Hot Shot Hamish
Introduction
Hot Shot Hamish was a comic strip about Hamish Balfour, a gentle Hebridean giant who had the hardest shot in the game of football. The strip appeared for over 20 years in Scorcher, Tiger and Roy of the Rovers comics and still fondly remembered and a new Annual commemorating his adventures has just been released.
The Basics
Hot Shot Hamish was brought from a remote Hebridean island to play for big-time club Princes Park FC and he soon became famous for hitting the ball so hard that it broke the net. "Hoots mon, it's the hot shot!" went the cry.
He was an unlikely sight for a professional footballer having a gigantic frame that was squeezed into an undersized jersey, he combined gymnastic grace with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. He lived in a caravan and was also the proud owner of a pet sheep called McMutton.
In later strips he teamed up with Kevin "Mighty" Mouse, a successful, skillful Division One player despite the fact that he was an overweight, short, bespectacled medical student. In 1985 Mighty Mouse was transferred from Tottenford Rovers to Princes Park to join up with Hamish and then five years later they both were transferred to Glengow Rangers, where they played until the strip finished in early 1993.
The strip was written by Fred Baker and normally drawn by Julian Schiaffino
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Hot Shot Hamish Timeline
Hot Shot Hamish was first published in Scorcher in August 1973, before being moved to Tiger when the Scorcher and Tiger Comics merged.
In 1985, after the cancellation of Tiger Comic, most of the strips moved to Eagle, but Hot Shot Hamish was moved instead to Roy of the Rovers along with fellow strip Mighty Mouse. The two strips were merged to form Hot Shot Hamish and Mighty Mouse (later shortened to simply Hamish and Mouse) and the first episode of the combined strip appeared in the Roy of the Rovers comic dated 6 April 1985.
The combined Hamish and Mouse strip ran until May 1990, returned in July 1990, and finally came to an end in January 1993, with reprints appearing in the remaining issues of the weekly Roy of the Rovers comic.
Other Characters in Hot Shot Hamish
- Ian McWhacker - was the club manager of Princes Park FC and the man responsible for discovering Hamish
- Mr McBossy - was the Scotland Team manager.
- McMutton - Hamish's pet sheep.
- Kevin "Mighty" Mouse - a team mate of Hamish's who was an overweight, short, bespectacled medical student.
