New comic strip will chart the amazing rise of Jimmy Bullard

ENGLAND HERO Jimmy Bullard will revert to his original Dutch surname "of The Rovers" for the launch of a new comic strip charting his amazing path to the top.

The weekly strip will begin with Jimmy's tough Merseyside upbringing where he was raised on a diet of Scouse wit, poverty and nostalgia.

Then will come his touching dalliance with the non-league game, his heartbreaking rejection from West Ham for being 'too loveable', and 2006's terrible events at Fulham which led to amputation of his right leg.

"It was a tough scene to draw," admitted the comic's chief artist William Glanville.

"Jimmy is such a great lad, so spirited, tenacious, cheeky, bulldog-like and bubbly, and to have render his horrifically mangled knee and draw a look of agonising pain on his lovely, chubby face… Well, you'd be a bigger man than me if you didn't shed a tear."

The comic will go on to chart Jimmy's against-the-odds recovery, despite being told by evil doctors that he might never play again.

Then will come the triumph of last season's final day escape from relegation, which commentators everywhere inaccurately described as "a Roy of the Rovers story", neglecting that Roy Hodgson had rescued Fulham, rather than his old club Blackburn Rovers, who he left in the mire.

Within 48 issues, Jimmy of The Rovers will eventually reach the 2008/09 season, where the tousled-hair midfielder has become England's only hope of getting three points in Andorra.

"I'm over the moon, to be fair," said brave Jimmy. "To get the England call-up is one thing, but to be made into a comic is a true honour. As my good friend Shane Lynch says whenever my career takes another startling turn: 'it's real boy's own stuff'."

Each issue will come with one part of a limited edition Jimmy of the Rovers doll, with part one (only 99p, all further parts £12.99) featuring his popular shaggy mane of hair.