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Action came out in early 1976 and ran until around October, when it was withdrawn. It reappeared in early December and ran for a year or so, then merged with "Battle" to become "Battle Action".

There were many stories including "Hellman Of Hammerforce" - a tale following a German tank commander in WWII. It was a story for all the kids who were reading Sven Hassel books. "Lookout For Lefty" a cross between a football story and "Steptoe And Son". "The Probationer" a kid on probation gets blackmailed into crime. That featured a girl stabbing a copper in the eye with a metal comb and blinding him. "Run For Your Life" a long distance runner has plastic surgery that makes him look like a Mafia Don's son who is wanted for murder. So he ends up being hunted by the NYPD and subsequently the Mafia too.

When the comic reappeared in the December of 1976 it's heart and soul had been ripped out. A lot of stories were simply dropped and replaced with bog standard strips of car racing and rubbish like that. And the ones that stayed were changed as to be unrecognisable to the originals. I think that many of the artists, writers and office staff moved on to start "2000 A.D."

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Do You Remember Action Comic?

Do You Remember Action Comic?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    Action was so radical for its time. Remember the iron on hookjaw transfer or the ultra gory poster of sharks eating people that you collected over 6 weeks?
  • Anonymous user
    on
    I recently managed to pick up all 8 of the Action annuals, all in great condition, 25p each........bargain!!!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Fireball was in 'Bullett' comic, which I took for a while.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Wasn't the 13th Floor in another Fleetway comic called Scream? In the mid 80s? I could be wrong.
  • ziggy1a1
    on
    Yes I remember Battle and Warlord joining forces in the late 70's.Can anyone recall the name of the secret agent in Action? He had a dodgy 70's 'tache and looked like the wrestler of the time "Rollerball Rocco"? He may of been called Fireball.........
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Judge Dredd wasn't actually in it, you might be confusing him with the Dirty Harry type character "Dredger". It contained other classics such as "Kids Rule OK" about schoolkids forming gangs after a virus has wiped out the adult population, Death Game 1999", a kind of Roller Ball rip off and the aforementioned Hook Jaw (the comic's flagship character.) It's level of violence got it dubbed the "7 penny nightmare" by tabloids.
    • Anonymous user
      on
      20 year too late for the prediction but is the virus upon us?
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Action was deemed unsuitable for kids for the very reasons why it was so popular : graphic violence, drug abuse , drunkenness, easy girls etc. It was withdrawn for about a year and a more sanitised version came back which, of course, didn't catch on.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Hi there Chris.. I remember Action comic, one of thre free gifts was an Iron on Tshirt transfer of Hookjaw rising out of the Water...I remember the Comic was very violent and gory and had stories like Hells Highway, where folk got killed all the time and one about an elevator thast went up to the 13th Floor (which didnt exist!) for bad people who had committed some sort of Crime then it killed them violently!!! Great comoc made all the more gorier by the strategic use of colour in gory scenes for blood and the like.. Think I remember it being out around 1976 or 1977 till about 1980 or so..Think it might have eventaully merged with another comic, possibly 'Warlord'? All the best... Rab ;0) Fife Scotland
  • Anonymous user
    on
    i think judge dredd was in it. i remember the story about going back in time to hunt dinosaurs to feed people in the future.
    • Anonymous user
      on
      no this was a precurser to 200ad judge dredd come in pro 2 of 2000ad. stories i liked out of action was Death Games, shadow of the slayer, & hook jaws.

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