Handmade screen print on cotton paper.

Signed and numbered out of 200 in pencil by the printer, John Patrick Reynolds.

Standard size: 26cm x 19cm
Medium size: 48cm x 38cm
Large size: 76cm x 56cm

Alf Tupper, styled ‘The Tough Of The Track’, was the flagship character in The Victor comic, published from 1961 until the early 1990s.

Alf started life in the all-text comic The Rover in the late 1940s, but transferred to the picture-strip Victor when it launched.

He was a hero to several generations of British middle-distance runners, including Ron Hill, Brendan Foster and Steve Cram.

He was also my favourite – when I got The Victor every week, it was always a better comic if it was an Alf week. (After the end of each story, which might last for eight or ten weeks, there would be a hiatus during which there was no Alf.)

Alf may have been from the wrong side of the tracks, but was on the side of the angels. He was indomitable – he embodied the virtues that the British like to think they have.

And of course he was a working-class hero – the phrase “The Tough of the Track” was a sort of pun – it referred to his humble background as much as his gritty determination in competition.

These are all original screenprints. An original print is a work of art printed by hand, from a plate, block, stone, or stencil (which is the case here - screenprints are made using screen stencils) that has been created by the artist for the purpose of producing the image.

© D.C. Thomson & Co., Ltd.