Back on one of my favourite things to write about good old comics after a run in with a copy of “The Victor” in a second hand shop. Flicking through the pages brought back memories and there was “Gorgeous Gus” I had totally forgotten about him, how could that be? However, it soon came flooding back and as a reminder I pocketed the comic.
I had a good eye for a bargain even has a kid you could get four second hand copies for the price of one new copy and my source was a DIY/second hand bookshop in town. It was a gold mine for comics and I loved going there.
The story goes the manager of Redburn Rovers, Sam Hopkins is facing relegation from the First Division and after trying, everything to motivate and lift morale of his team has no success. He’s in total despair, when suddenly and unexpectedly some butler fully decked out in the full butler uniform seeks manager Hopkins.
The butler Jenkins tells the shocked manager that his master, Earl of Boote G.B.E., K.C.B., D.S.O., M.C.has just purchased the club. He is then given some instructions to carry out. Hopkins at first sees this, as a practical joke on someone’s part, is ready to throw the butler out of his office. However, Jenkins is telling the truth.
Earl of Boote is loaded and with a passion for football. Gorgeous Gus as the Rovers fans soon nicknamed because of his aristocratic airs and graces however, he possesses the hardest shot in football. The power of his shots are enough to knock a goalkeeper clean off his feet backwards into his own net. Did he play for any other team I have no idea. When he scores two goals and then substitutes himself to rest in his own small pavilion on the touchline where Jenkins is at his beckon call.
Readers who haven’t heard of Earl of Boote before, maybe under the impression that he is a bit of a pompous character. But there is much more to the Earl of Boote than this. A staunch defender of footballing values, he is for example, prepared to prevent players who consistently play dirty tackles that could cause serious injuries from taking part in playing professional football he would hate the divers in todays’ football. He's also quick to deal with football hooligans in the crowd. Earl of Boote backed by a large personal fortune and the necessary influence to be able to make things happen quickly.
He turned Rovers around from relegation candidates to Champions.
The second series having saved Rovers from relegation and won the First Division now follows Earl of Boote and Rovers progress in the European Cup. Initially, Gorgeous Gus is sceptical of the value of Rovers playing in Europe and refuses to allow his team to play in the competition. The newspapers think otherwise, the Earl of Boote realises his mistake. It is a matter of national honour pride and for Rovers compete in the competition. Many trials and hurdles are met and overcome in the quest of lifting the covetous trophy.
In one of their away leg matches in Poland, for example, the Redburn Rovers team are arrested when the police mistake Gus's football passing machine as some sort of gun. The police think they are gunrunners. With the team in jail and no hope of their release in time for their away leg match Gus has to resort to inviting some of the fan’s supporters and British Embassy staff to play for Rovers!
With a makeshift team, Rovers do enough to ensure that they can still win the return leg back in the UK. You can see why my weekly read would be so interesting and of course, they win the European Cup.
Gorgeous Gus is not only the king of the First Division and Europe but after the death of Uncle Reginald, he becomes King of Gannet Island. The island is a separate country and is thus eligible to enter the World Cup. But there are many difficulties to overcome first. The island only has a population of five hundred, has no footballing stadium and it is a steep climb via a rope ladder from the landing point to the land above. All these obstacles (and others) are overcome and Gannet Island are in the World Cup.
As the series progresses though, Gus takes more of an interest in bird spotting and obtaining eggs from birds’ nests, than in the World Cup. So what is going on? Needless to say, the island country reaches the final and their opponents are… England, who in the real world had yet to win the World Cup? But who wins the World Cup - England or Gannet Island?
I think I know!
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