Action (comics)

For the DC Comics comic book, see Action Comics.
Action

The cover of Action#1.
Publication information
Publisher IPC
Schedule Weekly
Format Ongoing series
Genre
    Publication date 14 February – 23 October 1976
    Number of issues 36 (37 including the pulped issue)
    Creative team
    Creator(s) Pat Mills
    Collected editions
    The Collected Hook Jaw ISBN 0-9554733-0-6

    Action was a controversial weekly British anthology comic that was published by IPC Magazines, starting on 14 February 1976.

    Concerns over the comic's violent content saw it withdrawn from sale on 16 October 1976. It reappeared the following month, in toned-down form, and continued publication until 12 November 1977, at which point it was merged with Battle Picture Weekly. Despite its short lifespan, Action was highly influential on the British comics scene, and was a direct forerunner of the long-running 2000 AD.

    Publication history

    The comic was devised in 1975 by freelance writer/editor Pat Mills, at the request of publishing house IPC. It was intended to reflect the changing social and political times of the late 1970s, and to compete with DC Thomson's war-themed Warlord title. Warlord was a new type of British boys adventure comic, focusing on military action, with tougher heroes and storylines than had been seen previously. The title was a huge success, and inspired IPC to launch Battle Picture Weekly in direct competition. Battle had been created by Pat Mills and fellow freelancer John Wagner, and was also very popular. Action was intended to be more contemporary and 'realistic'. IPC's John Sanders was chosen to edit the title, with Mills, Wagner, and Steve MacManus contributing stories. The team evaluated several names, including Boots and Dr Martens. The comic was briefly to have been called Action 76, with the title incrementing each year, until it was named simply Action.

    Many of the stories in Action were what Mills called "dead cribs", essentially rip-offs of popular films, books, and comic heroes. Rather than being a straight copy, the "cribs" in Action had their own slant on the idea. Hook Jaw, for example, combined environmental issues with the graphic gore and shark anti-hero of Steven Spielberg's film Jaws (1975), a box-office success, while Hellman of Hammer Force was a Warlord/Battle-style World War II adventure told from the point of view of a German Panzer commander.

    The first issue was published on 7 February 1976, with a cover date of 14 February 1976. The comic was instantly popular, particularly for its gritty tone and graphic gore. Within weeks the media had picked up on the title's violent content. The London Evening Standard and The Sun ran major articles on the comic, with the latter echoing the Victorian "penny dreadful" by dubbing Action "the sevenpenny nightmare" (the cover price was 7p). Over the next few months Action was the centre of a campaign led by Mary Whitehouse, of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, to censor or ban the comic. IPC eventually started to moderate strips to forestall possible boycotts by newsagent chains such as W.H. Smith.

    In September 1976 John Sanders appeared on the television programme Nationwide, where he tried to defend the comic from a vigorous attack by interviewer Frank Bough. Although Action remained popular, its days were numbered. Pressure within IPC's higher management, and alleged worries that the two major newsagent chains, W.H. Smith and John Menzies, would refuse to stock not just Action, but all of IPC's line, led to the 23 October issue being pulped.

    The title returned on 27 November (cover date 4 December), but the violence was toned down, and the previous sense of anarchism was replaced by a safer, blander feel. Stories like Hook Jaw were no longer drenched in blood and gore, but instead were full of safer and more reliable heroes, and traditional villains. Sales dropped drastically, and the last issue before merging with Battle was published on 5 November 1977 – dated 11 November. Battle became Battle Action until 1982, at which point the Action name was dropped entirely. However 'Action' annuals continued to be published separately from 'Battle' annuals yearly up until 1985.[1]

    Legacy

    Action was hugely influential in proving to IPC that there was a new market for a different type of boys comic, plus it proved boys adventure comics could have different genres of stories rather than focusing on one genre.

    Mills learned how to deal with the launch of a varied, edgy comic when planning the launch of 2000 AD the following year. By setting the comic's stories in a science fiction context, and creating the violent character of Judge Dredd as a law-upholding policeman, Mills hoped to avoid the controversy that had ultimately led to the demise of Action. Some strips with an Action feel were printed in early issues of 2000 AD, including Flesh, which was a violent time-travel story involving dinosaurs, and Shako, which was essentially Hook Jaw but with a polar bear instead of a shark.

    Action – The Story of a Violent Comic

    In 1990 Titan Books released Action – The Story of a Violent Comic written by Martin Barker.[2] This was a history of the comic, as well as a study of the effects of the ban. In this book Barker revealed that 30 copies of the 23 October issue were saved and the book prints many of the strips from that issue, plus following issues thanks to Barker coming into possession of unpublished art. The book reveals just how much Action was being censored at an editorial level, and the route the title was heading in before it was cancelled.

    Major stories

    Collected editions

    Spitfire Comics released a Hook Jaw trade paperback:

    Notes

    References

    External links

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