The cover of Action#1.

Action was a controversial British comic book published by IPC Magazines from (issues dates) 14 February 1976-12 November 1977, when it merged with Battle Picture Weekly. Cover of Action Comics #1. ... Cover of Action Comics #1. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... IPC Media is a large British publishing company, mainly producing consumer magazines. ... February 14 is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1976 calendar). ... November 12 is the 316th day of the year (317th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 49 days remaining. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... Battle Picture Weekly, later known as Battle Action, was a British war comic published by IPC Magazines from (issues dates) 8 March 1975 to 23 January 1988, when it merged with Eagle. ...

It should not be confused with Action Comics, the American comic book which introduced Superman. Cover of Action Comics #1, which featured the debut of Superman. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Superman is a fictional character and superhero of DC Comics who first appeared in Action Comics #1 in 1938 and is considered the first character to embody the particular combination of traits that characterize the modern superhero. ...

History

The title was created by Pat Mills in response to the changing social and political times of the 1970s, and as competition to DC Thompson's Warlord title. Warlord was a new type of British boys adventure comic, focusing on the Second World War and having tougher heroes than what had been seen previously. The title was a huge success and IPC first of all launched Battle Picture Weekly (created by Mills and John Wagner), but the title was based in the Second World War and the idea was for Action to be more contemporary and 'realistic'. Pat Mills, nicknamed the godfather of British comics, is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since. ... D. C. Thomson & Co. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Battle Picture Weekly, later known as Battle Action, was a British war comic published by IPC Magazines from (issues dates) 8 March 1975 to 23 January 1988, when it merged with Eagle. ... John Wagner is a comics writer who has also written under the pseudonyms John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter, among others. ... Contemporary is an adjective which in its basic form merely means that two individuals, events or movements overlapped in time. ...

The idea from John Sanders at IPC (that the comic should initially be called Action, 76 and change with each passing year to reflect just how "modern" it was) was dropped, and on the 7th February 1976 the first issue (dated 14th Feb 76) was released. The comic was instantly popular and the gritty tone and graphic gore and violence was hugely popular and unfamiliar with anyone used to British comics such as Dan Dare. John E. Sanders is an American evangelical Christian theologian. ... The return of the original Dan Dare in 1989 Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future is a classic British science fiction comic hero, created by Frank Hampson in 1950. ...

Many of the stories in Action were what Mills called "dead cribs", basically rip-offs of something popular at the time. However, rather than being a straight copy, the "cribs" in Action would have their own slant on the idea. Mills would also add politics, and in Hook Jaw he added environmental issues. It was virtually unheard of for British boys' comics to feature anything like this, which gave Action its edge, as well as making it popular.

Within weeks though, the media had picked up on the titles gore and violence, first of all the Evening Standard and The Sun ran major articles of the comic, The Sun calling the comic "the sevenpenny nightmare". Over the next few months the comic was the centre of a campaign to not only censor it, but ban it outright. The campaign involved Mary Whitehouse and her National Viewers and Listeners Association and IPC started to self-censor strips in the comic rather than have newsagent chains like W.H. Smith boycott the comic. Headlines of the Evening Standard on the day of London bombing on July 7, 2005, in Waterloo Station The Evening Standard is an English tabloid newspaper published and sold in London and surrounding areas. ... The Sun, a tabloid daily newspaper published in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, has the highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world, standing at around 3,200,000 copies daily in late-2004, but at one point in the past decade, almost 5... Mary Whitehouse in her later years. ... Mediawatch-uk, formerly the National Viewers and Listeners Association (NVLA) is a pressure group in the United Kingdom, which seeks to reduce what it sees as harmful portrayal of violence, bad language, sex, blasphemy and homosexuality in UK broadcast media. ... This article is about the bookshop chain; for the businessman and politician of that name, see William Henry Smith. ...

Then in September of 1976 Sanders was being interviewed on Nationwide, and tried to defend the comic from a vigorous attack by interviewer Frank Bough. After this Action's days were numbered. Pressure within IPC and alledged 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 October 23rd issue being pulped. Nationwide was a BBC current affairs television series broadcast on BBC One each weekday following the main evening news. ... Frank Bough (surname pronounced Boff) (born Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, England, January 15th 1933) is a British television presenter who specialised in water sports programmes. ... This article is about the bookshop chain; for the businessman and politician of that name, see William Henry Smith. ... John Menzies PLC is a Scottish business established in 1833. ...

The title returned on November 27th (cover date 4th 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 villians. Sales dropped drastically and the last issue before merging with Battle was published on 5th November 1977 - dated November 11th. The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ...

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. The Action controversy did lead to some strips in 2000AD being toned down and censored but 2000AD managed to survive early attempts to compare the two comics. It's unlikely that 2000AD would have ever turned out as it did were it not for the experience gained from Action. Some strips with an Action feel were printed in early issues of 2000AD, Flesh (a story of time travellers from the future returning to the age of dinosaurs and killing them for meat. Things obviously go wrong and the humans end up being eaten) and Shako (basically the same concept as Hook Jaw but this time starring a polar bear instead of a shark) being two examples which show a clear Action influence. 2000 AD logo 2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction oriented comic. ... Binomial name Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774 The Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus), also known as the white bear, northern bear, or sea bear, is a large bear native to the Arctic. ...

Action - The Story of a Violent Comic

In 1990 Titan Books released Action - The Story of a Violent Comic written by Martin Barker. 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 October 23rd 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. He's wrong about this. A full print run took place, but was pulped before distribution. Only the in-house previes copies survived. Titan Books is a UK publisher of graphic novels. ...

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

Hook Jaw. Art by Ramon Sola.

• Hook Jaw was created by Mills as a Jaws cash-in and the flagship title of the comic. The strip was scripted by Ken Armstrong and drawn by Ramon Sola. Hook Jaw is a Great White Shark and the hero of the series, even though he spends most of his time eating most of the human cast of characters. The name Hook Jaw comes from the harpoon stuck in the shark's jaw after some fisherman tried to catch the creature shortly before being eaten by the shark. Mills gave the strip an environmental edge by having Hook Jaw eat corrupt humans, or criminals, seeking to exploit the seas, as well as anyone else unlucky enough to get near him.

Hook Jaw appeared in three stories before the ban. The first was set on an oil rig, the second was set on an island resort in the Caribbean, and the third was set just off the south coast of England. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (750x1069, 155 KB) Summary image taken from http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (750x1069, 155 KB) Summary image taken from http://www. ... This article is about the 1975 film. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Binomial name Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus, 1758) For information about the band, see Great White (band). ... Whaling harpoon A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or other large aquatic animals such as whales. ... Natural gas drilling rig A drilling rig or oil rig is a structure housing equipment used to drill for and extract oil or natural gas from underground reservoirs. ... Central America and the Caribbean (detailed pdf map) The Caribbean, (Spanish: Caribe; French: Caraïbe or more commonly Antilles; Dutch: Cariben or Caraïben, or more commonly Antillen) or the West Indies, is a group of islands and countries which are in or border the Caribbean Sea which lies on... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages None official English de facto Capital None official London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001...

Hook Jaw returned after the ban, but no longer ate as many people and if he did it was off panel. The strip also lost the environmental themes Mills had placed in it.

• BlackJack was created by John Wagner, with art by Trigo. It told the story of Jack Barron, a boxer who fights to help poor kids knowing that he runs the risk of going blind. The strip was accused of being racist even though it was one of the first times a black character was the hero of a British Comic strip.

• Death Game 1999 was written by Tom Tully. The series was a cash-in on the success of Rollerball and dealt with a lethal future sport played by condemned prisoners. Art was provided by Costa, Ian Gibson and Massimo Bellardinelli among others. The strip was always as popular, if not more so, as Hook Jaw. After the relaunch Death Game 1999 became Spinball, and turned into a formulaic adventure strip without the ambiguities which featured in the original.

• Kids Rule OK was written by Jack Adrian with art by Mike White; this series drew most criticism. London, 1986: A plague has wiped out the adult population, with the result that violent gangs of children run riot. The strip was instantly controversial with its heavy anti-authoritarian tone and extreme violence. The strip never survived the ban, but the full version of the story exists and can be found in Action – The Story of a Violent Comic.

• Hellman of Hammer Force, written by Gerry Finley-Day, was the story of a German Panzer major. It established a pattern followed by 2000 AD for having unconventional or unsympathetic characters as the hero. The strip returned after the ban, but stripped of its politics became a conventional war adventure story.

• Dredger was a tough Dirty Harry–type agent. The strip was popular due to its increasingly bizarre and violent action scenes. The strip survived the ban, but like the others became a conventional adventure strip.

• Look Out For Lefty was an unconventional football strip based on the adventures of Kenny Lampton, a working-class teenager whose powerful left foot gave him the nickname of "Lefty". It was unlike any other football strips in British boys' comics at the time, due to the fact that the strip would include football hooliganism, as well as Lefty's not always being a clean-cut hero.

The violence on display in the strip mirrored the real-life football violence taking place at the time, most notably during a game between Aston Villa and Rangers. After the ban, the strip became a conventional Roy of the Rovers–type strip and removed any hint of controversy. The strip was written by Tom Tully, with art from Barrie Mitchell and Tony Harding. John Wagner is a comics writer who has also written under the pseudonyms John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter, among others. ... Tom Tully is a noted comic book writer. ... Rollerball is a 1975 science fiction film directed by Norman Jewison from the short story Roller Ball Murders by William Harrison. ... Ian Gibsons are many. ... Massimo Bellardinelli is an Italian born comic artist mostly known for his work in 2000AD. Bellardinelli had worked on a number of IPC titles and when 2000AD was being developed he landed the plum job of drawing Dan Dare that was to have been the feature strip of the new... Gerry Finley-Day was a hugely prolific British comic book writer of the 1970s and 80s, responsible for Rogue Trooper, Harry 20 on the High Rock, Invasion (following on from the first episode by Pat Mills), M.A.C.H.1, Ant Wars, The VCs and Fiends of the Eastern... PzKpfw V-D, a Panther tank   Panzer? is German for armour. ... Dirty Harry is a 1971 film directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan, a San Francisco detective tracking Scorpio, a serial killer. ... Hooliganism is unruly and destructive behaviour. ... Aston Villa Football Club play at Villa Park in Birmingham, England. ... Rangers Football Club is a football club from Glasgow, Scotland, which plays in the Scottish Premier League. ... Roy of the Rovers was a British comic strip about the life and exploits of a fictional footballer named Roy Race, which ran in various publications from the 1950s until 2001. ... Tom Tully is a noted comic book writer. ...

See also

• 2000 AD
• Battle Picture Weekly
• Pat Mills

2000 AD logo 2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction oriented comic. ... Battle Picture Weekly, later known as Battle Action, was a British war comic published by IPC Magazines from (issues dates) 8 March 1975 to 23 January 1988, when it merged with Eagle. ... Pat Mills, nicknamed the godfather of British comics, is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since. ...

External links

• Action - The Sevenpenny Nightmare, the definitive 'Action' site.
• List of Action characters at comicsuk.co.uk