View source for Action (comics)

{{Short description|British weekly comic}}
{{for|the DC Comics comic book|Action Comics}}
{{hatnote|For the genre of comics, see [[Action-adventure comics]].}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox comic book title <!--Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics-->
|title               = Action
|image               = Action1408176.jpg
|imagesize           = 250
|caption             = The cover of the 14 August 1976 edition of ''Action'', spotlighting "[[Death Game 1999]]", "[[Hook Jaw]]", "[[Look Out for Lefty!]]" and "[[List of Action stories#Hell's Highway|Hell's Highway]]".
|schedule            = Weekly
|ongoing             = y
|Adventure           = y
|publisher           = [[IPC Magazines]]
|startmo             = 14 February
|startyr             = 1976
|endmo               = 5 November
|endyr               = 1977
|issues              = 86{{efn|An additional 23 Oct 1976 issue was created but not distributed; no issues were produced between 30 October and 27 November 1976<ref name=FleetwayCompanion>{{cite book |last=Holland |first=Steve |date=2002 |title=The Fleetway Companion |location=[[Rotherham]] |publisher=CJ & Publication}}</ref>}}
|main_char_team      =
|writers             = Ken Armstrong<br>Chris Lowder<br>[[Steve MacManus]]<br>[[Pat Mills]]<br>[[Tom Tully (writer)|Tom Tully]]<br>[[John Wagner]]
|artists             = [[Massimo Belardinelli]]<br>Mike Dorey<br>Ramon Sola<br>Mike White
|pencillers          =
|inkers              =
|letterers           =
|colorists           =
|editors             = [[Pat Mills]]<br>Geoff Kemp<br>John Smith<br>Sid Bicknell
|creative_team_month =
|creative_team_year  =
|creators            = [[Pat Mills]]<br>Geoff Kemp
|TPB                 = 
|ISBN                = 
|TPB#                =
|ISBN#               =
|subcat              = Fleetway and IPC Comics
|altcat              =
|sort                = Action
|addpubcat#          =
|nonUS               = y
}}
'''''Action''''' was a [[British comics|British]] weekly [[British boys' magazines|boys' comic]] published by [[IPC Media|IPC Magazines]] from 14 February 1976 to 5 November 1977, when it merged with war comic ''[[Battle Picture Weekly|Battle]]'' after 86 issues. The comic was created by [[Pat Mills]] and Geoff Kemp.

While initially a sales success, the comic quickly received media criticism for its violent content, causing a [[moral panic]] that ultimately saw it withdrawn from sale by IPC in October 1976, amid rumours it was to be banned. ''Action'' returned two months later in a much-sanitised form, quickly losing readers and being cancelled the following year. Despite its short lifespan, ''Action'' was highly influential on the British comics scene, and was a direct forerunner of the long-running ''[[2000 AD (comics)|2000 AD]]''.

==Creation==
[[File:Pat Mills at Raptus 2003.jpg|thumb|[[Pat Mills]] in 2003.|left]]
After a successful stint working on various IPC girls' comics, [[Pat Mills]] had interviewed for the vacant position of managing editor at the company. Mills felt the company's output had grown stale and outdated and told the board so, and wasn't offered the job due to his forthright criticism. However, his fresh ideas had been noted by editorial director John Sanders, who likewise felt the company's comics needed an overhaul but found it politically difficult to do so due to the long-serving, well-connected nature of much of the company's staff.<ref name=JDM379>{{cite magazine |last=Jewell |first=Stephen |date=17 January 2017 |title=The Sevenpenny Nightmare!|magazine=[[Judge Dredd Megazine]] |publisher=[[Rebellion Developments]]|issue=379}}</ref> He was impressed enough to remember Mills when charged with creating an answer to [[DC Thomson]]'s ''[[Warlord (DC Thomson)|Warlord]]'' comic, assigning Mills and his fellow freelancer [[John Wagner]] to create ''[[Battle Picture Weekly]]'' in 1974. Despite internal friction from the bypassed staff the comic was a major triumph, and Sanders quickly moved to use them elsewhere in IPC's boys adventure division.<ref name=Barker/> 
 
Wagner was given editorship of ''[[Valiant (comics)|Valiant]]'', which had been the company's leading title of the sixties but was now increasingly outdated, while Mills was tasked with creating a new weekly.<ref name=Barker>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SpjaAAAAMAAJ | isbn=9781852860233 | title=Action: The Story of a Violent Comic | date=11 August 1990 | publisher=[[Titan Books]]|first=Martin|last=Barker}}</ref> Having learnt about Mills' perfectionism in the launch of ''Battle'' – which required the guidance of veteran Dave Hunt to make its launch date<ref name=Bishop1>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Judge Dredd Megazine]]|first=David|last=Bishop|author-link=David Bishop (writer)|publisher=[[Rebellion Developments]]|issue=209|date=26 August 2003|title=None But The Brave}}</ref> – Mills was given a choice of staff editors to work with, picking the experienced Geoff Kemp. Kemp had a long history with the company, including a sizeable stint as assistant editor of ''[[Lion (comics)|Lion]]''<ref name=Barker/> (which he had helped update in the mid-1960s, being the driving force behind the introduction of the likes of anti-hero The Spider<ref name=JD421>{{cite comic|publisher=[[Rebellion Developments]]|writer=Stephen Jewell|title=[[Judge Dredd Megazine]]|issue=List of Action stories#421|date=14 July 2020|story=The Comic That Roared – Lion}}</ref>) but was identified by Sanders and Mills as one of the staff most open to new ideas. The pair were given three months to put the comic together from scratch; while Mills felt this was a "ridiculously short time", the more seasoned Kemp would later note it was the longest run-in he had ever known. The pair quickly settled on a formula of taking extant story ideas, approaching them from a different angle and injecting a large amount of contemporary realism. Mills envisioned making a title that appealed to children that didn't read comics rather than simply trying to draw an audience from other titles, and as such aimed to make the title streetwise and more in touch.<ref name=Barker/>

Following this template, the pair looked at the blockbuster film ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' and switched the perspective by following the shark, while making many of the human characters unsympathetic, to create "[[Hook Jaw]]". "[[Hellman of Hammer Force]]" took the old staple of [[World War II]] but followed an [[Axis powers|Axis]] protagonist in the form of fiercely principled tank commander Major Kurt Hellman.<ref name=Barker/> According to Mills, Sanders was initially reluctant about running the story, but was worn down by repeated requests.<ref name=JDM379/> "[[Dredger (comics)|Dredger]]" applied the hard-edged ethos of [[Clint Eastwood]]'s [[Dirty Harry (character)|Dirty Harry]] to the spy genre. "[[List of Action stories#Blackjack|Blackjack]]" was a boxing story, but unlike those featured previously in the likes of ''[[Tiger (British comics)|Tiger]]'' and ''Valiant'' not only took a closer look at corruption in the sport but also featured a black protagonist, infused with the brashness of [[Muhammad Ali]]; Mills would later recall some of IPC's staff felt Barron being black would make the strip unpopular, and urging him to change the character to a white man with a black sidekick. A similarly unsentimental view of athletics and youth was evident in "[[List of Action stories#Sport's Not For Losers!|Sport's Not For Losers!]]", about a working class lout who smoked but had an unexpected talent for long-distance running. For "[[List of Action stories#The Running Man|The Running Man]]", Mafiosi and a face-swap were added to the format of ''[[The Fugitive (1963 TV series)|The Fugitive]]''. The obligatory football strip, "[[List of Action stories#Play Till You Drop!|Play Till You Drop!]]", featured a player controlled by a blackmailing journalist, while "[[List of Action stories#The Coffin Sub|The Coffin Sub]]" featured a captain wracked with survivor's guilt wondering if he was leading his new crew to their deaths. Rejected were an ecologically tinged fishing story (dropped when a dummy episode proved too bleak) and a story about a photographer with a knack of getting in the thick of unpleasant situations,<ref name=Barker/> as well as [[World War I]] aviation strip "The Suicide Club" by [[Kelvin Gosnell]]<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHK4DAEACAAJ | isbn=9781781085226 | title=Thrill-Power Overload: 2000 AD – the First Forty Years: Revised and Expanded | date=14 February 2017 | last1=Bishop | first1=David }}</ref> (which was eventually used as a one-off in the 1976 ''Action Special'').<ref name=FleetwayCompanion/>

They also looked at the editorial content, feeling that this also dated their competitors by generally being too paternal and condescending. Steve MacManus, who was writing "The Running Man" and "Sport's Not For Losers!", found himself corralled into the role of 'ActionMan', whereby readers would set the unfortunate writer bizarre stunts; MacManus would be photographed doing the winning entry and the reader who submitted it would be awarded with £10. MacManus also handled running the letters column, taking on the persona of a put-upon dogsbody forever trying to avoid tyrannical editor Peg-Leg and have a cup of [[tea]] in peace. Readers were encouraged to submit bizarre and stupid questions to resident 'Knowall' Milton Finesilver and, most anarchically, to nominate a public figure as 'Twit of the Week'. Each 'Twit' would have their portrait printed together with a pithy dismissal of whatever they had done to invoke the readership's ire. [[Bamber Gascoigne]], [[Nicholas Parsons]], [[Russell Harty]], [[The Bay City Rollers]], [[Malcolm Allison]] and [[Tony Blackburn]] were among those honoured. The idea was to let the readers know they considered them as equals – in the words of MacManus, to let readers know "We know what you're thinking". As with ''Battle'', the plan was for Mills and Kemp to bed in the new title and then hand it over to an experienced editor for week-to-week running.<ref name=Barker/>

Mills purposefully modelled the page layouts on infamous British [[Tabloid journalism|tabloid newspaper]] ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'', later explaining: -
{{Blockquote
|text=My thinking was to play them at their own game and use that approach to do ''Action''... figure out how the popular culture media indoctrinates readers with their establishment shite and rival it with equally popular counter-culture. So don't do a version of ''Oz'' or ''International Times'', as much as I admire them, as that will have limited appeal to kids, but do a subversive equivalent of mainstream media culture.
|author=[[Pat Mills]]
|title="The Sevenpenny Nightmare!"
|source=''[[Judge Dredd Megazine]]'' List of Action stories#379 (17 January 2017)
}}

Doug Church worked as art director on the comic, as he had done on ''Battle''.<ref name=JDM379/> The plan was originally to name the new comic 'Boots' or 'Dr. Martens' (in honour of the tough kid's [[Dr. Martens|footwear of choice]]) but instead Mills chose 'Action'. He initially wanted to call it ''Action 76'' and change the number incrementally to emphasise the comic's up to date nature, but this went down poorly with [[newsagents]] and the idea was dropped.<ref name=Barker/>

==Publishing history==
[[File:Action cover.jpg|200px|thumb|left|The cover to the first issue of ''Action'', cover-dated 14 February 1976]]
Backed by a television advertising campaign the first issue sold 250,000 copies – a sizeable figure at the time. As was standard for the industry figures soon dropped to a respectable range of 160,000 to 170,000. However, instead of dropping further they stabilised and then actually started to increase as word-of-mouth spread, and IPC's post room was swamped by reader's letters. Having learnt of ''Action'', IPC's rival DC Thomson brought out ''[[Bullet (DC Thomson)|Bullet]]'' in response; however, produced by the same hands as ''[[The Victor (comics)|Victor]]'', ''[[Hornet (DC Thomson)|Hornet]]'' and ''[[The Hotspur|Hotspur]]'' it failed to make much of an impression.<ref name=Barker/> In the early days of the comic, Mills was very hands-on, rewriting many of the scripts himself.<ref name=JDM379/>

===Controversy===
Almost immediately ''Action''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s violence began to attract attention from the press. On 23 February 1976, ''[[Evening Standard|The London Evening Standard]]'' ran an article on the comic, criticising its bloodletting. More sustained criticism came from ''The Sun'', which dissected ''Action'' on 30 April 1976. As author Martin Baker has noted, the article itself was relatively balanced but the headline – "The Sevenpenny Nightmare", in reference to the notorious Victorian [[penny dreadful]]s – set the tone for a campaign against the title's immorality.<ref name=Barker/> However, the excellent sales led to the creative staff being egged on in some cases.<ref name=JDM379/>

Meanwhile, the comic continued, and the first round of changes to the contents were instigated. "The Coffin Sub" and "Play Till You Drop" proved unpopular with readers and were ejected in favour of World War II commando story "[[List of Action stories#Green's Grudge War|Green's Grudge War]]" and a new football strip, "[[Look Out for Lefty!]]". The latter revolved around the supremely gifted but short-tempered Kenny 'Lefty' Lampton, a borderline thug whose off-the-pitch life rang more true than the kidnappings and assassination plots faced by [[Roy of the Rovers]]. May saw the Northern poverty of "Sport's Not For Losers!" swapped out for "[[Death Game 1999]]", a highly violent lift of successful sci-fi film ''[[Rollerball (1975 film)|Rollerball]]'', and in June trucking drama "[[List of Action stories#Hell's Highway|Hell's Highway]]" replaced "The Running Man". John Smith meanwhile took over the editorship from Kemp; his previous experience had largely been with nursery titles. The creative teams on the various strips meanwhile revelled in treading new ground and pushing boundaries.<ref name=Barker/>

Meanwhile, the press attention on the title refused to go away. Self-appointed public guardian [[Mary Whitehouse]] and her [[National Viewers' and Listeners' Association|NVLA]] – influential with the powerful tabloid press and Parliament – took a sojourn from trying to remove violence from television to begin campaigning against Action. Another moralistic pressure group, Delegates Opposing Violent Education, threatened to have its members deface ''Action'' in newsagents by adding stickers denouncing the publication as being in violation of the [[Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955]]. [[Denis Gifford]], a former cartoonist turned comics historian whose books had made him the doyen of British comics, gave colour quotes negatively comparing ''Action'' to his beloved nonviolent pre-war comics such as ''[[Happy Days (comics)|Happy Days]]''. Much of the reportage drew comparisons between ''Action'' and the lurid [[Comics Code Authority|pre-code]] American [[Horror comics|horror titles]] of the 1950s, which had been banned in Britain by the act of Parliament.<ref name=Barker/>

Sanders became the public face of ''Action''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s defence, stoutly maintaining it was still less violent than numerous popular films and television shows. However, behind the scenes he attempted to moderate the comic. Despite his efforts, in September 1976 criticism reached a new level. Two strips brought particular attention. New addition "[[Kids Rule O.K.]]" featured a version of present-day Britain where a disease suddenly killed off the world's adult population, leaving the country filled with tough gangs of teenagers fighting to survive, while "Look Out for Lefty!" covered the player's breakthrough into the first team. In the latter, Lefty's iconoclasm had created an enemy among his team-mates who went out of their way to disrupt the title character's game. Seeing this from the [[Terrace (stadium)|terraces]], Lefty's spiky girlfriend Angie threw a bottle at the attacker, knocking him out and allowing Lefty's talent to shine through. At the time [[football hooliganism]] was on a sharp rise and the press accused the comic of endorsing such behaviour, with noted referee [[Jack Taylor (referee)|Jack Taylor]] among those to supply condemning statements to the tabloids. The same 18 September edition had also launched "Kids Rule O.K." with a front cover – rendered by [[Carlos Ezquerra]] – featuring a bike chain wielding youth against a background of urban devastation, standing over what appeared to be the body of a policeman. While in typical comic style the cover image was only tangentially related to the strip itself, the image was seized on by the press as an example of the comic's attempts to corrupt the nation's youth.<ref name=Barker/> The artist would later claim this was caused by the colourist, and the helmet and the prone figure were not meant to be related.<ref name=JDM379/> The controversy was such that a bemused [[Stan Lee]], visiting to do the promotional rounds for [[Marvel UK]]'s launch of ''[[Captain Britain (comic)|Captain Britain]]'', found himself being questioned about it.<ref name="auto7">{{cite magazine|last = Menzies| first= Robert| date = September 2015| number = 83|title=Captain Britain and the Moral Panic of 1976| magazine   = [[Back Issue!]]| publisher   = [[TwoMorrows Publishing]]}}</ref>

===Withdrawal===

With the attention not going away, the [[BBC]] arranged for Sanders to be interviewed live on their popular [[prime time]] [[magazine show]] ''[[Nationwide (TV programme)|Nationwide]]''. At the time the programme's main studio anchor was [[Frank Bough]], who was – before his private life was revealed by the press to involve wearing lingerie for cocaine-fuelled orgies with prostitutes – one of the most trusted faces on television. Sanders was given a list of questions he would be asked, which Bough promptly ignored in favour of excoriating his guest for warping children. A blindsided Sanders attempted to rally, but after the broadcast the IPC board intervened and after the 16 October 1976 issue ''Action'' was pulled from circulation.<ref name=Barker/><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qD2xAAAACAAJ | isbn=9780753510803 | title=TV Cream: The Ultimate Guide to 70s and 80s Pop Culture | year=2005 | publisher=Ebury }}</ref> Sanders reportedly only found out about the withdrawal by reading about it in newspapers when on holiday in Spain.<ref name="auto">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-_OEAAAQBAJ | isbn=9781786189837 | title=Comic Book Punks: How a Generation of Brits Reinvented Pop Culture | date=21 November 2023 | publisher=Rebellion Publishing }}</ref>

The decision to withdraw had actually been made some seven weeks before, that being the lead-in for the printing cycle; IPC resisted calls to pull production on comics they had already paid for. However, the 23 October edition only got as far as a small run of 30 copies (an internal policy allowing a comic to be given final checks before a full print run was made). The precise reason for this step, unprecedented for a publisher that valued sales above all else, has been a matter for debate; Baker has speculated several factors combined to lead to the title being withdrawn. It is often stated that newsagents threatened to either refuse to stock ''Action'' or all IPC comics. However of the two largest distributors in the UK at the time John Menzies only sent a note expressing concern about the criticism of ''Action'', while Baker's research was only able to conclusively verify that [[WHSmith]] only threatened either only honour orders for reserved copies or not provide promotional support for any relaunches, though he found there were many second-hand accounts of the threat from those inside IPC at the time.<ref name=Barker/>

Another suggested factor was internal politicking. Many of the IPC staff, particularly the boys' adventure division, had greatly resented being bypassed for ''Battle'' and then ''Action'', but strong sales had prevented them from protesting. Many had been with the company for decades and had good relations with the board, particularly the influential Jack Le Grand, the driving force behind the creation of ''Valiant''. Like the staff, the board was distinctly traditionalist and many held personal views closer to those of Whitehouse than of ''Action''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s creators and readers. Further friction came from freelancers such as Mills being paid better than their equivalent staffers.<ref name=Barker/> Mills himself would later feel that after he stepped away ''Action'' "went too far".<ref name=JDM379/>

===Return, decline and cancellation===
Smith was removed, with much of the blame being put on his inexperience with adventure comics meaning he lost control of the creative teams. The traditionalist Sid Bicknell, a former ''Valiant'' editor, took over and Sanders was tasked by the board with approving every single page. Baker was able to view a copy of the 23 October issue during production of ''Action – A Violent Comic'', and compare it to the heavily cannibalised version that would become the 4 December edition, and identified a large number of edits for both violence and political content. Other overt changes were the removal of "Kids Rule OK" and "[[List of Action stories#The Probationer|The Probationer]]" entirely, replaced by motor racing story "[[List of Action stories#Roaring Wheels|Roaring Wheels]]" and "[[List of Action stories#Double Dynamite|Double Dynamite]]" (a boxing story about a white man with a black sidekick), while "Death Game 1999" was renamed "Spinball".<ref name=Barker/> "Double Dynamite" and fellow post-suspension introductions "Jinx Jackson" and "The Loner" were described by Andrew Screen as "standard boy’s adventure strips that could feature in any other contemporary comic", and therefore proof that ''Action''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s "edge had gone".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk/other/history-action-comic/|title=Fast! Fierce! Fantastic! A History of Action Comic – Horrified}}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The new, safer ''Action'' failed to sell as well as readers swiftly realised it was largely the same as previous boys' comics and in November 1977 it was merged into ''Battle'' after sales fell to an unprofitable 70,000.<ref name="auto"/> "Hellman of Hammer Force" (which had ironically avoided heavy censure and had actually featured more deaths after the suspension<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk/other/history-action-comic/ | title=Fast! Fierce! Fantastic! A History of Action Comic – Horrified | access-date=3 September 2023 | archive-date=21 July 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230721092324/https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk/other/history-action-comic/ | url-status=dead }}</ref>), "Dredger" and "Spinball" would continue, though the latter pair were reconfigured and only "Hellman of Hammer Force" would run for any considerable length of time. In the meantime, Mills and Wagner had been reunited by Sanders, and successfully launched the science fiction boys' weekly ''[[2000 AD (comics)|2000 AD]]'' in 1977.<ref name=Barker/>

==Legacy==
Mills has credited his overall experience with ''Action'' as being crucial to ''2000 AD'', both in terms of taking on writing more of the contents himself instead of editing and in terms of learning what was and wasn't going to get unwanted attention. As he noted some years later, "We just kept saying it that they're robots or androids that are getting their heads blown off!". Many of the ''Action'' contributors would play key roles in 2000 AD's formative years.<ref name=JDM379/>

A decade after the cancellation, "Dredger", "The Coffin Sub" and "Play Till You Drop!" were among the contents of the short-lived 1987 reprint title ''[[All-Action Monthly]]''. The following year portions of "Dredger" and "Hook Jaw" were included in the 224-page softback ''Big Adventure Book'' special, alongside reprints of the likes of "[[The Steel Claw (comics)|The Steel Claw]]" and "[[One-Eyed Jack (comics)|One-Eyed Jack]]".<ref name="FleetwayCompanion"/>

In 1990 [[Titan Books]] released ''Action – The Story of a Violent Comic'' written by Martin Barker.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Department of Theatre, Film & Television Studies |url=http://www.aber.ac.uk/tfts/staff/profiles/mib.html |publisher=Aberystwyth University}}</ref> 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 pulped 23 October 1976 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. In 2007, Spitfire Comics released a collection of the pre-ban "Hook Jaw" strips in ''Collected Hook Jaw vol.1''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://downthetubes.net/collected-hook-jaw-hardback-up-for-auction/|title=Collected Hook Jaw Hardback Up For Auction|first=John|last=Freeman|date=14 January 2007|website=downthetubes.net}}</ref>

===Revivals===
Since 2016 the rights to ''Action'' and its contents have been owned by [[Rebellion Developments]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.tcj.com/the-return-of-the-ipc-youth-group/ | title=The Return of the IPC Youth Group | date=11 September 2019 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://bleedingcool.com/comics/rebellion-buys-fleetway-archive-roy-of-the-rovers-oink-tammy-battle-whizzer-and-chips-and-more/|title=Rebellion Buys Fleetway Archive – Roy of the Rovers, Oink, Tammy, Battle, Whizzer And Chips And More|date=25 August 2016|website=bleedingcool.com}}</ref> In 2017, Rebellion leased the rights to "Hook Jaw" to Titan Comics, who produced a five-part mini-series written by [[Simon Spurrier]] and drawn by Conor Boyle, and also published a collected edition of the ''Action'' strips to tie in with the series.<ref name=TGWH>{{cite magazine |last=Stock |first=Karl |date=17 January 2017 |title=The Great White Hope|magazine=[[Judge Dredd Megazine]] |publisher=[[Rebellion Developments]]|issue=379}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://downthetubes.net/hookjaw-is-back-and-titan-comics-has-snagged-him/|title=Hook Jaw is back – and Titan Comics has snagged him!|first=John|last=Freeman|date=22 July 2016|website=downthetubes.net}}</ref>

In 2020 Rebellion published an ''Action Special 2020'' under its [[Treasury of British Comics]] imprint.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.comicsbeat.com/rebellion-action-special-2020/|title=Syndicated Comics|first=Chloe|last=Maveal|date=27 February 2020}}</ref> The special included new strips for "Kids Rule O.K." (by Ram V and Henrik Sarlström), "Hellman of Hammer Force" (by [[Garth Ennis]] and original artist Mike Dorey), "Hook Jaw" (by Quint Amity and Dan Lish) and "Dredger" (by Zina Hutton and [[Staz Johnson]]), as well as Henry Flint's "Hell Machine". The Special also included a cover-to-cover reprint of the previously unpublished 23 October 1976 edition of ''Action''. Ennis won the 2021 Irish Comics News Award for Best Irish Writer for his story.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://irishcomicnews.dreamhosters.com/2021/02/01/icn-awards-the-results/ |title=ICN Awards results, 2021 |access-date=21 February 2021 |archive-date=20 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210220072719/https://irishcomicnews.dreamhosters.com/2021/02/01/icn-awards-the-results/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> but other elements of the special were not as well received.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://downthetubes.net/in-review-action-2020-special/|title=In Review: Action 2020 Special|first=Luke|last=Williams|date=27 March 2020|website=downthetubes.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.brokenfrontier.com/action-2020-special-rebellion-kids-rule-ok-hook-jaw-dredger-hellman/,%20https://www.brokenfrontier.com/action-2020-special-rebellion-kids-rule-ok-hook-jaw-dredger-hellman/|title=Action 2020 Special – The Notorious 1970s British Comic They Tried to Ban Returns in an All-New 21st Century Incarnation – Broken Frontier|first=Andy|last=Oliver|date=31 March 2020|website=brokenfrontier.com}}</ref> The company also published a collected edition of the "Hellman of Hammer Force" collected edition in 2021.

In June 2022 they followed up with a hardcover ''Battle Action Special'' with new stories featuring characters from both comics, all written by Ennis and with various artists, with new "Dredger" and "Kids Rule O.K." stories.<ref>[https://downthetubes.net/exciting-news-inside-looking-back-at-battles-merger-with-action/ Down the Tubes] (retrieved 15 June 2022)</ref> This had a more positive reception.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://downthetubes.net/in-review-battle-action-special-2022/|title=In Review: Battle Action Special (2022)|first=Luke|last=Williams|date=8 June 2022|website=downthetubes.net}}</ref> Starting in May 2023, Rebellion published a five-issue series of ''Battle Action'', with each issue featuring two complete stories, once again written by Ennis.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://comicbook.com/comics/news/battle-action-garth-ennis-2023-rebellion/|title=New Battle Action Series Featuring Garth Ennis and More Announced by Rebellion (Exclusive)|website=Comics|date=15 February 2023 }}</ref> In 2024, ten further issues were announced, beginning in that year.

==Stories==
{{main|List of Action stories}}

==Spinoffs==
*''Action Annual'' (9 editions, 1977 to 1985<ref name="FleetwayCompanion"/>)
*''Action Summer Special'' (5 editions, 1976 to 1980<ref name="FleetwayCompanion"/>)

==Collected editions==
{| class="wikitable" width="85%"
|-
!width=18%| Title
!width=10%| ISBN
!width=15%| Publisher
!width=13%| Release date
!width=44%| Contents
|-
|''Action – The Story of a Violent Comic''
|{{ISBNT|9781852860233}}
|[[Titan Books]]
|11 August 1990
|Material from ''Action'' 14 February to 16 October 1976
|-
|''The Collected Hook Jaw Vol. 1''
|{{ISBNT|9780955473302}}
|Spitfire Comics
|1 February 2007
|Material from ''Action'' 14 February to 16 October 1976
|-
|''Hook Jaw''
|{{ISBNT|9781782768043}}
|[[Titan Books]]
|26 September 2017
|Material from ''Action'' 14 February to 16 October 1976
|-
| ''Hellman of Hammer Force''
| {{ISBNT|9781781089422}}
|[[Rebellion Developments]]
|8 December 2021
|Material from ''Action'' 14 February to 18 December 1976.
|-
|''Action - Before the Ban: Volume 1''
|{{ISBNT|9781837866694}} (regular hardback); {{ISBNT|9781837866847}} (webstore exclusive cover hardback)
|Rebellion Developments
|25 February 2026
|The first twelve issues of Action, containing all of the strips and some of the editorial<ref>{{cite web|url=https://2000ad.com/news/britains-most-controversial-comic-action-before-the-ban-is-available-for-pre-order|title=Britain’s Most Controversial Comic! Action – Before The Ban is Available for Pre-Order!|publisher=[[2000 AD (comics)|2000AD]]|date=27 August 2025|accessdate=28 August 2025}}</ref>
|}

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SpjaAAAAMAAJ | isbn=9781852860233 | title=Action: The Story of a Violent Comic | date=11 August 1990 | publisher=[[Titan Books]]|first=Martin|last=Barker}}

==External links==
*{{gcdb series|id=33150|title=Action}}
*[http://www.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk/ Action – The Sevenpenny Nightmare]
*[http://www.britishcomics.com/Action/index.htm Action], BritishComics.com
*[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/21/action-70s-kids-comics-violence-magazine-publishing "Too much action: how kids' comic Action drowned in its own ultraviolence"] by David Burnett, ''[[The Guardian]]'', 21 October 2016
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20080420094054/http://www.fearful-symmetry.co.uk/action.htmComic Strip Hooligans – The story of the banned comic Action]

{{Buster}}

[[Category:Censorship in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Comics magazines published in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Comics by Pat Mills]]
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