Tom Tully (writer)


Tom Tully was a noted British comic writer, mostly of sports and action-adventure stories. He was the longest-running writer of the popular football-themed strip Roy of the Rovers, which he wrote for much of Roy Race's playing career until the weekly comic closed in 1993. Other notable strips penned by Tully included The Steel Claw, The House of Dolmann, The Incredible Adventures of Janus Stark, The Leopard from Lime Street, The Robo Machines, and Harlem Heroes. During his three-decade career, Tully wrote exclusively for what became known as the IPC line of publishers: Amalgamated Press/Odhams/Longacre Press/Fleetway/IPC Magazines.

Biography

Tom Tully was born in Glasgow, but grew up in Reading, Berkshire. He worked as a telephone operator for the Royal Air Force as part of his national service. After a series of civil service jobs and earning a diploma in writing for children, he embarked on a freelance writing career. His first sale was at age 25 — a Buck Rogers story.
From 1963 to 1970, Tully was the principal writer on The Steel Claw for Valiant with artist Jesús Blasco, taking over for the fourth serial from Ken Bulmer, and later returning from 1971 to 1973 for the sequel strip, Return of the Claw. In the early 1960s, he wrote Heros the Spartan with art by Frank Bellamy for Eagle. Another one of his most notable strips for Valiant was The Wild Wonders, drawn by Mike Western, about a pair of wild boys, brought up by animals, who turn out to be fantastic athletes. He also worked on Kelly's Eye and Janus Stark in the 1960s.
Tully wrote his first scripts for Roy of the Rovers in 1969, and wrote the comic sporadically until 1974 when he was given the permanent job as lead writer, a position he held for nearly 20 years. During that time, the strip moved from Tiger to its own self-titled comic.
In the 1970s and '80s, Tully worked on Johnny Red for Battle Picture Weekly. He worked on many 2000 AD projects including Dan Dare, and the sports-related Harlem Heroes and Mean Arena. He also created The Mind of Wolfie Smith for Tornado, which later transferred to 2000 AD.
Tully also wrote three cricket-themed short novels in 1986 and 1987 - The Magnificent 11, Dangerous Game, and Showdown at Seabank. These books followed the adventures of a young teenager Terry Mason and his friends who started their own cricket club after losing a season at their school. The first and last book are available, however Dangerous Game appears very difficult to find.
Tully wrote the Roy of the Rovers strip until the main comic's demise in 1993, with the final incident of Roy's playing career coming when he lost control of his helicopter and crashed into a field. After the closure of Roy of the Rovers, Tully had very few comics credits. He retired to Wiltshire in the West Country.
He died in Autumn 2013.

Action/adventure strips

Sporting strips