said.
Of the dozens of UK titles available in the 60s and 70s - including Topper, Tiger, Eagle and Roy of the Rovers - only the Beano, the Dandy and 2000AD remain.
"Readers are more sophisticated these days and have higher expectations - they don't want stale superheroes, tacky artwork and boring plots," said Pete Nash.
"They want the best artwork new technology can create and credible, interesting stories."