Striker fans save the comic!

Striker's incredible fans have secured the next 12 issues of the weekly comic by raising more than £45,000 in just two weeks in a nail-biting crowdfunding campaign.

After £14,000 was raised on the first day, the following 13 days saw pledges coming in at an average rate of just under £2,400 a day - meaning the campaign went right to the wire, with many fans staying up into the early hours on the final day to see if the £45,000 target would be met.

Striker creator Pete Nash said: "For our fans to raise that much money in such a short space of time at Christmas is a fantastic achievement. It not only guarantees the next 12 issues of the comic, but it will impress potential investors who I hope to meet in the New Year.

"Investment is important because it will enable us to reach out to a new audience and develop new products, including merchandise. There are some exciting plans in the pipeline but we need to take one step at a time."

The next comic - issue 13 - will be published on Wednesday, January 16.

There will be some changes to the comic format and these will be announced soon.

Publishing change for issue 2

By PETE NASH

It's been really tough producing and distributing the weekly comic with a team of just three people on production and one handling admin - and just as we were hoping for a break, we were hit with a real body blow as we were going to press at this weekend (September 22-23).

Our distributor informed us on Friday evening that WH Smith had failed to allocate their copies of issue 2 to their 260-odd branches that were due to stock it, with the bundles being dispersed to independent newsagents who hadn't ordered it and weren't expecting them - so what they'll do with them is anyone's guess.

We went into damage limitation mode and decided to reprint 1,000 copies of issue 2 and send them to WHS asap. Those issue 2 copies should be in their branches on Tuesday,September 25, and will stay on sale until Wednesday, October 3 - as will all copies of issue 2 elsewhere.

The knock-on effect of this is that issue 3 - which went to press yesterday - will now go on sale on Wednesday, October 3 (when issue 2 goes off sale). Weekly publication will resume from then on.

Subscribers may find that they will receive their copies of issue 3 on time as usual - if so, please note that there will be a one-week delay in receiving issue 4.

We don't yet know what impact Smith's error will have on us, but all we can do for now is to try and make the best of a very bad situation. With your continued support, I am hopeful we can survive and eventually thrive.

On the plus side, we were finally able to bring you the animated highlights of Warbury's opening World League game against Mombasa Mambas.Unfortunately there were some flaws in this as well (are you getting the impression last week wasn't a great week?) but at least we have got the animation up and running, and hopefully you can see the potential for the future.

All being well, we'll eventually be able to show you highlights from all the World League games, along with commentary and a weekly show with a studio presenter.

Our small team has done a superhuman job on severely limited resources, so please bear with us on any shortcomings. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will this new era of Striker be - but I hope you'll all stay with us for the ride!

Striker comic launch date

The new weekly Striker comic will launch on September 12, 2018, following a successful crowdfunding campaign that saw Striker fans raise nearly £44,000.