The first "Soca Warriors" comic book was launched by the Heroes Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago in commemoration of the success of World Cup-bound Dwight Yorke and his T&T teammates.
Former national skipper Anthony Rougier was present at Saturday's launch at the Gulf City Auditorium, San Fernando as part of the three-day Heroes Convention, titled Free your Mind Aim for your goals.
The theme was chosen to encourage the youth of T&T to expand their horizons as they set out to achieve greatness and the Soca Warriors were used as key figures in portraying that objective. The comic book highlights major occasions that have impacted on the national team's progress. The story is seen through the eyes of a passionate and loyal fan who also experienced the T&T Strike Squad's loss to the United States on November 19, 1989.
It highlights the fan's faith in his team, mixed with emotions about the progress of the national squad over the years which culminates with the historic qualification on November 12, 2005 with the 1-0 win over Bahrain in Manama.
"While watching the first five minutes of the last match against Bahrain, it hit me that just to reach this point was an accomplishment and there's no doubt that we were going to come through.
"This clearly would be a good way to project heroism and determination," script writer Terrence Ragoonanan told Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) media officer Shaun Fuentes.
"We looked back at where we came from way before Jamaica made it up until now. We never gave up and this whole new generation came through...and we had to fight hard for it. We looked at all of this through the eyes of a character in the comic book called Marvin Mohammed who was born in 1974, witnessed 1989 and then saw us make it in 2005."
The team that worked on the first-ever production of its kind were Ragoonanan (script writer), Shaun Mohammed and Marvin Leech (illustrators), Rangie Persad (colours and lettering), Phillip Julien (editor) and Candice Lalla (project coordinator).
During the three-day exhibition, which also had other comic features on display, shirts were on display for young fans to sign their best wishes for the team and a DVD is being compiled with good luck messages to be presented to the national team before they depart for Germany.
Attempts are still being made to attract sponsorship and part proceeds from sales of the comic books, which will be on sale at RIK Bookstores and Hi Lo Food Stores from next month, will go towards the Soca Warriors.