BRITAIN'S FORBIDDEN COMIC

Action Comic was launched in February 1976 and by October 1976 it was withdrawn from sale over concerns about its violent content. When it did reappear in November of that year it was considerably toned down and would never be the same comic book again. Eventually in November 1977 it was merged into successful war comic, Battle Picture Weekly.

There's a great website devoted to the title HERE


Action was originally launched to combat the success rival publisher D C Thomson were having with Warlord, a boy's war comic with grittier strips than was usual for the period. Pat Mills and John Wagner were brought into IPC Magazines as freelancers and their answer to Warlord, Battle Picture Weekly was a massive success. After the launch of Battle John Wagner was handed Valiant Comic to revive its flagging sales while Pat Mills was set to work on a new kind of comic.

The result was Action.

The original line up of stories were:

Dredger - a DI6 operative who was more than a match for any of the terrorists the storylines threw at him week after week. The character was very heavily based on Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry and there was something of Dredger about Judge Dredd when the character initially launched.

Hellman of Hammer Force - which was a thoughtful anti-war story told from the German perspective which was something new for British comics at the time. Traditionally British war comics had treated the Germans as a mindless evil or buffoons. The Hellman series would survive when the comic merged with Battle Picture Weekly.

Blackjack - a boxing story about heavyweight boxer, Jack Barron who is determined to win the world championship even if continuing to fight could turn him blind. The storylines would feature gangsters, bent promoters

Play Till You Drop, was a football strip centering on Rampton City striker, Alec Shaw. It was a bit more gritty than Roy of the Rovers but otherwise followed the same pattern as the great Roy Race.

The centre pages, full colour, were taken up by Hook Jaw - a shameless rip off of Jaws. The first episode saw the killer great white get a gaff-hook stuck in his jaw when a fisherman foolishly tried to land him. There was a reason the strip was in colour and men being eaten, other sea creatures being torn apart were drawn in graphic detail. One of the early issues gave away an iron on T-Shirt transfer of Hook-Jaw and when I bought a used copy in a bookshop I was delighted to find the transfer was still inside, unused.


Sports not for losers -was another sport based story. This time centred on the most unlikely of athlete who despite himself keeps on winning.



The Coffin Sub - was a world war II set story about a sub commander who is convinced he was responsible for the death of his previous crew.



The Running Man - was a great story about British Runner Mike Carter who when in New York becomes the target of a Mafia plot. He doesn't know why but must keep running dodging hitman after hitman while he discovers what is behind all this.




36 issues were published without a problem but when issue 37 was sent out, it was quickly recalled. Unbearable pressure had been put on the publishers by a campaign to ban the comic because of its overly violent content. And the comic was taken off sale and when it did return, almost a month later it was vastly watered down and one of the most controversial strips, Kids Rule OK, said by our moral guardians to be responsible for street gang crime, was axed completely.

Very few copies of issue 37 survived being pulped and these days issues fetch a startlingly high price. Visit the Action website where many of the pre-ban issue stories have been scanned.

Anyone wanting to learn the entire story behind this comic I can recommend Action: The Story of a Violent Comic by Martin Barker. However the book is long out of print.